Jack Palance (Vladimir Palanuik/Walter Jack Palance), one of my favorite actors, died today at the age of 87. All Jess Franco watchers will immediately recall his off the wall meanderings as Brother Antonin in Justine (1968), a role Franco said Palance played while under the influence. Given his lack of respect for his own European career, he fiercely denied his numerous Spaghetti western appearances when confronted about them in his later years, he was a steadfast professional. The Oscar and Emmy award winning actor was one of the great screen “heavies” in George Stevens’ SHANE, among others. He recently auctioned off his movie memorabilia. Offscreen he was a landscape painter, who inscribed his canvases with poetry. Palance claimed he never watched the films he appeared in. — I’M IN A JESS FRANCO STATE OF MIND

Palance came to the attention of many arthouse fans in 1988 with the film Bagdad Cafe in which he shines as an artist who wants to capture on canvas the beauty he perceives in the rotund Sägebrecht.