So
today is the anniversary of both William Talman and Wesley Lau’s deaths, albeit
in different years. I never like to combine their tribute posts, but I’m afraid
that this year I will have to. It has been extremely, unpleasantly hectic the
last couple of weeks and with it already evening in my time zone, I just don’t
think I’ll have the chance to write two posts today.
I
have to admit that I’m running into that same dilemma of not knowing what to
say for either one of them that I haven’t already said before. And yet I still
want to try; I can’t just go past this day without doing something in their
honor.
I
started looking through posts from past years to see how I handled it. On one
of William’s, I noticed that I mentioned a Wild Wild West fanfiction story
I was writing about William’s episode, The Night of the Man-Eating House.
His character dies in the main part of the episode, but since it was a dream of
Artemus Gordon’s, in reality he was still alive. But the episode ended with
them really finding the house from the dream, so there’s the chance that the
same events would play out. I decided to write my story having things turn out
differently in reality than in the dream. When I talked of it in that first
post, I was stalled and could not think how to continue or finish the story.
This year, I finally succeeded in doing so, and I am quite pleased with the
results. If anyone would like to read that story, which is definitely a tribute
to William Talman and his awesomely played character, it’s here: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7813673/1/The-Night-of-the-Dream-Come-True
The
community of William Talman fans on Facebook was hoping that MeTV would finally
put up part 2 of that interview they did with Tim Talman a year and a half ago.
I and others tried to convince them to do so. It would seem they have not. Had
they done so, that would have been a very timely and exciting thing to bring to
the readers here on this sobering day.
It
is such a strange coincidence to have lost two of our Perry cast members
on this day, albeit in different years. I am grateful it wasn’t the same year,
as Wesley brought so much to people between 1968 and 1984. I am sorrowed, as
always, that William Talman died so young, in 1968. I wonder sometimes what
things he might have appeared in and what he could have shared with his family
had he been able to keep living. But I also always think of his heroic act of
speaking out on the dangers of smoking and wonder how many lives he changed
with those powerful, first anti-smoking messages. I have come across people who
have talked of how those messages changed their lives and how they decided to
stop smoking because of them. It’s a beautiful legacy to leave. Although it
doesn’t change the sadness of him leaving us so soon, it surely is a great
comfort to know that he made such an important difference.
I
greatly enjoyed writing for Hamilton, Andy, and Amory Fallon in The
Malevolent Mugging, which I have finally finished at last. They and Mr.
Sampson were definitely the stars of the tale and I loved devoting it to them.
Of course, the actors’ amazing performances are by and large why I adore
writing for their characters. All of them were brought to life in the series so
expertly.
Wesley
was so wonderful as Amory Fallon in The Impatient Partner, even
capturing the attention of the executive producer and directly leading to him
being cast as Andy for four seasons. It’s so interesting how one little
decision, positive or negative, can affect things for years to come. What if
someone else had been chosen as Amory? What if they had decided to use Med
Flory or someone else as the Lieutenant? What if we had never come to know
Lieutenant Anderson?
Wesley
was an amazing character actor and very widely appreciated for his skills,
which was why he appeared on so many shows. But Lieutenant Anderson was his
only role as a steady cast member and that is undoubtedly the role for which he
is most remembered. I am very glad that he was the one chosen for the part and
that we got to know his great character from seasons 5 through 8. Of course,
had someone else been picked instead, we wouldn’t have known any different, but
it certainly wouldn’t have been the same as it was with Wesley there.
I’m
always delighted to receive comments from people who fondly remember Wesley as
Andy. It pleases me that he was so well-received by many viewers, since often
it is difficult for a replacement cast member to be accepted by long-time
viewers who remember and love the original cast member. I myself took a little
bit of time to warm up to him (and Steve) when I started watching again, but it
didn’t take long and I loved them.
I always take August
30th to remember the passing of these two great actors and human
beings, but I think of them in general every day. There are many lessons we can take from them about acting and playing good characters, but there are also important lessons from their personal lives. They were both devoted to
family and friends and stood by them no matter what. They were also both very
courageous and believed in saying and doing what had to be done. Those are great
examples to take into our lives.
