R.I.P. Christopher Penn & Reservoir Dogs

On Monday, I bought a copy of Reservoir Dogs at Best Buy. I had it on VHS but felt the need to get the DVD.

I watched it that evening. It took me back to that first time I saw it in the early 90's. I was 12ish. It was surreal. It was bloody. Curses were flung. It was the film that invigorated music use during films. Who was rocking Stealers Wheel's "Stuck in the Middle With You" before that infamous song? It jumpstarted careers: Tim Roth, Steve Buscemi, Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen, and that old video clerk Quentin Tarantino.

But the actor who played the glue in this film has now passed. The ultimate sleazy middleman Nice Guy Eddie is gone.

Christopher Penn was first noticed as Kevin Bacon's sidekick in Footloose and will probably be recognized more often as Sean Penn's huskier brother but Mr. Penn had some excellent performances himself. He just lurked in the backdrop more often then not.

He didn't go down to Katrina, gun in hand, and help people in a rusty boat that eventually sank. He may never have been nominated for multitudes of Oscars but he was the glue of one of my personal favorite films and seemed like a nice enough guy.

Two little Reservoir tidbits from IMDB:

• Tarantino originally wrote the role of Mr. Pink(played by Steve Buscemi) for himself.
• The word fuck is used 252 times.
  

And to quote one of those uses by Mr. Penn: "Okay, first things fuckin' last! "

Christopher Penn was 40 years old.