pallas_athena: (Default)
2018-04-17 10:58 pm
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In Memoriam Chris Bruce

I haven't quite found the words to talk about Chris Bruce.

In life, when I would try to describe him to other people, they couldn't quite believe it. A stuntman, an equestrian, a swordsman, and later a a fight director and stunt coordinator; he'd worked on the original Star Wars (as a stormtrooper) and the 1970s Musketeers films (doubling, among other things, for Christopher Lee). He went out drinking with Oliver Reed (who, he said, "taught me how to fight like a bucko") and lived to tell the tale. He worked with the greatest fight directors in the business, and was never without a story to tell.

Rest well, sir )
pallas_athena: (tarot)
2013-05-08 11:21 pm
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Herzliebsten, gute Nacht

On Wednesday, on May Day, I stood with the company of Fulham Opera by the coffin of their Alberich, on top of which lay the Ring of the Nibelung.

"Der Ring des Nibelungen!" Robert used to say. "Not der Ring des Wotans. Not der Ring des Brünnhildes. Der Ring des fucking Nibelungen!!" And there is no doubt that Robert Presley was the best Nibelung of them all.
Funeral oration )