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Biography - Born 07/14/1926
A prolific supporting player with a weathered, leathered face, and drooping features capable of projecting menace or poignancy, Harry Dean Stanton spent the first 25 years of his career specializing in playing outsiders, psychotics and heavies. Then came the dignified leading role in "Paris, Texas" (1984), followed by his discovery by the younger generation of Hollywood filmmakers, who turned Stanton into the wizened cult figure of their flock.
After World War II service, Stanton attended the University of Kentucky where he got the acting bug after appearing in a production of "Pygmalion". He dropped out of college after three years and headed to California, where he studied at the Pasadena Playhouse alongside Gene Hackman and Robert Duvall. He became a member of the American Male Chorus and toured the US, then settled briefly in New York to work in children's theatre before returning to California, this time trying his luck in Hollywood. He got work almost immediately and has been steadily employed since.
In his early days, he was often billed as Dean Stanton. He made his film debut in the 1957 Western "Tomahawk Trail" and the following year set the pattern for his career by playing a villain, opposite Alan Ladd, in "The Proud Rebel". Stanton then had a virtual crime spree through film for more than a decade, with few respites. In 1967, he was a convict who sings gospel tunes to Paul Newman in "Cool Hand Luke" and he was Homer, a gangster gunned down by "Dillinger" (1973). Francis Ford Coppola gave Stanton a chance to switch to the other side in "The Godfather, Part II" (1974), in which Stanton was an FBI agent protecting Michael V Gazzo. By 1976, he was back to his old ways as the leader of a gang of horse thieves on the run from Marlon Brando in "Missouri Breaks". Stanton was able to use his music again in "The Rose" (1979) in which he was an older country-western singer. Cast by Wim Wenders as a man trying to put his life back together and reunite with his estranged family, Stanton took his first screen lead in "Paris, Texas" to town. He sang the opening vocals, carried the film from start to finish, and won the British Film Critics Award as Best Actor. If "Paris, Texas" made Stanton a darling of the art film crowd, that same year, his status among the hipsters was solidified when he played the older "Repo Man", teaching Emilio Estevez how to repossess cars in the cult success.
In 1984, Stanton was father to Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen in "Red Dawn", telling them to "avenge me" from the Russian-Cuban invasion of the US. As Stanton worked with the "brat pack" in "Repo Man" and "Red Dawn", he moved on to being father to the sweetheart of the 80s, Molly Ringwald, in 1986's "Pretty in Pink", in which he was a charmingly unrepentant, chronically unemployed man. That same year, he was an ornery old man in Robert Altman's film adaptation of Sam Shepard's "Fool for Love". Now established as one of the premiere character players of the American screen (after 30 years of screen roles), Stanton played Saul/Paul in Martin Scorsese's "The Last Temptation of Christ" (1988). Now on the preferred casting list of Coppola, Altman, John Hughes, and Scorsese, Stanton had not completely abandoned his old bad ways. He was the serial killer Max Cheski in "Never Talk to Strangers" (1995), and gave Kelsey Grammar some thorny moments in "Down Periscope" (1996).
Stanton's TV output has been a bit sporadic, although lead roles came in the 90s. He did his share of episodics, and even played a sidekick to Beau Bridges as a nasty nemesis in "Frank Merriwell", a 1966 busted CBS pilot. In 1979, Stanton was an auto repossessor (shades of things to come!) in "Flatbed Annie & Sweetpie: Lady Truckers", a CBS TV-movie that marked his longform debut. He was Perkins, one of the gamblers using Barbara Graham (Lindsay Wagner) as a shill in the 1983 ABC remake of "I Want to Live". In 1993, he starred in the HBO original film "Hostages" and in 1994 played Kyle MacLachlan's father, nervous as his son is behind the walls of Attica during the prison riot in "Against the Wall". Stanton also had a turn as Shadrach in "Larry McMurtry's Dead Man's Walk" (ABC, 1996).
In January 1996, Stanton was the victim of three robbers who broke into his home, tied him up, and hit him in the face with a gun.
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