Jack Weston makes embarrassment visible in his face and hands, giving anxious men enough hope to keep us interested. We value his physical comedy, though he can press a joke harder than it needs.
Fi1m perspective
Weston's comic men have trouble concealing how much they want things to go well. Hope, fear and sheepish embarrassment all show in the face and hands; the performance rarely waits for a good line. We like him most when those visible efforts to cope make a familiar comic type feel like someone we recognise. When he pushes harder, the same expressiveness can make a scene feel laboured.
He could also be unpleasant: his Carlino in Wait Until Dark (1967) is one of the criminals terrorising Audrey Hepburn's blind character. The comic parts gave his physical gifts more room, with Terrence McNally writing Gaetano Proclo in The Ritz (1976) with Weston in mind. Weston played the part on stage and repeated it on film. In Alan Alda's The Four Seasons (1981), he is Danny Zimmer, a hypochondriac dentist whose anxieties suit that conspicuous discomfort. The ensemble benefits from his recognisable fretfulness, although the broadness can become heavy going.
By Dirty Dancing (1987), the supporting role places him in charge of other people's holidays: he plays Max Kellerman, owner of the Catskills resort. That is a different position from the hapless men so often associated with him, and a useful reminder that his work was not confined to one comic predicament. Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze make the central romance convincing. We were won over by the dancing, which earns affection despite the familiar plotting and occasionally awkward dialogue.
His Marty Freed in Elaine May's Ishtar (1987) is another supporting professional, this time the agent to two inept songwriters. It is a sensible use of an actor whose comedy makes room for both hope and abasement, though the film's strongest claim on us is the friendship between its leads. Their dreadful songs are funny, and the intrigue gets in their way. The detours make it a qualified recommendation, but the friendship is worth staying for. For more of Weston himself, try The Four Seasons, accepting that he sometimes presses the comedy too hard.
Biography
Jack Weston (born Morris Weinstein; 21 August 1924 – 3 May 1996) was an American actor. He was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and began acting as a child at the Cleveland Play House. After serving in the US Army during the Second World War, he moved to New York and made his Broadway debut in 1950.
Weston appeared in numerous films and television series, often in character roles. His credits include Wait Until Dark (1967), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), Cactus Flower (1969), Dirty Dancing (1987) as Max Kellerman, Ishtar (1987) as Marty Freed, and Short Circuit 2 (1988). On stage he received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor for his performance in Woody Allen's The Floating Light Bulb (1981). He was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award for his role in The Ritz (1976).
