Friday, November 9, 2007

Whatever happened to....

It may take me a while to get there, but there IS an end to this convoluted path.

This morning, some of the women at work were talking about their kids' schools, most of them Catholic schools. It got me to thinking about a movie I saw years ago. I couldn't remember the name of the movie, but I remembered that Andrew McCarthy was in it. I looked him up to find his movie credits, and bingo (get it?): "Heaven Help Us." It's about a Catholic school, and while much of it is a comedy, there are also some serious parts about corporal punishment, etc. I remember it being fairly good. One of the other actors in the movie was Stephen Geoffreys, who was also in one of my favorite movies from the eighties, "Fright Night."

I actually think it's one of my favorite vampire movies ever. Chris Sarandon is a great vampire, and the movie has this whole creepy feel to it (with some definite comedy undertones and just a touch of the erotic). What do you do when the new neighbor turns out to be a vampire, but you're the only one who sees it? No one believes you, everyone else thinks he's charming and handsome--even your girlfriend--but you know what he really is. And he knows that you know (and he wants your girlfriend). The vampire's assistant dies a gruesome death, one that was totally cool for the time. Throw in a great performance by the wonderful Roddy McDowall, and you've got a winner. Put that one on my wish list!

Stephen Geoffreys plays "Evil" Ed, and things don't end well for him. He was a great character actor, always playing the weird sidekick. He was this sort of elfin-looking guy, with a cute little face and spiky hair. So whatever happened to Stephen Geoffreys? From Wikipedia:

"Both before and during his mainstream career Geoffrey appeared in both straight and gay adult movies, but by the early 1990s continuing thru the beginning of the 2000s, he appeared almost exclusively in numerous gay pornography films, where he was usually credited as Sam Ritter or Stephan Bordeaux. Exactly how many pornographic films he has made is unknown, since he appeared in some uncredited. Geoffreys last fully credited porn film appearance was in 2002. Some sources claim that for a time he turned to a career in writing homoerotic short stories, but more recently Geoffreys has completed filming for Sick Girl, a horror film and his first mainstream movie appearance in seventeen years. Sick Girl is scheduled for release in October of 2007.

It is one of modern Hollywood's most intriguing mysteries how a Tony nominated performer who was once regarded as one of his generation's more promising character actors disappeared into the gay porn industry. In recent years a cult following has formed around Geoffrey's films, both mainstream and pornographic, with particular interest among fans in discovering more about his strange career and reclusive lifestyle."

Wow, I wasn't expecting that! It made me sad to read that. Not because he's gay--I don't care about that. But why would anyone who was getting plenty of legitimate offers take that route? Strange indeed. Apparently he struggled with addiction for many years, so I'm sure that explains a lot of it, but now he's supposed to be clean. I'll have to watch for "Sick Girl," which actually looks kind of good, if you like horror movies, and I do, I do.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

strange indeed is right.  I'm not a real fan of horror movies but every once in a while I'll watch one.  

Anonymous said...

Hi! Yeah, this was one of those times when I was really surprised to find out what had happened to someone. Thanks for reading!

Beth