Underappreciated Actors: Paul Gleason
Filed Under (Movies) by admin on 30-04-2009
Tagged Under : Paul Gleason, Underappreciated Actors
Know-it all authority figure dickhead.
Not before or since Paul Gleason has Hollywood had at its disposal anyone so supremely proficient in coming across as clearly in authority with that authority misplaced.
Paul Gleason first established himself as the master of this character type when he, as an insecure principal, oversaw a weekend detention that held Emilio Estevez, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, Anthony Michael Hall and Judd Nelson (who he ultimately challenged to a fight). The film was, of course, The Breakfast Club, and it became a permanent cultural fixture – due in no small part to Gleason’s critical supporting role.
Gleason revisited this typecast again in Die Hard. As an authoritarian but incompetent police chief, Gleason paves the way for Alan Rickman’s terrorists to fortify their positions and make life a living hell for protagonist Bruce Willis.
And Gleason was back at the role he had mastered in Van Wilder, the 2002 college comedy that made Ryan Reynolds a star. Sure enough, he was a hardass professor without much of a sense of humor, and was crucial in helping to credibly fill out the supporting roles.
Guest starring roles on many popular TV series would also add to Gleason’s legacy, including Friends, Chicago Hope, Seinfeld, Miami Vice, L.A. Law, Cagney and Lacey, Adam 12, Mission: Impossible and The Wonder Years.
Sadly, Paul Gleason died in 2006, but left behind a body of work that will not be forgotten.
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