Kevin McCarthy, "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" actor
Evan Hulka
Snatchers,' dies at 96
McCarthy's show-business career spanned more than 70 years and
included a Golden Globe for his role in the 1951 'Death of a Salesman'
film. But his most famous lines include 'Can't you see? Everyone!
They're here already. You're next!'
By Dennis McLellan, Los Angeles Times
September 12, 2010|11:14 a.m.
Kevin McCarthy, the veteran stage and screen actor best known for his
starring role as the panicked doctor who tried to warn the world about
the alien "pod people" who were taking over in the 1956 science-
fiction suspense classic "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," died
Saturday. He was 96.
McCarthy died of natural causes at Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis,
Mass., said his daughter Lillah.
During a career that spanned more than 70 years, beginning on stage in
New York in the late 1930s, McCarthy played Biff Loman opposite Paul
Muni's Willy in the 1949 London production of "Death of a Salesman."
Reprising his role in the 1951 film version opposite Fredric March, he
earned a supporting-actor Oscar nomination and won a Golden Globe as
most promising male newcomer.
McCarthy had appeared in several other films and had a string of TV
anthology-series credits behind him when he was cast as Dr. Miles
Bennell in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," director Don Siegel's
thriller about an unsuspecting California town whose residents were
being replaced by emotionless alien clones grown in oversized seed
pods.
In the film's most memorable scene, McCarthy's frantic Bennell runs
into traffic, screaming to motorists, "Stop and listen to me. ….
They're not human. … Can't you see? Everyone! They're here already.
You're next!"
The low-budget film became an enduring cult classic that was selected
for preservation in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry in
1994.
McCarthy, who made a cameo appearance in the 1978 remake, got a lot of
mileage out of the original film in his later years, appearing often
as a guest at film festivals and autograph shows.
"I must say I'm enthralled by the power of the picture all over the
world," he told the Knoxville News-Sentinel in 2000. "It's the science-
fiction picture of our time. The toasts just keep coming my way."
McCarthy dismissed assertions that "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"
was an allegory about the Communist infiltration of America or an
indictment of McCarthyism.
"There was no assignment of political points of view when we were
making the film," he told the Bangor Daily News in 1997. "People began
to think of McCarthyism later.
"I thought it was really about the onset of a kind of life where the
corporate people are trying to tell you how to live, what to do, how
to behave. And you become puppets to these merchants that are somehow
turning individuals into victims.
"It seemed to me to be about conforming, the need to control life so
it would be more tolerable."
McCarthy's long career included numerous guest appearances on TV
series such as "The Twilight Zone," "Burke's Law," "Flamingo Road" and
"Murder, She Wrote."
He also appeared in about 50 films, including "An Annapolis Story,"
"40 Pounds of Trouble," "The Prize," "The Best Man," "Kansas City
Bomber," Buffalo Bill and the Indians," "Piranha" and "The Howling."
In addition to his many Broadway and other stage credits, McCarthy
toured for many years as President Harry Truman in the one-man show
"Give 'Em Hell, Harry."
He also was a footnote in the movie career of Marilyn Monroe, playing
the husband Monroe divorced in Reno at the outset of "The Misfits,"
the Arthur Miller-written, John Huston-directed 1961 drama starring
Monroe, Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift.
McCarthy had to be talked into playing the role, in which he and
Monroe talk on the courthouse steps.
"They wanted me to come out for it, but I was too vain," he told the
Columbus Dispatch in 2003. "I said the part was too small. I finally
said I would do it if they paid me a hundred dollars a word. They said
they would. Turns out I had 29 words."
The son of a lawyer and his homemaker wife, McCarthy was born Feb. 15,
1914, in Seattle. He and his two brothers and sister — Mary McCarthy,
who later became an author and wrote the bestselling novel "The Group"
— were orphaned when both parents died in the 1918 flu epidemic and
were sent to live with relatives.
McCarthy began acting in the 1930s at the University of Minnesota,
where, on a dare from a friend, he played a bit part in "Henry IV,
Part 1."
"That day, I realized that I could do something," he told the Bangor
Daily News in 1997. "I didn't study acting. I didn't even think about
it. But evidently I have some innate ability, some talent. It was
maybe a gift. In any case, I was in one play after another after
that."
After moving to New York, he made his Broadway debut in a small role
in " Abe Lincoln in Illinois," starring Raymond Massey, in 1938. As
Sgt. Kevin McCarthy during World War II, he appeared in Moss Hart's
"Winged Victory," the Broadway play produced by the Army Air Forces.
McCarthy appeared in several Broadway plays in the years immediately
after the war, including Maxwell Anderson's short-lived "Truckline
Cafe" with Marlon Brando and Karl Malden. He also was a founding
member of the Actors Studio.
In addition to his daughter, he is survived by his wife of 31 years,
Kate Crane McCarthy; children James Kevin McCarthy, Mary Dabney
McCarthy, Tess McCarthy and Patrick McCarthy; stepdaughter Kara
Lichtman; and three grandchildren. He was divorced from actress
Augusta Dabney, who died in 2008.
Dems downward spiral
RIP Mr. McCarthy.
R H Draney
>
>Prolific actor Kevin McCarthy, best known for 'Invasion of the Body
>Snatchers,' dies at 96
I know that gives me hit #6 for the year, but *damn*!...
The article didn't mention some of his great work in comedies as a
frothing-at-the-mouth villain...check him out in "Innerspace" and Weird Al's
"UHF"....r
--
Me? Sarcastic?
Yeah, right.
Lenona
marcus
> Prolific actor Kevin McCarthy, best known for 'Invasion of the Body
> Snatchers,' dies at 96
> McCarthy's show-business career spanned more than 70 years and
> included a Golden Globe for his role in the 1951 'Death of a Salesman'
> film. But his most famous lines include 'Can't you see? Everyone!
> They're here already. You're next!'
Amazingly, for reasons I don't know, I was just thinking of him and
his role in "Body Snatchers" yesterday, before I knew he had died.
The final scene is forever etched in my mind, but also the scene where
the "girl" he was running with becomes one of "them". He says
something to her like, "You had to fall asleep didn't you?"
The movie came out when I was quite young, and I haven't seen it in
decades. Does anyone remember the plot line of how the pods actually
took over human beings...my recollection is that the pods grew into an
exact likeness of the person, as the person slept...but what the hell
happened to the original body?
Or maybe, I'm thinking too deeply about this, and need to suspend
belief? ;-)
Brad Ferguson
<a6874046-7ff7-4b56...@k13g2000vbq.googlegroups.com>,
marcus <marc...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> The movie came out when I was quite young, and I haven't seen it in
> decades. Does anyone remember the plot line of how the pods actually
> took over human beings...my recollection is that the pods grew into an
> exact likeness of the person, as the person slept...but what the hell
> happened to the original body?
The original film doesn't show you what happened to the victim. In the
1978 remake, the body crumbled to dust.
islanders
> Chalk up another famous person who died on September 11.
> Last year was the late, great writer and creator of M*A*S*H, Larry
> Gelbart.
> R.I.P., Larry.
Leave it to this jerkoff to connect McCarthy's death to some idiotic
tv show.
Jim Beaver
was hard to tell the 80-year-old McCarthy from the 40-year-old version. I
marched next to him on the Screen Actors Guild picket line in 1980 and also
interviewed him at one point. A very nice man.
Jim Beaver
--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: ne...@netfront.net ---
Brigid Nelson
> On Sep 12, 2:54 pm, Evan Hulka<ehu...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Prolific actor Kevin McCarthy, best known for 'Invasion of the Body
>> Snatchers,' dies at 96
>> McCarthy's show-business career spanned more than 70 years and
>> included a Golden Globe for his role in the 1951 'Death of a Salesman'
>> film. But his most famous lines include 'Can't you see? Everyone!
>> They're here already. You're next!'
> <snip>
>
> Amazingly, for reasons I don't know, I was just thinking of him and
> his role in "Body Snatchers" yesterday, before I knew he had died.
> The final scene is forever etched in my mind, but also the scene where
> the "girl" he was running with becomes one of "them". He says
> something to her like, "You had to fall asleep didn't you?"
I read the book a couple of years ago. The ending was completely
different. In the book, the plants give up and ascend back into the
blackness of space because they are ultimately unable to overcome the
tenacious will of the human individual. Another interesting thing is
that those who were plantified became part of the community but were
very short lived. They would expire after 10 years.
> The movie came out when I was quite young, and I haven't seen it in
> decades. Does anyone remember the plot line of how the pods actually
> took over human beings...my recollection is that the pods grew into an
> exact likeness of the person, as the person slept...but what the hell
> happened to the original body?
>
> Or maybe, I'm thinking too deeply about this, and need to suspend
> belief? ;-)
>
Yeah, grab a beer.
brigid
Kris Baker
"R H Draney" <dado...@spamcop.net> wrote in message
news:i6jb2...@drn.newsguy.com...
FINALLY! I got a hit!
I think he's best known for "Innerspace" (with Dennis Quaid).
Kris
Sorry, Kevin
Kris Baker
>>
>>Prolific actor Kevin McCarthy, best known for 'Invasion of the Body
>>Snatchers,' dies at 96
Crap.
I thought I finally had my first hit of the year; but he's on
NEXT YEAR'S list. :(
Five more "new names" are now endangered, and will die
before the end of 2010.
Kris
Keepin 'em alive for years
Kris Baker
"Jim Beaver" <jumb...@prodigy.spam> wrote in message
news:i6jh6d$o51$1...@adenine.netfront.net...
> No one, not even Richard Jaeckel, looked so young for so long, methinks.
> It was hard to tell the 80-year-old McCarthy from the 40-year-old version.
> I marched next to him on the Screen Actors Guild picket line in 1980 and
> also interviewed him at one point. A very nice man.
>
> Jim Beaver
You're right.
I remember him best from Innerspace, with Dennis Quaid
and Martin Short. That was 1987, when he'd have been 73.
Lovely man. Looked a lot like Paul Newman, but I thought
McCarthy, in his early years, was more handsome than Newman.
Kris
marcus
It's my second favorite TV show of all-time, and on the top ten list
of many other people's list.
Of course, they are intelligent people...you, on the other hand...HA
islanders
>
> It's my second favorite TV show of all-time, and on the top ten list
> of many other people's list.
>
> Of course, they are intelligent people...you, on the other hand...HA
Well, asswipe, Mash has NOTHING to do with Kevin McCarthy.
tr...@iwvisp.com
And talk about prolific, he continued to work through last year, maybe
some this year.
Ray Arthur
Louis Epstein
: No one, not even Richard Jaeckel, looked so young for so long, methinks.
Hence,as I said on the other thread,the comparisons to his TZ character
Walter Jameson (not mentioned in this obit either).
: I marched next to him on the Screen Actors Guild picket line in 1980 and also
: interviewed him at one point. A very nice man.
-=-=-
The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,
at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.
Brad Ferguson
<jumb...@prodigy.spam> wrote:
> No one, not even Richard Jaeckel, looked so young for so long, methinks. It
> was hard to tell the 80-year-old McCarthy from the 40-year-old version. I
> marched next to him on the Screen Actors Guild picket line in 1980 and also
> interviewed him at one point. A very nice man.
>
> Jim Beaver
I met him once, in early 1978 in New York. He was hosting a party for
then-congressional candidate Al Lowenstein, who was running to fill Ed
Koch's seat in a special election, as Koch had just become mayor.
McCarthy didn't live in New York, so they used the apartment of a woman
named Kristi Wicker, who was a reporter for WPIX Channel 11. (Years
earlier, she'd been a staffer on the McGovern campaign.) McCarthy was
very courteous. I talked to him for all of fifteen seconds. He was
shorter than I (who isn't?) and stooped forward a little. And all I
could think of was, wow, it's the guy who was in Body Snatchers. I had
fun.
Brigid Nelson
>
> "R H Draney" <dado...@spamcop.net> wrote in message
> news:i6jb2...@drn.newsguy.com...
>> Evan Hulka filted:
>>>
>>> Prolific actor Kevin McCarthy, best known for 'Invasion of the Body
>>> Snatchers,' dies at 96
>
> Crap.
>
> I thought I finally had my first hit of the year; but he's on
> NEXT YEAR'S list. :(
Oh, the pain.
brigid
Jim Beaver
> In article <i6jh6d$o5...@adenine.netfront.net>, Jim Beaver
Really, Brad? Because in 1979, McCarthy was living at 52 E. 64 St. in
Manhattan, and I got the impression he'd been there a long while.
Jim Beaver
R H Draney
No, but he did have a heck of a list of television credits in addition to his
movie career...besides anthology shows, I see listed:
Ben Casey
The Rifleman
The Defenders
Mr Novak
The Doctors and The Nurses
Dr Kildare
Honey West
The Fugitive
Burke's Law
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
The Legend of Jesse James
12 O'Clock High
The Road West
The Invaders
Garrison's Gorillas
Felony Squad
Judd for the Defense
The Wild Wild West
Name of the Game
The High Chaparral
The Guns of Will Sonnett
The F.B.I.
The Survivors
Julia
Bearcats!
Mission: Impossible
Banacek
Columbo
Cannon
The Manhunter
Hawaii Five-O
Flamingo Road
Amanda's
The Love Boat
Bay City Blues
Fantasy Island
Dynasty
Finder of Lost Loves
Scarecrow and Mrs King
Hotel
The A-Team
The Golden Girls
Fame
Mathnet/Square One TV
The Colbys
Head of the Class
In the Heat of the Night
Simon & Simon
China Beach
Matlock
Father Dowling Mysteries
Charlie Hoover
Murder She Wrote
Human Target
Batman: The Animated Series
Tales from the Crypt
Rebel Highway
Dream On
Boston Common
Early Edition
The Weird Al Show
The District
Eyes
And in 1969, did a week on "Hollywood Squares", along with regulars Rose Marie,
Wally Cox, Charley Weaver, Paul Lynde, Jan Murray, and guests Stu Gilliam, Karen
Jensen and June Lockhart....r
Joe Pucillo
> > Hence,as I said on the other thread,the comparisons
> > to his TZ character Walter Jameson (not mentioned
> > in this obit either).
> That's the role ("Long Live Walter Jameson") I usually
> associate him with.
I usually associate him with another Twilight Zone role, in the
1983 movie vignette, "It's a Good Life", where he plays the
Uncle in the family held captive by the Billy Mumy character.
Kathleen Quinlan and William Schallert were in that vignette
too, iirc.
JP
Brad Ferguson
<64a717e5-8fe3-4528...@y32g2000prc.googlegroups.com>,
Jim Beaver <jumbl...@gmail.com> wrote:
Thanks for the correction. What I wrote was what I was told at the
time, and it was (supposedly) the reason we were all at Kristi
Wicker's. I know it was her place because there were lots of pictures
of her all over, usually with people like President Carter. It was
like a shrine, to tell you the truth.
It was a small apartment, and I think it was on the West Side, and
that's all I've got left on me at this late date.
Hyfler/Rosner
"Jim Beaver" <jumbl...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:64a717e5-8fe3-4528-bfd4-
Really, Brad? Because in 1979, McCarthy was living at 52 E.
64 St. in
Manhattan, and I got the impression he'd been there a long
while.
Jim Beaver
Was that necessary?
Brad Ferguson
Fuego <t_del...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> I'm not sure how many other Finney works were filmed...the only other
> one that comes to mind is "Marion's Wall", which became the
> seemingly-forgotten "Maxie" in 1985.
IMDb credits Finney with the novels upon which the films Assault on a
Queen and Good Neighbor Sam were based, and there's a number of short
stories, too. Nobody's ever gotten very far on filming his novel Time
and Again, which is my favorite of his.
Lenona
>
> "Lenona" <lenona...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>
> news:63a70249-394f-4d94...@n7g2000vbo.googlegroups.com...
>
> > The obit didn't mention his cousin - Senator Eugene McCarthy.
>
> I only found out he was distant cousin to the late Sen. from
> Wikipedia's article on him.
> Did you also know his sister was the late author, Mary McCarthy?
I did - I found out long ago, from "The Illustrated Who's Who of the
Cinema" (1983) by Ann Lloyd, Graham Fuller, & Arnold Desser.
Very memorable book, with photos that are not at all predictable!
(Though while there are plenty of obscure names, including those of
Eastern European animators and silent film personalities you may not
have heard of, some names, inexplicably, don't show up at all, such as
the Nicholas Brothers, Peter Cook, Estelle Winwood and Mel Gibson -
but Jodie Foster is listed). I knew there was a 1987 update, but to my
surprise, there's also a 1972 edition.
Lenona.
Louis Epstein
:
: "Jim Beaver" <jumbl...@gmail.com> wrote in message
:
Nitpicking is a sometimes unappreciated civic duty.
Bill Schenley
> > > was living at 52 E. 64 St. in Manhattan, and
> > > I got the impression he'd been there a long
> > > while.
>
> > Jim Beaver
There are only a few posters on alt.obituaries whom
I believe without hesitation ... and Brad Ferguson
is one of them. If he made a mistake, count me
in the group that think it was an *honest* mistake.
> >Was that necessary?
>
> Nitpicking is a sometimes unappreciated civic
> duty.
I agree, but it was the "Really, Brad?" that reeked.
David Carson
You're reading something I don't see. I don't think Jim was being
impolite at all. If I had written a post and someone posted that
reply, I wouldn't have thought anything of it except for some regret
that I had written something inaccurate.
Jim Beaver
Boy, you guys (not you, David) are really quick to leap, I must say.
First of all, I'm not sure if there's anyone on this newsgroup I feel
closer to than Brad Ferguson, and I suspect that he almost certainly
read my post (if he has read it yet) in exactly the way I intended it,
as in "Are you sure, buddy?" Secondly, Brad and I have very similar
positions, so it seems to me, on being accurate about things of this
nature, and I would never in a million years have taken umbrage at a
response from him that mirrored mine. So while it's laudable that so
many people have leapt to Brad's defense here, I'm sorry that so many
also leapt to presume that after a couple of decades of being very
publicly tight with Brad on this newsgroup I had suddenly turned on
him in a way that "reeks."
Jim Beaver
Brad Ferguson
<da...@neosoft.com> wrote:
Just for the record, I posted what I remembered, and I still remember
what I was told, because I was wondering why we were having *his* party
at *her* apartment. I don't think it's a big deal, and it wasn't
particularly relevant, but the detail was wrong and, as Louis says,
there's a civic duty to be done.
That said, sometimes this place becomes a goddamn chore.
Jim Beaver
I neglected to say that, just in case I'm wrong, and Brad did take
offense, I humbly apologize for that absolutely unintended consequence
of what I thought was just a casual, conversational remark, one that
wasn't even intended as nitpicking really, just curiosity and
wondering if there were more to things than I realized. If I were to
make a list of people here I wouldn't be caught dead offending, Brad
would share the top spot on it, if not own it outright. I'm very
sorry if I offended him. I I didn't offend him, but just everybody
else, then, well.... fuck it, I'm sorry to you, too.
Jim Beaver
Hyfler/Rosner
"Terry del Fuego" <t_del...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:jait869f82jacimgm...@4ax.com...
> On Mon, 13 Sep 2010 09:05:49 -0400, Brad Ferguson
> <thir...@frXOXed.net> wrote:
>
>>IMDb credits Finney with the novels upon which the films
>>Assault on a
>>Queen and Good Neighbor Sam were based, and there's a
>>number of short
>>stories, too.
>
>
>>Nobody's ever gotten very far on filming his novel Time
>>and Again, which is my favorite of his.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_and_Again_(novel)
> and now I remember reading and liking it as well, despite
> the
> absurdity of the premise.
I read all his books, but Time and Again is definitely my
favorite, too.
Diner
> IMDb credits Finney with the novels upon which the films Assault on a
> Queen and Good Neighbor Sam were based, and there's a number of short
> stories, too. Nobody's ever gotten very far on filming his novel Time
> and Again, which is my favorite of his.
There was a musical version of "Time and Again," which played off-
Broadway circa 2001, with Laura Benanti and David McCallum in the
cast.
-Tim
Bill Schenley
Okay ... Sorry if I overreacted ... I guess I just read it wrong ...
Brad Ferguson
<stra...@neo.rr.com> wrote:
I just want to reassure everybody that Jim and I are good.
I also want to thank everybody. A lot.