Responding
to my post EIGHT USELESS FACTS, Paul Zahl writes to say that he's not
actively blogging at the moment but that if he were he'd offer the
following eight random facts about himself, plus one bonus fact:
Here are the eight facts:
1. I spent an afternoon once with Jacques Cousteau.
2. My wife and I got caught in the middle of a
gun fight between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants in
Bethlehem. In fact, Mary was able to duck just in time as an off-course
bullet went right over her head.
3. Ten days ago I spent the night in the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
4. I asked John F. Kennedy for his autograph
when I lived around the corner from his house, and he gave it to me.
5. As a child in New York City, I lived across
the street from Marilyn Monroe when she was married to Arthur Miller,
and my Mother would point them out to me on walks when I was in my
stroller.
6. I produced a movie about blue-collar Protestants in a small town in Northern Ireland.
7. I acted in two movies that were directed by Lloyd Fonvielle.
8. My favorite movie of all time is Matinee, directed by Joe Dante.
9. Optional extra fact: I presented
Stevie Wonder with his doctoral hood when he became a Doctor of Music
at the University of Alabama in Birmingham.
The films directed by Lloyd Fonvielle he mentions were 8mm efforts done when we were in high school — The Journal Of Jonathan Harker, in which Zahl portrayed Count Dracula, interpreting him as a crazed Presbyterian, and The Fruit At the Bottom Of the Bowl, an unauthorized adaptation of a Ray Bradbury short story in which Zahl portrayed a debonair murder victim.
Zahl was not an easy actor to work with. He had his own version
of “The Method”, which involved shutting himself in a closet between
takes and singing In Darkness Let Me Dwell.
I did not feel that this technique aided him in his interpretation of
his roles and our quarrels on the set were legendary. We never
worked together again, though the two films we did make have since
become celebrated as lost cult classics.
[Meanwhile, Tony D'Ambra of films noir has posted his eight random
facts here, and Amy Crehore of Little Hokum Rag has posted hers here.]