RIP James Gammon, 1940-2010
By Wyatt Earp | July 19, 2010
The great character actor is .
James Gammon, the gravel-voiced actor who played the manager of the Cleveland Indians in the 1980s comedy “Major League” and had a host of other movie and TV roles, has died. He was 70.
His agent, Merritt Blake, said Monday that Gammon had cancer and died Friday at his daughter’s home in Costa Mesa.
In addition to dozens of TV and movie appearances, Gammon was a noted stage actor who co-founded the MET Theatre in Los Angeles. Gammon starred in several Sam Shepherd plays, receiving a Tony nomination for his work on a 1996 Broadway production of “Buried Child.”
For my money, Gammon and Bob Uecker were the funniest people in Major League. He will be sorely missed. Language warning for the clip:
Topics: Video | 11 Comments »
July 19th, 2010 at 8:32 pm
2 of my favorite are:
“Well, you can run like Hays, but you hit like shit.”
&
“Forget about the curve ball Ricky, give him the heater.”
July 19th, 2010 at 9:42 pm
Randal – Or the classic urinating on Roger Dorn’s contract.
July 19th, 2010 at 10:13 pm
I liked him as Nick Bridges
July 19th, 2010 at 11:58 pm
He’s gone and Uek’s been on the DL for months after heart surgery. Not cool.
I need Bob to get back since I can’t stand the guy replacing him on Brewers broadcasts.
July 20th, 2010 at 3:06 am
I love that line. I paraphrase it every once in a while at work.
July 20th, 2010 at 7:01 am
And another one bites the dust… sigh… Lots of the good character actors are dying and none of the young ones want to BE character actors, they all wanna be ‘stars’… sigh.
July 20th, 2010 at 8:32 am
I like when he’s offered the manager job and he wavers, because he has a lot of tire rotations lining up…..too funny…..
July 20th, 2010 at 9:40 am
Rick – I forgot he was on that show.
CP – He’s a terrific announcer.
Ingineer66 – Lots of terrific lines in that film.
Old NFO – Agreed. Not a whole lot of true stars around anymore, either. At least not any that didn’t go off their gourd.
JB – “I got a guy on the line about some whitewalls.” Classic.
July 20th, 2010 at 11:07 am
I liked the exchange about Cerranno and his defection from Cuba for religious freedom. Lou asks what his religion is and they tell him “Voodoo”. One of my all time fav movies. Lots of hilarious dialogue.
July 20th, 2010 at 11:00 pm
Wyatt – yup – one of the best parts of the movies was his “disagreement” with Dorn’s contract.
July 20th, 2010 at 11:55 pm
I saw him in the short run series, Young Indiana Jones as Teddy Roosevelt. Wow. Up there with Brian Keith in The Wind and The Lion.
And yes I do have Major League on DVD!