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Tributes paid to screen great Harry Dean Stanton

Updated / Sunday, 17 Sep 2017 09:55
Harry Dean Stanton
Harry Dean Stanton

Tributes have been paid to the iconic character actor Harry Dean Stanton, who has died in the US at the age of 91. 

Stanton, who appeared in dozens of films, including Cool Hand Luke, Repo Man and Paris, Texas, as well as the recent reboot of television's Twin Peaks, passed away peacefully at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

Stanton will posthumously appear in Lucky, which is set to premiere at the London Film Festival

Twin Peaks director and co-creator David Lynch said there was "nobody like Harry Dean".

"He was a great actor - actually beyond great," the filmmaker wrote on social media. "And a great human being."

In a career spanning 60 years, Stanton worked with some of Hollywood's most notable directors, including John Carpenter (Escape from New York, Christine); Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather Part Two, One From the Heart); Alfred Hitchcock (The Wrong Man - his first film role); John Huston (Wise Blood), David Lynch (Wild at Heart, The Straight Story, Inland Empire); Sam Peckinpah (Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid); Martin Scorsese (The Last Temptation of Christ) and Ridley Scott (Alien).

His unforgettable performance as drifter Travis Henderson in German director Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas powered the drama to the Palme D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1984.

Stanton's other film credits included In the Heat of the Night, Kelly's Heroes, Two-Lane Blacktop, The Missouri Breaks, Pretty in Pink, The Green Mile, The Avengers and Seven Psychopaths.  

On the small screen, he also appeared in dozens of series, including Rawhide, Gunsmoke, Bonanza, Two and a Half Men and Big Love.

Stanton, whose Hollywood friends included Marlon Brando, Jack Nicholson and Paris, Texas writer Sam Shepard - who passed away earlier this year - will posthumously appear in Lucky, which is set to premiere at the London Film Festival on October 9.

Here are some of the tributes to the screen great: 

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