Crispin Glover

Crispin Glover
Glover at the 2005 Canadian National Expo. Photo by Jeremy Allin.
Born	Crispin Hellion Glover April 20, 1964 (1964-04-20) (age 45) New York City, New York, United States
Occupation	Actor/Author
Years active	1977–present

Crispin Hellion Glover (born April 20, 1964) is an American film actor and director, musician, and self-published author. Glover is known for portraying eccentric people on screen, such as George McFly in Back to the Future, Layne in River's Edge, the undertaker in What's Eating Gilbert Grape, the "Creepy Thin Man" in the big screen adaptation of Charlie's Angels and Willard Stiles in Willard. In the early 2000s, Glover started his own production company, Volcanic Eruptions, which issues his books and also serves as the production company of Glover's films, What Is It? and It is Fine. Everything is Fine!.

Early life

Glover was born in New York City, and moved to Los Angeles with his family at the age of five.^[1] He was named after the Saint Crispin's Day speech from William Shakespeare's play Henry V, which his parents enjoyed.^[2] "Hellion," his real middle name, had earlier been used as a false middle name by his father, who did not like his own real middle name, Herbert.^[2] His mother, Marie Elizabeth Lillian Betty Krachey Bloom (née Koerber),^[3] was an actress and dancer who retired upon his birth. His father is Bruce Glover, also an actor. As a child, Glover attended The Mirman School for the academically gifted. He then attended both Venice High and Beverly Hills High School and graduated in 1982.

Acting career

Glover began acting professionally at the age of 13. He appeared in several sitcoms as a teenager, including Happy Days and Family Ties. His first film role was in 1983's My Tutor. That led to roles in Teachers (1984) and Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984). He then worked with quirky director Trent Harris on the third chapter of the Beaver Trilogy, entitled The Orkly Kid. In this short film, he portrayed a small town man who organizes a local talent show to showcase his obsession with Olivia Newton-John, much to the embarrassment of the local community. At the climax of the film, Glover does his rendition, in full drag, of Olivia Newton-John's "Please Don't Keep Me Waiting" from her 1979 album Totally Hot.

His breakout role was as George McFly in Robert Zemeckis's Back to the Future, an international box office success following its release in 1985. Glover did not, however, come to an agreement with the producers to appear in the sequels. Zemeckis used previously filmed footage of Glover from the first movie, and Jeffrey Weissman was introduced using various obfuscating methods (background, sunglasses, rear shot, even upside down) to play the role of George McFly in the sequel. Displeased with the apparent use of body prosthetics on another actor to make audiences believe he was in the movie, Glover then sued the producers (including Steven Spielberg) on the grounds that his contract for the first film did not allow subsequent use of his portrayal of George McFly in new films, and that the use of a false nose and cheekbones on Weissman combined with practiced impressions of Glover's realization of the George McFly character were evidence of such. Because of Glover's lawsuit, The Screen Actors Guild (TV/Film performer labor union) would later alter collective bargaining agreements with clauses to the effect that such use would be open to negotiation, with acceptance at the performers' discretion. According to Glover, even some of his close friends thought that he was in the sequel, also.^[4]

He has continued to play exceedingly eccentric types, e.g. playing Andy Warhol in Oliver Stone's The Doors in 1991, as well as the title characters in Bartleby (2001) and Willard (2003). He received mainstream attention as the "Creepy Thin Man" in the Charlie's Angels films;^[5] the character had initially been cast as a speaking role, but Glover, not liking the lines as written, convinced the producers to eliminate the lines to create a darker image for the character.

Glover narrated the special feature commentary for the DVD of Werner Herzog's Even Dwarfs Started Small and Fata Morgana.

Glover starred in the 2007 film Beowulf as the monster Grendel, playing the part via performance capture technology. The film was Glover's first collaboration with director Robert Zemeckis since the original Back to the Future film.

Glover plays the voice of 6 in the movie 9 (2009 film) directed by Shane Acker and produced by Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov

Glover is to appear in the 2010 Tim Burton film Alice in Wonderland alongside Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Anne Hathaway.

Late Night appearance

Glover is often remembered for his appearance on Late Night with David Letterman^[6] on July 28, 1987, to promote the movie River's Edge, in which he starred.^[7] Unbeknownst to Letterman and the audience, Glover appeared in character as "Rubin," from a then-unreleased movie Rubin and Ed, wearing platform shoes and a wig. Rather than a conventional interview, Glover staged an Andy Kaufman-like shtick. After being goaded by a woman in the audience (who some argue had been planted),^[8] Glover became incensed and stated that he "knew that this was gonna happen" and that "the press, they can do things, they can twist things around". After a failed attempt to challenge Letterman to an arm-wrestling match, Glover delivered an impromptu karate kick just inches from Letterman's face while shouting, "I'm strong... I can kick!".^[9] Letterman then abruptly ended the segment by walking off stage, saying "I'm going to check on the Top 10", and the program cut to commercial. After the commercial break Paul Shaffer remarks, "Well I think it was a conceptual piece."

The subsequent confusion and controversy surrounding his appearance was compounded by the fact that Rubin and Ed was not actually released until 1991; however the movie had been in development since before Back to the Future — Crispin had actually already devised Rubin's "look" by 1985.^[10] Almost no-one, apparently including Letterman, understood what Glover was doing and the interview became the hallmark of the "weird" TV guest. Most people still are unaware that it was a performance.

Glover returned to the Letterman show two-and-a-half years later and participated in a standard interview. However, when asked about his previous appearance on the show, he began telling a rambling, nonsensical story seemingly unrelated to the event, and Letterman eventually cut him off without Glover ever actually talking about the incident. Glover has subsequently refused to go into detail about the reasons for his behavior on the show, other than to mention that he's flattered that fans are still speculating on the performance over 20 years later.^{[citation needed]} Glover has also mentioned that he prefers there to be an "aura of mystery" about the appearance.^{[citation needed]}

Music

In 1989, during a hiatus from films, Glover released an album called The Big Problem Does Not Equal the Solution, The Solution Equals Let It Be through Restless Records, produced by Barnes & Barnes (of "Fish Heads" fame). The album features original songs like "Clowny Clown Clown", warped covers of Lee Hazlewood's "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" and Charles Manson's "I'll Never Say Never to Always" (sung in falsetto), and readings from his art books Rat Catching and Oak Mot (see Books section below). Sample pages from these books are featured in the album's liner notes.

The back cover of the album is a collage of figures relating to each track on the album, with a puzzle: "All words and lyrics point to THE BIG PROBLEM. The solution lay within the title; LET IT BE. Crispin Hellion Glover wants to know what you think these nine things all have in common." He included his home phone number with copies of the album, encouraging listeners to phone when they had "solved" his puzzle. Glover later commented that he was surprised how many people figured it out.

In 2003, he recorded a cover version of the Michael Jackson song "Ben" to coincide with the release of the film Willard. In the eccentric music video for the song, which is included on the Willard DVD, he sings to a rat named Ben.

A handful of songs using Glover's name as the title have been recorded by various artists, including goth rock band Scarling. and Chicago outsider musician Wesley Willis.

Books

Glover has written between 15-20 books.^[10] Oak-Mot and Rat Catching are featured prominently during his Big Slide Show presentation, and are presented as visual art as much as written art. He constructs the books by reusing old novels and other publications which have fallen into public domain due to their age (for example, Rat Catching was constructed from an 1896 book Studies in the Art of Rat Catching, and Oak-Mot was constructed from an 1868 novel of the same title). He rearranges text, blacks out certain standing passages, and adds his own prose (and sometimes images) into the margins and elsewhere, thus creating an entirely new story. Four of his books have been published so far, through his publishing company, Volcanic Eruptions. Other known titles include: The Backward Swing and Round My House.

†The publishing years listed above may not represent first edition publication dates, but may include subsequent available editions.

‡Not published.

*Re-issued.

•Out of Print.

Directorial work

Glover made his directorial debut with 2005's What Is It?, a surreal art film featuring a cast of actors with down syndrome. It premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. The movie, with a budget of only $150,000, took almost a decade to complete and was originally intended to be a short film. Most of the primary footage was shot in 12 days, stretched over a two-and-a-half year period. Production was mostly funded by the actor's roles in Willard and the Charlie's Angels films. Glover's second film, It is Fine. Everything is Fine! was written by Utah writer-actor Steven C. Stewart. Stewart was born with a severe case of cerebral palsy and had been confined to a nursing home for about ten years. The second film is a fantastical psycho-sexual re-telling of life from Stewart's point of view. It premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. Glover is planning a third film called It is Mine which will end the "It? Trilogy.

Filmography

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Crispin Glover

• Official site
• Crispin Glover at the Internet Movie Database
  • What is It? at the Internet Movie Database
  • It is Fine. Everything is Fine! at the Internet Movie Database
• TV.com bio and filmography

Interviews

• 2007 Crispin Glover Video Interview with InterviewingHollywood.com
• 2007 Crispin Glover inteview with Mass Appeal Magazine
• Oct 2006 retroCRUSH audio and text interview with Crispin Glover
• Willard-era interview, film stills
• 1992 Crispin Glover in Interview Magazine
• Crispin Glover interview with Aintitcool.com's Capone, re: What Is It and Beowulf, published November 2006
• Transcript of Glover's notorious first appearance on Late Night with David Letterman
• A 2006 interview with Crispin Glover conducted by Under the Radar magazine.
• February, 2007 interview with Crispin Glover on Eros-Zine.com
• SuicideGirls Interview with Crispin Glover SuicideGirls Video Interview with Actor Crispin Glover
• http://www.avclub.com/content/node/48036 The Onion A.V. Club Interview with Crispin Glover
• Maxim.com Interview with Crispin Glover November 2007 Maxim.com Interview with Crispin Glover
• December 2007 SuicideGirls interview with actor Crispin Glover
• TomGreen.com Tom Green's House Tonight (October 2009)