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Character actor Bruno Kirby, probably best remembered for his co-starring role in the surprise 1991 smash hit City Slickers, died yesterday after a short battle with lukemia. He passed away on Monday in Los Angeles. He was fifty-seven.
A New York City native, Kirby made his first mark in the industry in one of the greatest films ever made. He played the young Clemenza who introduces Robert DeNiro's Vito Corleone to a life of crime in The Godfather Part II (1974). Perhaps because of a star-studded cast and that his role was almost entirely spoken in Italian, the success of the film did not immediately propel Bruno into more roles in film.
He did a bunch of guest starring work on series television throughout the rest of the '70s to pay the bills, but it wasn't until Albert Brooks cast him in his own Modern Romance (1981) that he had a visible part in a decent film again. That movie is a huge favorite of mine (see my thread devoted to Brooks' career HERE) and maybe crucially for Kirby it showed what a good comedian he is. He continued to work on series TV and in 1984 got his best role yet as the limo driver who doesn't understand the appeal of rock music, preferring Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr., in the comedy masterpiece This is Spinal Tap (1984). He was able to improvise as well as the rest of the cast, though ultimately his best material wound up on the cutting room floor (though thankfully it is available on the DVDs in the extras). But again, for any director or casting agent paying attention, it had to be clear Kirby had real comedic acting chops.
After taking decent supporting roles in Alan Parker's period drama Birdy (1984) and Paul Verhoeven's cult Medieval action pic Felsh + Blood (1986) Bruno Kirby finally got his stand-up-and-notice-me role. First Barry Levinson gave him in a good role as one of the aluminum siding salsemen in his Baltimore picture Tin Men (1987), but it was his work as the humorless disc jockey juxtaposed to Robin Williams' manic Adrian Cronauer in Levinson's Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) that took his career to the next level. His Polka-loving character was so painfully unfunny it was hysterically brilliant on screen.
This led to Rob Reiner, Spinal Tap's director, casting him as Billy Crystal's jaded best male friend in the instant classic romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally.... (1989). It was Billy and Meg Ryan's movie, to be sure, but his chemistry with Crystal and with Carrie Fisher had him stealing a good number of scenes in that great flick.
Folloiwing that triumph, he was perfectly cast as a hustler working for a shadowy kingpin in Andrew Bergman's The Freshman (1990). Having played second banana to DeNiro's Don Corleone in The Godfather Part II, fifteen years later he was playing a comic second banana to the real thing as Marlon Brando marveously sent up his most iconic performance in this dark comedy with a heart. His chemistry with Brando and star Mathew Broderick was again just right, and Kirby gets a couple of the biggest laughs in the picture.
Bruno Kirby came the closest he was ever going to get to being a movie star with his next project: playing one of three men having a mid-life crisis on a cattle drive in City Slickers. Again it's really Billy Crystal's movie, that cute slimy little calf steals every scene its in and it was veteran character actor Jack Palance who won the Oscar, but Kirby is a key ingredient to the success of the movie. City Slickers was a surprise hit in the summer of '91, bringing in over a hundred million in the U.S.
Though some actors might have tried to turn that heat into co-starring roles in a quick couple movies whether they were good or not or maybe turned to being a regular on a television series, Kirby didn't go for any quick cash. He wouldn't even sign up for the City Slickers sequel a few years later. In his early forties now, he decided to wait for projects he liked and try and guide his career back toward dramas.
He played an abusive creep in The Basketball Diaries (1995) and a greedy gangster in Donnie Brasco (1997), but neither was the kind of hit City Slickers or When Harry Met Sally... were, and the offers slowed down.
Barry Levinson called him for a couple favors he was very happy to oblige. He had a small role as the Jason Patric character's father in the disappointing Sleepers (1996). Even better he did a one-shot guest duty on Levinson's Baltimore police procedural "Homicide: Life on the Street". In a 1995 episode titled "The Gas Man", Kirby plays a bitter ex-con just released to the streets who has vowed revenge on the Detective who put him away, Frank Pembleton (Emmy winner Andre Braugher). With his mopey brother-in-law in tow, played by Richard Edson (Stranger Than Paradise, Do the Right Thing, Eight Men Out), he exacts a plan that involves stealing the severed head from a crime scene to make the detective look bad. One of the best episodes of that great show's third season, Levinson gave him a great part that drew on his comedic skills as well as his darker abilities.
Kirby continued to work into the new millineum, though it was almsot exclusively very small truly independent projects with little to no distribution. He had a fun turn as a successful Hollywood producer Phil Rubenstein on an episode of HBO's "Entourage" this season (episode title "Gus & Dolls"). Sadly that cameo guest shot will be his last screen appearance.
R.I.P., Bruno
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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra
"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra
Last edited by Holden Pike; 08-30-07 at 05:55 PM.
R.I.P. 
