Rest in peace, Melvin Van Peebles.
The filmmaker and Renaissance Man had an amazing career, and he lived a fascinating life. Mr. Van Peebles was 89.
Of course, I’m more familiar with Mr. Van Peebles’ son, Mario Van Peebles, who had a memorable role as rebellious Marine “Stitch” Jones, who clashes with Gunnery Sergeant Clint Eastwood in the comedy/drama “Heartbreak Ridge.”
“I’m the Ayatollah of Rock-and-Rolla,” Mario Van Peebles said while wielding his guitar in the barracks. My boy Pete Koch was also in the movie, as the massive, personable Marine “Swede” Johanson, while taking a break from his seven-year NFL career with the Bengals, Chiefs and Los Angeles Raiders.
It’s an underrated flick, admittedly geared toward my demographic of the ’80s:
You know, too macho for my own good.
Melvin Van Peebles also had a memorable cameo in the 1993 movie “Posse,” a film looking at the role of African-American cowboys in the Wild West. Mario Van Peebles starred and directed that flick, and I actually wrote a movie review on it during my days on the border with the Brownsville Herald.
Melvin Van Peebles also worked as a playwright, composer, novelist and a cable car gripman in San Francisco, in his early years. He’s often remembered for directing Sweet Sweetback’s Baadass Song, a breakthrough film in the early days of the Blaxplotation movies of the early ’70s.
I’ve seen a couple television interviews he did a couple decades ago, and he was often wielding a short, snuffed-out cigar. He had four children, including Mario Van Peebles, and this compelling obituary by the Washington Post’s Adam Bernstein captures the essence of the amazing man.
Penned Bernstein:
“As his marriage and finances disintegrated, (Mr. Van Peebles) moved alone to Paris and supported himself as a gigolo while contributing to the satirical anarchist magazine Hara-Kiri.”
Cue David Lee Roth’s “Just A Gigolo/Ain’t Got Nobody” if you like.
Rest easy, Mr. Van Peebles. You will be missed. 9/23/2021
(also posting this on my personal web site, jimmashek.com)