Warren Oates

imjin138

imjin138

US Veteran
Joined
Mar 28, 2004
Messages
1,272
Reaction score
195
Location
Racine Wi. USA
As I was relaxing tonight I happened across an old movie 'Race with the Devil' with Warren Oates, Peter Fonda and Loretta Swit. I watch a lot of westerns and have always liked Warren Oates. I happened to read his biography awhile back and he had a pretty interesting career. Woeked with Sam Peckinpah a lot and was in Stripes.

He served in the Marines went to college and became an actor and a pretty under rated one one of my favorite movies is 'Bring me the head of Alfredo Garcia' He plays a down and out piano player trying to make the big time.
 
Register to hide this ad
You're right, underrated. Did some good work on television too. Guest shots, some of them on good shows and some...well, he did one episode of "Lost In Space". But he's been dead for over thirty years, so we can forgive that.
 
One of the best character actors. My favorite is Strother Martin, and the still kickin' L.Q. Jones is right there with them. I believe Oates lived around Livingston, Mt. and can be seen briefly playing harmonica with Jimmy buffet for about five seconds in the great obscure movie Rancho Deluxe with Jeff Bridges.
 
Hardly one of Oates' memorable movies, but I like Dixie Dynamite. That is the one where Steve McQueen was an anonymous extra in a motorcycle race. Then there is Two Lane Blacktop where Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys was one of the co-stars. Warren Oates; he left us much too soon.
 
In the original 'Outer Limits'

He was all over for very many years but when I hear his name the first think I think of when he was the 'Fried Egg Monster' with the big bulgy eyes on the 'Outer Limits. It was kinda shocking when he took of his goggles and "YAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"
 
"Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia" is a great film. Warren Oates is definitely underrated, it's a shame that character actors like him have become a thing of the past, as super expensive headlining actors/actresses gobble up screen time to justify their cost. Shame, really.
 
imjin138 said:
one one of my favorite movies is 'Bring me the head of Alfredo Garcia' He plays a down and out piano player trying to make the big time.
Click to expand...
That's my favorite role of his.

It's an excellent portrayal of a guy who knows he's starting out on a dubious venture that goes downhill from there, but he sticks with it anyway... kind of like the director, Sam Peckinpaugh who at the time was circling the drain as surely as Oates's character. Given the portrayal of Mexico in the film, it's interesting that the place has gotten much MORE violent and anarchic than it's portrayed in the movie.

In line with the other thread on "Encore Westerns", they showed "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia" as a western, which for the most part it is. Afterward, they showed a documentary on Peckinpaugh, which went into a lot of detail on "Garcia", as well as "The Wild Bunch" and some of his other films.
 
mc5aw said:
My favorite Oates movie is "The Wild Bunch", but I loved him in "Two Lane Blacktop".
Click to expand...

Forgot all about "Two Lane Blacktop!"

He was a great actor. Enjoyed him in all of the above.

Wasn't he in an obscure version of or a little known TV remake of "True Grit?"
 
forindooruseonly;137326204 Warren Oates is definitely underrated said:
Fortunately I can't entirely agree that character actors have become a thing of the past. Philip Seymour Hoffman is one of the best I've ever seen. Paul Newman became a wonderful character actor in his old age. Paul Giamatti and Harvey Keitel can hold their own with anyone, as can Gary Oldman and Gary Sinise. Steve Buscemi and James Woods apparently will always play creepy types, but they qualify. These aren't the stereotypical mega-star types like Cruise and Washington and Meryl Streep, though Streep can disappear into any character role the way Hoffman can and is, I think, the greatest living actress. Two Kevins, Spacey and Cline, can do anything from comedy to Shakespeare's history plays--Cline as Sir John Falstaff was amazing, garish and pathetic.

I think there's more good character acting these days than good movies, from the reviews I've read.
Click to expand...
 
Very talented.

Anybody remember "The Hired Hand" with Peter Fonda?

He had some memorable lines in that one.
As I recall them:
"She got any teeth?"
"you can always tell when a man has something on his mind- he talks to people he don't know...."
"most folks do, ma'am..."
 
Warren Oates was also great as a Confederate PW in: Major Dundee-opposite Ben Johnson. Also, my favorite 30 minute Twilight Zone episode called: "The 7th is made up of Phantoms" had him as an Army Corporal and 2nd in charge of his Stuart tank.
 
I watch anything Warren Oates played in. Some real good ones as mentioned above and some not so well known. I liked him. Sorry he is gone. What we have to pick from now is pretty slim.
 
Anybody remember "The Hired Hand" with Peter Fonda?
Click to expand...
I think that was the best movie Peter Fonda was ever in, but Warren Oates really carried the story.

I have seen versions of Hired Hand with a couple of crucial scenes deleted. That was a real shame, as it made the rest of the movie incomprehensible.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top