WILLIAM H. MACY

Les, Gerald, and I are fans of William H. Macy. I claim that I "discovered" him in the movie Fargo and have followed his career since. In looking at ImDB, I see that I, in fact, saw him numerous times before my supposed discovery, in such films as Searching For Bobby Fischer, Benny & Joon, Somewhere In Time, Mr. Holland's Opus, Shadows And Fog, and Ghosts Of Mississippi, all of which I watched. I also saw him in numerous television shows. Obviously those roles did not have as large an impact. His range is impressive as he can portray high drama, broad or subtle comedy, and voiceovers for animated movies. Along with David Mamet, he created the Atlantic Theater Company in New York City and has directed and acted in Broadway plays. He has appeared in more than 60 movies and numerous television roles since 1978.

Macy stars in the Showtime series Shameless and the character he plays, Frank Gallagher, certainly is shameless! We are eagerly awaiting the next year of the series. I said I was tempted to subscribe to Showtime, because of Shameless and Nurse Jackie, starring Edie Falco, being on there. However, we get both of those series from Netflix.

I've written previously on my BLOG about our "festivals". We choose a director, actor, or genre to honor and spend the month viewing those movies. In the past we have had festivals honoring the directors Stanley Kubrick, Billy Wilder, and Michael Powell, and the actors Ed Harris, Gene Hackman, Meryl Streep, Barbara Stanwyck, and numerous others.

This month we are having the William H. Macy Festival at our house. We have 10 movies, which we haven't seen, scheduled to arrive from Netflix.

Les asked, "How could there be that many we haven't seen?" I said, "That's because we haven't had a festival!"

A friend said she didn't know Macy and when I described him, she said, "He must be a little like that Steve Buscemi." I said, "No, he's more like David Strathairn, but we've already had festivals for both of them!"