I seriously didn't mean to turn this blog into "Grim Reaper Illustrated" today, but I guess thats what happens every so often in life. Character actor Joe Mantell died at the age of 94, of being 94 years old. Obviously you can't control when these things happen, but its too bad he died around the same time as Arthur Penn and Tony Curtis, I mean being a character actor he certainly wasn't as famous, but he deserves to be recognized. He not only was in some great movies in his own right, but, in one of them he got to deliver one of filmdom's most famous lines.
Here are just a taste of his bigger roles:
1) Marty (1955)
In the Oscar-winning Marty, he played Angie, Ernest Borgnine's best loser friend (above on the right). His most oft-quoted line there was, "Well, what do you feel like doin' tonight?" He said it a lot. Of course, in context it sounds better and makes more sense.
2) The Birds (1963)
In Hitchcock's The Birds, he has a small but memorable part as, "Traveling Salesman at Diner's Bar"
3) Chinatown (1974)
And last, but not least, the role that would make most famous, he played Jack Nicholson's partner, Walsh, and got to speak the film's most famous line, "Forget it Jake. It's Chinatown."
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