Stoo said:
Would you believe that I still don't own that book?
.
Actually, I don't!
Here's the extract.
✪ GEORGE HALL
We‟ve introduced you to both Corey Carrier and Sean Patrick Flanery in this chapter, but we‟ve yet to meet the Indiana Jones we see at the beginning and end of each episode. His name is George Hall, and he‟s the actor that plays Indy today at ninety-three. Having seen a lifetime of adventure and excitement, Old Indy is as charming and appealing as he was in his youth!
?I was so delighted when I found out I had won the role of the older Indiana Jones,? says Hall. ?It‟s a won- derful opportunity. I think the idea of playing a man who has been known as a hero to the audience, in his final years, reminiscing about the time of his youth before he became a hero, is fascinating.
?Indy at ninety-three is a feisty old guy and is never hesitant to tell someone what he thinks of their behaviour if it is obviously mean-spirited,? George continues.
?He‟s heroic in the sense that he‟s past the age of caring whether people appreciate what he‟s saying or not. He‟s old enough to know that the truisms are the truisms and should be believed because they are true. He‟s a good storyteller and he makes people want to listen to him and learn from listening to him. And then they go on and learn something else and continue the process of learning.
"I‟m playing a character who‟s been all over the world, learned all sorts of things, and lived a good life as a result of that kind of knowledge. He's not like his father, Henry Jones, Sr., who is a professor of medieval litera-
ture, and a book-learning man. Indy is more of a zoologist, paleontologist, geologist, and he‟s out there doing things. So his education is different from his father‟s. It‟s almost a swashbuckling kind of education and one that makes him fascinating and charming. The challenge of playing Jones at age 93 is to make him interesting sothat when he tells a story, people don't go, ?Oh, my God, here he goes again!‟ ?
Having had a lifetime of acting experience, George Hall fulfills that challenge with ease. A graduate of the Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theater in New York, he has performed in over nineteen Broadway shows. He has worked with such Hollywood names as Carol Chan-
ning and Richard Gere and has made appearances on several soap operas in New York. He also appeared in the motion picture Johnny Be Good.
Hired more for his acting ability than for a resem- blance to Harrison Ford, George Hall states, ?I don‟t think I look much like Harrison Ford. The point is, if Laurence Olivier had lived to ninety-three, he might have looked a great deal different from his younger, Shakespearean days. So one shouldn‟t expect to look like one did when one was thirty?I‟m not really con- cerned about the fact that I don‟t look like what every- body thinks he should look like .... I look like a man of ninety-three. But the makeup is really quite remarkable, even at close range?.Actually, I think the makeup does give me a resemblance to Harrison, certainly from a profile. He has a stronger chin than I have, but, you know, people shrivel when they get old,? he says, laughing.
Although fans will recognize Old Indy‟s trademark brown fedora, at ninety-three he‟s traded his leather bullwhip for a walking stick with a brass handle shaped like an eagle‟s head. But there are more changes to Indy‟s outward appearance as well.
?I wear a patch over my right eye,? explains George, ?and a scar down my forehead. We assume that my right eye has been damaged. The scar continues down my right cheek and off to the side. And I wear my glasses over the patch, so it looks kind of romantic and rather strange and silly all at the same time!?
Not only do George Hall and old Indiana Jones share the same appearance and voice, they also share a love for the past.
?I do share his fascination with history,? says George, ?but I don‟t have the knowledge that his character has. I also have a fascination with nature. I‟m no expert, but I do love the great outdoors.?
Wilmington, North Carolina, is the location George and the Young Indy crew have been shooting the begin- ning and end scenes. The veteran actor recalls his first day of filming with great clarity.
In this episode Old Indy comes to the rescue of an old lady getting into a tussle with a young punk. He is hauled off to jail for assaulting the punk, but not before he tells him a story about World War I. "I felt good, I learned my lines, and I knew what I was doing. I wasn‟t nervous because I‟m not playing the Indiana Jones that people all know from going to the movies. I'm playing a man, ninety?three, who is an Indiana Jones of another time and era,? George concludes with a warm smile. ?I want to be the Indiana Jones people love now.?
