Goodbye, Kobayashi

The New Year brings with it the unwelcome news that weird faced, top actor Pete Postlethwaite has breathed his last, and I for one am sad.

I first came across Postlethwaite's ghoulish visage in the 1989 television series 'Tales of Sherwood Forest'. As I recall, the premise of the show was that Postlethwaite played a bar owner, Eric, who loved the film Casablanca and wanted to model his bar on Rick's place, renaming it The Blue Parrot. I think. Although in retrospect I wonder whether I'm not wrong about that, as surely he'd have wanted to call it Rick's Cafe Americaine?

Either way, he never got the place renamed, and it remained 'The Sherwood Forest' for the duration of the series, much to Eric's chagrin. I remember thinking that this was a shame, as Eric did look quite a bit like Bogart. I guess that was the idea behind the programme.

I don't recall anything else about the show, and the internet steadfastly refuses to help me. There are, apparently, no video clips or pictures from this show anywhere on the world wide web, and if you do searches for 'Tales of Sherwood Forest' it just gets confused and offers you holidays in Nottingham, or  pictures of Jason Connery. A shame, as I really liked the show, and every time I saw Mr Pete afterwards, I went 'Oh, it's that guy from the Blue Parrot thing'.

Whatever Uncle Pete was in, he made better. He had a natural dignity that elevated every role he inhabited. He turned up in all manner of films, suprising you as his bulbous nose or droopy eyes appeared from nowhere. Here are some of my favourites:

Romeo and Juliet

All-rather-silly adaptation of the Bard's most famous "cock-up" play, suddenly invaded by the skull like countenance of Mr Pete as his weird-as-some-bats Friar Lawrence gave Leo some iambic advice.

Alien3

What's one more bald, freakish looking individual in this peculiar space sequel? Well, if it's Mr Postlethwaite, I'll be happy to watch. In fact, this film has a great British cast, and is well worth catching if you can grab the director's cut.

Brassed Off

The one he'll probably be remembered for. Who wouldn't want a friend/father/guardian angel like this?

The Town

Here playing a really horrible piece of work, making full use of Pete's ever more unusual features. One of the many tragedies about his death is that we'll now never get to see just how cartoon like his face would become as he travelled into old age.





The Usual Suspects

My favourite, of course. The suave, oddly accented Mr Kobayashi, both humble and subtly threatening. Of course, that probably wasn't his real name...

So goodbye, Uncle Peter. You were brilliant. Intelligent, compassionate and shot through with warmth and wit. We will miss you.