...that one of my favorite, little-mentioned character players actually cut a folk record for Verve in '67? Found this recently for $3 in stellar condition, but haven't given it a listen yet.
Born Myron Kellin, Mike Kellin was active on stage and screen from the '50s thru the early '80s and died prematurely at 61 due to lung cancer. This probably contributes to his relative obscurity these days, which is unfortunate because his is one of those great faces and voices that always makes me light up at the start of a film when I see his name in the credits.
His scenes with Brad Davis in Midnight Express always put a lump in my throat, particularly when he tries to diffuse the tension and seriousness of the situation by talking about the stomach problems he encountered upon eating the local cuisine. "I'm gonna eat at the Hilton every night: Steak, French fries, and lots of ketchup." More recently, Kellin impressed me as part of the ensemble in The Incident, even though I found the film stage-bound, melodramatic, and increasingly unconvincing. But, as the henpecked husband of Jan Sterling, Kellin stands out as one of a few performers in the cast who doesn't chew up the scenery.
Given his moving performance as Billy Hayes' heartbroken father in Midnight Express and roles in Raphael Silver's prison drama On the Yard and the stage version of Stalag 17, it's heartening to see that he was a member of the Fortune Society, a prisoners' rights group.
Born Myron Kellin, Mike Kellin was active on stage and screen from the '50s thru the early '80s and died prematurely at 61 due to lung cancer. This probably contributes to his relative obscurity these days, which is unfortunate because his is one of those great faces and voices that always makes me light up at the start of a film when I see his name in the credits.
His scenes with Brad Davis in Midnight Express always put a lump in my throat, particularly when he tries to diffuse the tension and seriousness of the situation by talking about the stomach problems he encountered upon eating the local cuisine. "I'm gonna eat at the Hilton every night: Steak, French fries, and lots of ketchup." More recently, Kellin impressed me as part of the ensemble in The Incident, even though I found the film stage-bound, melodramatic, and increasingly unconvincing. But, as the henpecked husband of Jan Sterling, Kellin stands out as one of a few performers in the cast who doesn't chew up the scenery.
Given his moving performance as Billy Hayes' heartbroken father in Midnight Express and roles in Raphael Silver's prison drama On the Yard and the stage version of Stalag 17, it's heartening to see that he was a member of the Fortune Society, a prisoners' rights group.
3 comments:
Wow, this is an amazing find. Make sure you let us know what this album is like. I always think of Kellin FREEBIE AND THE BEAN or SLEEPAWAY CAMP.
Glad you dig it, Marty. The liner notes on the back cover, by Kellin himself, are pretty great, filled with euphemisms of an earlier day that you can totally hear Kellin saying. The disc is scratch-less, but pretty noisy. I think there may be a layer of schmutz on it that I need to clean off, so haven't listened properly yet.
I forgot about Kellin in FREEBIE. His final part in SLEEPAWAY CAMP may have been the first thing I saw him, as I viewed that movie as a pretty young kid.
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