Five movie roles that made Harry Dean Stanton an icon
The very face of Harry Dean Stanton is genuinely iconic. Over six decades, we saw the Kentucky-born actor star in a number of the greatest films of all time and his performances consistently amazed audiences, offering a wide variety of characters always delivered with the utmost care and attention.
Stanton made his first TV appearance way back in 1954 with Inner Sanctum before arriving on the big screen in 1957 with the western movie Tomahawk Trail. Several minor roles followed over the proceeding years before he made his breakthrough appearance in Wim Wenders road movie Paris, Texas.
From there, it felt like Stanton cropped up everywhere, either in serious science fiction like Alien and Escape From New York or philosophical indie movies like David Lynch’s Twin Peak: Fire Walk With Me and Inland Empire. Quite simply, Stanton established himself as a master of his craft.
Today, we’re celebrating Stanton’s legendary career in the film industry and charting five performances that made him a true icon of cinema. So, from space-faring engineering to philosophical ruminations via gruff action, without further ado, let’s begin.
Five iconic Harry Dean Stanton performances:
Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)
Ridley Scott’s 1979 science fiction horror movie Alien is undoubtedly one of the greatest works in the genre. Stanton starred alongside Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt and Ian Holm in a story about a spaceship’s crew coming up against a fearsome xenomorphic alien who hunts them down one by one.
Stanton plays the engineer Brett in Scott’s movie in a typically grizzly yet affable manner. He wears a Hawaiian shirt, a bomber jacket and a trucker’s cap that gives a sense of roadside Americana, meaning that his fatal demise is all the more harrowing. And only someone like Stanton could have given Brett such unique panache.
Escape From New York (John Carpenter, 1981)
Scott’s Alien is certainly one of the best efforts in the sci-fi horror genre, and so too is John Carpenter’s Escape From New York, one of the greatest action films ever made. It stars Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken, an ex-solider and federal convict who is freed from imprisonment to rescue the United States President after he is kidnapped by anti-government terrorists.
Stanton’s character is brilliant in the movie; Harold ‘Brain’ Hellman is a former associate of Duke and an advisor to a crime boss in New York. Brain is street-smart, hence his name, tough as nails, and pretty much made for Stanton to play him. He also retains that seediness to the Golden Apple in one of his truly most iconic roles.
Repo Man (Alex Cox, 1984)
Repo Man by Alex Cox is an absolute gem of the 1980s, although it’s a real throwback to the preceding decades. Emilio Estevez plays Otto, a rebellious punk rocker kid who takes a job at a car repossession company, and the narrative really ramps up into action when he pursues a Chevrolet linked to aliens.
As for Stanton, well, this film certainly features one of his most memorable roles. He plays Bud, a repo man of the old-school variety, with plenty of philosophical ramblings drawn from his years of experience in the business. Bud’s views on society are diametrically opposed to Otto’s, and this contrast lends the movie all the more conceptual intrigue.
Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders, 1984)
In 1984, not only was Repo Man released, but so too was one of Stanton’s best-ever performances. He starred in the lead role in Wim Wender’s tragically-moving road movie Paris, Texas as a reclusive man by the name of Travis Henderson. He reunites with his brother and son before heading out to find his missing wife.
We find Travis wandering the desert, lost as any man can be, clearly regretting his prior decision to abandon his family. Hitherto muted, he is strengthened by his initial reunion, and we follow Travis in his iconic red cap to find the mother of his son. A monologue scene at the film’s climax is simply Stanton’s best-ever cinematic moment.
Lucky (John Carroll Lynch, 2017)
While many of Stanton’s most iconic roles came quite some time ago now, he recently proved that he still has an excellent performance in the bag, improved perhaps by his advancing years. In John Carroll Lynch’s Lucky, Stanton made his final appearance as a 90-year-old man called Lucky who makes one last quest for enlightenment before he dies.
Given the fact that Lucky serves as Stanton’s final bow, there’s a real genuine element to his performance. His routine life is moving towards its final day, and his atheist views on the world likely provide little comfort about what may come next. Still, Lucky finds secular meaning in his life in a showing undoubtedly related to the real-life actor.
