Eddie Jones and The Rocketeer

I watched The Rocketeer (1991) the other day.  It is a movie my kids always liked, and it has some great nostalgia mixed in to a comic book story about an aerobatic pilot in the late 1930s who finds a rocket pack and flies off to save his girlfriend and the world from the Nazis.  It may not appeal to everyone, but I never met a movie I didn't like.

If you are a classic film buff and haven't seen this film, it is worth the time.  You will no doubt recognize a character made up to look like The Hoxton Creeper from the Basil Rathbone/Nigel Bruce Sherlock Holmes film, The Pearl of Death (1944).  The Creeper was played by Rondo Hatton (1894 - 1946) and he reprised the role in House of Horrors, released in 1946.

Hatton made only 22 films before a fatal heart attack took him.  His appearance, that garnered him the role in Pearl, was due to the disease acromegaly, which disfigured him into the Creeper.  It is thought that Abraham Lincoln, and another Bit Actor named Andre the Giant (1946 - 1993), also suffered from acromegaly.  

In The Rocketeer, the Creeper part was called Lothar and was played by 7' tall Tiny Ron.  Ron has only 19 titles listed on IMDb.  But I think there will always be roles for a 7' Bit Actor!


A face you will probably recognize, but may not know the name, is Eddie Jones (b. 1937).  Jones played Malcom, who worked at the airfield and helped at the air shows. A year later he played Marla Hootch's father in A League of Their Own.


Jones stared out in acting slowly, but kept up a good pace.  He is in Trading Places (with Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd) in 1983 as Cop #3.  He had recurring roles on television in "The Equalizer" and "Dark Shadows," and later as Jonathan Kent on "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman."  He had a regular part in "The Invisible Man."


On the big screen you can see Eddie in Cadillac Man (1990), The Grifters (1990), and Seabiscuit (2003) among many others.  At 75 years old, he is still acting.


The only other thing I want to mention is the music of The Rocketeer.  It is fabulous.  Of special note is the torch singer, played by Melora Hardin (b. 1967) at the South Seas Club.  She isn't listed in IMDb as a singer per se, so I am not sure it is her voice, but it was perfect.  I wish there were still clubs like that.


As far as the stars of The Rocketeer, I think they may have taken it a bit too seriously.  Timothy Dalton (b. 1944) especially.  But I think Dalton always takes his roles too seriously.  Terry O'Quinn (b.1952) played Howard Hughes, and he was very good in the part, even though it was very small.  


If you haven't seen it, SEE IT!

William Sanderson

William Sanderson (b. 1944) is from Memphis, Tennessee, and the accent does him well.  He started out on the stage in NY, and proceeded to TV and movies.  He now has 113 titles listed on IMDb. 

His first two films in 1977 were foreign, one in Italy and one in Japan.  I have no idea how that came about.

His next two films were nothing to write home about.  Horror films called Fight for Your Life and Savage Weekend.  Then, in 1979 he worked in The Onion Field with James Woods (b. 1947), Ronny Cox (b. 1938), and Christopher Lloyd (b. 1938).  A step up. 

1980 - Coal Miner's Daughter starring Sissy Spacek (b. 1949) and Tommy Lee Jones (b. 1946)
1981 - Death Hunt with Charles Bronson (1921 - 2003) and Lee Marvin (1924 - 1987) and Raggedy Man, also with Spacek.
1982 - Blade Runner with Harrison Ford (b. 1942), Rutger Hauer (b. 1944) and Daryl Hannah (b. 1960), perhaps his biggest movie.

Sanderson has quite a mix of films in his list.  He is in many horror films as well as quite a few comedies.  It appears he can do almost anything, from Lone Wolf McQuade (1983) with Chuck Norris (b. 1940) to Fletch (1985) with Chevy Chase (b. 1943).

In the late 1980s he became famous as Larry in "Newhart" with Bob Newhart (b. 1929).  "My name's Larry.  This is my brother Darryl and this is my other brother Darryl."  I still laugh at that!

In 1991 he was in the Disney feature, The Rocketeer, a throwback to the 1930s.  But not all his films were hits...or even good.  Skeeter (1993) was about giant, mutant mosquitoes, with the tagline, "Earth is the Final Breeding Ground." 

He was in a better movie, The Client in 1994, starring Susan Sarandon (b. 1946) and Tommy Lee Jones.  But I can't remember him in it.  In 2003 he plays Lt. Gen. A. P. Hill in Gods and Generals, the prequel to Gettysburg (1993). 

Sanderson also kept busy on TV in several series' including "Deadwood" in the mid 2000s.  He has quite a filmography, but if you see him acting, you just can't quite remember his name.  The sign of a good Bit Actor.