Stagecoach ride into Wild West City with Larry Storch.

Appreciating the Career of Lance Henriksen

Today, May 5th, is the birthday of Lance Henriksen. 

I'm pretty sure I was introduced to Lance Henriksen's work by the original entry in The Terminator series of films.  As legend has it, Henriksen was director James Cameron's first choice to portray the metallic killling machine from the future.  However the studio desired an actor with greater name recognition and the part went to Arnold Schwarzenegger.  Henriksen portrayed one of the frustrated cops dealing with the terminator's killing spree and had little luck in fending off the inhuman murderer's assault on his police precinct.

With his distinctive looks and sombre voice, Henriksen is an actor hard to get out of your mind once you've seen him.  His career is full of diverse roles, from hero to villain and from blockbuster studio faire to independent outings of interest.  He's been the lead in westerns, like Gunfighter's Moon and horror films like The Pit and the Pendulum.  Perhaps his most famous film role is that of the android part he did score - Bishop in Aliens, also from director Cameron.

He has had memorable TV appearences including a turn in Tales From the Crypt in which he portrayed a gambler literally willing to put his life and limbs on the line for his obsessive wagers.

In the late 90's Henriksen took on the role of Frank Black.  The TV series was from creator Chris Carter, quite hot in Hollywood at the time as his series The X Files was doing amazing for Fox.  Millenium starred Henriksen as a retired FBI profiler whose services were still used by a mysterious group called Millenium.  They were bracing themselves for an oncoming onslaught against society by crime and other dangers at the turn of the millenium. 

The stories were cryptic, dark and mysterious, but always engaging due to Henriksen's powerful work.  It was this show that made me a fan of Henriksen and eager to seek out his full body of work. 

I've been lucky enough to meet Henriksen twice at horror conventions.  He's very nice to fans, eager to hear their reaction to his work.  He can really reach fans on a common level as he seems very direct in speaking his mind.  Fans are lucky that he has his autobiography out, Not Bad For A Human.

Malcolm McDowell & David Bowie - 2 Greats!

Reality forges links in mysterious ways.

As a teenager I became a huge fan of Malcolm McDowell, first for his work in Time After Time.  McDowell played the great science fiction writer H. G. Wells, but in the film Wells did more then write science fiction - he lived it.  Wells created a time machine, but bad luck had a friend (played by David Warner) turn out to be the infamous Jack the Ripper and the killer escaped into time via the machine.

Time After Time led me to seek out other McDowell films.  I was repeatedly transfixed by his performances in such productions as A Clockwork Orange, if.., and O Lucky Man!.  The later is my favorite film, a heady mix of first rate acting and  music provided by Alan Price of The Animals.  The film has a surreal flair as it follows coffee salesman Mick Travis (McDowell) on a series of adventures throughout England of the late 60's early 70's era.  Travis encounters everything from nefarious businessmen to mad scientists but always looks for tomorrow's oppurtunities.  Interestingly, McDowell himself worked as a coffee bean salesman.  His character in this film, Mick Travis, was the central character in if.., and would return in Britannia Hospital.

Malcolm McDowell managed to introduce me to two musical greats.  It was McDowell's role as offscreen narrator that led me to view The Compleat Beatles.  His voice added a lot to the story of The Beatles start, growth and eventual breakup.  The film is well researched with ample facts and happily does not delve too deeply into gossip or unfounded scandals. 

Malcolm McDowell introduced me to David Bowie's work with Cat People.  The 1982 film was a remake of a black and white Val Lewton film from forty years earlier.  The remake had more blood and a stronger interpetation of the story's central theme of sexuality.  And it had a killer tune by Bowie. 

Cat People (putting out fire) has mysterious and passionate lyrics that somehow maintain an immortal flaire.  Bowie's voice seems to me at it fullest here, able to utilize its deep richness to convey listeners to an eerie plane of existance where the supernatural rules. I found myself recognizing that voice elsewhere, a TV movie called The Annhilator used Ashes to Ashes.  And I couldn't help myself from seeking out his work in albums and film.
 

  
    Myself and Malcolm McDowell at Horrorfind Convention in September of 2012. (Above)

It was a great pleasure to get to meet Malcolm McDowell at serval local conventions.  And recently its been a great pleasure to write for davidbowienews.com - go there to find more of my musings concerning the great David Bowie.
 

RiglerWrites: April No Fool's Deal

RiglerWrites: April No Fool's Deal:      The 1st of April has finally arrived and here in Maryland after a brutal winter there's a tantalizing taste of spring from a sunny...

April No Fool's Deal

    
The 1st of April has finally arrived and here in Maryland after a brutal winter there's a tantalizing taste of spring from a sunny sky.

Here's my attempt to tantalize you with an April deal.  Use the code FOOLSGOLD to get 10% off your order of either of my books or both from www.lulu.com/spotlight/wrigler

I've always been a big fan of sci-fi.  I logged countless hours in front of ye olde tv - the kind that was the living room floor's centerpiece with a big back behind the screen and an incapabbilty to switch channels unless the viewer actually rose to turn a knob on it - watching classic sci-fi shows.  My favs were from the 60's in which more imagination was put into the programs then dollars for special efects.  Sci-fi films were great too.  And books? 

I loved the wild romantisism found on the colorful covers of early sci-fi books.  Bug eyed aliens were cool - intergalactic views of or from space ships were fantastic.  I was introduced to Ray Bradbury in middle school when the reading assignment was The Martian Chronicles.  I found the ideas nifty, but it wasn't until I re-read the book on my own in my high school years that I was truly hooked by Bradbury's marvelous Martian landscape of adventure and introspection.  Other sci-fi novels quickly figured amongst my favorites as well, like Aldous Huxley's Brave New World.

My imagination has always been rather wide-ranging and it wasn't long until I was coming up with my own ideas for sci-fi adventures.  Horror and fantasy tales also spewed from my mind.  Finally a couple years ago I decided to go ahead and bring those ideas to the printed page in a book called Summoned Secrets.  In Summoned Secrets you'll learn the secrets of...

An alien world where hunters test their skills and dragons dwell.
A library whose biographies hold the key to life and death.
History's most infamous serial killer's gambling... More > habits. And more...
18 strange stories of science fiction, dark fantasy, suspense & horror.
12 poetic creations.
1 book.
"With a cast that includes dimension-hopping murderers,extraterrestrial monsters and even the shade of Poe himself, Rigler's dark imagination will help populate your nightmares for days to come." Nathan Rosen, editor at microhorror.com

And my second book, Masters of the Alpha Crystals, is a novel of intergalactic intrigue and 
adventure in which Earth finds itself under attack by alien invaders. They do not ask for surrender or terms, merely seek destruction. All seems hopeless and then another mysterious alien craft appears in Earth's... More > sky...

While lulu.com offers 10% savings of either or both books by using FOOLSGOLD code when ordering April 1st 2014 or April 2, 2014, I hope you will take adventure of the deal and check out my sci-fi ideas.  But even if you miss the sale, the books will still be there at my spotlight.  No fooling.

RiglerWrites: Remembering Patrick McGoohan

RiglerWrites: Remembering Patrick McGoohan:      March 19th is the anniversary of the birth of the compelling and charismatic actor, director and writer Patrick McGoohan.  Interestin...

Remembering Patrick McGoohan

 

   March 19th is the anniversary of the birth of the compelling and charismatic actor, director and writer Patrick McGoohan.  Interesting he gave probably his most famous role, Number Six of The Prisoner, the same birthday.
     The Prisoner was a TV show Patrick McGoohan at least co-conceived, starred in, and wrote as well as directed various episodes of, both under his own name and pen names.  The series debuted in the 60's when the spy genre was all the rage, from Bond on the big screen to TV undertakings like The Man From U.N.C.L.E. or The Avengers.  McGoohan himself had starred as super-spy John Drake in two series, Danger Man and Secret Agent.  Allegedly, McGoohan had grown bored of the genre and wanted to do a series more cerebral and thought provoking.  The Prisoner certainly deserved the label thought provoking as well as enigmatic and bizarre, especially by standards set by 60's TV.
     The Prisoner revolved around the resignation of a spy played by McGoohan, which resulted in the character's transportation to an eigmatic village.  The village had a serene and tranquil visage, but was impossible to escape.  Populated by a sinister administration with an ever changing face of authority, McGoohan's character was always referred to as Number Six and he could never be sure who was running the village.  The show had surreal and sci-fi aspects including a balloon referred to as Rover which fetched back with uncanny ease those who attempted escape.  Issues explored in the show remain relevant today - including drug use, government influence and education vs mind control.  These themes were not so easily or ever undertaken by your average spy show, but their exploration appealed to Patrick McGoohan.  Perhaps that's why McGoohan felt such a close bond with the series that he merged himself with the role, even giving Number Six his March 19 birthday.
     Viewers could always expect the unexpected from the series.  It never settled for the simple hero-villain dynamic and many viewers were confused or disappointed by the show's 17th episode finale which failed to offer a tidy conclusion.  Yet the show was hailed by critics - one going so far as to call the series "an oasis in the vast wasteland of television."
     Patrick McGoohan will probably always best be remembered with fans as Number 6, but he had numerous roles of interest.  He played both heroes and villains.  He was memorable as both leading man and character actor.  Some other noteworthy roles include...

     Patrick McGoohan may well have first been noticed by American audiences for the lead role in Disney's 1963 version of The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh.  He portrayed Dr. Syn, a vicar by day and the masked leader of a gang of smugglers by night, who thwarted the wicked efforts of the local British officials.  The series consisted of three one hour episodes.  It was set in the British countryside and featured abundant swashbucking on McGoohan's part amid lavish sets.  And it had one catchy theme song that ended with a chilling laugh!

     Two Emmies were awarded Patrick McGoohan for his work on Columbo.  He played four different murderers, none of whom could best the determined detective in the crumpled overcoat.  McGoohan directed two of the episodes he appeared in, as well as episodes which featured Robert Vaughn and Billy Connelly.  Peter Falk (Coumbo) and McGoohan apparently had a good friendship, as McGoohan's work on the series ranged from the 70's to the dawn of the new millenium.  Falk even authored the forward for a biography about Patrick McGoohan.

     In Ice Station Zebra, Patrick McGoohan played a spy on the big screen.  At the height of the could war, McGoohan's David Jones was in a rush to ice station zebra to retreive a downed satellite with vital secret footage before the Russians could retreive it.  This film was Howard Hughes' favorite and he reportedly viewed it hundreds of times.  I had the chance to chat with actor Ron Masak, who appeared in the movie, and he confirmed the sub used to film on was authentic.   

     Perhaps McGoohan's best known recent role was in Mel Gibson's 1995 Academy Award winning Bravheart.  McGoohan played King Edward Longshanks, the nemesis of Gibson's heroic freedom fighter, Willliam Wallace.

     Patrick McGoohan died on January 13, 2009, leaving behind a plethora of great TV and film roles.


Below top -Patrick McGoohan receives treatment in The Prisoner.
Below bottom - Patrick McGoohan plays a secret agent in Ice Station Zebra with Rock Hudson.