STUMPTOWNBLOGGER: Television

BRUCE LINDNER …. WHO IS JOHN DOUCETTE?

Back in 1972-‘73, I briefly—though not briefly enough—worked at a Ford Dealership here in Portland. Initially as a salesman hustling Pintos, Mustangs and Thunderbirds, then when I was mercifully fired from that nightmare, they hired me to run the detail booth in the back, candy-coating engine compartments of used cars that had been brought in on trade.

But while still a salesman, the franchise owner, Marv Tonkin, wanted to bring in some Hollywood royalty to shoot an ad with him. Marv thought that would increase sales. Whatevs.

So they gathered us all together in the boardroom one day: here’s me, 20 years old, decked out in white patent leather shoes, a matching white patent leather belt wide enough to land a 747 on, cranberry red double-knit slacks a contrasting tie, sitting at the end of a long table with seasoned, HARDENED salesman, most of whom were twice my age, nearly all of whom were ex-cons. I fit in with that group like Stephen Miller would fit in with the Radio City Rockettes.

The door opens, and in comes Marv with… some guy. “Boys I’d like you all to meet John Doucette.” We were all expected to make a big deal out of this event, even though none of us had ever heard of him. We lined up to shake his hand, some of the senior guys chatted with him a bit, then he and Marv left to go shoot some commercials. Weeks later, I saw one of those commercials, and it was C-R-I-N-G-E. Just awful! Marv’s TV spots were always low budget, but those scraped the bottom of the barrel.

Fast forward 53 years. I watched “Patton” last night for the first time in decades. If you’ve never seen it, George C. Scott did for Patton what Marlon Brando did for the Godfather. Just an outstanding performance. At the end of the film, as the titles rolled, there was a name from the past: John Doucette. He played General Lucian Truscott. So I reversed back to the bit-part scene with Doucette, and… oh, yeah. That’s the same guy. I’d never seen or heard of him before or since, but that was definitely him.

So out of curiosity this morning, I Googled “John Doucette, Tonkin commercial.” Bupkis. Not a damn thing. Google suggested I check my spelling. So I Googled “John Doucette.” That brought up his Wikipedia page. Holy smokes! This guy was in everything. He was even cast as Butch Cassidy in some obscure western. Lots of feature films, lots of ‘50s and ‘60s television roles, but I’d still never heard of him.

The Tonkin/Doucette vignette aside, if you want to see a great actor in an epic performance, watch Patton again. Co-written by Francis Ford Coppola by the way, at the tender age of 31 years old, who then went on to produce the Godfather two years later.

Wow .. He was in over a hundred westerns! Many in lead roles for episodes … Rifleman, Wagon Train, Gunsmoke etc.