| Harry Dean Stanton  Born: 14-Jul-1926
Birthplace: West Irvine, KY
Died: 15-Sep-2017
Location of death: Los Angeles, CA
Cause of death: unspecified
Remains: Cremated (ashes scattered)
Gender: Male
Religion: Agnostic
Race or Ethnicity: White
Occupation: Actor Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Bathrobe-clad actor from Repo Man Military service: US Navy (WWII) Craggy-faced character actor Harry Dean Stanton sang in a barber shop quartet in high school, and studied journalism in college. He dropped out after appearing in a college production of Pygmalion. He came to Hollywood, determined to work as an actor, and studied at the Pasadena Playhouse alongside Gene Hackman and Robert Duvall. After numerous bit parts on television, he found his first film work in Tomahawk Trail, a low-budget 1957 western starring Chuck Connors. He had a recurring role on TV's canine western The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin with Joe Sawyer.
He played eight different characters in eight episodes of Gunsmoke with James Arness, and made dozens of guest appearances on other series, but Stanton is best known for his movie work. He played the prisoner who sang gospel songs in Cool Hand Luke with Paul Newman, the gay hitchhiker in Two-Lane Blacktop with Warren Oates, an FBI man in The Godfather, Part II with Al Pacino, a horse thief in Missouri Breaks with Marlon Brando, a doomed worker in Alien with Yaphet Kotto, the old friend who doublecrossed Kurt Russell in Escape from New York, a cocaine-driven Repo Man with Emilio Estevez, the dying father who sent his sons to avenge him in Red Dawn with Patrick Swayze, Molly Ringwald's unemployed father in Pretty in Pink, the apostle Paul in The Last Temptation of Christ with Willem Dafoe, an obsessed private eye in David Lynch's Wild at Heart, and lawn-mower-riding Richard Farnsworth's brother in The Straight Story. In a rare but remarkable leading role, he played the man who walked out on his family in Paris, Texas with Nastassja Kinski.
In the late 1960s, he shared an apartment with another struggling actor, Jack Nicholson. They have remained friends, and worked together in six films. Stanton was not in Easy Rider, but he visited the set long enough to scrawl his name in huge letters, clearly visible on the wall of Nicholson's jail cell in that film.
He sang at his friend Hunter S. Thompson's funeral, and he was memorialized in Blondie's 1989 hit "I Want That Man" ("I wanna dance with Harry Dean / Drive through Texas in a black limousine�..."). Stanton says he met Debbie Harry after the song came out, "and oh, we danced". Now in his 80s, he still works frequently in movies, and he plays a stern church elder on HBO's polygamy drama Big Love with Bill Paxton.
He rarely talks publicly about his personal or romantic life. He has never married, but says he has "one or two children". He lives alone in a nice but nondescript house on L.A.'s Mulholland Drive, where his doormat is embroidered, "Welcome UFOs". In 1996, he happened to be home when burglars struck, stealing some pricey electronics and his Lexus, and pistol-whipping Stanton in his bedroom. He says he watches the Game Show Channel a lot, and in his spare time he sings and plays harmonica and guitar with The Harry Dean Stanton Band. Father: Sheridan Stanton (tobacco farmer)
Mother: Ersel Moberly (cook)
Girlfriend: Rebecca De Mornay (actress, dated 1982-83)
High School: Lafayette Senior High School, Lexington, KY (1944)
University: University of Kentucky (dropped out)
Risk Factors: Smoking
TELEVISION
Big Love 2006-
FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
Lucky (11-Mar-2017)
The Last Stand (12-Jan-2013)
Seven Psychopaths (7-Sep-2012)
Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction (4-Sep-2012) · Himself
The Avengers (11-Apr-2012)
This Must Be the Place (20-May-2011)
Rango (3-Mar-2011) · Balthazar [VOICE]
Alice (6-Dec-2009)
The Open Road (7-Feb-2009) · Amon
Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project (13-Oct-2007) · Himself
The Good Life (20-Jan-2007)
Inland Empire (6-Sep-2006)
Alien Autopsy (7-Apr-2006)
Alpha Dog (27-Jan-2006)
The Wendell Baker Story (11-Mar-2005) · Skip Summers
The Big Bounce (29-Jan-2004)
Chrystal (16-Jan-2004) · Pa Da
Bukowski: Born into This (18-Jan-2003) · Himself
Ginostra (13-Sep-2002)
Sonny (2-Sep-2002) · Henry
The Pledge (9-Jan-2001) · Floyd Cage
Sand (27-Nov-2000) · Leo
The Man Who Cried (2-Sep-2000) · Felix Perlman
The Green Mile (6-Dec-1999) · Toot-Toot
The Straight Story (21-May-1999)
The Mighty (2-Jun-1998) · Grim
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (22-May-1998) · Judge
Fire Down Below (5-Sep-1997)
She's So Lovely (15-May-1997) · Tony "Shorty" Russo
Dead Man's Walk (12-May-1996)
Down Periscope (1-Mar-1996) · Howard
Playback (9-Jan-1996)
Never Talk to Strangers (20-Oct-1995) · Max Cheski
Blue Tiger (3-Apr-1994)
Against the Wall (26-Mar-1994)
Hostages (20-Feb-1993)
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (28-Aug-1992)
Man Trouble (17-Jul-1992)
Payoff (2-Mar-1991)
Wild at Heart (17-Aug-1990) · Johnnie Farragut
Twister (8-Aug-1990) · Cleveland
The Fourth War (8-Mar-1990)
Dream a Little Dream (3-Mar-1989) · Ike Baker
The Last Temptation of Christ (12-Aug-1988) · Saul
Mr. North (22-Jul-1988)
Stars and Bars (18-Mar-1988)
Slamdance (11-Sep-1987)
Fool for Love (14-May-1986)
Pretty in Pink (28-Feb-1986)
One Magic Christmas (22-Nov-1985)
UFOria (Oct-1985)
Paris, Texas (14-Sep-1984) · Travis
Red Dawn (10-Aug-1984) · Mr. Eckert
The Bear (10-Jul-1984)
Repo Man (2-Mar-1984) · Bud
Christine (9-Dec-1983) · Junkins
Young Doctors in Love (16-Jul-1982)
One From the Heart (11-Feb-1982) · Moe
Escape from New York (10-Jul-1981) · Brain
Private Benjamin (10-Oct-1980)
The Oldest Living Graduate (7-Apr-1980) · Mike
The Black Marble (7-Mar-1980)
Death Watch (Feb-1980)
The Rose (7-Nov-1979) · Billy Ray
Wise Blood (24-Oct-1979) · Asa Hawks
Alien (25-May-1979) · Brett
Flatbed Annie & Sweetiepie: Lady Truckers (10-Feb-1979) · C. W. Douglas
Straight Time (18-Mar-1978) · Jerry Schue
Renaldo and Clara (25-Jan-1978)
The Missouri Breaks (19-May-1976) · Calvin
92 in the Shade (22-Aug-1975) · Carter
Farewell, My Lovely (8-Aug-1975)
Rancho Deluxe (14-Mar-1975) · Curt
Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins (2-Feb-1975)
Win, Place or Steal (Feb-1975)
The Godfather: Part II (12-Dec-1974)
Cockfighter (Aug-1974)
Zandy's Bride (19-May-1974) · Songer
Where the Lilies Bloom (1974)
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (23-May-1973) · Luke
Dillinger (2-Feb-1973) · Homer Van Meter
Cry for Me, Billy (Aug-1972)
Cisco Pike (14-Jan-1972)
Two-Lane Blacktop (7-Jul-1971)
Kelly's Heroes (23-Jun-1970) · Willard
Rebel Rousers (15-Jun-1970)
The Mini-Skirt Mob (23-Oct-1968) · Spook
Day of the Evil Gun (1-Mar-1968) · Sgt. Parker
Cool Hand Luke (1-Nov-1967) · Tramp
The Hostage (23-Oct-1967)
A Time for Killing (15-Aug-1967)
The Dangerous Days of Kiowa Jones (25-Dec-1966) · Jelly
Ride in the Whirlwind (1965)
A Fistful of Dollars (27-Aug-1964)
Hero's Island (13-Jul-1962) · Dixey Gates
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (17-Jun-1960) · Slave Catcher
The Proud Rebel (1-Jul-1958) · Jeb Burleigh
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