7fff1f91
From: seanc130@hotmail.com
"Truebluestef" wrote
> Zeljko Ivanek of "Damages" won a best supporting actor honor for the
> drama series. Why am I posting it here? I don't watch Damages, have
> never seen one second of it, but I recognized the name right away. He
> played Roland in the episode "Roland" from season 1. How could you
> forget a name like that. Yay, I'm on topic!
Actually, his name is spelled Zeljko.
If that special character at the beginning got turned into unreadable
garbage between my computer and yours, it was supposed to be a Z with what
looks like an upside-down caret ^ on top of it. It's a diacritical mark
called a hacek (again, if that didn't get through, it looks like 'hacek',
only with the same mark over the c), particularly common in eastern
European, Slavic languages -- Ivanek was born in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Incidentally, I believe the XF episode title 'The Calusari' is also supposed
to have such a mark over the 's' -- 'The Calusari'.
In any event, Ivanek has long been one of my favourite lesser-known
character actors. Aside from playing Roland, he had a recurring part as
state's attorney Ed Danvers on 'Homicide: Life on the Street' (who got to
live my dream at one point, by getting it on with Melissa Leo's redheaded
Sergeant Kay Howard).
I remember one episode in particular where he did a fantastically powerful
job -- his fiancée was murdered in front of his eyes days before the
wedding, during a random robbery, while she was trying on wedding dresses,
and through the rest of the episode he's on this knife-edge balance between
a driven, professional dedication to justice and a personal torment that
almost makes him fall apart, mentally and physically. Just a tremendous ball
of angst and fear and hatred and regret and other emotions I don't even have
names for.
He also appeared in a first season episode of 'Bones' as a genius engineer,
testifying against his employers for supplying faulty body armour to troops,
whose wife is murdered and son kidnapped. It wasn't quite as meaty a part as
Roland or Danvers, but he still had some great moments -- at one point he
holds a gun to his boss's head in an attempt to get his son back, until
Booth stops him and he breaks down crying.
Among probably hundreds of other great small to medium-sized parts. He's one
of those guys who pops up, like, *everywhere* -- I'm always pleasantly
surprised to see him unexpectedly appear on some random show -- but always
somehow manages to remain under the radar, sort of an 'unknown' in the
mainstream despite being an accomplished, prolific, and respected actor. At
least, until recently, I guess -- sounds like he's finally getting some of
the attention he deserves.
In other Emmy-related XF-related news, I was reading the other day about
Bryan Cranston, who won for his show 'Breaking Bad' (never seen it, but I've
heard only great things). You may remember him as *Mister* Crump from
'Drive'. Well, I saw some interview where he actually said that he owes all
of his current success to Vince Gilligan! He says Vince remembered him from
his XF appearance, and really pushed for him to get him the starring rôle in
'Breaking Bad'. Until now, he was mainly known for his comedic work on
'Malcolm in the Middle', so I can understand that people might not have
expected him to be such a great dramatic actor. But Vince knew better -- as
I'm sure all us Philes did, too.
--
--Sean
http://spclsd223.livejournal.com
House: [yelling up the stairs] People used to have more respect for
cripples, you know! [looks over at guy in a wheelchair] They didn't, really.
--- SoupGate-DOS v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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