Month: May 2004

RIP Richard Biggs

For fans of the television series Babylon 5 sad news arrived today about the sudden death of Richard Biggs, who played Dr. Stephen Franklin on the series. Biggs died unexpectedly at age 43 on Saturday morning due to what paramedics on the scene are describing as either a massive stroke or aneurysm.

The creator of Babylon 5, J. Michael Straczynski, wrote the following:

I was awakened today with several phone calls from cast members and Doug to pass along the terrible news that this morning, Richard Biggs passed away.

Were still gathering information, so take none of this as firm word, but what seems to have happened, happened quickly. He woke up, got up out of bed…and went down. The paramedics who showed up suggested it was either an aneurysm or a massive stroke.

His family members have been informed, and all of the the cast have, as far as we can determine, also been informed.

This is a terrible loss for all of us. Richard was a consummate professional but more than that he was an honorable, stand-up guy. If he gave you his word on something, you never had to wonder about it afterward. He was always helpful and supportive of all the cast, even those who only came in for one episode, always with a ready smile and determined to do whatever it took to make the scene work. He was, quite simply, a terrific guy, and everyone here is just devastated at the news.

More word as this develops. We may try to have some kind of fund raiser to help give whatever assistance may be helpful for his kids.

We all miss him terribly.

jms

Your guide to B-movies . . .

Looking to better know the world of underproduced, underfunded straight to video films? Check this glossary.

Some examples:

Lambert, Christopher: six feet of hard, throbbing French reason to not see a movie. I can handle Lambert as part of an ensemble cast, like when he got to be Rayden, but if his name is above the title, then I aint seeing that movie. (The exception here is Mean Guns, but that was because Ice-T was the villain.)

Screaming whafucks: no, its not a punk band, although it probably should be. The screaming whafucks is a disease contracted by anyone whos ever viewed a film, looked at the screen, looked at anyone else he watched it with, and yelled, Whafuck?! Cemetery Man is a good example, as are most European horror movies.

Thug Fu: every thug knows this generic movie martial art, where the only two moves are a heavily looped overhead right and a roundhouse kick. Thug fu is notable for being the only martial art thats been designed from the ground up to make its wielder an open target. The tenets of thug fu include not being able or willing to engage a single opponent in any other way but one on one, the deadly Empty Gun Toss, and the unshakable belief that fighting like a man is in some way morally purer than living through the movie. Note that no one in a pre-Rush Hour Jackie Chan movie has ever even heard of Thug Fu, as they will usually beat the crap out of Jackie by using their superior numbers against him. (Theres a reason why the archetypical Jackie Chan fight sequence involves Chan running away.)