After some internet speculation
over the past week, it has been confirmed that actor Paul Koslo had died at the
age of 74. Eastwood fans will know Koslo as Roy Gannon, one of Frank Harlan’s (Robert
Duvall) henchmen in the 1972 western Joe Kidd.
Koslo was of course one of the
most recognised faces throughout the 70s, and usually as one of the best bad
guys that we all loved to hate. The Hollywood Reported said:
Koslo died Wednesday of
pancreatic cancer at his home in Lake Hughes, Calif., his wife, actress Allaire
Paterson Koslo, told The Hollywood Reporter.
Koslo also portrayed a Nevada
patrolman in Vanishing Point (1971), a bounty hunter in Joe Kidd (1972) and a
gang member in Cleopatra Jones (1973) and the True Grit sequel Rooster Cogburn
(1975). He appeared in other notable films such as Voyage of the Damned (1976) and
Heaven's Gate (1980).
Perhaps Koslo's most well-known
role was as Dutch in director Boris Sagal's The Omega Man (1971). His
character, a motorcycle-riding former medical student who is one of the few to
survive biological warfare, helps rescue Charlton Heston's Neville from burning
at the stake at Dodger Stadium.
"It was my first big
movie," he said in a 2001 interview. "I like it because it's
different, totally different from any other film I've ever made. And being it
was with Charlton Heston. He was a phenomenon…. I loved that movie. I love the
fact that it catapulted me into not stardom, but I could go anywhere in the
world and people would say, 'I know you, you're [Dutch].'"
In The Stone Killer (1973), Koslo
portrayed a psychotic trombonist-assassin who is hunted down by Charles
Bronson's ex-New York detective cop in a memorable motorcycle-car chase.
Bronson got the best of him again in Mr. Majestyk (1974), and the two also
shared screen time in Love and Bullets (1979).
Born Manfred Koslowski in Germany
on June 27, 1944, he and his family moved to Canada — first to Regina,
Saskatchewan, and then to Vancouver — when he was six. In one of his first
films, The Losers (1970), he played a machine-gun-toting biker who is sent to
the jungle to help rescue a U.S diplomat.
Koslo's big-screen résumé also
included Scandalous John (1971), The Laughing Policeman (1973), Freebie and the
Bean (1974), Bootleggers (1974), The Drowning Pool (1975), Assault in Paradise
(1977) and Loose Cannons (1990).
He also worked a great deal in
television, showing up on such shows as Mission: Impossible, Barnaby Jones,
Hawaii Five-O, The Incredible Hulk, The A-Team, Matlock, T.J. Hooker, MacGyver and
Hunter.
Survivors also include his
daughter Chloe. A memorial is being planned.
Rip Sir.
1 comment:
I was given the gift to work on the 1985 film THE ANNIHILATORS along side with Paul and He was beyond EPIC! I was only 21 yrs old. I will always remember him as the Best Bad Guy ever. He was looking out for my future about~ 33:34 mins into it) in that film. RIP Sir.
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