World of Westfahl |
Encyclopedia Introduction |
All Entries |
Acknowledgements
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
(1932– ). American actor.
Acted in
television: "Dry Run" (1959), episode of Alfred
Hitchcock Presents; "The Ordeal of Dr. Cordell" (1961), episode of Thriller; The
Man from U.N.C.L.E. (tv series) (1964-68); "The Mother Muffin
Affair" (1966), episode of The Girl from
U.N.C.L.E.; "The Story of Daniel and the Lion" (1978), episode of The Greatest Heroes of the Bible; Dr. Franken (tv movie) (Marvin J. Chomsky
and Jeff Lieberman 1980); Fantasies
(tv movie) (William Wiard 1982); The Return
of the Man from U.N.C.L.E.: The Fifteen Years Later Affair (tv
movie) (Ray Austin 1983); "Face to Face" (1984), episode of The Hitchhiker; "The Fruit at the Bottom
of the Bowl" (1988), episode of Ray Bradbury
Theater; "Dragonswing" (1993), "Dragonswing II" (1994), episodes of Kung Fu: The Legend Continues; W.S.H. (tv movie) (Bill Eagles 1994); Escape to Witch Mountain (tv movie) (Peter
Rader 1995); The Making of "Joe's Apartment"
(tv documentary; host) (1996); Virtual
Obsession (tv movie) (Mick Garris 1998).
From the onset, Vaughn has always seemed more intelligent
than his material. In the 1950s, amidst a blur of forgettable television
westerns and teen exploitation films, his standout performance came
in Roger CORMAN's Teenage Cavemen,
where he was visibly uncomfortable in his caveman outfit but unusually
involved in its unconventional plot. However, he garnered more attention
for his role as a gunman in The
Magnificent Seven (1960), which he later reprised in its
dull science-fictional remake, Battle
beyond the Stars. Soon, he became famous as television's
answer to James Bond in The Man
from U.N.C.L.E., but he projected a certain air of arrogance
in the series that alienated many young fans, like me and my sister,
who endured all the adventures focused on Vaughn while eagerly awaiting
the one episode per season that starred sidekick David MCCALLUM, perhaps
not quite as bright but clearly cooler than Vaughn. With our youthful
sensibilities already attuned to the iconography of popular literature
and film, we were undoubtedly disturbed by the fact that Vaughn's
Napoleon Solo kept acting as if he were smarter than everybody else,
which may have been true, but is simply not the way that action film
heroes are supposed to act.
Instead, for actors who are smarter than everybody
else and wish to appear that way, there is only one proper role, and
that is villainy. Thus, after emerging from The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and the similar, but less gimmicky,
series The Protectors
(1972-74), a slightly older Vaughn inevitably segued into a second
career playing unsympathetic authority figures. True, he would occasionally
essay heroic parts—as in Starship
Invasions, The Lucifer Complex, and a Man from U.N.C.L.E. reunion movie—but he
seemed more natural while serving as the uncredited voice of the scheming
computer in Demon Seed,
as the corrupt politician striving to cover up what's in Hangar 18, as the evil tycoon seeking to rule the world in
Superman III, and as the deranged general
coping with zombies in C.H.U.D.
II. When one surveys these performances, they all seem
an incredible waste of the talents of a man who was, after all, now
qualified to work as a college professor and scholar. But the film
industry temptingly pays intelligent people millions of dollars to
do stupid work, while academia pays intelligent people next to nothing
to do intelligent work—one of the innumerable injustices in the
world that the erudite Vaughn was no doubt prepared to discuss at
length following his undemanding days on the set.
In fact, having delved into the seamier side of Hollywood
while researching its infamous blacklist, and now obliged to make
a living in some of its least noteworthy productions, Vaughn had surely
grown genuinely displeased with Hollywood, leading him to happily
participate in savage assaults on the industry like Blake Edwards's
S.O.B. (1981) and the more surrealistic That's Adequate, featuring Vaughn's bemused
take on the ultimate unsympathetic authority figure, Adolf Hitler.
Both of these works function more as commentaries on films than as
films themselves—perhaps the only sorts of projects that could really
inspire Vaughn at this late stage in his career. His potential effectiveness
as a critical observer of, rather than a participant in, films is
demonstrated by the contrast between the inept Joe's
Apartment, where Vaughn is entirely forgettable as the
hero's stern father, and the engaging The Making of "Joe's Apartment", where host
Vaughn's droll deprecatory comments on the proceedings make the half-hour
documentary more entertaining than the film itself. To provide the
world with more droll deprecatory comments about the absurd ways he
has earned a living, perhaps Vaughn should write another book, his
autobiography—to be entitled Only Villains: A Study of Show Business Typecasting.
|
To contact us about encyclopedia matters, send an email to Gary Westfahl.
If you find any Web site errors, typos or other stuff worth mentioning,
please send it to our Webmaster.
Copyright © 1999–2018 Gary Westfahl All Rights Reserved Worldwide