Joe Turkel could make a calm voice sound like a reason to worry. We rate the restraint he brings to The Shining and Blade Runner, where small parts become a persistent source of unease.
Fi1m perspective
As Lloyd the bartender in The Shining (1980), Joe Turkel seems in no hurry to make himself frightening. Opposite Jack Nicholson, his restraint gives Stanley Kubrick another way to make the hotel feel unsafe. We were unnerved by Lloyd's composure beside Nicholson, because it offered no reassurance when the other performance was making the danger so obvious. Turkel suits the patient film around him, giving us time to become suspicious of a man who appears perfectly at ease.
Turkel had spent decades in supporting parts in films and television, often as gangsters or soldiers, before Lloyd and Tyrell brought him wider recognition. Kubrick first cast him as Tiny in the heist ensemble of The Killing (1956), then as Private Pierre Arnaud in Paths of Glory (1957). With The Shining, their third and final film together, Kubrick made particularly good use of the calm authority Turkel brought to supporting work.
In Blade Runner (1982), Ridley Scott casts him as Dr Eldon Tyrell, the replicants' creator, and puts that composure to a different use. Turkel's polished manner makes extraordinary power seem routine to the man who holds it. The performance helps us accept the future Scott has built, even when the detective story feels thin. We value that contribution without pretending it is the film's chief attraction: the city, Vangelis's music and Rutger Hauer remain stronger reasons to see it.
His gaunt face and penetrating voice could make him conspicuous without much effort; the pleasure is in how little he seems to force. That restraint can keep us at a distance, and Tyrell offers little warmth in a film whose chilly pace already demands patience. But we would not ask Turkel to become more demonstrative just to make either part larger. Start with The Shining, especially if Nicholson's more obvious menace usually puts you off.
Biography
Joe Turkel was an American character actor. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he served in the US Army during the Second World War before beginning his screen career in the late 1940s. He appeared in more than 100 film and television roles through the 1990s.
Turkel is best known for three collaborations with Stanley Kubrick: as Tiny in The Killing (1956), Private Arnaud in Paths of Glory (1957), and Lloyd the bartender in The Shining (1980). He also played Dr Eldon Tyrell in Blade Runner (1982). He reprised the role in voice form for the 1997 Blade Runner video game, his final credit, and retired from acting the following year.
