Normally, when I meet actors, I have no idea what to say. They awe me. I get tongue-tied, starstruck. When I lived in Los Angeles and saw a famous face, I’d just turn around and walk the other way — beats looking like a fool.
That wasn’t true with Gary Graham.
The first time I met Graham was in a men’s room. He nodded hello, I recognized him immediately, and out it came: “Hey, I just saw George C. Scott kick the shit out of you.” It took a moment, but he broke out laughing, and we chatted each other up like any two guys would in a bar.
What I said was true. The previous weekend, I’d watched (for the zillionth time) Paul Schrader’s Hardcore (1979), Graham’s unforgettable feature debut.
After his teenage daughter disappears, the formidable George C. Scott plays a deeply religious Midwestern everyman sent on an odyssey into the seamy sexual trade of Los Angeles. This is Schrader’s tribute to John Ford’s The Searchers (1956) — the story of a man who will stop at nothing and weather any danger to retrieve a loved one.
Gary Graham’s burden was playing Tod, the unseen (for 95 minutes) boogeyman. Tod is the specter that hangs over every minute of the movie, every moment of Scott’s search. This means that when Tod becomes real, when we finally see him, Graham cannot disappoint.
He didn’t.
Graham’s bullseye was a pure movie star performance — all presence. The menace, charisma, sexual danger, belligerence, wariness … All of it unspoken. If you think I’m exaggerating, watch George C. Scott in anything and see who can hold the screen with him … or make you fear for his safety.
And so, from there, Gary Graham’s busy acting career was born, including starring roles in two sci-fi shows that are still popular: Alien Nation and Star Trek: Enterprise.
Something else Gary did was help to put the website you are now reading on the map. In the early days, when Breitbart News was known only as Big Hollywood, Graham wanted in. He had a career. He knew the cost. He still wanted in. Hollywood’s conservative blacklist appalled the American in Gary Graham, and if coming out of the conservative closet could help end that blacklist, he had no intention of cowering.
As the first editor-in-chief of what would become Breitbart News, if you were to ask me which piece set the tone for Big Hollywood, it would be Gary Graham’s epic manifesto and debut “One Pissed-Off Dude.”
A lot of great people wrote a lot of great stuff for Big Hollywood. I wrote a ton of pieces — and cannot remember a single one. But I sure remember “One Pissed-Off Dude.” It was our first viral piece and is still a thing of beauty. Gary had a distinct voice, knew who he was and what he believed in, could write like a dream, and threw it all down.
“I’m an American,” Graham opened with. “This has always been my favorite label[.]”
Gary was also all man, a good guy, and one helluvan actor.
Gary Graham was 73.
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