Vanya on 42nd Street

You know his voice as Rex the dinosaur in all the Toy Story movies, Dr. Sturgis in Young Sheldon.

I mean, an unforgettable Uncle Vanya in Louis Malle's magnificent Vanya on 42nd Street with his lifelong theatrical collaborator, André Gregory, in, I mean, one of the great films, My Dinner with André, playing himself.

And millions, millions of more of screen appearances.

But, you know, if you don't know, and it seems absurd that you might not, but maybe you don't, Wally is also one of the great seekers of the American theater, one of the least classifiable writers and actors in the theater.

To me, he most memorably played the lecherous Charlie Rose type in Royal Tenenbaums, which was oddly presaging Charlie Rose's grace.

He was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Vanya on 42nd Street.

He was in The Dream Team.

which I fucking love that movie.

Larry Pine, one of the actors, has Alzheimer's and he has like an assistant there who's like telling him the lines when he forgets.

which creates a whole other layer oh the idea is like let's do end game one more time we'll go to our friend's house they kick the friend out of the house for like three weeks and they all get together in the house every day and they rehearse scenes from end game and they film it that was the only condition that the Samuel Beckett estate like would give them the rights to do it as if it was just showing rehearsal and not full scenes okay the Beckett estate is infamously very protective And it's not Vanya on 42nd Street or anything where you get like the whole play.

And it's not the Master Builder where it's really boring and no one likes it.

It's a beautiful, touching meditation on aging.