R.I.P. John Spencer

Alex has a great great tribute up to this hard-working amazing actor who died last night.

I was in a loud smoky bar last night – shouting over the mayhem with my friends – all of us having deep conversations – yet we were SHOUTING the deep conversations- “I FEEL LIKE THE LAST COUPLE OF WEEKS WERE REALLY A TURNING POINT!” “WHAT???” “A TURNING POINT – I’VE TURNED A CORNER — EMOTIONALLY!” Etc. And that was where I heard (it was shouted at me) about John Spencer dying. I couldn’t believe it. I remember his stint on LA Law. I remember it well. I remember him in Presumed Innocent too – he was always good. But he had been working for AGES before that. Go way way back, and he is still there. And look: he died in the midst of having the greatest success of his long long career.

He will be missed.

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4 Responses to R.I.P. John Spencer

  1. tracey says:

    Sheila, I don’t watch The West Wing, but I loved him — LOVED him on LA LAW. He was the reason I even watched. It’s so sad; he’s just gone too soon.

  2. red says:

    Yup – he became THE reason to watch LA Law. He was incredible on The West Wing, too – but LA Law was when I first became aware of him.

  3. David says:

    When I first got to NY, I had this agent, Bob Barry, who seemed literally right out of a Woody Allen movie. Chain smoker, gruff, tinly little office in the middle of Times Square, beautiful guy. One day, going to his office I see John Spencer hanging out with him. This was post LA Law, and possibly the beginning of West Wing, I’m not sure, but he was definitely “somebody” and here he was sharing the same agent as me. Come to find out he had been with Bob for many years and stuck with him when he “made it big.” So many actors jump ship and join the big boys (no judgement, I’m sure I’ll be one of them) but not this guy. Bob introduced me and I got this amazing, warm feeling from him. I was a nervous, insecure (HA…WAS?) actor and he made me feel like him and I were no different. Hell, we shared the same agent, clearly this young guy’s on his way. he treated me with respect and with interest. I walked out feeling 10 feet tall and part of the game. I’ll never forget him for that. RIP John Spencer.

  4. red says:

    David – I never heard that story.

    Tears!!! Beautiful.

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