RIP Eddie Bracken

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

I just saw that Eddie Bracken has died. I confess that I had vaguely assumed that he'd died years ago (he was 87), but I feel like noting that he is absolutely brilliant in two successive Preston Sturges comedies, Hail The Conquering Hero and The Miracle Of Morgan's Creek. I can't honestly recall him in anything in the almost sixty years since, but I love him in those two so much that I still feel a note of mourning is justified.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Saturday, 23 November 2002 13:43 (twenty-three years ago)

two years pass...

RIP indeed.

― Graham "Beaky" Beecroft, Tuesday, 22 February 2005 12:11 (twenty-one years ago)

In fact he made an appearance at the Film Forum last year. RIP Eddie. Say hello to Mr. Kockenlocker, aka William Demarest.

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 16:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Luc Sante once wrote this about Bracken:

Eddie Bracken was always preceded by his ears and his Adam's apple; not far behind were his crooked grin, his orbiting eyes, and whatever chaos-theory disposition passed for his coiffure on any given day. He stood somewhere between a Boy Scout and Alfred E. Neuman, an All-American simpleton ready to take the rap and to pose proudly for pictures while doing so. He wasn't a patsy, exactly; maybe he just spoke for the patsy in every voter's heart. His career barely outlasted the 1940s. Preston Sturges made the best use of him (The Miracle of Morgan's Creek and Hail the Conquering Hero, both 1944). The national amour propre might not have withstood the denting he would have given it as an adult figure.
"Rogues Gallery," 1999.

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 02:15 (twenty-one years ago)

RIP, what an odd, compelling presence in films

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 03:07 (twenty-one years ago)

I missed the screening of "Hail The Conquering Hero" for my film class and a couple of my friends told me they hated it because they didn't like Eddie Bracken, but when I finally saw it I thought he was really good at playing that fall guy character without getting on my nerves. Jack Lemmon in The Apartment, to take one example, was much more problematic.

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 19:41 (twenty-one years ago)

I had him sign Sturges' autobiog writings at a '90s Film Forum appearance, and I was much more abashed/tongue-tied than I was with Iggy or Lou Reed.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 22:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Sturges on Sturges?

(I got both Iggy and Lou's autographs too. Iggy was cool. Maybe I'll post about it on another thread.)

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 23 February 2005 22:36 (twenty-one years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.