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Michael Sarrazin

Birth Name: Jacques Michel André Sarrazin

Birth Place: Quebec City, Quebec, Canada

Profession Actor

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Michael Sarrazin obituary

The Canadian-born actor Michael Sarrazin, who has died of cancer aged 70, was so visible in Hollywood movies from 1967 to 1977 that one may wonder what happened to his subsequent career. A facetious answer might be that he moved back to Canada and made Canadian movies. Another answer might be that his sensitive, gently rebellious, flower-child persona and his lanky, boyish looks, with his long hair and soulful eyes, were no longer appropriate to the roles he took as he got older.

However, during the decade of his stardom, Sarrazin seemed to fit the anti-hero ethos of the era, often playing rootless characters, typically in his most celebrated role as the ex-farmboy drifter in Sydney Pollack's They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969). Sarrazin, idealistically willing to let fate take a hand, is paired with an embittered Jane Fonda in a dance marathon that is supposed to be a microcosm of the Depression. It is Sarrazin who gets to speak the rhetorical question of the title after he helps Fonda commit suicide.

"You could have paid me a dollar a week to work on that film," Sarrazin explained. "It hits you bolt upright. I still get really intense when I watch it. We stayed up around the clock for three or four days. Pollack said we should work until we showed signs of exhaustion." Perhaps it was a blessing in disguise when Universal refused to lend Sarrazin out for the Jon Voight part in John Schlesinger's Midnight Cowboy.

He was born Jacques Michel André Sarrazin in Quebec City, but was brought up in Montreal, where he went to eight different schools before dropping out. In fact, he was only interested in the few chances he got to act at school. While still in his teens, Sarrazin went to Toronto, where he soon got work as an actor. After starring opposite Geneviève Bujold in a TV production of Romeo and Juliet, and appearing in two shorts for the National Film Board of Canada, in one of which he played a troubled youth who steals a motorcycle, he was offered a contract by Universal Studios, making him one of the last actors to come up through the old studio system.

Sarrazin's first film for the studio was Gunfight in Abilene (1967), a drama set at the end of the American civil war, in which the teen idol Bobby Darin was miscast as a sheriff. Sarrazin made an impression as a young cowhand who gets whipped (shirtless) by a villainous hired gun. This was followed in the same year by his first leading role, in the enjoyable comedy-drama The Flim-Flam Man as an army deserter, a corruptible innocent, taken on as a protege of a rural conman (George C Scott).

More contemporary was Sarrazin's role in The Sweet Ride (1968) as a convincing beach bum in Malibu who tells his girlfriend Jacqueline Bisset that all he wants out of life is the surf and can only marry her when he has got the beatnik life out of his system. After making the sweet ride on his surf board, he walks away, leaving the board in the sand, having realised that there is more to life than escapism. Thus began his 14-year relationship with Bisset in real life. They were to appear together in two further films: Believe in Me (1971), in which they are stoned most of the time, and as husband and wife in John Huston's The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972), with Paul Newman in the title role.

Newman had cast Sarrazin in Sometimes a Great Notion (first released in the UK as Never Give an Inch, 1970), the second of the five films he directed. Sarrazin has the most sympathetic role as the youngest of a family of lumberjacks who is the butt of his elders' jokes on his hippy hairstyle and liberal views.

Among his other roles was in Robert Mulligan's The Pursuit of Happiness (1971), as an anti-Vietnam war student who finds his hippy lifestyle put on trial rather than his accidental running over of an old lady in his car. In Harry in Your Pocket (1973), he portrayed an apprentice to master pickpocket James Coburn, and in Peter Yates's romantic comedy For Pete's Sake (1974) he was Barbra Streisand's impecunious cab-driving husband. At the same time, he was appearing on television, notably as a relatively handsome and articulate "Creature" in Frankenstein: The True Story (1973), co-adapted by Christopher Isherwood from Mary Shelley's novel.

The majority of films Sarrazin made in the 1980s and 90s were Canadian productions, few of which rose above the mediocre. An exception was La Florida (1993), a French-Canadian film produced by his brother Pierre Sarrazin, in which he played a lounge singer called Romeo Laflamme. "I asked Michael to act in French, which was difficult for him as he'd been so long in LA," said Pierre, "but it all came back to him. After all, we'd grown up in east-end Montreal."

Sarrazin's final, brief, appearance will be in Walter Salles's upcoming screen adaptation of Jack Kerouac's On the Road. He is survived by his two daughters, and his brother and sister.

• John Schlesinger

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April 19, 2011

The monster : michael sarrazin (1940-2011).

Actor Michael Sarrazin, who was splendid as The Monster in the 1973 television event Frankenstein: The True Story , passed away on April 17. He was 70.

Born in Québec City, raised in Montréal, it would be in English Canada, in Toronto, that he began his acting career, appearing on stage, on the CBC and in National Film Board shorts. Spotted by Universal Studio scouts, he headed for California in 1965. In a Montreal Gazette article on Sarrazin’s then impending Hollywood career, the actor allowed that, “ Lots of actors - and starlets - go to Hollywood, get a contract and are never heard from again ”, adding that he expected being put to work “ on TV films like the Hitchcock show or even the Munsters. ” In due time, Sarrazin would appear on the Hitchcock revival series, but his Frankenstein was not of the Mockingbird Lane variety.

Sarrazin earned a “Most Promising Newcomer” nomination at the Golden Globes in 1968 and, though true stardom proved elusive, he would distinguish himself in demanding supporting roles. Prominent parts included that of George C. Scott’s apprentice in The Flim-Flam Man (1967) and Paul Newman’s troubled half-brother in Sometimes a Great Notion (1970). Perhaps his most famous role was that of the world-weary Robert, Jane Fonda’s dancing partner, in They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969). A smattering of lead parts included such diverse fare as The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (1975) and The Gumball Rally (1976). Television work included appearances in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and The Ray Bradbury Theater , and he played Edgar Allen Poe in an episode of Mentors (2000).

Sarrazin played in several Canadian films through the years, notably Joshua Then and Now (1985), but it wasn’t until 1993 that he finally “came home’ to appear in a Québécois film with a hugely popular turn as Romeo Laflamme, a has-been lounge singer in the comedy La Florida , the year’s top-grossing Canadian film.

Rarely seen today, Sarrazin’s Frankenstein film is one of the most inventive of all variations on Mary Shelley’s tale. Directed by Jack Smight, with a literate and highly original script by Christopher Isherwood and Don Bachardy, Frankenstein: The True Story was a very elaborate, three-hour spectacle broadcast in two parts on NBC in 1973. An all-star lineup included James Mason as a mad doctor named Polidori, David McCallum as Clerval (whose brain ends up in The Monster’s skull), Ralph Richardson as DeLacey, the blind man, with small parts distributed to Agnes Moorhead, Michael Wilding and John Gielgud. Dr. Who’s Tom Baker puts in a rousing performance as a salty sea captain, Nicola Pagett was the bewildered Elizabeth and Victor Frankenstein was played by Zeffirelli’s Romeo, Leonard Whiting. In a star-making turn, the same year she played Solitaire opposite Roger Moore’s James Bond in Live and Let Die, young Jane Seymour played the disturbingly vicious Bride, Prima.

Trading on Sarrazin’s good looks and soulful eyes, Frankenstein’s creature starts out as beautiful, but soon succumbs to disfiguring decay. The film is loaded with strong and memorable scenes: The creation sequence turns the usual dark and stormy night setting on its head as The Monster is animated with blinding sunlight focused and amplified with mirrors. Victor surprises Elizabeth by reanimating a butterfly, but she is horrified by the unholy transgression and crushes the insect with a Bible. There’s a rip-roaring scene aboard a storm-drenched vessel, and an unforgettable sequence where The Monster barges in on Prima’s debutante ball and brings her evil career to a most violent end.

The film was shot on English locations and at Pinewood Studios, home to many Hammer Films, including some of Peter Cushing’s Frankensteins. Hammer’s Roy Ashton was head makeup man on True Story , but Sarrazin’s Monster was handled by Harry Frampton (rock star Peter Frampton’s dad).

Frankenstein: The True Story deserves to be seen and rediscovered. With an underplayed, controlled and heartfelt performance, Sarrazin created one of the most compelling portrayals of Mary’s Monster on film.

A selection of scenes from Frankenstein: The True Story on YouTube .

A review on The Uranium Café .

Obituaries: Montreal Gazette , Los Angeles Times .

Labels: (Character) The Monster , • Frankenstein: The True Story (1973)

8 comments:

This film is a favorite of mine and I always like Michaels's work..he was a brilliant actor and his work will live on in his films...he is immortal now. Of particular note I recommend people seek out a dvd copy of " The reincarnation of Peter Proud " he was fantastic in the role. Rest in peace Michael..you were a great actor..." Polly dolly ! Hah hah hah ! "

I saw FRANKENSTEIN: The True Story when it was originally broadcast, and I was mesmerized by it. For me, Michael Sarrazin is second only to Boris Karloff in his sensitive performance in the demanding role of Frankenstein's "Creature." Bravo, Michael. Bravo. MP

Michael was good indeed - though I found the film a little silly,first-run (I do appreciate it for Aggy Moorehead's last role.) He was always a solid actor: THEY SHOOT HORSES, FLIM-FLAM MAN, et al. Rest to him, and comfort to his loved ones, -Craig P.S. - As far as "as good as Boris" Monsters, I go with Per Oscarsson (another recent passing), and Bo Svenson

Thank you for the reminder of this miniseries. I saw it during the original broadcast and I'd love to see it again. It looks like it made it to DVD in 2006 and Amazon has copies. Cool.

This was the first place I looked when I heard he died. I too saw Frankenstein The True Story when it was first broadcast (I was nine)I'll always remember the lines "poli-doli" and "bravo, Victor" I always thought he was perfectly cast in that role (Gumball Rally too). I remember there was an edited VHS version of FTTS (goodtimes video I think) years ago that contained a couple of violent bits that the Tv version and DVD ommitted/s -it's more graphic during the "head ripping off" scene and there's a bit more of that arm on the floor stuff,from what I remember. Thanks for the rememberance (as I would've expected at this site). Roger T

This is my favorite Frankenstein next to the Universals..Saw it first run back in high school days in fall of '73 I believe..I used to enjoy seeing it in reruns in the 80s too and it never seemed too long in one sitting with commercials.Was so glad when the dvd came out and it still moves along pretty fast without splitting it up..

My sisters and I watched this when it was broadcast. I was only 7 years old and it scared the crap out of me!!! I haven't seen it since 1973, but I remember 2 parts. First, Frankenstein's monster shaking someone's hand and pulling it off and at the end, the Monster sets to bury everyone alive in the snow and he asks: "Anymore Fuddy Duddys?

Hello, if the site admin or any visitors could help me identify a specific Frankenstein movie, it would be trully appreciated. I remember back in 1998 when I watching this version of a Franken movie, which had a really gruesome scene which I shall never forget, but then, here I am, browsing the web and trying to find its title. The scene in specific detailed a failed attempt to recreate a partner for Frankenstein. The woman (I believe it was a woman) was inside a tank of sorts, and then, her body parts start to go down the drain, while Franken watches in horror from outside (maybe a window, I can't remember). It is hard to gather all details because I was a kid, and couldn't bear looking at it. Any lights to shed on this particular movie title? I'll bookmark this page and come back later to see if there are any answers. Thank you.

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Michael Sarrazin

Highest Rated: 100% Sometimes a Great Notion (1970)

Lowest Rated: Not Available

Birthday: May 22, 1940

Birthplace: Québec City, Québec, Canada

A Canadian actor known for his expressive eyes and taciturn drifter roles, Michael Sarrazin achieved his most fame co-starring in "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?." After dropping out of school, Sarrazin studied at New York's Actors' Studio and acted in short Canadian historical films. In 1965 he was signed by Universal and had a small role in the Western TV show, "The Virginian." In 1967 he was noticed for his portrayal of young con man, Curley, in "The Flim-Flam Man." His 1968 performance in the drama, "The Sweet Ride," earned him a Golden Globe nomination as Most Promising Newcomer and paved the way for his co-starring role in the period drama, "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?," playing opposite co-star, Jane Fonda. Sarrazin's performance was lauded for its restrained power. His next role was in Paul Newman's acclaimed family saga, "Sometimes a Great Notion," forming part of a strong ensemble cast that included Newman and Henry Fonda. As the '70s progressed, he played Barbra Streisand's husband in the comedy, " For Pete's Sake," and starred in the action comedy, "The Gumball Rally." By the '80s he began appearing in low-budget films like the thriller, "Seduction," with Morgan Fairchild. Since then he has stayed below the radar, making guest appearances on shows like "La Femme Nikita" or playing roles in low-profile features like "FeardotCom" and the Dolph Lundgren action film, "The Peacekeeper." Sarrazin passed away in 2011, at the age of 70.

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Michael Sarrazin, Actor, Dies at 70

By William Grimes

• April 20, 2011

Michael Sarrazin, a leading man in the late 1960s and 1970s who led Jane Fonda around the dance floor in the Depression drama “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” and played Paul Newman’s misunderstood half-brother in “Sometimes a Great Notion,” died on Sunday in Montreal. He was 70.

The cause was cancer, his agent, Michael Oscars, said.

With his big, soulful eyes and sensitively handsome face, Mr. Sarrazin brought youthful innocence with a dash of countercultural rebelliousness to films like “The Flim-Flam Man” (1967), in which he played a reluctant apprentice to George C. Scott’s grifter, and the 1973 television drama “Frankenstein: The True Story,” in which he gave a Byronic performance as the monster.

He was in great demand in the 1970s. He played a pickpocket trainee in the James Coburn caper film “Harry in Your Pocket” (1973) and Barbra Streisand’s cabdriver husband in the screwball farce “For Pete’s Sake” (1974). He brought a brooding complexity to the title role of the horror film “The Reincarnation of Peter Proud” (1975).

It was his performance in the 1969 film “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?,” a grueling existentialist drama directed by Sydney Pollack, that established him as one of the era’s more intriguing antiheroes. He played Robert Syverten, an aimless, unemployed film extra who enters a marathon dance contest with the equally desperate Gloria (Ms. Fonda), hoping to win recognition and prize money. Instead, after days spent circling the dance floor, he ends up fatally shooting his partner in a twisted act of mercy.

“You could have paid me a dollar a week to work on that,” Mr. Sarrazin told The Toronto Star in 1994. “It hits you bolt upright; I still get really intense when I watch it.”

Jacques Michel André Sarrazin was born on May 22, 1940, in Quebec City and grew up in Montreal. After dropping out of high school he acted in theater and television in Montreal and Toronto — he played Romeo to Geneviève Bujold’s Juliet in a live production on Canadian television — before being signed by Universal Studios in 1965.

He was assigned to the television series “The Virginian” and the TV movie “The Doomsday Flight” before making his big-screen debut in “Gunfight in Abilene” (1967), starring Bobby Darin and Leslie Nielsen.

“The Flim-Flam Man” put his career on the fast track. He played a drifting Malibu surfer in “The Sweet Ride” (1968) opposite Jacqueline Bisset, with whom he entered into a long romantic relationship, and a raw Confederate recruit (with James Caan) in “Journey to Shiloh” (1968), before being offered the role of Joe Buck in “Midnight Cowboy.”

Universal refused to let him take the role, which went to Jon Voight, but tried to make amends by steering him to Mr. Pollack and “They Shoot Horses.” The experience was every bit as demanding off screen as on.

“We stayed up around the clock for three or four days,” Mr. Sarrazin told The Toronto Star, adding that the director demanded that the actors remain in character. “Pollack said we should work until signs of exhaustion,” he said. “Fights would break out among the men; women started crying. I’d get into terrible fights with Bruce Dern.”

His career waned after the mid-1970s and “The Gumball Rally” (1976), his last prominent role. In 1993 he took a French-speaking role in the Canadian comedy “La Florida,” about a Quebec family trying to run a shabby motel in Hollywood, Fla. The film was a huge hit in Quebec, and as Romeo Laflamme, an-over-the-hill Canadian crooner and ladies’ man, Mr. Sarrazin became a cult figure in Montreal, where he returned to live in his 60s.

Mr. Sarrazin is survived by a brother, Pierre, of Toronto; a sister, Enid, of Montreal; and two daughters, Catherine and Michelle, also of Montreal.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (TV Series)

The quickening (1996), michael sarrazin: trevean, photos .

Quotes 

Trevean : More than anything, the Dominion wanted my people to bear the mark of their defiance. So... they brought us the blight. We're all born with it - we all die from it. When the blight quickens, the lesions turn red. Death soon follows. Some in childhood, most before they can have children of their own. Only a few live to be my age.

Doctor Bashir : I thought this was a hospital, and that you were a healer.

Trevean : I am. I take away pain.

[Bashir has developed a vaccine against the blight] 

Doctor Bashir : The vaccine isn't difficult to make. But seeing that everybody gets it will be a huge task.

Trevean : Oh, not a task. A privilege. Can you show me how to make it?

Doctor Bashir : I was hoping you'd ask that.

Doctor Bashir : I just want to do what I can to help, I'm not making any promises.

Trevean : Take care that you don't. Because we have dealt with people who give false hope before. Believe me, their deaths make the blight look like a blessing.

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Actor Michael Sarrazin dies at 70

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Canadian actor Michael Sarrazin, known for his role opposite Jane Fonda in They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, died Sunday in Montreal at age 70.

He died after a brief illness, with his daughters Catherine and Michele at his side, according to a family spokesman.

Quebec City-born Sarrazin was a "brilliant actor who rocketed to fame in his early 20s when he was discovered by Hollywood," said his agent Michael Oscars.

He played in The Flim-Flam Man with George C. Scott, Sometimes a Great Notion with Paul Newman, and took on an extraordinary turn in the 1973 television production of Frankenstein: the True Story , as a character who fights for the monster.  

More recently Sarrazin appeared in Canadian productions including 1985's Joshua Then and Now , based on the novel by Mordecai Richler, and La Florida , in which he played the lounge singer Romeo Laflamme. The film about a Quebec family who buys a motel in Florida to escape the cold winters won the Golden Reel Award for 1993.

"I asked him to act in French, which was difficult for him as he'd been so long in L.A., but it all came back to him. We'd grown up in east-end Montreal," Pierre Sarrazin recalled.

It also brought him great recognition in Montreal. "People would call out on the street 'Hello, Romeo Laflamme.' After all those roles in Hollywood, in Montreal, it was Romeo Laflamme," Sarrazin added.

Michael was joking with paramedics at the hospital right to the end, Sarrazin said. "He was an incredibly funny person and his best performances were for his family and his friends. He had an very inventive original mind and a very gentle soul."

Born Jacques Michel Andre Sarrazin on May 22, 1940 in Quebec City, Sarrazin went to eight different schools before dropping out. 

"None of us was surprised when Hollywood called for Michael because he was such a star in our family. People from the next block were coming over saying 'I hear there's a very funny guy, funny kid on the street.' He was a great raconteur," his brother said.

 He went to Toronto to find work as an actor, and found roles in theatre, on TV and for the CBC in his teen years. One of those roles was in a live TV drama version of Romeo and Juliet opposite Genevieve Bujold. He later studied at the Actors Studio in New York.

He was noticed by Universal while playing in a historical documentary short for the National Film Board of Canada. Beginning his Hollywood career in 1965, he began in TV series The Virginian and TV movie The Doomsday Flight before starring in the post-Civil War drama Gunfight in Abilene.

After coming to wider notice with The Flim-Flam Man , Sarrazin played a series of hollow-eyed, soulful drifters that seemed to fit the anti-hero ethos of the era.

He played an aimless surfer in 1968's The Sweet Ride and a medical student who shoots up in The Pursuit of Happiness , both opposite Jacqueline Bisset, who was a long-time romantic partner.

He is the Depression-era wanderer who dances with Fonda's cynical character in 1969's They Shoot Horses, Don't They? , a role in which he utters few lines, conveying his world-weariness with body language alone. He is also memorable in the title role of the psychological thriller The Reincarnation of Peter Proud , playing a man who relives his past reincarnations.

He moved into more minor roles in the 1980s, including spots on TV's Street Legal, Alfred Hitchcock Presents and in 1996's Deep Space Nine . One of his last films was 2008's The Christmas Choir, but he also has a small turn in Walter Salles's upcoming film On the Road,  based on the Jack Kerouac book. 

Sarrazin returned to live in Montreal five years ago where he was embraced as one of Canada's and Quebec's great contributors to cinema. He leaves his daughters Michelle and Catherine, sister Enid, sisters-in-law Marguerite Sarrazin and Suzette Couture and his brother Pierre.

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Michael Sarrazin

Birth Date: May 22, 1940

Death date: april 17, 2011, birth place: québec city, québec, canada, spouses: jacqueline bisset.

A Canadian actor known for his expressive eyes and taciturn drifter roles, Michael Sarrazin achieved his most fame co-starring in "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?." After dropping out of school, Sarrazin studied at New York's Actors' Studio and acted in short Canadian historical films. In 1965 he was signed by Universal and had a small role in the Western TV show, "The Virginian." In 1967 he was noticed for his portrayal of young con man, Curley, in "The Flim-Flam Man." His 1968 performance in the drama, "The Sweet Ride," earned him a Golden Globe nomination as Most Promising Newcomer and paved the way for his co-starring role in the period drama, "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?," playing opposite co-star, Jane Fonda. Sarrazin's performance was lauded for its restrained power. His next role was in Paul Newman's acclaimed family saga, "Sometimes a Great Notion," forming part of a strong ensemble cast that included Newman and Henry Fonda. As the '70s progressed, he played Barbra Streisand's husband in the comedy, " For Pete's Sake," and starred in the action comedy, "The Gumball Rally." By the '80s he began appearing in low-budget films like the thriller, "Seduction," with Morgan Fairchild. Since then he has stayed below the radar, making guest appearances on shows like "La Femme Nikita" or playing roles in low-profile features like "FeardotCom" and the Dolph Lundgren action film, "The Peacekeeper." Sarrazin passed away in 2011, at the age of 70.

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Actor Michael Sarrazin dies after battle with cancer

Canadian actor Michael Sarrazin is pictured in this 1985 file photo in Montreal while filming an espionage thriller called Keeping Track.

MONTREAL - Canadian actor Michael Sarrazin, best known for his role in "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" alongside Jane Fonda, has died. He was 70.

Sarrazin died in Montreal on Sunday surrounded by family after a battle with cancer.

The Quebec City-born Sarrazin played opposite many stars, including Paul Newman in "Sometimes a Great Notion" and George C. Scott in "The Flim-Flam Man."

He also played the monster in the 1973 TV mini-series "Frankenstein: The True Story" and in "Joshua Then and Now," which was adapted from Mordecai Richler's novel.

His brother, Pierre Sarrazin, recalled Monday how, even as a child, Michael had a wit and spontaneity that made him a local celebrity in Montreal's Notre-Dame-de-Grace neighbourhood.

"Michael was a very funny, entertaining boy from an early age," Sarrazin, himself a producer, said in an interview.

"People from the next neighbourhood would come over and say, 'We heard there's a very funny kid on this street.' "

By the time Michael Sarrazin, who idolized Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin, was a teenager, he was a star in Montreal, according to his brother.

Nobody was surprised when Hollywood came calling, he said.

"It was a very big thing for us as a family and for the city -- for Montreal -- when it all happened for him," he said.

Sarrazin moved back to Montreal from Los Angeles a few years ago to be closer to his children.

Michael Oscars, his Toronto-based agent and friend of 27 years, said the actor's daughters, Catherine and Michelle, were at his side when he died.

Oscars said Sarrazin was a gifted conversationalist who had an amazing collection of friends.

"He had a gentleness and a sensibility about him that was very distinct and unique," he said.

"A lot of people always said that he had the most soulful eyes of any actor in Hollywood."

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"Horses".' star Michael Sarrazin dies at 70

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Actor Michael Sarrazin dies at 70

Michael Sarrazin, a tall, lanky, doe-eyed actor who projected a soulful appeal in films of the 1960s and 1970s, memorably as the farm boy who becomes the dancing partner of Jane Fonda in the acclaimed film “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?,” died April 17 at a hospital in Montreal. He was 70 and had cancer.

The Canadian-born Sarrazin (pronounced SARA-zin) began his acting career as a teenager and was a vet­eran of stage and television before signing a contract in 1966 with Universal studios.

He arrived in Hollywood with a rebellious self-confidence. At the time, he told the Toronto Star that he considered himself a “tramp actor.”

“I don’t want a zillion dollars,” he said in the interview. “I don’t want to be a carbon-copy star. All I want is to be me, Michael Sarrazin, maybe the best damned actor in the world. Take me on my own terms, or I’ll cut out.”

He played an apprentice to con man George C. Scott in “The Flim-Flam Man” (1967); a surf bum in “The Sweet Ride” (1968) opposite his longtime girlfriend Jacqueline Bisset; and a prodigal son in “Sometimes a Great Notion” (1970), an adaptation of Ken Kesey’s book about loggers.

His career peaked in 1969 when he played a drifter who joins a Depression-era dance marathon in “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?”

The film was widely viewed as a reflection of a corrupt modern society, with its rigged finish and its masochistic master of ceremonies declaring, “There can only be one winner, folks, but isn’t that the American way?”

His co-stars included Fonda and Susannah York, both of whom were nominated for Academy Awards, and Gig Young, who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for playing the smarmy emcee. Director Sydney Pollack also was nominated for an Oscar.

Mr. Sarrazin was overlooked for a nomination — in part, he said, because Pollack edited out his dramatic six-minute monologue that explains his mercy killing of Fonda’s character.

Behind the scenes, the production was intense, he told the Star. “We stayed in character. Pollack said we should work until signs of exhaustion. Fights would break out among the men, women started crying. I’d get into terrible fights with Bruce Dern [who played another dancer]. The elbows would start flying.”

Jacques Michel Andre Sarrazin was born May 22, 1940, in Quebec City and grew up in Montreal, where his father practiced law. He began acting while attending a Jesuit high school. He appeared in Canadian Broadcasting Corp. dramas before signing a contract with Universal Studios that he later likened to being “virtually indentured” for $300 a week.

“My first TV feature was with Bobby Darin,” he told the Star in 1994. “It was ‘Gunfight at Ablilene,’ done in 14 days. Leslie Nielsen was the bad guy. No one could ride or shoot. I was just a kid, and Bobby would sit and play piano all day.”

After “They Shoot Horses,” Mr. Sarrazin found himself in conflict with Universal. The studio, he said, would not make concessions that would allow him to play the street hustler in “Midnight Cowboy” (1969). That role made Jon Voight a star.

Mr. Sarrazin appeared in underwhelming fare in the ’70s. He was Barbra Streisand’s taxi-driving husband in the tepid comedy “For Pete’s Sake” (1974) and a man possessed in the paranormal thriller “The Reincarnation of Peter Proud” (1975).

He slummed in risible dramas such as “The Seduction” (1982), in which he was the boyfriend of stalking victim Morgan Fairchild, and “Lipstick” (1987), in which he played a creepy policy commissioner.

Mr. Sarrazin’s later career focused on Canadian film and TV productions. He won favorable critical attention with his portrayal of a sleazy lounge lizard named Romeo Laflamme in the comedy “La Florida” (1993), which was co-written and produced by his brother Pierre.

Besides his brother, survivors include two daughters from a relationship; and a sister.

Mr. Sarrazin was reserved about disclosing details of his personal life. But glimpses reveal a resonant off-screen charisma.

“When I first met him, I thought he was a strange guy, quiet and moody,” Bisset once told the New York Times. “There was something kind of animal about him — he sort of sniffs around. He’s kind of like a wiry alley cat.”

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Michael Sarrazin remembered fondly at funeral

Canadian actor Michael Sarrazin is pictured in this 1985 file photo in Montreal while filming an espionage thriller called Keeping Track.

MONTREAL - Montreal actor Michael Sarrazin was hailed as a fighter who distinguished himself through his unwavering desire to act.

That was among the descriptions that summed up the Hollywood movie star, at his funeral in Montreal on Tuesday.

Pierre Sarrazin said that his brother, who never completed his schooling at D'Arcy McGee High School, struggled for years before attaining stardom in Hollywood.

In a simple service at the St. Patrick's Basilica in downtown Montreal, he recalled his brother's many years of study at the Actors' Studio in New York.

Michael Sarrazin, who died in Montreal of cancer April 17 at age 70, acted alongside such legends of the silver screen such as Paul Newman, Jane Fonda and George C. Scott.

He is best known for his role in They Shoot Horses Don't They?

Pierre Sarrazin said his brother never stopped believing in himself despite the poverty he had to battle in his early years.

`"Hollywood finally realized what his family had known for so long - he was a star, but it took time," 'he said.

He added that whereas Michael Sarrazin lived with actresses Jacqueline Bisset and Margot Kidder, he did not wish to discuss these relationships or any of his private life.

"For him, it was the work that was most important," said Pierre Sarrazin.

Born in Quebec City, Michael Sarrazin also played the monster in the miniseries Frankenstein: The True Story in 1973 and in Joshua Then and Now , adapted from the novel by Mordecai Richler.

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• View history

Trevean was a native of a planet in the Teplan system , a system of the Gamma Quadrant , which was infected with the Blight by the Jem'Hadar . Trevean, who had lived with the Blight longer than anyone there, had taken on himself the task of easing his people's suffering by giving toxic herbs to those who had 'quickened'.

He was opposed to the "false hope" Doctor Julian Bashir offered, and encouraged his patients to commit suicide rather than permit themselves to be experimented on. After Bashir's first attempt at a cure failed, causing his patients to suffer horrible and painful death, Trevean showed up to put the remaining patients out of their misery. But when it was discovered that Bashir's antigen cured the unborn , he was eager to learn how to manufacture and distribute it to pregnant women, so that the next generation of Teplans may be free of the disease. ( DS9 : " The Quickening ")

• 3 Ancient humanoid

R.I.P. Michael Sarrazin, star of They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

Michael Sarrazin—an actor best known for his starring roles opposite Jane Fonda in They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? , Barbra Streisand in For Pete’s Sake , and longtime girlfriend Jacqueline Bisset in several early-'70s films— has died after a brief battle with cancer. He was 70.

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The Canadian-born Sarrazin had a swift rise to fame in the late 1960s, landing a meaty supporting role as Curley, the young Army deserter who forms a grifter team with George C. Scott in 1967’s The Flim-Flam Man . Though his contract with another studio meant he narrowly missed out on taking the lead role of Joe Buck in 1969’s Midnight Cowboy —and thus all the infamy and breakout stardom afforded to Jon Voight—he landed an even better, more lasting film in Sydney Pollack’s They Shoot Horses, They Don’t They? , playing the failed would-be director who finds himself paired with Fonda in a Depression-era dance marathon that gradually turns into a grueling, horrific death march. Sarrazin’s leading man provides the film’s primary point of view—as well as its title, spoken in his final line of dialogue after the wallop of a climactic scene), and though his typically understated performance failed to nab him any nominations—he provides the stable emotional center that allowed so many of his Oscar-nominated fellow performers to really and truly unravel. (One of those, Susannah York, died in January .)

In 1971, Sarrazin starred opposite Paul Newman (who also directed), Henry Fonda, and Lee Remick in Sometimes A Great Notion , playing the suicidal youngest son of a family of lumber magnates who puts aside his depression and despair to join his estranged kin in battling a local logging union. He would reteam with Newman the following year on The Life And Times Of Judge Roy Bean , playing the husband to Jacqueline Bisset, with whom Sarrazin had a real-life relationship (begun on the set of the Beatnik drama The Sweetest Ride ) for nearly 14 years.

Sarrazin was usually called upon to play depressed characters or serve as the face of post-Summer of Love disaffected youth, such as when he played a sensitive drug addict who corrupts Bisset in Believe In Me , or a jaded college student who flees a vehicular manslaughter charge in The Pursuit Of Happiness . But one of his other best-known roles put a radical spin on that sense of alienation: In the 1973 TV movie Frankenstein: The True Story , Sarrazin plays a markedly different version of Mary Shelley’s creation, one who begins life as the handsome toast of London society, then turns monstrous and mad as he rapidly devolves into a more recognizably hideous form. Though often pretty campy, Sarrazin’s surprisingly sympathetic portrayal actually made the film quite touching.

Starring as the unsuspecting husband who never seems to catch on to any of Barbra Streisand’s wacky moneymaking schemes (from prostitution to cattle rustling), Sarrazin didn’t have much to do in 1974’s For Pete’s Sake , despite being the “Pete” for whose sake she did all that stuff. After that, Sarrazin played another lead "Pete" in the supernatural suspense thriller The Reincarnation Of Peter Proud (a film optioned for a remake in 2009), and his career arguably reached its apex with a starring role in 1976’s The Gumball Rally , a wacky road-race precursor to The Cannonball Run that also starred Raul Julia and Gary Busey. In 1978, Sarrazin had what would be his last major film in 1978’s Iran-shot adaptation of James Michener’s Caravans .

That same year Sarrazin hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live , then throughout the ‘80s until his death, he would be seen in mostly supporting roles in films like Deadly Companion and The Seduction , the James Woods-starring drama Joshua Then And Now, the made-for-TV Harry Palmer movie Bullet To Beijing , and the Dolph Lundgren actioner The Peacekeeper . He also had many guest TV appearances throughout the ’80s and beyond on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , The Outer Limits , La Femme Nikita , and a recurring role on the Canadian series Deep In The City . Sarrazin’s last feature film was the 2002 Stephen Dorff-starring Feardotcom , while his final appearance was in the 2008 made-for-TV movie The Christmas Choir .

Screen Rant

Star trek: discovery fixed saru’s problem, then repeated the same captain mistake.

With Saru's new role as an Ambassador, Star Trek: Discovery fixes an old problem, but the series makes the same mistake again in Discovery season 5.

Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Discovery Season 5

• Star Trek: Discovery season 5 resolves Saru's role issue but introduces another with Captain Rayner as First Officer.
• Michael Burnham's decision to make Rayner her Number One doesn't solve the problem of having two Captains on the bridge.
• The dynamic between Captains and First Officers in Star Trek: Discovery keeps changing each season, adding new layers to the ongoing story.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5 seems to fix the problem of Captain Saru's (Doug Jones) role on the USS Discovery's crew, but the series immediately makes the same mistake again with Captain Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie). In Star Trek: Discovery season 4 , Captain Saru voluntarily cedes command of the USS Discovery to the newly-promoted Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), which leaves Star Trek: Discovery with two characters holding the rank of Captain at the same time . Captain Saru gladly acts as Captain Burnham's First Officer during Star Trek: Discovery season 4, but it's not the best use of Saru's skills or rank.

In Star Trek: Discovery season 5 , the United Federation of Planets is slowly rebuilding in the wake of the Burn and first contact with Species 10-C. Federation President Laira Rillak (Chelah Horsdal) offers the inherently empathic Captain Saru a position as a Federation Ambassador, which would require the Kelpien resign his Starfleet commission. Saru accepts the offer and becomes an Ambassador , which allows him the time to marry his love, President T'Rina (Tara Rosling) of Ni'Var, leaving the position of First Officer aboard the USS Discovery wide open for whomever Captain Burnham should appoint.

Saru’s Star Trek: Discovery Promotion Makes Him Even More Like Spock

Star trek: discovery repeated saru’s mistake with captain rayner, two captains don't need to be on discovery's bridge..

At the end of Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 2 , "Under the Twin Moons", Captain Burnham chooses Captain Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie) to be Discovery's new First Officer, which doesn't solve the problem of having two Captains on the bridge. Rayner had been Captain of the USS Antares, but Rayner's command decision in Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 1, "Red Directive", accidentally inspired villains Moll (Eve Harlow) and L'ak (Elias Toufexis) to cause an avalanche that puts civilians in danger while also covering Moll and L'ak's own escape. The subsequent hearing results in Rayner being grounded, and Burnham gives Rayner another chance as her Number One.

Captain Rayner and Admiral Charles Vance (Oded Fehr) are old friends, and Vance backed Rayner as Burnham's new Number One.

It's not a terrible choice for Burnham, but it makes an unusual story, since Rayner didn't have to be a Captain to begin with. Captain Burnham's decision to ask Rayner to be Discovery's First Officer comes on the heels of Michael and Saru reflecting on Saru giving Michael a second chance in Star Trek: Discovery season 1, so it's framed as Burnham paying it forward. Michael has the power to keep Rayner out of a forced early retirement by bringing Rayner aboard Discovery , but more importantly, Rayner's no-nonsense, mission-oriented perspective is exactly what Michael Burnham needs in a First Officer. None of this is dependent on Rayner's rank.

Why Star Trek: Discovery Has A First Officer Problem

There are a lot of shakeups in discovery's command structure..

Star Trek: Discovery 's earlier problem, the many Captains of the USS Discovery , was solved with Captain Michael Burnham becoming Discovery's permanent Captain in Star Trek: Discovery season 4, but with Saru's departure to become a Federation ambassador, Star Trek: Discovery renews its First Officer problem. Compared to the more familiar format of earlier Star Trek shows, which had been grounded in the dynamic between their Captains and First Officers, each season of Star Trek: Discovery now has a different pair in command of the USS Discovery , and a different tone, signifying new chapters in the ongoing story of Michael Burnham's character development.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5 could have easily solved Discovery 's too-many-Captains problem by choosing a different First Officer from Discovery's crew after Saru resigned his Starfleet commission. Lt. Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman) has experience as First Officer, having served as Saru's Number One in Star Trek: Discovery season 3, and the USS Discovery also has a wealth of potential First Officers among its bridge crew, most of whom are full Commanders. Captain Rayner is an unknown entity, but maybe a needed one, so while Burnham's surprise pick of Rayner as First Officer may not solve the problem, it does make for an interesting twist to Star Trek: Discovery 's final season.

Star Trek: Discovery season 5 streams Thursdays on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Discovery

"Star Trek: Discovery" makes a case for Michael Burnham as the last great Starfleet captain

Our "discovery" protagonist was never going to have it easy. the start of her last run solidifies her greatness, by melanie mcfarland.

Michael Burnham's " Star Trek " journey was destined to be among the franchise's toughest and most complex. Some of us knew this from the moment Sonequa Martin-Green was cast to play her, especially Black women who are sci-fi geeks. We have never been few, but until recently, we were far less visible than we are now.

To some, this visibility symbolizes everything that has supposedly gone wrong with this franchise and others. The reach of " Star Trek: Discovery " goes even further by assembling a truly inclusive cast that blew apart the original series' longstanding heteronormativity.

All this further angered culture war trolls and self-appointed arbiters of what is so-called "real" "Star Trek." These people have a vested interest in downvoting any such divergences from what has gone before.

Mainly it was — as it continues to be — the purists who wrote off "Discovery" as "not Trek" during  its first season in 2017 . Looking back from its final season — and from the perspective of Burnham's 900-year journey — we can say that despite how its thematic shading looked to us then , "Discovery" never abandoned Gene Roddenberry's optimism . It has simply evolved its interpretation.

In the first season, not even Burnham would believe this to hold true. A human raised on Vulcan by Spock's  father, Sarek, and as his sister, Burnham earns her first officer role through superior conduct and logic, divorcing herself from sentiment.

Burnham's smug sense of rectitude gets her superior officer killed. She is charged with mutiny, stripped of her rank and sentenced to life in prison.

From there, she stops a rogue galactic A.I. from annihilating the Federation and leaps nine centuries into the future (thereby largely freeing herself and the show from restrictive canon) to find a universe where Starfleet as it used to be is a dream, and the Federation and its ideals are broken.

"Discovery's" swansong season finds Burnham in the year 3191, with enough of the Federation's trust to take on a highly classified mission alongside Captain Rayner (Callum Keith Rennie), who has already earned the same commendations as Kirk and Picard. His reputation precedes him, in other words. Their quest relates to a Picard-era discovery that Starfleet fears can be used to eradicate all humanoid life in the universe.

"Discovery" never abandoned Gene Roddenberry's optimism. It has simply evolved its interpretation. 

Their success should place her on par with the greats, an honor that showrunner Michelle Paradise and the show's co-creator Alex Kurtzman have been driving toward all this time.

Some indicators of that goal aren't as obvious as others, like the sequence in which Rayner defies Burnham during an away mission, trusting in his overconfidence instead of her strategic acumen. His snap judgment endangers a planet's civilian population, leaving her to fix the crisis he has created.

Women watching this — especially Black women, I would wager — might have experienced a slight rage triggering in their soul that was mollified by Burnham pulling the very Obama-esque move of asking Rayner to replace her trusted friend Saru (Doug Jones) as her first officer. (The job was coming open, anyway; Saru is shifting into diplomacy mode and getting married.)

This is the move of a great leader. Then again, like Kate Mulgrew's long underappreciated Captain Janeway, it may not be appreciated by the fandom for many, many years.

Burnham's arc contradicts what we know about the great Starfleet captains profiled in this franchise, most of whom are white and male.

Burnham's arc contradicts what we know about the great Starfleet captains profiled in this franchise, most of whom are white and male, though if that were the extent of what differentiates her from the rest, it would barely be worth mentioning.

Records of their histories come to us as snippets of dialogue from secondary characters or contextualizing conversations from what the official logs have to say about past missions. We hear about who served under whom, granting legitimacy to the likes of, say, Christopher Pike to claim the captain's chair long before Anson Mount made us ecstatic to see that happen.

Burnham's path to the helm's command begins with what should be a life- and career-ending mistake. It's constantly defined by humility and doubt. No one is harder on Burnham than she is on herself — and nobody takes as many risks with their career or reputation to keep their crew alive. Her optimism is one guided by the hope that all obstacles can be overcome and all outcomes are possible, including for herself.

Despite all of this, it will take a lot of convincing for some people to consider Burnham among the top ranks of Starfleet captains in those occasional fan polls that tend to place Jean-Luc Picard or James T. Kirk in the top positions, though Captain Pike has offered stiff competition since "Strange New Worlds" first aired.

But our relatively newfound love of Pike and that show wouldn't be possible without "Discovery" venturing into the unmapped asteroid field that is the public's willingness to boldly go back to a dormant franchise in a wildly disunified era.

This doesn't merely refer to the role of "Discovery" introducing Mount's Pike, in addition to launching every other new "Trek" spinoff along with the streaming service currently known as Paramount+ . It did all this along with shouldering the more precarious mission of serving as the franchise's vanguard in a cynical age.

If you love "Lower Decks" and "Strange New Worlds," this is in part due to the producers' listening to the fandom's programming desires accordingly. Notice, for example, how unlike the first season of "Picard"  is from the third . Initially, "Picard" tried to do something different with the beloved character. It ended his adventures by reassembling the band for the spectacular last ride their films denied them. The new "Star Trek" series have a goal of delivering something for everyone, including kids. "Discovery" helped its custodians figure that out.

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And if you love "Discovery," its devotion to showcasing those who long felt unseen in this franchise may kindle that affection. "Discovery" gave us an Asian woman as a Starship captain in Michelle Yeoh's Philippa Georgiou and a happily married duo to root for in Wilson Cruz's Dr. Hugh Culber in Anthony Rapp's Paul Stamets.

It introduced Tig Notaro in its second season as Jett Reno, a decision for which everyone should be grateful. The third gave us the franchise's first transgender and non-binary characters in Ian Alexander's Trill Gray and Blu del Barrio's Adira Tal.

Through it all, we have also entirely fallen for Mary Wiseman's Sylvia Tilly, a woman who also knew a few things about self-doubt and, therefore, values being understood.

What some would cite as humanizing traits, others might write off as maudlin, along with the fact that Burnham was able to experience a fully realized love affair that began with a partnership of equals with a courier named Booker (David Ajala).

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It's only one of the many ways that "Discovery" is consciously disparate from "Star Trek" as we have long known it, daring to change everything from the look of the Klingons to its star character's role in igniting a war between them and the United Federation of Planets.

That was then. Hundreds of years after that moment, Captain Burnham has figured herself out, proving to the many who doubted her that she deserves to be there.

She has traveled the longest road through imposter syndrome of any Starfleet captain — most of a millennium, actually — and we have witnessed every major moment that forged her. Burnham may never win the major "Star Trek" popularity contests for favorite captains, but without a doubt, she's the last great one we may ride with in this universe.

New episodes of "Star Trek: Discovery" stream Thursdays on Paramount +.

stories about "Star Trek"

• "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" considers the weight of Khan's wrathful legacy
• How "Strange New Worlds" uses Rebecca Romijn's Number One to place prejudice on trial
• "Pike made jambalaya": How "Strange New Worlds" Captain Pike expresses care and diplomacy with food

Melanie McFarland is Salon's award-winning senior culture critic. Follow her on Twitter: @McTelevision

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