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Originally Posted by btcarfagno
Interesting (to me anyway) tie in with a baseball movie and A Christmas Story.
Darren McGavin played both Ralphie's father in A Christmas Story and Gus Sands the shady gambler in The Natural. What is interesting is how a controversy surrounding his work in The Natural led to his getting the role in A Christmas Story.
Before shooting began on The Natural, there was a big brouhaha regarding billing for the film. It was pretty much an all star cast and agents were fighting over who would go where. McGavin came to the project a bit late and was told that his billing would have to be well below where it would normally be. He made a big stink and told them not to credit him at all. This led to a bunch of Hollywood insider publicity for McGavin, who parlayed the notoriety from the controversy into a starting role in the interesting little project that was at the time making the rounds at the various studios.
A Christmas Story.
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Interesting. I think McGavin's portrayal of the cranky "old man" is crucial to the charm of A Christmas Story. The guy who played the father in the recent live TV version just couldn't do the character justice. Also, I really enjoyed McGavin's portrayal of Carl Kolchak in the '70s series, The Night Stalker. Also an entertaining character very much dependent on McGavin's unique persona.