By Owen Quinn author
Have you seen how people throw a wake for themselves just to see who would turn up and what they would say about the deceased? Well, I thought, why wait until a celebrity you admire to die before writing how much they have impacted you through their movies or television roles.
I think when certain actors die, the whole world goes cold. One such actor would be the great Jeff Goldblum. With his quirky ways and iconic roles and sheer genuine love of talking to people and seeing new things make him the uncle you want most in your life.
I first became aware of Jeff in Buckaroo Banzai when we rented it from a video shop. Yes kids, we had shops where you could rent movies and put them in a machine rather than hit a button and pull them from the air.
Soon would come the Invasion of the Body Snatchers remake. Don’t be duplicating our Jeff you bloody pod people. If you do we will lose all that made him special to us.
Jeff is just one of those people that burn up the screen. With his wild eyed look and mass of curly dark hair, you couldn’t fail to watch his performances. Wnen there was a possibility of a Doctor Who movie to be played by an American, Gene Wilder was touted as the top choice to play the Doctor. But for me, Goldblum was more energetic and versatile. His quirkiness was not just in his delivery but in every nuance of his performance.
Then David Cronenberg cast Goldblum in the lead role of The Fly remake. While the original is a classic, with the evolution of special effects, it was a chance to go further.
It was a powerful performance from Goldblum as Seth Brundle, a scientist on the brink of achieving teleportation. He meets reporter Ronnie Quaife, played by Geena Davis whom he invites to document his work. It is an Oscar worthy performance as Seth accidentally teleports himself along with an unnoticed fly. In a beautifully wriiten script, we are throen into a powerful story with themes of loving someone with a rehabilitating illness then forced to help them commit suicide. Goldblum evolves from a loving, naive scientist to a monster in every sense of the word. Goldblum is in great shape as the effects of the mutation take hold. The scenes where he vomits over his food as he gets excited over the fact he is changing into some new lifeform is one the audience remembers.
Then we get Ian Malcolm, one of the best and funniest roles that perfectly meld Goldblum’s quirkiness, comedic timing and spawned some of the most memorable lines in cinema history. He is annoying but brilliant. These days, his line ‘scientists were so busy saying they could make dinosaurs, they never stopped to ask if they should’ has more resonance than ever. He would become the action man of the sequel, we meet his daughter who also comes along for the ride and basically he takes over leading man duties. Malcom would show up in Fallen Kingdom warning a court of the disaster the scientists had released. This was an older Malcom who was seeing everything unfold just as he warned all those years ago. The icing on the cake was when he, Alan Grant and Ellie teamed up wiyh the new generation of Chris Pratt’s Owen and Bryce Dallas Howard’s Claire Dearing to save the world from Biosyn. It was pure magic as old and new teamed up to fight dinos.
Even in the Thor Ragnarok movie as the Grandmaster, Goldblum’s debut is long overdue. All you can do is smile as his character is so OTT that he makes it look effortless. He fits right in with the fun of Ragnarok.
But that’s Goldblum for you. Even when he did his series, The World According To Jeff Goldblum, you can see how he has a natural curiosity about the world and people. In fact, it is down to him that I know the origins of jeans. He approaches everything with a persona so magnetic that you can’t help but smile as he lights up every room he is in.
From Wicked to Baby Boss to Kaos, Jeff Goldblum is one of the people that light up this world through his smile and open approach to everything. You can also hear this in his music as well.
I hope I get to meet him one day but maybe not. And that is why I wrote these tributes. Better to tell people what they mean before they enter the Undiscovered Country.
Now, there’s a show that is in dire need of Jeff’s talents. Scotty, beam the Goldblum up asap!
The Time Warriors and Beyond 