Biography
Harry Dean Stanton ranks among the most acclaimed American performers of his generation. After years spent in minor supporting parts, he emerged as an improbable leading presence during the 1980s, bringing his rugged, low-key naturalism to cult landmarks such as Repo Man, Paris, Texas, and Wild at Heart as well as commercial hits including Alien, Pretty in Pink, and The Green Mile. Although acting defined his public image, Stanton also worked steadily as a musician and vocalist whose path through song proved every bit as singular as his screen history. Unconcerned with standard categories, he selected material according to personal resonance rather than genre boundaries and delivered folk, blues, country, rock & roll, and gospel with matching sincerity and quiet intensity. He issued relatively few recordings, yet the soundtrack for the 2014 documentary Partly Fiction contains several of his privately captured vocal performances, while October 1993 gathers live and studio tracks made with his band the Cheap Dates.
Born July 14, 1926, in West Irvine, Kentucky, Stanton grew up in a household where music held a central place; his mother played guitar with notable skill, and he joined his brothers in a barbershop quartet. As his vocal assurance grew he also took up guitar, harmonica, and drums. After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II he enrolled at the University of Kentucky, studying journalism and radio while securing an early notable part in a student staging of Pygmalion. At one point he wrestled with divided creative impulses, unsure whether to commit to music or theater; he later explained to an interviewer, “I had to decide if I wanted to be a singer or an actor. I was always singing. I thought if I could be an actor, I could do all of it.”
Leaving school, he moved west to California and trained at the Pasadena Playhouse. He also toured with a vocal ensemble, functioning both as singer and driver. Back in California he began pursuing screen work in earnest and made his television debut in a 1954 episode of Inner Sanctum. By the mid-1960s he appeared regularly on television and earned an early memorable film credit in 1967’s Cool Hand Luke, where his character Tramp carried a guitar and performed “Just a Closer Walk with Thee.” A modest yet striking role followed in the 1971 cult favorite Two-Lane Blacktop. While filming Sam Peckinpah’s 1973 picture Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid he befriended Bob Dylan; afterward Dylan asked him to contribute vocals to a session, though the resulting tape disappeared. Stanton also appeared in Dylan’s directorial effort Renaldo & Clara. He displayed his singing again in the 1978 drama Straight Time, rendering “Hand Me Down My Walking Cane” during a backyard gathering.
The 1979 release Alien placed Stanton in a major commercial success, matched that same year by his part in Bette Midler’s The Rose. Already established as a respected character actor, he received two lead opportunities in 1984 that became critical favorites: Alex Cox’s punk-inflected Repo Man and Wim Wenders’s atmospheric Paris, Texas. He contributed to the latter film’s soundtrack album, singing the Mexican standard “Canción Mixteca” and delivering the monologue “I Knew These People.” Ry Cooder, composer for Paris, Texas, invited him to sing on the 1987 album Get Rhythm; Stanton’s vocal appears on “Across the Borderline,” a song Cooder originally wrote for the film The Border that starred Stanton’s close friend Jack Nicholson. In 1988 Stanton acted in Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ; Michael Been of the Call also appeared in the cast and persuaded Stanton to play harmonica on “For Love” and co-write “Watch” for the Call’s 1989 album Let the Day Begin. The Boston roots-rock band the Raindogs featured him reciting on “Some Fun” for their 1990 release Border Drive-In Theatre.
By the early 1990s Stanton performed regularly around California clubs when not filming. He recorded Billy Swan’s “Make Yourself a Home in My Heart,” with Swan on piano, for the 1992 film Roadside Prophets and covered another Swan composition, “I Hope I Never Get Too Old (To Rock & Roll),” on the 1992 compilation A Town South of Bakersfield, Vol. 3. Working with the Cheap Dates—guitarist Jamie James of the Kingbees, pedal-steel player Jeff “Skunk” Baxter of the Doobie Brothers, bassist Tony Sales of Tin Machine, and drummer Slim Jim Phantom of the Stray Cats—he released a 1993 single on Rx Remedy Records containing his versions of “You Don’t Miss Your Water” and “Across the Borderline.” Those tracks, plus additional studio and live recordings, later appeared on the 2021 Omnivore Recordings collection October 1993.
A spare reading of “Amazing Grace” surfaced on the 2002 grief-themed anthology Getting Through It. In 2007 he collaborated with British electronic producers the Sugarman on The Riddle, supplying narration over an upbeat dance track. For Record Store Day 2014, Omnivore issued a picture-disc single of a casual home recording in which Stanton sang the George Jones hit “Tennessee Whiskey.” The single previewed the soundtrack for the 2014 documentary Partly Fiction, which captured Stanton performing several personal favorites while reflecting on his life and career. He portrayed himself in the Killers’ “Christmas in L.A.” video, and one of his final appearances found him playing and singing “Red River Valley” in a 2017 episode of Twin Peaks. Harry Dean Stanton died in Los Angeles in September 2017 at the age of 91.
Born July 14, 1926, in West Irvine, Kentucky, Stanton grew up in a household where music held a central place; his mother played guitar with notable skill, and he joined his brothers in a barbershop quartet. As his vocal assurance grew he also took up guitar, harmonica, and drums. After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II he enrolled at the University of Kentucky, studying journalism and radio while securing an early notable part in a student staging of Pygmalion. At one point he wrestled with divided creative impulses, unsure whether to commit to music or theater; he later explained to an interviewer, “I had to decide if I wanted to be a singer or an actor. I was always singing. I thought if I could be an actor, I could do all of it.”
Leaving school, he moved west to California and trained at the Pasadena Playhouse. He also toured with a vocal ensemble, functioning both as singer and driver. Back in California he began pursuing screen work in earnest and made his television debut in a 1954 episode of Inner Sanctum. By the mid-1960s he appeared regularly on television and earned an early memorable film credit in 1967’s Cool Hand Luke, where his character Tramp carried a guitar and performed “Just a Closer Walk with Thee.” A modest yet striking role followed in the 1971 cult favorite Two-Lane Blacktop. While filming Sam Peckinpah’s 1973 picture Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid he befriended Bob Dylan; afterward Dylan asked him to contribute vocals to a session, though the resulting tape disappeared. Stanton also appeared in Dylan’s directorial effort Renaldo & Clara. He displayed his singing again in the 1978 drama Straight Time, rendering “Hand Me Down My Walking Cane” during a backyard gathering.
The 1979 release Alien placed Stanton in a major commercial success, matched that same year by his part in Bette Midler’s The Rose. Already established as a respected character actor, he received two lead opportunities in 1984 that became critical favorites: Alex Cox’s punk-inflected Repo Man and Wim Wenders’s atmospheric Paris, Texas. He contributed to the latter film’s soundtrack album, singing the Mexican standard “Canción Mixteca” and delivering the monologue “I Knew These People.” Ry Cooder, composer for Paris, Texas, invited him to sing on the 1987 album Get Rhythm; Stanton’s vocal appears on “Across the Borderline,” a song Cooder originally wrote for the film The Border that starred Stanton’s close friend Jack Nicholson. In 1988 Stanton acted in Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ; Michael Been of the Call also appeared in the cast and persuaded Stanton to play harmonica on “For Love” and co-write “Watch” for the Call’s 1989 album Let the Day Begin. The Boston roots-rock band the Raindogs featured him reciting on “Some Fun” for their 1990 release Border Drive-In Theatre.
By the early 1990s Stanton performed regularly around California clubs when not filming. He recorded Billy Swan’s “Make Yourself a Home in My Heart,” with Swan on piano, for the 1992 film Roadside Prophets and covered another Swan composition, “I Hope I Never Get Too Old (To Rock & Roll),” on the 1992 compilation A Town South of Bakersfield, Vol. 3. Working with the Cheap Dates—guitarist Jamie James of the Kingbees, pedal-steel player Jeff “Skunk” Baxter of the Doobie Brothers, bassist Tony Sales of Tin Machine, and drummer Slim Jim Phantom of the Stray Cats—he released a 1993 single on Rx Remedy Records containing his versions of “You Don’t Miss Your Water” and “Across the Borderline.” Those tracks, plus additional studio and live recordings, later appeared on the 2021 Omnivore Recordings collection October 1993.
A spare reading of “Amazing Grace” surfaced on the 2002 grief-themed anthology Getting Through It. In 2007 he collaborated with British electronic producers the Sugarman on The Riddle, supplying narration over an upbeat dance track. For Record Store Day 2014, Omnivore issued a picture-disc single of a casual home recording in which Stanton sang the George Jones hit “Tennessee Whiskey.” The single previewed the soundtrack for the 2014 documentary Partly Fiction, which captured Stanton performing several personal favorites while reflecting on his life and career. He portrayed himself in the Killers’ “Christmas in L.A.” video, and one of his final appearances found him playing and singing “Red River Valley” in a 2017 episode of Twin Peaks. Harry Dean Stanton died in Los Angeles in September 2017 at the age of 91.
Albums
Singles
