Sad to find out that my good pal "3-Dollar Bill" Wise has left this mortal coil. Now this is, as Bill might say "a real fucking bummer."
Bill's been on my mind quite a bit the last several months, and I never got responses from the texts I sent him. We were always friendly and mutually supportive, and spent a little bit of time together when he moved out here to LA briefly, a year or two after me. We got lunch at Carney's on Sunset and had a nice visit and catch up, strategy mastermind and professional commiseration session all-in-one.
Bill had the actor's gift of expressing his true authentic self in every character I ever saw him play. He had an ability to bring any role off the page and to life, with the most interesting choices and idiosyncrasies, which usually brought more than even the writer had considered. And I must say that on many occasions, when I've had an opportunity to play a character that's got some room for eccentricity, one that most actors might try to play "down the middle", I always think "what would Bill Wise do with this guy?". I suppose I always will.
I don't have a cute closer because I expected I might see him before long and I'm honestly knocked off guard. IMDb has a couple little samplers of his work. Highly recommend you find and enjoy them. Bill's work was always easy to enjoy. He always invited you to enjoy each role as much as he did.
RIP, buddy.
@thebillwise
It's been a great joy following @SidKrofft on Instagram and occasionally interacting with him in comments and messages.
He and his brother Marty made my Saturday mornings a little more odd and fun as a kid.
Land of the Lost
HR Pufnstuf
Sigmund and the Sea Monsters
Lidsville
The Bugaloos
The Bay City Rollers Show
The Lost Saucer
With concepts much larger than their budgets, the brothers also taught me not to let the bottom line stop you from entertaining people.
Even on social media, Sid exuded kindness and love, so joyfully. I truly thought I'd get to meet him before he passed. He was out and about at events regularly. I'm sad that one of the last living embodiments of my childhood has passed. I did get to tell him I love him and thanked him for everything he did to keep me out of trouble. He was sweet enough to tell me he loved me too. What a kind soul. Right up to the very end.
Jesus, I can't breathe.
My estranged brother, Jon Dee Graham, has passed.
I would normally have so much to say, but that will have to come later. Now my prayers are with Willie and Gretchen and Roy Boy as they cope with the loss of their father and husband. And it's with the rest of us who knew and loved him. My heart is broken.
Jon Dee and I shared a birthday, February 28th, and thusly we were soul brothers, too alike to ever get along well all the time. Our early years were the best. Beautiful. Humble. Honest. Everything was growing, both of us and everything around us. I watched the man blossom in every way. It was breathtaking and powerful, and the whole world celebrated him.
The best compliment Jon Dee ever paid me was meant to be an insult: "it's like someone takes the fucking bag off your head every single day." It was a testament to my openmindedness, my willingness to learn and be fresh and new and stupid and teachable in every moment. It really pissed him off -- like many things I did.
Jon Dee replaced me in the Resentments, and I was as happy for him as I was jealous. I'm still proud of the songs we wrote together. I remember when Willie first came home from the hospital, and we beheld his amazing perfection together. Such a beautiful perfect miracle in human form. And Roy Boy, whose name I've heard - in only that form - hundreds and hundreds of times.
I have laughed and cried harder with Jon Dee than with most people I have known in this life. We were eventually at great odds with each other and made peace several years ago, but we were never close again. I don't love him one iota less. I have lost a brother - which still pales in comparison to the loss many of you must be feeling.
I felt something missing this morning, something was off. It was Jon Dee leaving the stage after the biggest, most cacophonous solo anyone has ever heard - just like always. I can hear him mumbling as he walked away, just loud enough to be heard; "follow that, fuckers..."
We can't. We never could. Nobody.
RIP @jondeeco
Happy birthday Nick Lowe and thank you for all the inspiration, music, and emotion you've put into this world. May there be much more to come. And thanks for writing a song that makes me pick up my guitar every time I think of it, I might not otherwise...
#CruelToBeKind #NickLowe
Sometimes things can change in days, in an instant, overnight, in a moment. It's been like that the last several days. I'm snapping a picture to remember the moment I realized it was all changing, all improving, getting better exponentially. I got through some really tough times (and I didn't talk about them to many people at all), and now they're over. I did it.
And as my old friend Buck was fond of saying, "I don't know what the future holds, but I know Who holds the future..." upward. onward. outward. inward.
My friend and teacher Matt Clark has passed in Austin after complications from back surgery after suffering from back issues for decades. I hated that he was in so much pain for so long and I know the pain was a constant companion during our friendship. I never knew how to handle it, how I might console him.
When I decided to really dig into acting, Matt graciously invited me into a small private class he held at Mary Bruton's studio space at no charge. I couldn't say no, it was less than a mile away. We were all kind of mourning Stephen's loss, doing something creative together felt like healing.
Being an old LA "Mario's guy," he was a progenitor of the ATX "Liar's Club" in a roundabout way (IYKYK), and his love for Stephen (and anyone connected to him, like me) was boundless. No doubt Stephen was the impetus behind Matt moving to Austin. I'm sad they couldn't spend more time together before Stephen's bittersweet passing - we all had a lot to cope with there...
Matt was a loving curmudgeon, but never acted like a big shot (and easily could have, being a big shot and all)… But he really pushed me to find truth in every scene, in every line, in every moment. I mean he really pushed me. And if I wasn't digging in with authenticity, he'd push me harder, impatiently - because he knew I had it in me and I was holding back.
At first I thought he just didn't like me or was taking his discomfort out on me, like some old Western movie version of Norma Desmond (I hadn't seen Sunset Boulevard at the time, but the archetype was something in my understanding). I stopped going after several months because I started a weekly gig, I think. I had a convenient excuse. Mostly, I couldn't process that I was creatively digging into things I wasn't comfortable facing yet. Looking back, I've always seen that opportunity as true gold, and his energy toward me as frustration that he could see my talent and I didn't have the courage to.
I've been trying to contact him for the last several months to catch up and thank him, I guess I know why now. I'm really sad to lose Matt, to lose the chance to thank him, but I'm thankful that he's got some relief from that pain. Rest easy compadre
