Jon Finch

In my life, everything is related to everything else, usually in unusual ways. I call this reverse gauge symmetric synchronicity, if for no other reason than I think that sounds cool.

Most recent example?

For the past two months I’ve been reading a Shakespeare play and then borrowing from the library the BBC Shakespeare DVD of said play. I started doing this to cement the play’s experience for me, and also to bring out details and nuances in the text that I may have overlooked in a first read. But, strangely enough, I am really starting to enjoy watching them.

These BBC Shakespeare DVDs were all originally filmed between 1978 and 1985. While everyone’s garbed in Elizabethan costumes, you still have to forgive the hairstyles.

Anyway, one of my favorite BBC Shakespeare actors is Jon Finch. I first watched him as Don Pedro in Much Ado About Nothing. Strong delivery, strong presence, rolling-writer rolling rrrrrrs. He had some brief screen time last week as the king in Henry IV part I, and last night I see he’s reprising the role (kind of – I’m watching them in reverse chronological order) in Richard II. He’s Henry Bolingbroke, deposer of kings, usurper of thrones, and hypocritical crusader wannabe.

Who is Jon Finch? Well, you wouldn’t really know the name. But in an entirely unrelated online surfage I came across mention of him on a blog devoted to the Alien trilogy.

Whoa!

Turns out Henry Bolingbroke was set to play Kane in the original Alien. Had actually filmed a couple of scenes over three days before a diabetic attack forced him to bow out of the project.

Too bad! While I can’t envision him in the role (perhaps because John Hurt played it perfectly), I have no doubt an actor of his talent would have found it a neat little springboard to wider fame and greater movie roles.

Reverse gauge symmetrical synchronicity: when your favorite Shakespearean actor is linked to your favorite SF horror movie.