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Powers of Texas
Powers Boothe
by Maggie Van Ostrand |
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Surely
there are more powers in the great republic of Texas than can be listed in any
single article, or even in any single book. This is about one of them: Powers
Boothe.
Powers Boothe was born in Snyder
on June 1st, 1948 to Merrill Vestal Boothe and Emily Kathryn Reeves. He attended
Texas State University, San
Marcos (then Southwest Texas State) where he was a member of the Lambda Chi
Alpha fraternity and received his Master of Fine Arts from Southern Methodist
University. |
| | Photo
by Steve Granitz
© WireImage.com
Image courtesy WireImage.com
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Powers
Boothe has long been one of America's finest actors in two major categories,
character and leading man. He certainly showed a tremendous range
when portraying that crazy, charismatic cult leader, Jim Jones (the
"Mad Messiah") in the two-part television biography, "Guyana Tragedy:
the Story of Jim Jones." Playing a man perceived by his followers
to be Godlike, Jones persuaded 913 of his dedicated followers to commit
mass suicide, and ordered the assassination of visiting journalists
and a congressman. Playing such a complicated man could not have been
a simple matter. And yet Boothe pulled it off so well with his nuanced
performance that he was awarded an Emmy.
Boothe plays such varied characters as Shakespeare's King Henry IV
and Richard III onstage, and author Raymond Chandler's hard-boiled
detective, Philip Marlow on television for three years; the traitor,
John A. Walker, Jr., in "Family of Spies;" Alexander Haig in the movie
"Nixon;" and the major role of gambler and con man Cy Tolliver on
HBO's acclaimed series about the old West, "Deadwood."
Like
a true Texan, Powers Boothe brings authority and forcefulness to the
characters he plays. He has said of the Tolliver character's dark
side, "one of the interesting things about it is people, fans or whatever,
will say to me, "Oh my god, you were so brutal to kill those kids."
And I say, "Yeah, but did they deserve it?" And they all go, "Yes."
So in one of David's [Milch] brilliant ways of writing, in the town
[of Deadwood], one takes care of their own business, right? You are
the law. Your own law." |
| Boothe
said in a February interview with IGN, that he was "crushed" when he learned "Deadwood"
wasn't coming back " because I thought we had created -- David and the cast --
the most unique show on television. You know, "genius" is thrown around a lot,
but there's not much question about David. And then, just on the business side,
we had the second highest numbers [on HBO] to Sopranos, we had excellent
foreign sales, excellent DVD sales… A critical hit, an artistic hit… What do you
want? So I don't know what happened, but fortunately, we're supposed to do two
more two-hour movies and kind of wrap it up, this summer. I hope we do that, because
the audience deserves it. They really do." |
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| Boothe
also portrays a main character on the mega hit series "24" that fans both love
and hate -- Vice President Noah Daniels, giving Daniels a multi-faceted personality
who's confident and determined one minute, and confused and insecure the next,
rarely seeing eye-to-eye with the president. |
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In his IGN interview, Boothe was asked "What was it like coming onboard such a
huge show like [?24"]?" and he responded, "First of all, I was very flattered
that they were interested in me and had written this role for me. It's quite different,
coming off of Deadwood. But I met with these guys, and I really liked them.
Obviously, I liked the show, and I just think they're very clever, and topical
and obviously they're doing something right, because their audience runs the whole
gamut from extremely left to extremely right. So I think the wisdom to put issues
and problems out there, and let us get involved with it and solve it in our own
way, or not, is really what drives the show. Along with just incredibly clever
writing and great acting. Like I said, they were good enough to write this for
me, and why not [do it]? |
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Boothe has been married
only once, to Pam Cole, since May 25,1969, and they have two children. Daughter
Parisse, appeared with her father in several episodes of "Deadwood" and is now
filming a comedy.
Powers Boothe has a successful career and a successful
marriage, a combination almost unheard of in the movie industry. That's what happens
when you're one of the Powers of Texas. |
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