A Milkshake For Harry Dean Stanton

Last night I had a dream where I came upon the great actor Harry Dean Stanton sitting behind some friends of mine in a ratty old theater. Harry Dean smiled and politely reminded me I owed him a milkshake for the time he kept me from smoking in Atlanta. So I went and got him a milkshake. Maybe my dreams are other people's nightmares, but I wouldn't trade this one for anything.

Click on Harry Dean's wiki page and just gawk at all the great movies he's been in for fifty years (the guy's 83!). Never the star, except his one-two existential punch around 1984 with Repo Man and Paris, Texas, Harry Dean is an amazing character actor. With a voice (he sings, too) and face that make him, like a cockroach, the ultimate survivor, he's the kind of guy I want to watch the end of the world with. Six degrees of Kevin Bacon? No offense, Kevin, but any degree of Harry Dean Stanton is about as cool as it gets. How cool is Harry Dean? He once sang Jewish folksongs with Bob Dylan and Bob Dylan's son-in-law on a telethon (see below). So, in honor of Harry Dean, here's a mini-film fest (and that hand gesture in the Paris, Texas clip--isn't that the physical representation of how Harry Dean treats his audience in every movie?). And Harry Dean, if you're ever in Cleveland, the milkshake's on me.