February 04, 2005

Good bye Ossie. Distinguished writer, actor, director Ossie Davis has died at 87.

Here's his bio. I loved him as JFK in Bubba Ho-Tep.

posted by Koko 19 years ago
  • This really sucks. He was a truly good actor.
  • i agree koko. plus he was a great humanitarian. he struck me as an all-around lovely human being. .
  • Ossie Davis was an amazing human being. I remember him in the remake of 12 Angry Men, and he was just incredible. Makes me wanna see Bubba Ho-Tep even more.
  • Loved him in one of my favorite all-time movies, "Do the Right Thing."
  • He could have read the phone book and made it interesting. And he made one hell of a JFK. ;) RIP.
  • yeah mid isn't it interesting, by the end of the movie i believed he was jfk. seriously. now THAT'S great acting.
  • JFK: He had me on the floor. I had his mouth over my asshole! Elvis: A shiteater? JFK: I don't think so. He was after my soul. Now you can get that out of any major orifice of a person's body. I read about it. Elvis: Oh, yeah? Where, man? Hustler?
  • The loss of a truly classy man. Who else could say the dialogue above and still make his character seem debonair?
  • He was on the radio giving a speech (press club?) anyway, his advice on how to be married for 50 years: "It's always important to have the last words in an argument. As long as those words are 'Yes, dear'."
  • RIP Da Mayor..
  • Yes, he's an icon. Aren't he and Ruby the last of the husband/wife theatrical combos? Sad, since the ones I've seen in the past had a special magic. I like their solo performances, but the long-time partnerships especially riviting.
  • Mrs. Tool told me an Ossie Davis story last night. Evidently he was the first person she interviewed when she was doing her internship (many moons ago). He was in town shooting a TV movie, and she somehow got the gig. So she asked him how he liked Arkansas. He said he was enjoying it, and had spent some time seeing the sites in the city, even took a short road trip out to visit Evening Shade. "Oh," said my wife, "do you like that show?" Mr. Davis patiently explained that he was in fact on that show. She wanted to curl up in a ball and die after that, but she said he was very kind and gracious about it.
  • A man of principle, who acted on his principles. And a major actor. Imagine that.
  • I worked next to him for 13 years on the NSO Memorial Day TV show (PBS). Nice guy, very unassuming-distinguished veteran too. I was shocked to find out he was 87-sure acted like a man in his sixties. He'll be missed. We'll be memorializing him this year, I guess.
  • Here's the eulogy he gave at Malcolm X's funeral. [Scroll halfway down for photo and text.]