Sad to hear this morning that John Spencer has died at a very young 58 years old (too young, but it happens). He was (and is, I suppose) one of the reasons why I loved ‘The West Wing’ so much and continue to watch my DVDs of the early seasons over and over again (and by “early” I mean “the ones Aaron Sorkin did” which means “not the crappy ones”).
Spencer’s great, one of the greats who redeem bad TV acting, and it makes me sad that he’s not every going to play some of my dream roles for him like…
…the aging Joe Chill, sitting in his squalid apartment, knowing he’s the one who made a little boy into Batman.
…the scrappy hero Nite-Owl from The Watchmen, retired and content to tell Dan Drieberg about the glory days of heroes.
…a younger version of him would have been perfect to play Triphammer in Powers.
…and I always thought that someone needed to play Jack Kirby in a movie. Spencer would have been perfect.
He is perfect, even still.