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He (April 9, 1942 – July 6, 1972) was an Academy Award-nominated American actor born into a theatrical family in Brooklyn.
He made his much-acclaimed Broadway debut at the age of 7 in The Member of the Wedding and also starred in the 1952 film version.
He is best known for his performance as Joey Starrett in the film Shane (1953) for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
In 1954, he appeared as the “mystery guest” on the popular TV quiz show What’s My Line. Panelist Bennett Cerf guessed his identity and mispronounced his surname as “de WILD”.
He also starred in his own television series, Jamie (1953-1954) which, although popular, was cancelled due to a contract dispute.
He made his mark onscreen as an adolescent in the controversial 1959 drama Blue Denim, co-starring Carol Lynley.
Although the only lead actor not to be Oscar-nominated for Hud, he went on stage to accept the Best Supporting Actor trophy for co-star Melvyn Douglas.
He delivered another widely acclaimed performance at the age of 22 as Jere Torry, the screen son of John Wayne in In Harm’s Way (1965).
In a career spanning the years 1951 to 1972 (including six Broadway plays and 16 movies), he made his last screen appearance in Wild In The Sky.
He watched as Paul McCartney wrote the song “Wait” during the filming of the Beatles movie Help! and had hoped to embark on a music career.
He asked his friend Gram Parsons to back him in a recording session. Parsons claimed that he sang harmony better than anyone except Emmylou Harris.
He was critically injured in a traffic accident in the Denver suburb of Lakewood on the evening of July 6, 1972.
He was pinned under the wreckage of his motorcycle for some time before being taken to Denver General Hospital. He died 4 hours later.
Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris later co-wrote a song entitled “In My Hour Of Darkness”, whose first verse refers to the accident that killed him.
“Once I knew a young man / Went driving through the night, / Miles and miles without a word / But just his high-beam lights. / Who’d have ever thought they’d build / Such a deadly Denver bend; / To be so strong, to take so long / As it would till the end.”
25 years later, most of his films are forgotten. Almost no one under 50 knows his name.
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p.s. Hey. ** Dominik, Hi!!! I’m happy the imagery intrigued you. Yeah, after being in one level or another of content pain for two and a half weeks, my leg’s respectful obedience is still a joy to behold. I met the guys who run Löwenherz when I did my event in Vienna. They seemed really cool. I wanted to making a shopping visit there, but I ran out of time. One of these days, you guys really should go to Prater, I guess mostly so I can hear about it. Very practical and nice ask of love there. If only asking real people for favors was as easy as asking love for them, yes. Love explaining why I’m excited to see what Paris is like when it’s crammed with people and everything becomes a big hassle to do during the Olympics, G. ** Nika Ma vrody, Hi, Nika. Oh, I’ll go try to find you on Wikipedia. Congratulations? Radical winemakers … no, they’re news to me. I’ll see what I can find out. Zac is at his most distracted and busiest right because we’re in the middle of constant post-production work on our film if that makes a difference? ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi. I liked ‘I Was Home, But’, and not just because of the Ozu-flavored title. Ugh, sorry about the football shit, but, yeah, the world is at its ugliest ever right now maybe. ** Uday, Hey. No, that makes sense: your particular vibe towards Wojnarowicz. Chuffed to be in that odd quarter, of course. One of the interesting things about getting older is that you accumulate all these people you knew, some of whom became famous or great, and people are impressed that you knew them even though they were just people you had things in common with when you knew them. You’ll see. Not quite apropos, but yesterday the producer who is renting us his sound mix studio in which to work on our film pointed out that one of the mixing boards was Godard’s personal mixing board, and we were suitably intimidated and blown away. Yes, email the drawing to me if that’s best. Yes, exciting, thank you! Do you have my email? Oh, yeah, come to Paris. I’ll show you its best things, or at least the things that qualify as both things that interest you and best. My leg is now almost my entire body’s humble slave again to the point where I can confidently say it thanks you. ** Misanthrope, Jeez, that’s weird and complicated. I’ve seen the name OneDrive so I guess my computer must have it, but, if so, mine has been mouse-quiet thus far. Don’t you have some kind tech support person you can call or something? Yikes. ** Steve Erickson, I’m trying to think of an actual important reason why one should go to a Carly Rae Jepsen concert, and I can’t quite come up with anything. Really sad that Cinema Scope is ending. As others have said, amazing it lasted so long, but still. Another terrible blow to cinema. Thanks about the sound mixing. Our mixer seems really good and attentive, so we’ll see. I hope for progress on your brain fog situation today. My leg is not completely normal, but it’s close enough that I am most grateful to it. Thank you. ** Justin, ‘Society of the Snow’: That sounds kind of familiar. I’ll find it. Being more used to writing novels where money is infinitely less of an issue, yeah, filmmaking is a hell of a hassle. I hope your week is proceeding apace. Is it? ** Mark, Hi. You’d never seen ‘The Devils’ before? Yeah, it’s something, right? Obviously they don’t make them like that anymore. Or at least not on that budget. Awesome. ** Okay. I always sort of liked today’s sort of strange old post, so I decided to bring it back to life. That’s it. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
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Dennis, I really love everything about this post.
Of course, you go online and it’s all automated and all the solutions fucking suck. If I disable or disconnect from it, all my files in my Documents folder on my hard drive disappear. I re-enable it and they come back. It’s like it’s taken over my computer or it IS my computer now. I thought it was just supposed to be cloud backup. Seems everything’s been going to it.
I’m going to try, when I get some time, to get some real-person support. In the meantime, I’m going to save everything I’m working on to my Desktop, which seems to work. I’ve backed up all the important writing files on my external hard drive and on a thumb drive.
I fucking hate this. It had me up last night thinking about it. I’ll figure it out somehow.
Thanks for this post, All FAll Down is a favorite movie
Brandon DeWilde! Wasn’t he on the Alfred Hitchcock show? The Godard thing sounds so amazing. What’s your favourite film of his? Perhaps predictable but I’m partial to Vivre Sa Vie. I might actually come to Paris some time; we’ll see. A friend of mine (who I went to see Harry Smith’s Mahagonny with) lives there now and I miss him a lot. I’ll check out grants. I do not have your email I fear 🙁
Never caught this haunting and poignant post the 1st time round, must’ve been before my time. Brandon’s story deserves to be told, for sure.
I’ve always really liked his performance as Newman’s brother in HUD. Year or two ago I saw John Frankenheimer’s ALL FALL DOWN which was ok and basically Warren Beatty’s HUD and deWilde plays Beatty’s brother in that/practically the same character.
Hi!!
How much more interesting it’d be if the Wikipedia pages of “celebrities” looked like this post. I really love it. Thank you!
Ah, it’s really great that you met the Löwenherz guys! They’re always super nice when we’re there. And they always have at least four or five of your books on their shelves. That was the first thing I checked when we first visited, and I was impressed. The only “downside” of that shop is that it’s impossible not to spend a lot more money than you initially planned.
And yes, Prater, fuck! We’re so slow! I’ll make sure we go this summer, and I’ll tell you all about it!
Well, France doesn’t seem to half-ass any event, so I’m guessing something as huge as the Olympics will really be a one-of-a-kind experience. I’d probably go insane, but, from afar, it does sound exciting, haha.
Love giving every baby born today the ability to walk and talk by tomorrow, Od.
First song that came to mind.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVYxKRXDT2I
Tell me have you seen him?
Hi Dennis! Greetings from Las Vegas. It’s my first time staying here, we have a view of the Sphere!!! Going to the Sphere tonight. We are here with my parents-in-law who are visiting from China.
We were going to check out Double Negative, but alas it’s a bit too far for this trip. Have you ever been?
I sent you an email with some more pictures from la Musee de la Chasse et de la Nature 🙂
Sending you my very best,
Matt
How did Parsons and de Wilde know each other? Just hanging out in the same circles in Los Angeles?
The “Play For Forever” YouTube channel just posted HOME, an excellent British made-for-TV movie based on a J. G. Ballard short story about a man who decides to “experiment” by never leaving his house in London’s suburbs. Antony Sher is the lead actor, and while other characters appear occasionally, it’s practically a monologue. (His character makes a video diary over the course of two months.)
Hi.
So I was thinking do you know who John Maus is? The singer/ genius composer/ mad genius?
He is amazing if you listen to him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnMfKacI9AY&t=654s
This is my favorite interview of him he says a lot of interesting things but its very long and admittedly a bit manic. Don’t watch it, but that’s him!
He is a genius and his music is very reminiscent of the older classical compositions but he has a humor and energy to his music that makes it feel very unpretentious.
He has done crazy things before, yes, i’ll admit, I mean he was close friends with Ariel Pink but he is not a sellout and doesn’t try to come off more intelligent than he really is. Which is something I find annoying about intelligent people, when they overstate their sapient.
Also he hasnt made music in a long time, which is the most anti-sellout thing I think?
If you want, and get the chance, you should listen to his Album “Love Is Real!” Good one!!
Ok whew, Was that too abrasive? I got the vibe my passion for Maus felt like I was holding a knife to your throat and saying “Listen to him or die.”
My sister actually lives in a complex called “Chateau Terrace” which is interesting. Its not French but the complex is from the 70s and has the mechanical doorbells and mail slots in the doors.
I hope that any stress/maladies afflicted upon you here and the next time I come back, will render themselves as harmless and unintimidating as tiny toy soldiers “stabbing” your feet with little plastic daggers.
I’d never heard of Brandon before this. I love the gif of him looking at the apple tree. Such expressive eyes. Do you have any updates on the novella/radio show/audio thing you were working on? I heard you talking about it on a podcast a while back. Sounded interesting.
I don’t know how you feel about double commenting but I was also wondering if you had any recommendations for novels about hustlers (any search inevitably leads me to financial hustle self help books, which make me want to throw up) and any graphic novels just broadly.
Thanks. It’s like leaving a comment here from a search user’s perspective.