Gregory Walcott's straight playing gives Plan 9 from Outer Space some steadiness amid the awkward speeches. We value that seriousness, and his work in westerns and police dramas deserves more attention than one film's reputation allows.
Fi1m perspective
Gregory Walcott plays Jeff Trent in Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957) as though the words deserve to be spoken. They often do not: Ed Wood's screenplay supplies awkward, inflated speeches that no amount of conviction can make brisk. Walcott keeps at them without signalling that he knows how peculiar the film is. We warmed to him because he takes Jeff seriously, giving the accidental comedy someone dependable to work against.
That does not make the performance wholly convincing. Much of the delivery in Plan 9 from Outer Space is wooden, and Wood's prolonged talk gives the performers little chance to pick up the pace. The crude effects can be funny, but the pleasure wears off before the speeches end. We would save it for an evening when curiosity matters more than suspense. Its reputation as one of the worst films ever made has overshadowed Walcott's other work, which hardly amounts to a fair assessment of an actor.
Walcott's more usual work was as a man entitled to give orders: a drill instructor, a sheriff or a policeman, often speaking with a Southern drawl. Parts in Battle Cry (1955) and Mister Roberts (1955) came before Plan 9 from Outer Space, and his career continued through the police series 87th Precinct (1961–62). As Detective Roger Havilland, he had a place in a format suited to that authority. Dozens of television westerns also made use of him.
The repeated work with Clint Eastwood is worth remembering, too, including Joe Kidd (1972) and Every Which Way but Loose (1978). The later credits also include Spielberg's The Sugarland Express (1974) and Ritt's Norma Rae (1979). There is enough work there to warrant looking beyond the familiar account of an actor caught in an unfortunate film. His final screen role was a cameo as a potential backer in Tim Burton's Ed Wood (1994). Start with the notorious film if curiosity takes you there, but leave room for the westerns and police work.
Biography
Gregory Walcott (born Bernard Wasdon Mattox) was an American film and television actor. He appeared in over 100 films and television series between 1952 and 1994. His best-known role was as pilot Jeff Trent in the 1957 science-fiction film Plan 9 from Outer Space, directed by Ed Wood.
Walcott began his career with an uncredited part in Red Skies of Montana (1952). He had regular guest roles in Western television series including Bonanza and Rawhide, and co-starred as Detective Roger Havilland in the police procedural series 87th Precinct (1961–62). He appeared in several films with Clint Eastwood, including Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), The Eiger Sanction (1975) and Every Which Way but Loose (1978). His final screen role was a cameo as a potential backer in Tim Burton’s 1994 biopic Ed Wood.
Walcott was born on 13 January 1928 in Wendell, North Carolina, and died on 20 March 2015 in Canoga Park, California.
