The New Yorker’s politics might suck, but my gosh they know how to do a wonderful profile. Simply riveting. Like any boomer I knew Mark Metcalf (without knowing his name) as ‘Neidermeyer‘ from the film Animal House (1978). Animal House was a fairly bad film which was hugely popular with us young guys (we got to see lots of boobs you don’t see in the TV version). He was a young guy back then, now he is old (sure glad that didn’t happen to me).

Later on in the 80’s he would reprise that role in a very popular ‘Twisted Sister’ video. He likely “made” the video, without him its just another ‘meh’ video. Then that was it. He kept busy the next 40 years, but nothing earth shaking. As he puts it in the video, “The year I die, when The Academy Awards does their in ‘memoriam’, I want my picture to be up there.” Classic.

But to the video (its a 16 minute short film really), the production values are incredible. They basically turn Mark loose with that really great voice of his, and let him explain the emotions of his life. The ‘edge’ is still there. Fading perhaps, but there. Reading between the lines, and knowing Hollywood, you wonder how much of an impact his drinking had on his career? You have to figure a talent such as his could have turned down the ‘Neidermeyer’ a little bit if he’d wanted to.

But then that’s kind of the point of the film, did he want to?