Alan Arkin

If I start a movie and I see Alan Arkin's name in the credits, I know there's at least one good thing about it. There won't be any more of those, though, because Arkin passed away a few days ago at the age of 89.

I've seen him in a wide variety of films. He was in the Audrey Hepburn thriller Wait Until Dark. He was in Tim Burton's gothic fantasy Edward Scissorhands. He had a particularly memorable role in Little Miss Sunshine. But for me, the great Alan Arkin role is in an animated film, 1982's The Last Unicorn.

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It's not as obscure as it used to be, maybe you've seen it. I certainly saw it, many times. It was one of those movies I watched over and over as a kid. One could easily argue Arkin's role was the heart of the film. He played the magician, Schmendrick (from a Yiddish word meaning "fool"). A young man strangely at ease with his incompetence, yet not without a timid hunger for validation, he acts as a guide to the titular unicorn as well as for the audience.

Like the rest of that film's impressive cast, he brings something to the role no-one else could have and helped to make it a truly unique and wonderful film.

It turns out Arkin died in my hometown, San Diego.

Well. So long, Schmendrick.