Tuesday, July 3, 2001
Farewell, the beloved Frick - THE COMMENTARY
By Joseph Planta
VANCOUVER -- Jack Lemmon was as good as it gets. Eerily Sunday marked the first year anniversary of the death of actor Walter Matthau. With Jack Lemmon’s shocking death Wednesday night last, it puts it all into perspective. Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon were a hell of a team. Individually they had acting accomplishments that were noteworthy and remarkable, but in their deaths it was the inimitable film tandem that we remembered.
Lemmon and Matthau are as apt as Gable and Lombard or Tracy and Hepburn. It was a unique team that endeared them to millions of moviegoers. While Matthau won his Oscar for The Fortune Cookie, a film that co-starred Lemmon -- Jack Lemmon won the first of his two Oscars for Mister Roberts. His second was in 1973 for Save The Tiger. He won an Emmy in the seventies for a television special done in tribute to George Gershwin. His piano skills were a well noted facet in the life of one Jack Lemmon.
From his cross-dressing turn in Some Like It Hot or the swan song in Tuesday’s With Morrie (for which he won another Emmy less than a year ago), Jack Lemmon evoked the every-man in his role. He dared not to delve into the ‘huge’ roles as done by people like Charlton Heston or Burt Lancaster. Rather as Ensign Pulver in Roberts or one of the Grumpy Old Men, he bumbled and brood like anyone we know -- perhaps ourselves.
Most of all, I have always been struck by Jack Lemmon’s natural demeanour in being the consummate anti-star. I don’t mean that pejoratively at all. As we know, to be an actor requires the requisite amount of ego. Lemmon had that, but that didn’t prevent genuine skill to permeate our perception of the remarkable actor -- the remarkable man.
Ann-Margaret -- Lemmon’s film wife in both Grumpy Old Men and Grumpier Old Men -- once confessed that she gave her co-stars (Matthau and Lemmon) nicknames. Lemmon was Frick and Matthau was Frack. The exact descendant of the monikers I don’t know, but in my column upon the death of Walter Matthau, exactly one year ago, I evoked Ann-Margaret’s nicknames.
Kevin Spacey, besides doing wicked impersonations of many other actors, was practically a protégé of Lemmon’s. Spacey, himself a double Oscar winner has always admired Lemmon, even dedicating his 2000 Oscar for American Beauty to him. It’s a role -- Lester Burnham in American Beauty -- that Spacey has attributed to Lemmon’s own performance in Billy Wilder’s The Apartment.
When celebrities or master artists like Lemmon die, it’s novel to look at their contemporaries in the industry they leave behind. Whilst celebrating the life of the late Jack Lemmon, looking at thespians of today like Kevin Spacey, it is sincerely gratifying to see the mark he’s left behind. Therein is the true sense of staying power and the rightful tribute paid upon death. Jack Lemmon moved effortless between comedy and drama. He is a true legend and a prime example the pejorative ‘stars’ of today, as well as the noble actors of today should not only aspire to, but emulate. The loss suffered by his industry and his craft is immense.
I am told that Jack Lemmon before each take, would mutter “magic time” under his breath. Perhaps it was a well worn habit or a mere craftsman appreciating his noble craft. When his father died his last words to his son were, “Spread a little sunshine.” Whether it was harrowing drama like O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Missing or showcasing his flare for comedy in Wilder’s Some Like It Hot or Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple -- he spread so much sunshine. Every time was magic.
At his tribute at the Kennedy Center a few years ago, a choir from his alma mater Harvard serenaded a teary eyed Lemmon with his favourite song, Gershwin’s “Our Love Is Here To Stay.” It was the last song George Gershwin co-wrote with his brother Ira before his death. The song states: “In time the Rockies may crumble, Gibraltar may tumble... but our love is here to stay.” It is fairly obvious that the world of cinema holds a deep love for Frick and Frack, and that that love is sincerley, here to stay.
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An archive of Joseph Planta's previous columns can be found by clicking HERE .