Michael Strong brings a nervous watchfulness to men who would prefer to seem in control. We value that uneasy presence, though the supporting parts can leave little space to discover what else he could do.
Fi1m perspective
Strong's Stegman, the used-car salesman in Point Blank (1967), has the sort of smarminess that makes reassurance unwelcome. It is a useful part for an actor whose furtive manner so often suggests something concealed. Beside Lee Marvin's grim authority, that nervousness gives John Boorman another means of making us distrust the people on screen. We were unsettled by Point Blank, particularly the way Boorman makes remembered violence seem close at hand. Marvin remains the main reason to see it, but Strong belongs in that company.
A charter member of the Actors Studio, he carried his Broadway role as the cat burglar Lewis Abbott into William Wyler's Detective Story (1951). His stage and live television work drew feeling from small gestures, a useful discipline for an actor often working within an ensemble. Paul Newman's On the Harmfulness of Tobacco (1962), a short adaptation of the Chekhov monologue, offered a different opportunity. As the sole performer, Strong had room that his later supporting film roles seldom allowed.
In Patton (1970), as Brigadier General Hobart Carver, he belongs to a film built around George C. Scott, and the distinction matters. Franklin J. Schaffner handles the battles with assurance, but his fascination with Patton can get in the way of judging him. Strong's intensity is well suited to an officer, although this is a less useful place to look for his individual qualities than Point Blank. We recommend the film without pretending that every reliable supporting performance explains its success.
The move towards Hollywood and episodic television in the mid-1960s made practical use of those qualities, with guest roles in Mission: Impossible and Columbo. The danger is repetition: another guarded man, another reason to distrust him, without much time to find out anything else. Start with Point Blank, then give him the extra space of On the Harmfulness of Tobacco.
Biography
Michael Strong (born Cecil Natapoff) was an American stage, film and television actor. Born in New York City on 8 February 1918, he graduated from Brooklyn College and trained at the Actors Studio. He was a member of the original Lincoln Center Repertory Company and appeared in numerous Broadway productions from the late 1930s onwards.
Strong's film credits include Detective Story (1951), Point Blank (1967), Patton (1970) as Brigadier General Hobart Carver, and The Great Santini (1979). On television he appeared in series such as Star Trek (1966) as Dr Roger Korby, Mission: Impossible, Columbo and Hawaii Five-O. He also had recurring roles in daytime serials including The Edge of Night and Peyton Place.
