In order for us to buy Marion Crane's decisions at the start of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, we have to buy that she has a damned good reason for screwing over her boss and stealing his cash and skipping town.I am here to tell y'all: John Gavin is good reason.
Oh sure, her boss is an asshole, but if the only thing keeping me from a lifetime of afternoons like the one Marion and Sam are just wrapping up at the very start of Psycho is a little thing like 40,000 bucks, well... I'd bleed a nun out to get the cash. (Hopefully I'd stay on the main roads after that, but that's neither here nor there.)
In Gus Van Sant's... debated... remake, the role of Sam Loomis is played by Viggo Mortensen, and Viggo spends half this scene bare-assed, which is well and good (okay, very good):
But John Gavin managed just as much heat while keeping his pants on. Janet Leigh's menagerie of bras usually gets all the attention, but credit must be given to Gavin for being such a timeless inspiration towards wickedness.
(as always, click 'em to embiggen 'em)
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Interesting fact about Gavin - when Sean Connery was adamant about not returning to the role of 007 in 1971's "Diamonds Are Forever," John Gavin was actually SIGNED to play Bond, making him Connery's second replacement in as many films. Fortunately, Connery was coaxed back to the role with a hefty donation to the Scottish Education Trust. Gavin's contract was bought out in the end.
Did he have any other important and/or shirtless movies?
He played Julius Ceaser in Spartacus: here he is be-toga'd.
There are a bunch of images of him here.
beg to differ: yeah, Gavin looks great in these stills, but turn a motion picture camera on him and it's yawnsville.. Hitch called him a stiff for good reason. In Janet Leigh's book about the making of "Psycho", she said (in the nicest way possible) that both she and Hitchcock wanted Gavin to turn up the heat, but, to both their disappointments, he never really did.. that fickle camera doesn't love just every Tom Dick or Gavin who's lucky enough to get some face-time with it..
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