RIP John Spencer
John Spencer, a wonderful American character actor, died on Friday of a heart attack. I never met the guy, but I'll miss his acting a lot. I have many fond family memories of sitting around watching him on LA Law as a kid, and when I finally decided to give The West Wing a try after many recommendations a couple of years ago, Spencer's charmingly intelligent character Leo McGarry did much to warm me to the show. In particular his portrayal of alcoholism - 'I don't want just one drink, I want ten' - gave me more insight into addiction than any educational pamphlet.
In a sick and twisted pastiche of postmodern irony, I was watching the episode where Leo demonstratively suffers a heart attack pretty much at exactly the same time that the actor was dying of the real thing. I had to double-take the headline - my immediate reaction being 'but he didn't die, it was a non-fatal heart attack'. Tragically in this detail, life didn't mirror fiction.
I love The West Wing, at least the first few seasons for sure. It started to decline with the departure of Aaron Sorkin, but before that the scripts are some of the best dramatic writing around., and since then it's still been darned entertaining. Jamie Zawinski calls it his "favorite fairy tale" (sic - he's a yank and thus cannot spell). I really can't disagree with that. There's a cloying yet comforting sweetness to the idea of the world's biggest superpower being run by a group of smart committed principled people who deeply understand the value of service. If only...
Trackbacks
Use the following link to trackback from your own site:
http://informage.net/articles/trackback/100
