A University of Mississippi School of Journalism and New Media professor who has written a book about an American character actor who appeared in a number of classic films was recently featured in a Washington, D.C. podcast.
Professor Joe Atkins’ book Harry Dean Stanton: Hollywood’s Zen Rebel is expected to be published by the University Press of Kentucky in October. Atkins was recently featured in the “Documental” podcast created by journalist Whitney Fishburn.
Harry Dean Stanton
Professor Joe Atkins
“Whitney is the niece of Harry Dean Stanton and thus had a special interest in the topic,” Atkins said.
In the podcast Family legacies that hurt: The secret heart of actor Harry Dean Stanton, Fishburn talks about Stanton, who is known for roles in “Cool Hand Luke,” “Paris, Texas,” and the HBO show “Big Love.” He was in hundreds of movies, but never in a lead role. He died in September of 2017 at the age of 91.
“For me, Atkins’ investigative work – which I have yet to read, but have discussed in part with him – will shed light on some mysteries I have carried my whole life,” Fishburn writes. “Thank you for that, Joe.
Click the graphic to listen to the podcast.
“For movie buffs, I suspect when the book is released, he will have added a worthy volume to the canon of American filmography, spanning as his biography of Harry Dean does, so many decades and so many changes in Hollywood that a scrawny Kentucky kid with a lovely lilt to his voice managed to survive and reflect back to us all.”
On Wednesday, Feb. 26, a veteran filmmaker who completed a documentary about Stanton will visit the School of Journalism and New Media to screen a documentary about poet and novelist Robert Penn Warren.
Tom Thurman’s film “Robert Penn Warren: A Vision” will be shown at 5:30 p.m. in the Overby Center Auditorium inside Farley Hall. After the screening, the filmmaker will talk with Atkins about his documentaries. You can read the story about Thurman here.
If you have a comment or question about this story, email ldrucker@olemiss.edu.
