Harry Dean Stanton (July 14, 1926 â€" September 15, 2017) was an
American actor, musician, and singer. In a career that spanned more
than six decades, Stanton played supporting roles in films such as
Cool Hand Luke (1967), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Dillinger (1973), The
Godfather Part II (1974), Alien (1979), Escape from New York (1981),
Christine (1983), Repo Man (1984), Pretty in Pink (1986), The Last
Temptation of Christ (1988), Wild at Heart (1990), The Straight Story
(1999), The Green Mile (1999), Alpha Dog (2006) and Inland Empire
(2006). He had rare lead roles in Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas (1984) and
Lucky (2017), his last film.Stanton was born in West Irvine, Kentucky,
to Sheridan Harry Stanton, a tobacco farmer and barber and Ersel (née
Moberly), a cook. His parents divorced when Stanton was in high
school; both later remarried.Stanton had two younger brothers, Archie
and Ralph, and a younger half-brother, Stanley McKnight. His family
had a musical background. Stanton attended Lafayette High School and
the University of Kentucky in Lexington where he performed at the
Guignol Theatre under the direction of British theater director
Wallace Briggs, and studied journalism and radio arts. "I could have
been a writer," he told an interviewer for a 2011 documentary, Harry
Dean Stanton: Crossing Mulholland, in which he sings and plays the
harmonica. "I had to decide if I wanted to be a singer or an actor. I
was always singing. I thought if I could be an actor, I could do all
of it." Briggs encouraged him to leave the university and become an
actor. He studied at the Pasadena Playhouse in Pasadena, California,
where his classmates included his friends Tyler MacDuff and Dana
Andrews.
American actor, musician, and singer. In a career that spanned more
than six decades, Stanton played supporting roles in films such as
Cool Hand Luke (1967), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Dillinger (1973), The
Godfather Part II (1974), Alien (1979), Escape from New York (1981),
Christine (1983), Repo Man (1984), Pretty in Pink (1986), The Last
Temptation of Christ (1988), Wild at Heart (1990), The Straight Story
(1999), The Green Mile (1999), Alpha Dog (2006) and Inland Empire
(2006). He had rare lead roles in Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas (1984) and
Lucky (2017), his last film.Stanton was born in West Irvine, Kentucky,
to Sheridan Harry Stanton, a tobacco farmer and barber and Ersel (née
Moberly), a cook. His parents divorced when Stanton was in high
school; both later remarried.Stanton had two younger brothers, Archie
and Ralph, and a younger half-brother, Stanley McKnight. His family
had a musical background. Stanton attended Lafayette High School and
the University of Kentucky in Lexington where he performed at the
Guignol Theatre under the direction of British theater director
Wallace Briggs, and studied journalism and radio arts. "I could have
been a writer," he told an interviewer for a 2011 documentary, Harry
Dean Stanton: Crossing Mulholland, in which he sings and plays the
harmonica. "I had to decide if I wanted to be a singer or an actor. I
was always singing. I thought if I could be an actor, I could do all
of it." Briggs encouraged him to leave the university and become an
actor. He studied at the Pasadena Playhouse in Pasadena, California,
where his classmates included his friends Tyler MacDuff and Dana
Andrews.
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