Best Supporting Actors

 

I’ve just found out that the veteran actress Lynn Cohen died this year
Lynn was never a leading actress, but was, what was known as a jobbing actress. 
Always busy, always in the background of a drama or a story
I always loved her as Miranda’s mother figure Magna in Sex and The City.
and when she finally kissed Cynthia Nixon on the forehead with the affirmation of “ You Love” 
I was in buckets.

Many of us have these supporting actor types in our lives. 
They aren’t best friends or next of kin’s.
We don’t have to see them all of the time , but they are often beavering  away in the background, becoming characters we all can take for granted.
And ones we only mourn when they finally disappear from view.

I consider Albert as an animal member of this group. He walks around the cottage in the background like a shadow, with wide shocked looking eyes and a faint limp which allows the eye to focus on him. But with a succession of various tap dancing bulldogs taking centre stage, he remains to be content with a full food bowl and a quiet corner in which to sleep.

Weaver of Grass ( http://weaverofgrass.blogspot.com/)  is another low key constant but a blog one. Never showy , never boastful she has been a quiet queen of blogs for a decade and a half, chatting quietly of country life in North Yorkshire with a pace that is both comforting and consistent. 

Mrs Trellis, Gorgeous Dave, Wendy I’ve been to the ballet once with, Sitges Jon, 
Leo and his texts.....Mick and Meggie and a whole bucketful of names from Sheffield.....the list is long and one I realise so beautifully long as I write my Christmas cards with my gliding ink pen 

On reflection I can think of two dozen such characters, perhaps more who provide a backdrop to my life.
Like Magna they are vital and so important  to ones existence, but like Magna, they always worked away in the background , mostly unsung, but as necessary to us , as air is to breathing 





47 comments:

  1. We are all supporting players in the lives of others and have an impact, whether we know it or not. Sometimes we are in the background but we are not loved less.

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    1. I love your comment.

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    2. And sometimes it’s the supporting players that steal the show

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  2. When things at home get a little too overwhelming for me to ignore out of the blue someone calls and changes my perspective.A friend who lives on the south coast and a cousin who when she heard my predicament said she was driving straight over-it was 7pm,she is an hour away and had work next day but it was wonderful that she was there for me and even during corona virus times x(I insisted I was fine) sometimes I think they are psychic x

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    1. Touching base with a friend can be a lifesaver

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  3. As Judy said to me about Cynthia recently, who would have thought she's become what she has when we knew her as an 18 year old "starlet".

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    1. You knew Cynthia Nixon ? Way to go!!

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    2. Her father was a very good friend of mine when we lived in Mexico and Cynthia used to fly down to visit him.

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  4. I call those folks 'the quiet people'. But sometimes they change the world, don't they? Weaver's comment yesterday about making Christmas magic stopped me dead in my tracks. Today I was able to do just that.

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    1. I like this very much
      “ quiet people”
      Thank u

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  5. Like Starting Over said, we all playing supporting roles in others lives, whether we realize it or not. Supporting actors aren't only the "quiet ones"; one friend I've had for decades touches countless lives on a regular basis. She's involved with many charities. Always busy. Always sparkling. Always positive and cheerful. Another is a 77 yr. old Italian cook who bakes a dozen loaves of zucchini or banana bread at a time, hundreds of cookies, huge pots of marinara... delivering to all she knows who are home-bound or just need a treat. Drives people to and from LAX. Visits the sick in hospitals. Happily taken for granted, it seems. Both of them. But neither is the quiet type.

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    1. That’s why I wrote this today....often we think we are alone , because the “ big players” in our lives are away
      We forget the “ quiet people”

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    2. No we dont forget them. We just take them for granted

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  6. Yes Weaver... I was so nervous when she was not blogging. And today she sounds so good! Hope you are taking care. This time of year can be tough.....

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  7. I used to feel like that about certain parents of several of my good friends. Now, of course, all are gone, but the wonderful memory of them remains. The friends themselves are still there.

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  8. What a lovely tribute. There when you need them as you are for them, picking up exactly where you left off. Undemanding but constant and true for all that...

    LXX

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  9. Barbara Anne4:53 am

    So very true.
    'Even in a time of elephantine vanity and greed, one never has to look far to see the campfires of gentle people.' - Garrison Keillor

    Hugs!

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  10. A beautiful read, John. Thank you.

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  11. Do we forget the quiet people? I don't think so. If we do we should be ashamed of ourselves.

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    1. I think I was wrong when I said we can forget them, as I think we never forget them but we do take them for granted , as they often arnt as showy as the main players

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  12. Yes, strong like an oak tree, they may not ever 'achieve' much in worldly terms, but have a great presence. Never advertising themselves, but supporting and loving others. They make the best friends.

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  13. JG I too have returned to ink pen usage, I remember during handwriting at school (with ink well and blotting paper) the pride I took as my ink pen glided across the lined paper. I am using purple ink !!! x

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  14. I know exactly what you mean. Lyn Cohen is in one of my favourite films ( unfortunately a Woody Allen ), Manhattan Murder Mystery. I cried when I heard J T Walsh died, another jobbing actor....

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    1. I love Manhattan murder mystery but can’t place Lyn...I need to revisit it

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    2. She looks a lot older in that film, than she did in your photo. She was the murdered wife, who Diane Keaton sees on a passing bus..

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  15. John, you are so perceptive and you put your feelings (and findings)into words so beautifully. That post was just spot on. So here's to the quiet ones, and let's try to emulate them. xx

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    1. I over think things ....and have a tendency for sentimentality

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  16. Like background singers, who are sometimes better than the featured one, I imagine that background actors are sometimes better than the leads.

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    1. Some of my favourite actors have been in the supporting cast
      Thelma Ritter is one x

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  17. have you called nu yet, john?

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  18. We all need a good supporting cast! Dave and I are constantly spotting people in TV shows and movies and saying, "Oh, that's so-and-so!" But I'm right more often than he is. :)

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  19. Nice people finish last They are taken for granted when they are alive and are mourned and missed when it is too late.There are not a lot of them. Humans are a very flawed species.It is the way of it.

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    1. I guess in some ways you are right, in the black and white , Darwinian sense of finishing last .
      But nice people are often loved more
      I like that

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    2. This opens a whole new discussion on the nature of love which (fortunately for everyone ) I will not pursue:)I would like to think genuinely nice people are loved more...

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  20. I will think about my supporting people today, John. Thanks for the reminder!

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  21. I have (again) been binge watching SATC...I love it...and watched that very scene last night ..I cried too. Low key people.. aren't we lucky that the stalwarts are there? not loud or showy..but reliable x

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  22. I'm trying to figure out who is in the background of my life ....and who I am back ground for

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  25. What a lovely post John made me think of the ones in my life who I must call the friend you can rely on, I love how you describe Albert he's always there but never pushy, we learn so much from our pets.

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