There are times when I literally have no idea who I’m talking to when I meet a celebrity – and that often leads to a pleasant surprise. Case in point: Steven Bauer. He was set to appear at the Chiller Theatre show on October 27, 2012, and I knew from a cursory search of his career that he had played a major role in the 1983 Al Pacino film Scarface. In fact this was his first major film role. At that point I stopped researching him and just added him to my ‘maybe’ list.
Our encounter was nice and he was exceptionally friendly. He charged $25 for the signed picture and the photo op came for free. My friend Peter had noted that he had been in an episode of one his favorite shows The Rockford Files as well as Breaking Bad. Bauer acknowledged how fun the latter series had been, and was sufficiently impressed that Peter knew about his appearance in The Rockford Files.
It was only later that I realized that he had been a few other interesting films and TV series of note. For example there were the movies Running Scared, Raising Cain, and Traffic, all films that I enjoy. Plus there have been a multitude of TV appearances in such series as Hill Street Blues and Walker Texas Ranger, plus those mentioned above. These didn’t interest me so much, but there was one TV appearance that did: an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents from 1985.
I never much got into the remade episodes of this series, but I do remember the excitement when it first aired, in the form of an anthology of several episodes with newly colorized introductions with Alfred Hitchcock that were lifted from the original series. It was a new concept, and being a Hitchcock fan, I used to enjoy the remakes…particularly that first one.
One of the segments in it was the remake of the episode Man from the South. This is perhaps one of the most famous of all of the Hitchcock TV tales, and it has to do with a cigarette lighter, and meat cleaver, a pinky finger, and a big bet. John Huston, Tippi Hedren, Kim Novak, and Melanie Griffith were all part of the all-star cast, and you guessed it, Stephen Bauer played the “gambler.”
This ultimately surpasses my interest in Scarface, although quite obviously, this was the photo that I ended up with. But if I ever happen to catch that episode again, I’ll be all over the fact that I met the main guy with the lighter…and the fingers.
Celebrity encounters from the Fall 2012 Chiller Theatre Show will continue…
Although he was in no more than two episodes of “Breaking Bad,” he did have a still for sale on his table.
No still from his “Rockford Files” appearance alas, but it must have been one of his very first acting roles on screen.
Peter
January 3rd, 2014