Two truly entertaining figures have passed away all too soon. Singer/composer/actor Isaac Hayes seems like he’s been around forever, but he was only 65 when he passed away on Saturday. Hayes is most famous for his immortal Shaft theme, but he was an entertaining actor in his own right, generally having fun with his performances. Younger people probably know him best for voicing Chef on the South Park cartoons, but for me he’ll always be Gandolph Fitch, a hardluck fellow ex-con who annoyed James Garner on three memorable episodes of The Rockford Files. I can’t remember why he called Rockford “Rockfish,” but Garner’s habitual annoyance at this made me laugh every time.
Movie-wise, Hayes starred in the campy blaxploitation flick Truck Turner, memorably played The Duke in John Carpenter’s immortal Escape from New York, and helped send up blaxploitation flicks in Keenen Ivory Wayans’ marvelous I’m Gonna Get You Sucka! Hayes also appeared in Fire, Ice & Dynamite, as reviewed on this website. Mr. Hayes remained busy until his death, and a couple of his projects, such as Return to Sleepaway Camp, have yet to be released.
Bernic Mac is best known from his roles in George Clooney’s Ocean films, but I’ll always remember him for his consistently hilarious self-titled sitcom for Fox. That was a great show, and like its Fox counterpart Malcom in the Middle, never really got the attention or audience it deserved. A Chicago native, Mac often namedropped his hometown, and I never even held his being a White Sox fan against him.
Mac died at the horribly young age of 50. I hate to say it, because it’s a petty matter, but it always seems to be the really funny comedians who die too young. And unlike many, Mac died of completely natural causes and not because of drugs or whatnot. He will be missed.
