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Being There (19-Dec-1979)
Director: Hal Ashby Writer: Jerzy Kosinski From novel: Being There by Jerzy Kosinski Keywords: Drama, Comedy, POTUS, Washington DC Chance is a simple-minded gardener in Washington DC, insulated his entire life from the outside world about which he has knowledge gained only from television. Upon the death of his employer, by necessity Chance ventures out into public and almost immediately struck by a limousine, subsequently becoming a house guest of an ailing but very wealthy lobbyist. In the strange world of political insiders, the utterances of this polite, well-dressed gardener are mistaken for genius. Won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, and an additional nomination for Best Actor.
CAST | Peter Sellers | ... Chance (gardener) | | Shirley MacLaine | ... Eve Rand (car hits Chance) | | Melvyn Douglas | ... Benjamin Turnbull Rand (Eve's husband) | | Jack Warden | ... President ("Bobby") | | Richard Dysart | ... Dr. Robert Allenby | | Richard Basehart | ... Vladimir Skrapinov | | Ruth Attaway | ... Louise | | David Clennon | ... Thomas Franklin | | Fran Brill | ... Sally Hayes | | Denise DuBarry | ... Johanna Franklin | | Oteil Burbridge | ... Lolo | | Ravenell Keller III | ... Abraz | | Brian Corrigan | ... Policeman | | Alfredine Brown | ... Old Woman | | Donald Jacob | ... David | | Ernest M. McClure | ... Jeffrey | | Kenneth Patterson | ... Perkins | | Richard Venture | ... Wilson | | Arthur Grundy | ... Arthur | | W. C. "Mutt" Burton | ... Lewis | | Henry B. Dawkins | ... Billings | | Georgine Hall | ... Mrs. Aubrey | | Nell P. Leaman | ... Constance | | Villa Mae P. Barkley | ... Teresa | | Alice Hirson | ... First Lady | | James Noble | ... Kaufman | | Timothy Shaner | ... Presidential Aide | | William F. Williams | ... Presidential Aide | | William Dance | ... Presidential Aide | | Jim Aar | ... Presidential Aide | | William Lubin | ... Presidential Aide | | Gerald C. McNabb Jr. | ... Woltz | | Hoyt Clark Harris Jr. | ... Riff | | Ned Wilson | ... Honeycutt | | Stanley Grover | ... Baldwin | | John Harkins | ... Sidney Courtney | | Katherine DeHetre | ... Kinney | | William Larsen | ... Lyman Stuart | | Jerome Hellman | ... Gary Burns | | Arthur Rosenberg | ... Morton Hull | | Sam Weisman | ... Colson | | Fredric Lehne | ... Page | | Gwen Humble | ... Annie Lawson | | Laurie Jefferson | ... Reporter | | Allen Williams | ... Reporter | | Janet Meshad | ... Reporter | | Paul Marin | ... Reporter | | Melendy Britt | ... Sophie | | Hanna Hertelendy | ... Natasha Skrapinov | | Elya Baskin | ... Karpatov | | Than Wyenn | ... Ambassador Gaufridi | | Richard McKenzie | ... Ron Steigler | | Sandy Ward | ... Senator Slipshod | | Danna Hansen | ... Mrs. Slipshod | | Mitch Kreindel | ... Dennis Watson | | Richard Seff | ... Pallbearer | | Terrence Currier | ... Pallbearer | | Leon Greenberg | ... Pallbearer | | Austin Hay | ... Pallbearer | | Mark Hammer | ... Pallbearer | | Maurice Copeland | ... Pallbearer |
REVIEWS Review by anonymous (posted on 14-Jan-2007) BEING THERE was my first and last film. But what a film for a debut! While news anchoring at WLOS-TV in Asheville, N.C., I was cast by Hal Ashby himself to play Riff, head of the Secret Service detail that comes to the Biltmore House (stand-in for the Rand mansion in the movie) to "case it" before the U.S. president (Jack Warden) visits. As the only TV anchor/reporter in the cast, I had a "leg up" in getting stories for my newscasts. When the casting director called to tell me to be at the Biltmore House the next morning at 6--"for wardrobe and make-up"--I didn't dare call my bosses at the TV station for fear they wouldn't let me do the movie. I was going to be in this film if it meant quitting my day job. And now, some 27 years later, how glad I am that I am in it, if only in a small speaking role. All I had hoped for was to be chosen to appear an an extra in the funeral scene (they were casting several dozen locals) and wound up cast as a "day player" with my own dressing room, for God's sake. The high point for me was doing a TV report on makeup legend Charlie Schram, who had been the head of MGM's make-up department during its golden years, making up the likes of a teen-age Judy Garland, Ava Gardner, Margaret Hamilton as the Wicked Witch of the West in the "Wizard of OZ", among actors in many now-classic films. Being there is right; i.e. being at the right place at the right time, and, brother, was I ever! As for the movie, it is subtle--and extremely original--in its humor. It doesn't hit you over the head with "Now, it's time to laugh." It has timeless things to say about media and politics--and how quickly the voting population can be led like sheep. When I write my memoirs, I shall have much to say about the making of this film, the stars, the on-set care lavished by director Ashby and his crew on everything, including a bump in an Oriental carpet that would not have been noticed by 99.999 percent of the audience. But Ashby noticed it and, therefore, yelled "Cut!" Why Shirley MacLaine required her scenes to be shot after midnight, where she lived in Asheville and how she ran afoul of the owner of the house the movie company rented for her during the Asheville location shooting.
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