You’ll be missed, Tom Poston

Tom Poston, one of my favorite character actors, passed away Monday at his home in Los Angeles. He’s survived by his wife, actress Suzanne Pleshette, and three children.

I grew up watching and (loving) Newhart, and I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for that 1980s CBS sitcom era that was such a perfect home for a guy like Poston, who was so good at playing affable — albeit oblivious — characters. He’d already been doing it for decades.

Tom Poston made me laugh — a lot — and I know I’m not the only one. When you live a life like that, where your job is bringing laughter and joy and entertainment to people, you live on through your work. That’s forever.

There’s a really nice article about Poston’s life here, and my friend Bob put up a nice tribute here.

Deepest condolences to his family and friends, and thank you, Mr. Poston, for the lifetime of laughter you provided.

Classic Bale Batman quote

While looking for more Christian Bale comments about The Dark Knight to bolster my previous post, I came across this golden nugget in the quotes section of his IMDb page:

“At first, I was somewhat hesitant to do the role. I mean, after all, Batman is an icon. But I remember, as clear as day, being at the grocery store the day the movie opened, and this little boy saw me. He couldn’t have been more than five years old. He just walked right up to me and hugged me. He hugged me, and I was so moved by it that I hugged him back. Then he looked up at me and said, ‘You’re my hero.’ And in that moment, I knew that not only as an actor that I had done my job, but that I had made the right decision to play Batman. And I’ve never looked back on my decision to play Batman since.”

That’s it.

This guy is as Batman as Batman gets.

Christian Bale talks Batman!

Christian Bale has been talking about The Dark Knight, and it’s sweet, sweet music.

Superhero Hype! has the scoop. He talks about reprising the role, maintaining momentum and working with Heath Ledger, who’s playing The Joker. He’s also sneaky about not revealing the nature of some top secret training he’s been undergoing. I can’t wait to find out what that’s about.

He also talked to IESB.net, who asked him if we’d be seeing more of Batman’s detective skills this time around.

Bale — who obviously can’t say a lot at this point — took a swig of water, smiled, laughed, and answered, “Is that clear enough?”

Brilliant.

Bale is currently doing press for Rescue Dawn, a true story about a pilot’s fight to survive after being shot down in Vietnam. Werner Herzog writes and directs; you can watch the excellent trailer right here.

And!

He recently finished a remake of 3:10 to Yuma, a Western in which he plays a peaceful rancher who gets caught up in escorting an evil outlaw (Russell Crowe) to the train that will take him to prison. Which won’t be so easy when the outlaw’s gang comes after their boss.

Batman zips into the theater near you on a cable fired by the gas-powered magnetic grapple gun Morgan Freeman made for him on July 18, 2008.