While John Karlen has asserted over the years that he has no idea why he was needed to replace James Hall as Willie Loomis, you might recall that KLS has offered her own recollections as to how it went down. At the 2004 Fest in Tarrytown, for example, she said Hall (a friend of hers from acting class) was hampered by both nervousness and a drinking problem and that in the middle of shooting an episode, it became obvious that he couldn’t continue in the role. It was a shame, she said. Another time, she was heard to say that he quit acting after DS. And it had been awkward working with him because he was on his way out the door. Flash ahead to this past Saturday evening, when KLS and James Hall took the stage together in a panel titled “DS: The First Year”. (Nancy Barrett, who called ahead to cancel, and Mitch Ryan, who at this point was still expected, were scheduled to join them but didn’t attend the day’s event.)
BTW, emcee Halpern, who introduced the actors and admitted to contacting Hall via Facebook and learning he lived in Santa Monica, had proposed this past summer in Tarrytown that the two Willie Loomises be brought together at a Festival event (!). So, thanks, Richie. For those of you reading this, enjoy!
Jim Hall and KLS met in an acting class while both were studying with Uta Hagen. Hall said he appeared in 5 episodes on DS, describing himself as a footnote. He was a National Champ football player at Ole Miss before getting on a bus and heading to NY with $200 in his pocket to become an actor. In 1967, he played the lead in an O’Neill play that garnered him a rave review in the NY Times and his photo on the front page. Dark Shadows followed and was his first TV show. He knew nothing about doing television; had never seen a teleprompter before.
He went on to appear in “Of Mice and Men.” He also had an ongoing association with Sam Shepard.
KLS said she loved working with Jim Hall and did miss him. She added that she didn’t love him as much as she loved John Karlen. LOL
“I’ll be honest,” Hall told us. After his first play in NY, “I thought I was hot stuff.” But actors didn’t want soaps; we wanted commercials. He wanted to stick with method acting in the style of Brando and Dean. Hagen had taught him about transforming himself. The classes were a great experience and he brought what he learned with him to his TV role.
Menacing comes naturally to him. He did
Back Bog Beast Bait, a Shepard play while simultaneously doing another one of his at American Place with Patti Smith (who was living with Shepard at the time). He did only 1 or 2 performances and walked off.
A few years later, he played Slim in off off Broadway at a tiny theater, working for free. He took over the part originated by Richard Gere.
An actor asked about the rumor that Joan Bennett was scared of him. He said he did make her nervous.
KLS completed
The Three Christs of Ypsilanti with Jane Alexander, Peter Dinklage, Charlotte Hope and Bradley Whitford back in August. Richard Gere is also in it, and she explains that this was her Gere segue. She also appears in a Hallmark movie airing November 27 in which she plays the mother of Melissa Joan Hart’s character, with Richard Klein as her husband. She’s a warm, lovable Diane Keaton kind of mom.
Is he still performing now? He’s retired. “Is there an agent in the house?” Hall smiles and asks.
KLS is asked the secret to her immortal beauty. She said she can’t say it’s French fries, which gets a laugh, and adds that she eats fairly healthy food.
He was asked about his scene with Nancy Barrett that aired earlier in the day. She was so beautiful, he said. “She didn’t like me to touch her hair.” He added it’s too bad she can’t be here.
About his Blue Whale scene with Joe, he said, “We got into a fight and he won.”
KLS was asked to talk about Crothers. He was a really lovely guy, like an older brother to her. He treated her like a kid sister. He was Phi Beta Kappa, a scholar. He’d been a child actor, also did
Barefoot in the Park on Broadway, replacing Redford. She misses him terribly. When she was asked to write a piece about him, after she turned it in she kept on writing and that turned into her book “Scrapbook Memories.” Crothers passed away in 1985.
A fan asked about Hall’s firing from DS. KLS, who was holding the mic, leaned forward and said slowly and deliberately, “He wasn’t FIRED. He LEFT.” [I nearly fell off my chair!!] Hall said, I wanted to move onto other things. "I was very young, and it was my first TV show. I didn’t want to be cornered on a soap." He said he did go on to work on
The Edge of Night. On a soap, it’s put you here, put you there, and 30 pages to learn.
He’s a father of 3 children. He wrote a book called “William Eggleston and Me” about the famous photographer and himself. He said he has sold a few. It concerns the two men in Mississippi and their years in New York and stuck on the road. He tried to be discreet while writing it because his children were young, though now they’re grown. The first 5 or 6 pages are available on Amazon.
Here you go:
https://www.amazon.com/William-Eggleston-Me-Photograph-signed/dp/0615861334He only brought along 2 copies. “I didn’t know,” he said as the audience cracked up. The emcee guaranteed that he will not be going home with them. “I have two books, can let them go for 30 bucks!” Hall called out, imitating the auction.
They were asked about 1960s NY. KLS went first. I began as a Playboy Bunny. “That’s when I knew you!” Hall said excitedly. Hall took the mic and said he performed at Ole Miss playing Great God Brown in the play of the same name. It was his epiphany to head to NY and become an actor. He gained confidence. New York in the mid 60s to mid 70s was extraordinary, he said. He hung out mostly with writers (more than actors, anyway), lived in the Village. “New York was so alive.” He did a play on Fire Escape Theater, played
Medea in a laundromat. He got his education in New York in more ways than one. And then, he said, there were the bars. It was an expression of freedom. Things were changing.
He was asked why Willie Loomis seemed to be a different character as played by both actors. KLS answered that the writers wrote to their strengths. James Hall as Willie was dangerous, while JK showed a vulnerable side, she said. Hall: “I don’t know. I was just trying to keep up.” He showed the other side of himself, the bad part of Mississippi. In a deep voice: “I’m a nasty man.”
If anyone was dangerous on DS, KLS said, it was Grayson Hall. She gave all the young gals a hard time. She was tough and funny. She had a sense about her that you knew to stay out of her way. But she was lovely too, and invited her to the Hall residence for great parties. And there were good times at the Brittany du Soir. She was a formidable woman. If you’ve seen her character in
Night of the Iguana, “that was very much Grayson Hall.”
Asked about smoking in the studio, KLS said you could smoke on an airplane back then, and anyplace you wanted. You could smoke in your dressing room, though not in the studio. Smoking was so prevalent then.
Asked about Joan Bennett, KLS said she was quite wonderful. She still sees her daughter Diana quite often. She treated herself, Nancy Barrett, Alexandra Moltke and Lara Parker like daughters too.
Hall discussed his acting classes and his first teacher, but Uta Hagen at Berghof Studio was his biggest influence. She taught him to “be in the moment.” His roles have included a Bible salesman, which is ironic since he had been one in Mississippi for two weeks. “I didn’t do very well” (as a real Bible salesman; his performance received rave reviews.) KLS said Hagen had the greatest influence on her, teaching how to create reality out of make believe.
[That was bizarre!]