Everyman Overboard

It's probably a sign of how old I am that the death of Karl Malden (dead today at the age of 97) hit me harder than the death of Michael Jackson. There's no doubt that the latter was more famous by a few orders of magnitude, and more talented by the same factor.

But Malden was more a part of my life. I learnt about car chases, interrogating suspects, figuring things out and being phlegmatic under pressure by watching him in The Streets of San Francisco. In that five-year TV series, he acted as Detective-Lieutenant Mike Stone, the senior partner to Inspector Keller, acted by Michael Douglas.

He actually did win an Oscar; like his Emmy, it was for being a great supporting actor. Here's to Karl Malden, an everyman who taught us nameless people how to be supporting actors!

Casting

Cast your bread on the waters, and you shall receive it again after many days, says the Preacher, king in Jerusalem.

But that is not what I mean at all.

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What I meant was something else, entirely. I was looking at John Travolta and realising that if we ever had to make a 25th-anniversary movie, I know who could play the leading role. Heh.

Which led me to wonder who else could be played to advantage by someone else. My conclusion: although many staff could be replaced Hollywood- (or Bollywood-) style, students would have to play themselves. They're better than actors as themselves.

That said, some of them do look as if they could be replaced by actor stunt-doubles.