Playwright Horton Foote died yesterday at 92.
From the Hartford CT Courant:
“The Texas-born Foote won his first Oscar for the screenplay of 1962′s Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird,” which starred Gregory Peck as the honorable lawyer Atticus Finch, and his second for 1983′s “Tender Mercies,” starring Robert Duvall as a struggling country singer. Both actors won Oscars for their roles.”
Robert Duvall was also in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” appearing in the last few minutes as Boo Radley, when he comes out from behind Jem’s bedroom door. Or Mr. Arthur, as Atticus corrects Scout when she says “Hey, Boo.” This was Duvall’s first film role.
I would love to see “Tender Mercies” again. Great title, which I somewhat vaguely recall comes from the Bible. I could find out in about two seconds, but instead, here’s the next stone I’m jumping to in this stream of consciousness. From my grandmother’s diary, January 10, 1936:
“I wrote a ‘vignette’ which I sent to The American today. John said they’d never buy it, but he was a good sport and mailed it for me, anyway. It tells of a club of young married women who blackball a girl for smoking and receiving a man caller in her husband’s absence. After voting her out, the ringleader is seen at church, singing “There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy.” I called it “The Quality of Mercy.”
I will be sharing more from my grandmother’s diary from time to time. There’s nothing scandalous, and I don’t think she would mind at all.
