writers in movies

there are plenty of writers who have done cameos in movies or was given parts in films.  hell, i remember when i was goo-goo-ga-ga over the mid-20th C poet robert lowell.  i remember a lovely evening i spent walking alone in The Haight in SF when i bought a copy of the lowell bio penned by ian hamilton.  that was a thick tome & i carried that with me up & down the neighborhood for a few hours as i ducked into this shop & that bar.  but i recall reading in that bio when lowell won i think the pulitzer he was contacted by a hollywood agent who asked if lowell would be interested in the movies.  well, sure, why not, after all lowell was the author of a few well-received plays.  he can try his hand at screenwriting.  no, said the agent, would the poet want to act in films.  lowell was a handsome man with a large head & his author photos were mighty things that triggered the interest of at least one hollywood agent.

now, writers don't need to have large heads or have commanding author photos.  but sometimes a writer can indeed command a few minutes of screentime.  hell, i remember renting VHS copies of murder by death [1976] at the local mom&pop video store because it featured truman capote who is magnificent in this murder mystery penned by neil simon.  capote is playing an exaggerated version of himself, i gather, but he is funny as hell in this pic.

but my two favorite writers in movies right now, at this moment, are the hard-boiled detective novelist jim thompson & poet/novelist james dickey.  both writers acted in but one film.  for dickey his acting is superb.  for thompson, who is quite good in the limited time onscreen, it is just cool to see him in a movie.

i confess, i recently watched farewell, my lovely [1975] directed by dick richards & based on the novel of the same name by, you know it, raymond chandler & didn't know that that was jim thompson.  tuff guy extraordinaire robert mitchum is philip marlowe who is chasing leads into the underbelly of LA.  this is a neo-noir flick where marlowe keeps his cynical wit as he navigates a gritty labyrinth of glamor & grime.  but i didn't know that that was jim thompson in a scene when we are introduced to the femme fatale played by charlotte rampling.  thompson plays rampling's husband, a powerful judge in LA but a feckless & impotent man in regard to his marriage.  thompson's face & his expressions are just right for his role.  

here is the scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqGm7dQSIl8. 

poet james dickey is a long favorite of mine.  still is.  & i think dickey & allen ginsberg, radically different poets stylistically, have a lot in common spiritually.  i say that because both were explorers of a kind of fleshly mysticism.  they were members of the same generation.  & both died within a couple of years of each other.  plus, i was a reader of both poets.  & find more in common with each than i do their differences.  but then again, that could be just me, my own poet biases.  & i recall dickey was quite caustic of the beats, & ginsberg in particular.  

at any rate, dickey penned the novel deliverance that was made into a movie helmed by john boorman that not only was successful as a box office draw but has entered the popular culture in ways like the beatles & shakespeare have.  quite a claim, sure, but you don't have to have seen the pic to know its references.  such as the banjo theme.  just like you don't have to know what play is penned by shakespeare with the line let's slip the dog's of war!    

dickey was given the small role of sheriff bullard of the doomed town of aintry.  the poet is a natural in this role.  so good, so menacing & so dangerous is he that he held his own with two veteran actors, jon voight & ned beatty.  

here is the scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gh5B_Uezmk.

i don't think either writer, thompson & dickey, ever acted in another movie, much less character role.s  still, they are both, in their respective movies, iconic.  i'm not sure what kind of role robert lowell would play.  he was an old-blood new englander from the upper-class.  but he did enjoy his drink, which was milk & vodka, if my memory serves, & smoked like a chimney so lowell could have had roles portraying both the upper echelons of society, & perhaps it lowest as well.  but i dunno!  at least i can watch jim thompson & james dickey in their own respective movies.