An Angel Has No Memory

Beloved cult leading man/character actor (he was both, and sometimes at the same time) - and one of the most beautiful men ever to be in the movies - John Phillip Law has passed away. He was 70.

He acted in many MANY films in many MANY countries, but was most loved in this household for his performance in the title role of Mario Bava's crazed Italian 60s crime comedy Diabolik (USA title: Danger: Diabolik) - I think Berit has a little crush on him in that film, not as big as her one on young Terence Stamp, but something - and he was also Sinbad in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, Stash in Skidoo, appeared in Dennis Hopper's The Last Movie, and, most famously from his young, gorgeous days, Pygar the angel in Barbarella.

As an older character actor he appeared in Roman Coppola's CQ (a tribute to Diabolik and other movies of the same time and style), and, unfortunately, the hideous Space Mutiny - which was best (or only) known for being torn apart on Mystery Science Theater 3000, as was Diabolik, but the latter is a good, silly, fun film and the former is amazingly awful, and Law is surprisingly and unpleasantly unattractive in that one - I would have thought he had aged badly, but other photos show that not to be the case.

Clove Galilee and Jenny Rogers named an angelic character after him in their show Wickets that was up for a brief run at HERE last year - they overheard Berit and I laughing about it during the intermission and said they were pleased that somebody got the joke. It was somehow an oddly appropriate name, even apart from the connection to his most famous, angelic role.

Nice thoughts, photos and personal recollections from Kimberly Lindbergs at CINEBEATS and Tim Lucas at Video WatchBlog.

The L.A. Times obit is HERE - and I was stunned to discover that Law and his brother Tom were the owners throughout the 60s of The Castle, the legendary 1920s Los Feliz mansion once owned by Bela Lugosi, where everybody who was anybody lived at some point in that decade - including a multi-year stay by Arthur Lee and Love during the time they recorded their first two albums (and wrote a song about the place) - and where some of Roger Corman's The Trip was shot. It turned up in some Manson Family connection too in Vincent Bugliosi's Helter Skelter, which I just reread as research for Spell, but I can't remember where exactly - just that I was surprised at this location being a touchstone in yet another dark 60s L.A. drama.

CINEBEATS also led me to some fine YouTube video showing off Mr. Law. There seems to be a documentary made (or being made) about him, and an excerpt and the titles are up:

( The Swinging Lust World of John Phillip Law - titles )

( The Swinging Lust World of John Phillip Law - excerpt )

The US trailer for Danger: Diabolik, narrated by Telly Savalas:

( Master sports-car racer, master skin-diver, master lover . . .MASTER! )

And here, Law shares his memories of making the very odd Skidoo:

( If you can't dig nothing, you can't dig anything )

RIP JPL

(photo from his official site, where there are autographed photos for sale, while they last)