Author Ben Bryant: celebrity stories – Duvall & Williams III

Celebrity stories abound on the upper west side of Manhattan. Lots of famous people live in my neighborhood and in the normal course of events one occasionally runs into Bruce Willis, Isaac Asimov, Matt Damon, Diana Ross and the like in the park, at Zabars or just walking along upper Broadway. From chapter 19 here are just two of my interactions with movie stars I hadn’t worked with.

“It turned out that there were boons to running in this park beyond cardiovascular health. For those of you not intimately familiar with Manhattan, the Upper West Side – like many sections of our small island – attracts a demographically and politically specific population. … You can cast a movie or a play, put together an orchestra, a political movement or a film crew in this neighborhood by hollering out the window. Okay, that’s an exaggeration but you get my point….

“Very early one morning, prior to the park being particularly populated, I was pounding the pavement on a path down by the river. No one else was about but in the distance I espied a figure coming in my direction. As the gap between us closed the man began to seem familiar and by the time we were fairly close I recognized Robert Duvall.

“By then The Godfather had made Mr. Duvall, if not yet a star, at least well known to the public and subject to loss of privacy. As he passed me power-walking north we nodded. Continuing my slow jog downtown  I was anticipating our passing again as we both turned around and, sure enough, that happened about twenty minutes later. This time I was prepared.

“While Elizabeth had been studying acting with Uta Hagen at the HB Studio (late 1960s, Chapter 10, Three Stages) we had seen an in-house performance of a play based on Faulkner’s short story Tomorrow. Maybe a total of 300 people saw this production. The then not well known Duvall – we only knew him as Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird – had played the protagonist, a backwoods Mississippi farmer. He was so thoroughly authentic and convincing that I was shocked after the play to find myself on Bank Street in the Village. …

“As I saw Robert approaching me on my return northward I prepped my speech. When we were but twenty feet apart I stopped and addressed him. (Maybe not a verbatim reproduction, but close.) ‘Mr. Duvall I don’t want to intrude on your privacy but I must tell you how deeply I was moved by your performance in Tomorrow at HB.’

“This halted him in his tracks. He grinned broadly. ‘Thank you. Not many people saw that show.’

We stood there and shot the shit for five minutes or so like old buddies, shook hands and went on our way never to meet again.

“Five years before he achieved national recognition in the TV series Mod Squad we saw Clarence Williams, III in William Hanley’s short lived (88 performances) but stirring play on Broadway, Slow Dance on the Killing Ground. Clarence played Randall, a petty but snappily dressed thief. In the second act Randall is in a verbal duel with the young homeless girl when she nails him with a zinger about his wardrobe.

“So one morning I’m running down the park when who do I see coming toward me but Randall himself, Mr. Williams III. Not only that but he’s snappily – if somewhat bizarrely – dressed in a designer running suit, colorful stocking cap and opaque shades. His jogging style makes it clear that he is a natural athlete but his mien is distant and robotic; head straight front, face expressionless he seems in a world of his own.

“Nearly every day for more that a week we pass one another, both going and coming, at around the same spot and his behavior and wardrobe are consistent. On the fourth or fifth day, as is my wont with regular co-runners, I nod in friendly recognition and, surprisingly, the mechanical Mr. Williams III returns the small gesture of awareness. This pattern repeats for a couple of days then one morning I have a brainstorm. As we approach within a few feet of one another I speak the girl’s line from the play: ‘Where’d you get that outfit, Randall, Barney’s boy’s town?’

“Clarence bursts into laughter, stops and offers a high five. We slap hands and continue, chuckling, on our way.

“We continue the passing pattern for several more days but now our nods of greeting are accompanied by mutual broad smiles. I left town for a job on location and we have not met again.”

There’s another, funnier, jogging incident involving Elizabeth and Jill Clayburgh but for that one… Buy Circumstances Beyond My Control

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