John Cassavetes award: Mayor’s Career achievement award:
J. K. Simmons Ed harris
As terrifying as J. K. Simmons was as white supremacist Vern Schillinger Why did Ed Harris become an actor? Because he could never hit a curve ball.
in the acclaimed HBO prison drama OZ, it’s a little hard to imagine that
Just as well. For almost three decades, the blue-eyed former baseball player from
he got his start as a singer, graduating from the University of Montana
Tenafly, New Jersey, has been a fascinating presence onstage and in films – a four-
with a degree in music. His acting career began onstage with an off-
time Academy Award nominee whose carefully chosen roles have measured the
Broadway stint in the 1987 musical Birds of Paradise; following a quick
restless pulse of America itself.
rise through the ranks, he made his Broadway debut in 1990 and went
on to appear in Neil Simon’s Laughter on the 23rd Floor, Das Barbecü,
In the 1983 performance that made him famous, Harris captured the strength,
and as Benny Southstreet in Guys and Dolls.
ambition, and rectitude – that is, The Right Stuff – of astronaut John Glenn.
Seventeen years later, he directed and starred in Pollock, a remarkably detailed
By 1994 he had already turned to the big screen, landing roles in
portrait of the great painter in all his seething genius. In between, he ranged
The Ref and The Scout that were soon followed by The First Wives
from the jealous, hard-drinking husband of Jessica Lange’s rising country singer,
Club (1996), The Jackal (1997), Anastasia (1997), and Celebrity (1998).
Patsy Cline, in Sweet Dreams (1985) to an AIDS-stricken writer struggling with his
Recognized both for his versatility and his deep voice, he caught the eye
troubled past in The Hours (2002). Playing a shadowy intelligence officer opposite
of some of the industry’s top directors – repeatedly. Sam Raimi cast him
Russell Crowe in 2001’s A Beautiful Mind, Harris brought flesh and blood to a
in For Love of the Game, The Gift, and the ongoing Spiderman series
character who is, it turns out, a hallucination. And while the cast of desperate real
in the key role of newspaperman J. Jonah Jameson. He undertook the
estate salesmen in David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) included Hollywood
unforgettable role of Garth Pancake, an explosives ace with irritable
heavyweights like Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, and Alan Arkin, Harris emerged as a
bowel syndrome, in the Coen Brothers’ 2004 remake of The Ladykillers
memorably odious participant in the capitalist bloodshed.
(and he worked with the Coens again in Burn After Reading). He
appeared in Gore Verbinski’s The Mexican opposite Brad Pitt, in Joan
Sponsored by:
But that’s hardly all. He’s shown the same dedication to his craft in more than
Chen’s Autumn in New York, in Lasse Hallström’s The Cider House Rules,
50 movie roles, some of them seemingly unlikely for an actor often cast as an
and alongside Sam Elliott and Joan Allen in Campbell Scott’s Off the
American Everyman. In Agniezka Holland’s Copying Beethoven (2006), Harris
Map. That was all prior to the sensation that was Jason Reitman’s Juno
portrayed the eponymous German composer in the throes of composing his Ninth
(SDFF 30) – in which Simmons “brought down the house,” to quote
Symphony. David Cronenberg’s 2005 thriller A History of Violence shows him
Roger Ebert, as Ellen Page’s father Mac MacGuff. (He also appeared in
plumbing the depths of menace: visiting a quiet Indiana town, his wise-cracking
Reitman’s satirical Thank You for Smoking.) Simmons continues to be in
Carl Fogarty terrorizes the repentant criminal-turned-family man played by Viggo
high demand for the small screen as well: he’s a major player in TNT’s
Mortensen.
The Closer, as he was in the classic series Law & Order. Special thanks:
Instinct and integrity are the keys to his long career. When, at the 1999 Academy
With that “classic gangster mug,” as then–New York Times theater critic
Awards, Harris refused to applaud director Elia Kazan’s Lifetime Achievement
Frank Rich called it, J. K. Simmons was born to be an amazing character
Award because Kazan had named names during Senator Joe McCarthy’s
actor in the tradition of Ned Sparks and Eddie Albert. But stars are
Communist witch hunts, no one was surprised. And when it comes to his own
made, as Simmons is proving by the simultaneous muscle and grace he
achievement over the course of a lifetime, the actor has always applied one
exhibits in every part he plays – and for that we at SDFF 32 are grateful.
standard, as he told an interviewer: “I chose films being made by people I wanted
to work with, about subject matter I thought was intriguing.”
BrIT WIThey
Call it versatility. Call it art. Call it courage. In Ed Harris’s meticulous and heartfelt
work, the right stuff endures.
18
BILL GALLO
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