He's Callan to me

Farewell Ewar Woowar.

Was listening to the commentary on 'Hot Fuzz' with him, Timothy Dalton, Kenneth Cranham all having agreat old natter and reminisce just the other night. He had a hearty laugh on him that fella despite playing so many tough unsmiling blokes.

Until I saw The Wicker Man as a kid he was 'The Equalizer' holding his own against Adam Ant and other Noo York thugs

As alluded to in the title of DogFacedBoy's post. EW's performance in that is pivotal to it being the most unsettling British film I've ever seen.

Lots of great roles; his performance in 'The Wicker Man' was not as good as his starring role in 'Breaker Morant'. For me, he'll always be remembered as Callan - a role he made his own. He was very good in 'The Equalizer' but it was as Callan that he shone (it was also ground-breaking telly at the time, given that the good guy was tough and uncompromising). Edward Woodward was always worth watching - a fine actor, who seemed to be a very nice man too.

His shocking, borderline-Shatnerian overacting in The Wicker Man, complete with honey-roast-ham accent, played off against Christopher Lee's customary pure-teak woodenness, was what gave that film most of its camp appeal.

He could slap Lonely like no man on earth, though - you have to give him that.

An old thesp once told me that Edward Woodward was known to one and all in the business as "Fart In The Bath", the sound of breaking wind under water via porcelain apparently approximating the sound of the great man's name read out loud. Obviously, I wouldn't know.

It seems appropriate, in suitably solemn tones, to quote the joke in which I first heard of the man. Come on, you know the one:

Q. What does the Equalizer have for breakfast?
A. I wouldn't know, but Edward Woodward would wouldn't he?

I interviewed Edward Woodward in 1998, on the set of The New Professionals (me neither). I was terrified, chiefly because I'd just seen him pose for a publicity shot with the rest of the cast: one of his laddish co-stars made a larky grab for Woodward's balls, only to be met with the words "Very funny, son. Try that again and I'll break your arm," delivered in chilling Callan/Equaliser mode. Shortly after the PR said "Would you like to speak to Edward now?"

He actually proved to be lovely.

- I was always disappointed there was no role for him in Deadwood.

gem of thespian times past apparently they saw him panto "when I was eight, with Derek Nimmo and George and Mildred" which sounds like an interesting bill.

http://web.archive.org/web/20060509052013/http://www.action-tv.org.uk/gu...

Only silver lining is perhaps they'll issue this on DVD now--but what possible relevance could a plot like this have today, eh ?

"The trials and tribulations of a group of binmen brought together by their common love of their job." With Roy Hudd, Tim Healy, Paul Shane & Kathy Burke. Aye grand it were.

Whilst filming in the area he became president of my local Wingates Band. Their current honorary president is Michael Nyman. Edward also released quite a few LPs in his time. Links are hard to find and there are no CDs available on Amazon at present for sound clips.

to #1 for Christmas-there must be some mp3 downloads somewhere....

absolutely impressive in breaker morant