An old friend texted me on Saturday: “Spent today watching Road House. How did Ben Gazzara end up in that movie?”
Ah, isn’t that the eternal question when a renowned actor dips his career in manure and dusts it with shame sprinkles?
I don’t know what lured Gazzara to the role of the small-town Big Daddy who ruins everyone’s already miserable life. Maybe it was the prospect of working with Patrick Swayze, whose career was on the ascent after “Dirty Dancing.” There would have been worse actors to hitch your wagon to in 1989.
Maybe he just needed the money. Nicolas Cage, an Oscar winner, became the King of Schlock after reportedly squandering a $150 million fortune with exotic purchases that included a private island, two European castles, shrunken pygmy heads and a dinosaur skull. I have never met Nicolas Cage and don’t know a great deal about him beyond the films he’s made, but for some inexplicable reason, the notion of him craving, pursing and acquiring pygmy heads and a dinosaur skull just seems