When I found out that Larry Drake was going to be at the HorrorHound convention in Indianapolis on September 8, 2013, I was excited to add him to my list because of his ultra-creepy starring role as Robert G. Durant in the Liam Neeson vehicle Darkman. As an added bonus, he had a small part in the original Karate Kid movie as the ‘Yahoo #1 at Beach.’ You might actually recall him as the guy who tells Mr. Miyagi to ‘kindly remove (the bottles) yourself, Mr. Moto” … to which Miyagi karate chops the top half of the bottles off, prompting said yahoo to promptly remove the bottles.
For most horror fans though, Larry Drake was probably best remembered in the title role of the horror flick Dr. Giggles – a film I’ve yet to see personally. And to most mainstream viewers, it was probably his role as Benny Stulwicz on the TV series L.A. Law that brought him the most fame.
Still I stuck with the Darkman photo and paid my $20 for the privilege of getting it signed. I went through my standard routine of not having the photo inscribed, posing for one picture of me with him, then a second of him, me, and the signed photo, and finally asking if Carolyn can get the picture also.
Mind you he wasn’t confrontational – nor giggling – but he did seem a bit skeptical of the whole process, ultimately guessing that I was going to sell the uninscribed photo and use the photo of us with it as evidence that it was legitimately signed. I’m not sure why it would matter since he got his money, and it is highly doubtful that I could sell it for any more than that, but still I explained how I won’t live forever and that one day my autographs will likely go to someone who is not named Brad. I also told him about how I put them in photo albums with the picture of me with the star next to it, and I only really take the second picture in case the first one happened to be blurry or has something else wrong with it.
I guess all that seemed good enough for him, and I thanked him and was on my way…but he wasn’t giggling.
Celebrity encounters from the 2013 Indy HorrorHound will continue…
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