On Hollywood Babble-On, Kevin Smith and Ralph Garman like to take a look at some folks in Hollywood who left us, but left behind bodies of work we will long remember. March 3rd’s episode honored Warren Frost, former judge Joseph A. Wapner, and Bill Paxton.
Warren Frost
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“This one made me said, because I was a huge Twin Peaks fan back in the day,” said Garman when passing on the news of Warren Frost’s death to the HBO audience. Twin Peaks fans will remember Frost as Donna’s father, Dr. Will Hayward. Frost, whose son Mark Frost co-created Twin Peaks, reprised his role in the upcoming and new version of the series on Showtime.
Frost, a WWII veteran, worked in theater and film production in New York City before moving to California in search of work in front of the camera. His CV includes IMDB credits from 1957 to 2017, from The Gray Ghost (1957) to Seinfeld and Twin Peaks.
“This guy lived a life!” said Garman.
Joseph A. Wapner
via Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images
“Huge bucket of win. Huge bucket of jurisprudence win!” was Smith’s response when Garman relayed that former judge on The People’s Court passed away at the age of 97.
Prior to his 12 years of ruling The People’s Court, Wapner served for 20 years on both the municipal and superior courts of California.
A Los Angeles native, born in 1919, Wapner graduated from Hollywood High School (class of ’37), and he earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from USC.
Wapner was a awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star having served in the Army in the Pacific campaign of WWI. He was wounded with shrapnel in his left foot and was honorably discharged in 1945.
“No matter who was in front of him, Judge Wapner was playing fucking straight,” remembered Garman. “He didn’t go for the laughs. He didn’t comment on anything. You could be the biggest clown and stand in front of him, and he wouldn’t really react to it.”
Bill Paxton
Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP
“The cartilage of any movie and project he was in,” proclaimed Smith after Garman announced the final Hollywood Stiff of the show’s evening.
Bill Paxton passed way due to complications to surgery, a representative for his family said in a statement. The Texas-born actor’s full career included blockbuster juggernauts like Twister, Aliens, and Titanic, just to name a few. He was 61.
“He was absolutely fucking dazzling and memorable,” Smith told the HBO audience.
“I first got to know him in Weird Science as Chet, the obnoxious older brother,” reminisced Garman.
They will be missed.
