I greatly enjoyed Anne Taubeneck’s article “Playing Dead” (Arts & Entertainment, Oct. 26) as well as her list of “10 Great Stiff Roles”–here’s a few other memorable death scenes.
Jeff Bridges in “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot” and “American Heart”: Two poignant, heart-rending on-camera death scenes, both in moving vehicles (a car in “Thunderbolt,” a ferry in “American Heart”), both incredibly subtle.
Robert Vaughn in “The Magnificent Seven”: Surely his long slow slide down that railing, rubbing his face raw all the way down, is one of the most painful-looking yet curiously elegant deaths in a western.
Wil Wheaton in “Toy Soldiers”: Not only does his Joey Trotta character die on a staircase, but the camera stays on him as he dies, then stays on him for over a minute after he “dies”–then continues to focus on him from above, with nary an eyelid flutter or breath from the actor. Then he’s shown again, on a stretcher, full face, looking incredibly “dead” for two later close-ups. For a teenager, something of an accomplishment.
Martin Balsam in “Psycho”: The “other” great death scene from this classic film, one memorable enough to be parodied during the “we’ve got to go visit the Penguin” scene in “The Blues Brothers.” The original scene is one of the most arduous-looking death scenes Hitchcock filmed (and it hold up well in the later parody).
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