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Jack Palance 1919-2006

With the passing of Jack Palance at the age of 87 on Friday, I thought it might be worthwhile to compile a list of my favourite Jack Palance performances on film (with the help of IMDb to jog my memory):

  • Shane (1953) memorable western villain
  • I Died A Thousand Times (1955) Great villain from that sub-genre of film noir called "Shelley Winters gets murdered again"
  • I Mongoli (1962) Hamming it to the hilt as a warlord of Genghis Khan, dubbed into Italian and subtitled back into English
  • Le Mepris (1964) he plays a film producer to Fritz Lang's (playing himself) director, to Brigitte Bardot's blonde bimbo. The real director is Jean-Luc Godard.
  • The Professionals (1966) part of an ensemble cast in a wonderful western
  • numerous spaghetti westerns (1968-76) We need a film festival. SBS, are you listening?
  • Che (1969) as Fidel Castro. OK so it's a bad film, but still worth a peek.
  • The Horsemen (1971) one of my favourite sporting films, even if the sport in this case is buzkashi.
  • Bagdad Cafe (1987) Paris, Texas gone all whimsical.
  • City Slickers (1991) His award-winning scene stealer.