John Oliver unveils Last Week Tonight's collection of presidential wax statues and brings Warren G. Harding's incredible life story to the big screen

incredibly funny.

Hollywood Über Alles: Jello Biafra's acting demo reel

from Dangerous Minds:

In addition to having been the frontperson of one of the greatest American punk bands, Dead Kennedys, Jello Biafra is known as a spoken word performer, record label executive, activist, and prankster. He’s also sometimes an actor—his first major role was playing “Mr. President” in the 1986 David Markey film Lovedolls Superstar.



Recently Biafra’s label, Alternative Tentacles, uploaded his “acting demo reel” or “showreel” as they’re called in “the business.”

This reel is typical of the sort of six-ish minute long compilations that actors use to get work in the film industry.

Biafra’s reel contains exceprts from his work in Portlandia, The Hipster Games: Blowing Smoke, Death and Texas, I Love You… I Am the Porn Queen, Skulhedface, Virtue, The Widower, and Tapeheads among others. In Tapeheads Biafra plays an FBI agent who gets to (gleefully, I’m sure) deliver the line, “Remember what we did to Jello Biafra?”—referencing his own raking over the coals in a 1985 obscenity trial over the H.R. Giger poster that was included with the Dead Kennedys’ album Frankenchrist.



Biafra as an FBI agent in “Tapeheads”

If you happen to know any bigshot Hollywood casting directors, forward this reel.

Biafra needs more screentime!

 

Thrashin (1986) Full movie HD

This is an embarrassment to all humans, particularly skateboarders everywhere, imagine if like me you actually knew some of the people who "acted" in this horrible film or let them use your photo for a "Hollywood" trade magazine before you could see it... Lesson learned early on...

but I thought some of you on a saturday might get a kick out of this:

Bob Hoskins, one of my favorite actors, died last week.

from Dangerous Minds

The actor Bob Hoskins, best known for his roles in The Long Good Friday, Mona Lisa, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Mermaids and Twenty Four Seven has died from pneumonia at the age of 71.

Hoskins died in hospital surrounded by his family. In a statement, his wife Linda and children Alex, Sarah, Rosa and Jack said:

“We are devastated by the loss of our beloved Bob.

“We ask that you respect our privacy during this time and thank you for your messages of love and support.”

There was a humanity and warmth about Hoskins that made him incredibly likable—something that can be seen by the current outpouring of condolences on Twitter. I was fortunate to meet Hoskins briefly once, at the premier of his first major movie The Long Good Friday. Having grown-up watching him on TV in the sit-com Thick As Thieves, the educational series On the Move (which was a reading program for adult literacy, but was a must watch because of Hoskins’ removal man), and Dennis Potter’s Pennies for Heaven, where he was unforgettable as a music sheet salesman, Arthur Parker, playing opposite Cheryl Campbell.

Then came The Long Good Friday where he played one of cinema’s greatest gangsters, Harold Shand, an ambitious and brutal villain who falls foul of the IRA. It was the Irish issue that led some fools to boo the film at its premiere in Edinburgh. As I was leaving the cinema, I found myself beside Hoskins and director John MacKenzie as we walked down the stairs and out onto the foyer. He turned and started talking to me as if we were mates who had gone to the cinema to watch the film. He asked me whether I thought the film was pro-IRA? I said “no” and then we talked a bit about the movie and Edinburgh. I was more keen to tell him how great the film and superb his performance, and he was humble and gracious, but deflected the praise by asking where he could find a good pub?

Back then there were fewer TV channels and hardly any inane reality shows clogging up all the air-time. This meant the bar was far higher and the quality of shows undeniably better. That’s how the country was able to see Hoskins as Iago in Jonathan Miller’s BBC production of Othello. It confirmed that Hoskins as an actor could do anything and successfully, which is what he went on to do over the next three decades.

Bob Hoskins was born on 26th October 1942. His father was a Communist, who brought Hoskins up as an atheist. He later said it was his mother who gave him “confidence”:

“My mum used to say to me, ‘If somebody doesn’t like you, fuck ‘em, they’ve got bad taste.’”

Hoskins left school at fifteen and undertook a variety of jobs (including time at a kibbutz, and working in a circus) before accidentally auditioning and winning his first acting role. Hoskins had been accompanying an actor friend for moral support, when he was asked to audition himself. From this first role, he went on to star in a range of television and stage productions, before achieving success with the series Pennies from Heaven and then The Long Good Friday.

During the 1980s he appeared in The Cotton Club, Neil Jordan’s Mona Lisa, The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, and the film that made him an international star Who Framed Roger Rabbit in 1988.

More recently Hoskins showed his support for young talented film-makers by appearing in Shane Meadows’ Twenty Four Seven and A Room For Romeo Brass. Of course, he also made a few stinkers, but then that’s the nature of cinema. But no matter what film he appeared in, Bob Hoskins’ performance was often the best thing about it.

In 2012, Hoskins announced his retirement form acting after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

R.I.P. Bob Hoskins 1942-2014

Here’s the first part on the making of The Long Good Friday, written by Barrie Keefe, which starred Bob Hoskins.

part 5 seems to be missing on YouTube . . .

Michael Caine on Blinking