RIP – Darren McGavin
Another tremendous character actor is lost to us today. Darrin McGavin, known best to my generation as the father from “A Christmas Story” passed away at the age of 83.
I still love “A Christmas Story” and the scene that always touches me comes up on Christmas Day, when the boys have opened all of their presents. McGavin tells Ralphie that Santa left him one more present. Even though we wer supposed to be watching Ralphie tear open the gift that we just knew was that BB gun, I always watch McGavin. You don’t get a better picture of fatherly love, I don’t believe, than McGavin showed in that scene. His delight in giving his son the perfect gift, the way he calmed his wife when she saw what he had done, the way he kind of stretched out the surprise – it was all priceless and it may be the most enduring scene in the movie for me.
Beyond that, though, he also played a role that will forever endear him to me: Kolchak, The Night Stalker.
Yeah, stop laughing people. Kolchak was cheesy in a lot of ways, but it was the predecessor to such shows as “The X-Files”. I distinctly remember staying awake so I could sneak up the stairs from my bedroom to catch a peek at the TV in the living room on Friday nights as my parents watched Kolchak. I have never really believed in the paranormal, but the idea of Kolchak out there running into zombies and vampires and ghosts was just good television and grist for my very active imagination. At one point in my life I actually wanted to be Kolchak. I even had the really bad plaid suitcoat ready to go.
I thought it was a travesty when they tried to bring the show back with a hip new edgy sexy angle not that long ago. I haven’t seen anything from that show, so I can assume it got the cancellation it deserved before it even came to air.
Some things you just don’t mess with and Kolchak is one of them.
One last note. As you may have read in my earlier post, Don Knotts also died Friday. Knotts and McGavin starred together in two very funny movies, “Hot Lead and Cold Feet” and “No Deposit, No Return”. I may have to go find those two at my local video store.
Goodbye, Mr. McGavin. You’ll always have a place in my memories.
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Category: In Memoriam, It's Entertainment!
