The wit of Fred Willard
Remembering the sharp mind of the legendary comedy actor, who died last month
“EVERYONE HAS A door in their brain that says, ‘Don’t exit here’ — that place where all the dumb things are that shouldn’t be said,” the mighty Fred Willard once remarked. “I’ve probably gone through that door more than anyone should in a lifetime…”
If ever there were a film comedian who embraced their own foot-in-mouth affliction, it was Fred Willard — a colossus of American improvisational comedy who died on 15 May, aged 86. In a screen career spanning more than 50 years, Willard enjoyed many roles, but it was his appearance as Lt Hookstratten in This Is Spinal Tap that put him on the radar, chaperoning the band before their ill-fated gig at an Airforce base. “Better not stand too close,” he says in a sublime, gag-packed cameo. “People might think I’m part of the band.” As fate would have it, he would go on to become a key player in Christopher Guest’s improv-a-coms.
Willard was pure comedy helium — he lifted everything he was in, from Roxanne to Anchorman to Austin Powers. But it’s his performances for Guest that made him unforgettable. His killer instinct for an improvised gag was savage, wearing the persona of the affable, self-regarding braggart with a misplaced sense of grandeur. It’s in his Mike Lafontaine in
A Mighty Wind, Ron Albertson in Waiting
For Guffman and, unforgettably, his dogshow commentator Buck Laughlin in Best
In Show — a stream-of-unconsciousness rib-battering that ranks as one of the comic peaks of this century (“This may be a bit off the path but… How much weight do you think I can bench-press?”).
In his Twitter tribute, director Edgar Wright wondered whether anybody else in the history of cinema has stolen a movie as blatantly as Willard does in Best In Show. Which, really, was the very essence of Fred: an ensemble player who also happened to be a scene assassin. It says everything about Willard’s unique talent that not only did nobody once complain — they always ended up asking for more.