BECAUSE I INTEND TO SQUEEZE YOU: G.D. Spradlin was a Hey! It's That Guy! before the meme was created. If you needed an oily authority figure, he was your guy -- as Sen. Pat Geary in the Godfather films, in War of the Roses, Ed Wood and so many others. In Apocalypse Now, he was the general who sent Willard up river by explaining that "there's a conflict in every human heart, between the rational and irration, between good and evil. And good does not always triumph. Sometimes, the dark side overcomes what Lincoln called the better angels of our nature."
Spradlin started off as in-house counsel to an oil company, then became an oil producer in his own right. By the age of 40 he was wealthy enough to retire for the first time, until his daughter asked him to accompany her to a theatrical audition. He was hooked. Spradlin passed away today at the age of 90.
I'd completely forgotten he was the minister in Ed Wood. Man, he had a great second career. My wife is not the biggest Godfather fan, but when I said Senator in Godfather she immediately went "Oh, that oily f**k." Yep.
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