Kojak
This morning I was up early and had some time to kill before heading off to work. On TV I found a Kojak rerun, dubbed in Italian, staring in a minor role, a very young Richard Gere. You can see the entire thing on YouTube, in English of course, by clicking here. The year was 1976, a year before he starred in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, in which he distinguished himself IMO. Three years after that it was American Gigolo. Somewhere along the line I think he began to qualify for that category of actors who are great characters but not necessarily great actors. I say Jack Nicholson is one: a fantastic character, but usually he seems to be playing some version of himself. For me a great actor is Robert Duvall or Dustin Hoffman or Robert De Niro. These guys play diverse rolls with equal aplomb. That’s not to say I don’t love some of old Richard’s movies.
How about these:
This entry was posted on July 2, 2008 at 5:56 pm and is filed under good old days, movies. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.
Tags: american gigolo, best actors, best characters, dustin hoffman, jack nicholson, kojak, looking for mr. goodbar, officer and a gentleman, richard gere, robert de niro, robert duvall, telly savalas
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July 3, 2008 at 2:39 pm
I once found myself watching ‘Dallas’ dubbed into German. A very bizarre experience…
July 11, 2008 at 4:29 pm
I watched Walker Texas Ranger here in Rome dubbed. It was hilarious.
July 12, 2008 at 9:19 am
Dear nyc/caribbean ragazza, Thanks for commenting. I’ve seen your blog before and thought it and your name are very cool. I love seeing Rome and Italy through your eyes; it reminds me of when I first came almost 20 years ago. Enjoy.