Monday, March 6, 2017

Gary Grimes

What do you get when you combine Ron Howard with Timothy Bottoms? The answer. Gary Grimes. Well, not really, but during his brief acting career in the 1970's, Gary Grimes certainly had qualities of both of those popular actors of that time period. From innocence to intellect, his resume is full of roles that any of those three actors could have played, with one exception - Grimes was the right actor to play the parts he was offered.

Just like Timothy Bottoms will always be linked to the Paper Chase and Ron Howard to American Graffiti; it's Gary Grimes that will be forever embedded to that coming of age classic, Summer of '42. And with a film debut like that, it's head-scratching as to why his career didn't soar afterwards.


It's not that he didn't work. In fact, his next film, The Culpepper Cattle Company, not only was a success, but turned out to be a very fresh and original western in a time when they were anything but. This led to work in films with John Wayne, Don Knotts and even Ron Howard before this bright young actor joined the ranks of all of the other talented artist profiled on this blog.

What happened? Well, in his own words from an interview with American Profile magazine, "I got to the point where the work wasn't up to the quality that I wanted." That's a pretty brave but admirable move for an actor. While he was working he certainly mastered the curious teen and young adult role. It would have been nice to see where his career progressed as he aged, but just like anything good, Gary Grimes left with his fans wanting more.

8 comments:

  1. Gary Grimes like his co-star Jennifer O'Neill peaked early via being in an iconic film. Neither were ever so lucky again. Every iconic film defined and actor's career forever and only once. The Wizard of Oz, The Sound of Music, Dirty Dancing, Ten.

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  2. Don't forget the sequel starlet, Class of 44, and one of my favorites, and a friend, Deborah Winters... is she on this site?

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  3. Summer of 42 is a classic to be seen once every few years. Why Netflix is not carrying it is beyond me.

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  4. He turns 67 tomorrow. I liked his movie, "The Spikes Gang", that he did with Ron Howard and Charles Martin Smith. He had worked with Smith before on the film, "The Culpepper Cattle Co.", which also featured Billy Green Bush, Wayne Sutherlin, Luke Askew, Geoffrey Lewis, and Bo Hopkins, who recently died. Gary Grimes was also the older son of John Wayne in "Cahill, U.S. Marshal", where his younger brother, Billy Joe, was played by rodeo legend and former child actor Clay O'Brien Cooper. If anyone would like to know where "The Spikes Gang" was filmed, that movie was shot in Almeria, Tabernas Desert, Spain. No, it is NOT a Spaghetti Western but the filming locations were used for such films so it kind of makes you think that it is. I don't wanna spoil the ending for anybody who either has or has not seen it, but let's just say that it's rather sad. Gary Grimes however does put in an excellent performance in all of his films. I just wish he would have acted more often. Unfortunately, Gary has often said that the reason why he did not do more films was because he was not liking the offers that Hollywood made him. He was only 28 years old when he made his last project so that would explain a lot. I wish him well.

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  5. Gary Grimes beautifully play the role of "Hermie" in the classic movie Summer of '42.

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  6. Jennifer O'Neill was a virgin during Summer '42. Hard to believe but true.

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