ASHLAND, ORE.–Character actor Morgan Paull, who worked regularly in movies and TV from the 1970s into the 1990s, died here July 17, after having been diagnosed with stomach cancer. He was 67.Science fiction movie fans may recall his performance in the opening scene of “Blade Runner” as detective Holden, whom Harrison Ford’s character replaces. MSTies will remember him as gangster Salvatore Mistretta in the movie in episode 512- MITCHELL.
His Variety obit is here.
A site called cultfilmfreaks.com interviewed him in May, and even brought up MST3K:
Well one b-movie that has a huge cult following is MITCHELL…
I’m surprised to hear that… I didn’t think anybody ever saw MITCHELL.In the 1990’s there was a show called MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER where one guy and two puppets watch low budget movies and make fun of them: and the best episode was when they set their sites on MITCHELL…
I didn’t know about that. And that was again Andy McLaglen. I’m playing an Italian hood and the producers are all against this. They said, “He doesn’t look Italian.” And there are Northern Italians who are blonde… I had light brown hair, you know. And he sold them on me for this thing. I think my name was “Mistrada” or something.
And you die on screen once again, this time on a motorcycle…
That little motorcycle scene he wanted in close-up and it was really dicey because the guy actually shot a blood pellet and hit me in the forehead. You know, if they hit you in the eye, you’ve lost your eye. And I said, “Andy, what are you trying to do to me here?”But Mort was the best guy in the business… It took him three takes before he fired off the shot and it hit right where it was supposed to hit me. But, you know, that’s one of those things that can go bad. And Andy I trusted for everything… You had to… He was my meal ticket.
And there are other great actors in this including Martin Balsam, John Saxon…
And Merlin Olsen and a girl who I was just in love with at the time, Linda Evans. And her husband was always lurking around; he wanted to see what’s going on because she’s so gorgeous. And he didn’t want her out of his site… It was very inhibiting for everybody. So Andy said, “Tell him to park in Malibu… We gotta do this thing!”
