The news of the death of American actor William Hootkins on Sunday, after a battle with pancreatic cancer, might have barely registered on British theatrical radar, despite the fact that he trained at LAMDA and lived here for many years, but for an absolutely unforgettable performance in Terry Johnson’s Hitchcock Blonde that opened at the Royal Court in April 2003 that subsequently transferred to the Lyric.
Playing the British film director with an unappeasable appetite for food and blonde women, his astonishing onstage filleting of a fish and seduction of Rosamund Pike’s blonde was a wonder to behold. It was the performance that made the play.
But Hootkins also had a peripheral fame for the early demise of the character he played in the Star Wars trilogy, Jek Porkins, with a website devoted to him alone: http://www.jekporkins.net/
But it’s another homepage that speaks of his fame: on http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/6774/, the correspondent writes, “All I have to say is this: PORKINS IS STAR WARS. Without Porkins, the movie just wouldn’t be worthwhile. I mean, this guy had flames on his helmet, and he even refused to wear his chin strap. Could he be much more of a bad ass? I think not. Ladies and gentlemen, I think it’s time to give a moment of silence for Porkins.”
And it’s time to give a moment of silence to Hootkins, too.
