July 18, 2006

R.I.P. Mickey Spillane Mickey Spillane, the macho mystery writer who wowed millions of readers with the shoot-'em-up sex and violence of gumshoe Mike Hammer, died Monday. He was 88.

The "Mike Hammer" TV series was one of my favorites as a kid, and was my introduction to the world of hardboiled detective fiction and film noir. I hadn't known he was a Jehovah's Witness, or a former circus performer, but by all accounts he was as tough and gritty as his prose. *lifts glass of Scotch from desk drawer* See ya 'round, Mickey.

posted by The Underpants Monster 18 years ago
  • I put his head where his wallet used to be.
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  • Darren McGavin, who was quite a good actor, made the televised Mike Hammer watchable. But his character was far from the Mike Hammer Spillane wrote. If ye can even call what Spillane did writing.
  • . I loved Mickey Spillane as a teenager.
  • Yeah, but then he grew up and started writing crappy novels. /rimshot Oh, and well, sorry he died.
  • .
  • I knew she was trouble from the moment her FPP rubbed open the door like a deep sea diver peeling off the wetsuit . . . Tracer Bullet was tribute when he could appreciate it. .
  • Kiss Me Deadly is justly considered a film noir classic, but the film is wildly different from the book. The one non-film Hammer book I read I liked pretty well, but it was all a bit too misogynistic for me. Give me Chandler or Hammett. Spillane was an entertaining interview, though, and seemed a real old-school ornery cuss. In short: .
  • Nickdanger, groan!
  • Darren McGavin, who was quite a good actor, made the televised Mike Hammer watchable. UM, I think you mean Stacy Keach.
  • Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer - 1958-59, 78 episodes, starring Darren McGavin as Mike Hammer.
  • HA, I never knew that, and I always liked Darren in the Night Stalker.
  • Didn't McGavin just recently shuffle off as well?
  • I have no idea! Does your computer have one of those Google things someone emailed me about?
  • No, I'm using an abacus duct-taped to an old Smith-Corona typewriter and a rotary phone.
  • One of my coworkers e-mailed me an internet yesterday and I didn't get it until today. I wonder why?
  • the tubes are clogged. you need to play the lottery.
  • I think my mouse must be clogged because you people aren't responding in a timely manner. Hello?? HellOOooooo?! *whak*
  • McGavin according to Wikipedia.
  • Ah, well, that explains my confusion. I turned the Wikipedia salesman away from my door because I thought he was a Jehovah's Witness.
  • The Night Stalker was one of my favorite shows as a kid.
  • I just finished reading I, the Jury. It was an entertaining enough read, but boy boy was Spillane ever, at least in his writing, very misogynistic and somewhat racist. For example, near the end of the book, when he's figured out who the killer is, he diagnoses what caused her to become a murderer, "How many times have you gone into the frailty of men and seen their weaknesses? It made you afraid. You no longer had the social instinct of a woman - that of being dependent upon a man.". Chandler, who had his own problems with mysogny and racism, he's not. His writing is entertaining enough to recommend, if you want something that's a fun romp.