| Bill
Erwin has the distinction
of being Monk's oldest guest
star. That's right, even older
than the very, very old man
86-year-old Pat Cranshaw who
played his murdered father.
He has co-starred in almost
200 film and television productions
and still works regularly
in the business. He was nominated
for an Outstanding Guest Actor
in a Comedy Series Emmy for
his role in a 1993 episode
of Seinfeld. He made
guest appreances last year
in Everwood and The
King of Queens.
In August of 2005 Bill Erwin
was designated an Honorary
Life Member of both the Academy
of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences, and the Academy
of Television Arts and Sciences.
Mr. Erwin will be 91 on December
2nd 2005, the same day on
which Monk's first
holiday episode "Mr.
Monk and the Secret Santa"
debuts.
Mr.
Erwin was kind enough to chat
with me over the phone a year
ago about his appearance in
"Mr. Monk and the Very,
Very Old Man." He described
the Monk production as "Well
run" and his co-workers
as "extremely talented
and pleasant."
"My
scene wasn't with Tony Shalhoub,
the star, so we didn't meet.
My scene was with the police
inspector [Ted Levine] and
the nerdy assistant [Jason
Gray-Stanford]. They had me
seated in an easy chair because
I don't walk very well either
now," he says. "I'm
a human remnant."
"I've
spent $10000 on hearing aids,"
he confides. "I have
trouble hearing with any ambient
noise in the background, but
the Monk set is very professional
so, of course, there was no
ambient noise. The rehearsals
went just fine, but on the
first take the police inspector
said something I couldn't
make out."
"l
said, 'I'm sorry, but we'll
have to cut.' Director Larry
Trilling, very brilliant,
very young, very compassionate
said, 'Bill, here's what we'll
do. Whenever Ted says something
you can't hear simply say,
'huh?'"
"So
that's what I did. We shot
the rest of the scene and
it took at most about 30 minutes."
"Monk
was a lovely show to work
on," remembers Mr. Erwin,
"very professional, no
vulgarity."
Although Mr. Erwin admits,
"I have a great motor,
but lousy wheels," he
plans to continue working
because he believes "that's
what keeps me alive."
Some
of his other notable appearances
include: Star Trek: The
Next Generation as Dalen
Quaice in "Remember Me",
Just Shoot Me as
Mr. King in "Where's
Poppa" and in Quantum
Leap as Joe Deever in
"Hurricane" and
a dozen or so appearances
on Gunsmoke. His
most well known role was probably
in Somewhere in Time
Christopher Reeve's 1980 cult
film. My personal favorite
is as Mr. Wood in "The
Missing Statue" episode
of Mister Ed.
To
learn more about Bill Erwin
you can vist his official
site. |
