I felt bad that I didn't give any props to William Katt in the 'Carrie' review. He played the character of Tommy Ross, but I mostly referred to him as Amy Irving's boyfriend, which is unfair. He has the curly golden mop of a Nordic prince, but he's still a human being. I shouldn't have objectified him as "the boyfriend." To assuage my guilt, I decided to do a little in depth research on Mr. Katt by looking him up on imdb.
His credits are extensive, but most of them I didn't recognize. As far as I can tell, he's the sort of actor who works consistently in television and low budget movies in a variety of large and small parts. He did star in a TV series in the 80s called 'The Greatest American Hero.' He was also in a bunch of made-for-TV Perry Mason movies with his real-life mother actress Barbara Hale.
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| In my opinion, that is not how the greatest American hero should stand. |
IMDB gives a couple interesting bits of trivia.
1. He was up for the part of Luke Skywalker, which I can totally see.
2. He hated his "The Greatest American Hero" costume so much, he refused to wear it for a TV Guide cover shoot so they used an illustration of him instead.
I suspect perhaps some disgruntled former TV Guide employee now works for IMDB because on William Katt's page his profile picture is of an animated character he voiced from some movie called 'Firedog.' Seems like kind of a cold move.
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Most importantly, I discovered that Katt participated in Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre in the episode 'Thumbelina.' He stars with his alternate-universe-Star-Wars-costar Carrie Fisher in the role of Thumbelina. The episode also features Burgess Meredith as the pedantic, slightly pervy Mr. Mole, who takes exception to a teleological view of history and is not averse to bursting into song.
I think this is one of the stronger Faerie Tale Theatre tales. The production design still has that community theater vibe, but it's inventive and displays a lot of visual flair. After the Frog woman kidnaps Thumbelina from her matchbox, she meets a bunch of odd characters like the Mr. Mole and Mr. Field Mouse and the Swallow. The Frog woman wants to marry her off to her gross Frog son but Thumbelina escapes and floats downstream on her lily pad. She meets the Field Mouse and he's really nice. He seems like a gentleman. He takes her in and introduces her to "one of the wealthiest rodents of the region" Mr. Mole. They both seem like surrogate fathers to her until the Field Mouse drops a bomb on her by declaring she has to marry Mr. Mole. Poor Thumbelina. Everywhere she goes people just try to marry her off. Just because she's the size of a thumb and her brain is accordingly minuscule, that doesn't mean she can't make her own choices.
The only downside to this production was all the talking animals and singing gave Carrie Fisher an acid flashback to the drugged out haze of the Star Wars Holiday Special. Consequently, she had a brief relapse and the resultant coke binge was caught on film.
Luckily, all was well by the time she filmed her scenes with William Katt. William Katt plays the role of the Flower Prince. The Swallow shows up just in time to save Thumbelina on the day of her wedding to Mr. Mole. He flies her off to the magical fairy kingdom where the Flower Prince lives. Truthfully, William Katt doesn't have a lot to do in this. He only pops up at the end to play the size and species appropriate love interest of Thumbelina. But it's good casting because William Katt looks exactly like how I imagine a fairy prince. I understand why Carrie Fisher would want to marry him. And that's not at all a veiled reference to Bryan Lourd.
I don't know how involved she was in the casting process but props to Actress and Fairy Tale Enthusiast Shelley Duvall anyway for giving us more William Katt. And in case you were wondering, those are her official titles. I know because she gave me her business card once.
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