Ask the average person if they know who John Marley was and chances are their riposte will be 'Isn't that the guy who sang No Woman, No Cry?' And this is of course criminal, considering his near two-hundred screen appearances in a career that spanned five decades and probably longer had he made it to his octogenarian years. And much like the great Anthony Zerbe, he put the character in character acting. And also like Mr Zerbe, he deserved to be seen front stage and center, in every which way he turneth. Although his name perhaps doesn't ring the proverbial bell with most, his prized horse and a certain rude awakening in Francis Ford Coppola's 1972 The Godfather may. Yes he was that guy in the bed over there - theeeere's Johnny!
And four years prior to that moment in equess, Marley did have a rare leading role and befittingly in John Cassavetes earth shattering Faces (1968). This was in fact the film that inspired my own appreciation of the craggy yet charismatic one. A transfixing performance as mid-life crisiser Richard Forst, a disenchanted and equally disenfranchised high falutin' executive who has it about up to here with the all the banality that comes with the territory. And Forst Ultimately ends up in bed with Cassavetes missus, who plays a tart with heart Jeannie Rapp, oh - don't worry that only happens in the movie - Gena didn't Rowlands down that river, after all. It was in this moment of appositeness, that he was able to let it all hang out. Co-star Lynn Carlin, who would appear once again as his other half, in Bob Clark's B-screecher Deathdream (1974), plays his strangely estranged wife in Faces.
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| Rikes, Re's Rot a Run! |
Marley would star without all that credit baggage, mind you in some early noir masterpieces, namely as a jailbird in 1947's Kiss of Death. And even if was in but one frame of a film, Marley had a way of making his presence known. Poker-faced, he never ever gave his game away that easy, you are always expected to perspire just a little bit, Marley's face just simply worked for him in that curious way. And that's what made him a natural choice for being cast as the heavy in many a police procedural and mystery show. He was also always mighty OK when he sashayed down to the corral in Bonanza and respectively in The Virginian. In Hawaii Five-O's nine year run, he would be cast thrice on different occasions His pout even turned up on a 1962 episode of Perry Mason (I still can't get that confounded theme song out of my skull). He was otherworldy as Philip Rigas in Mccloud episode The Concrete Jungle Caper (1974) This is a mere pittance of the guest starring he would do in the forty odd years he was an actor.
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| The man named somebody. |
He also would star on three different occasions in the acclaimed Paulist priest series Insight between 1963 and 1971. It was often the case of the series he would guest appear in, his was such an impactful presence they couldn't help but ask him around for more. But yet it just was never enough. Its always an event to see Marley's mush, even if you can't remember him by name, perhaps his unmatched eyebrows could do the trick next time. Or there's always mnemonics when all else fails.