Monday, July 15, 2019

CL?

Here's an odd story.  Actor Charles Levin has been missing, and now the authorities have found some remains in Oregon they believe to be him.  I guess more information will follow.  You probably haven't heard of Levin.  He was a character actor in the 70s through the 90s--don't know what he's been doing since.  Though he never got to be the lead, I definitely noticed him.

I remember seeing him in Woody Allen's Annie Hall.  One of my favorite scenes is where Alvy (Allen) is in rehearsals with a play he's written based on his relationship with Annie, except in the play, things work out.  Levin plays the actor who's a stand-in for Allen.  Not long after, in Allen's Manhattan, Levin plays one of the actors in a sketch comedy show--a show that Allen's character hates so much he quits.  I don't know, the sketch didn't look that bad.

Levin did a lot of TV.  He was a recurring character on Alice, for instance.  But the part that really got him a lot of notice was another recurring role, Eddie Gregg on Hill Street Blues. If memory serves, the character was a doomed homosexual, and he got to show off some chops.

Around the same time, Levin was shooting something that would have given him a really high profile.  He played a newlywed in Ghostbusters.  He and his wife are having problems, not aware it's due to ghosts.  Apparently, the scene was hilarious, but it slowed down the action, so director Ivan Reitman cut it.  That's the peril of being a character actor: your best stuff is left on the cutting room floor.

Some years later, he played the mohel in the Seinfeld episode "The Bris:--it's sort of a wacky role, and one of the worst episodes the show ever did.

Anyway, if this is it, goodbye Charles.  You will be remembered.

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