Professor Wagstaff wrote: ↑Sat May 16, 2020 2:46 pm
Fred Willard
A sad loss for comedy. He never failed at getting a laugh out of me, with Best in Show ranking among one of the funniest performances I've seen.
I think he even topped that in
A Mighty Wind. I literally considered him to be the funniest person alive (since the loss of Phil Hartman, who will always be the #1 of all time). I watch his
"Mancierge" sketches from Tim & Eric all the time and they never fail to crack me up. He could even make
an informercial for FedEx hilarious. And of course, his Criterion connection in
This Is Spinal Tap is one of the many highlights of that film.
Around 12 years ago, I saw an uncharacteristic entry in his career at a midnight "Weird Wednesday" screening at the Alamo Drafthouse:
Chesty Anderson U.S. Navy (1976), where in a seemingly bizarre piece of casting, he plays a non-comedic role as the hunky male love-interest. I went for the Willard, and it also ended up being the film that introduced me to the wonder of Timothy Carey.