JOHN SAXON

It's funny what happens when you surf the net even for just a few minutes.

Quite possibly the coolest -- absolute coolest -- man in showbiz, to me, would be actor John Saxon. While I was growing up, meaning watching a lot of television, this man was almost everywhere on the dial. His unique look imprinted into any kid's tv-sucking brain. And the name was easy to remember... I guess I reviewed program and movie credits way back then.

Leslie Nielsen was another face and name who was known to any tv junkie like me. (Of course, I was thrown for a loop when Airplane was released.)

John Saxon probably wasn't on the tube as much as I would think, even though he was always employed, it was more of a case that he was consistently so memorable; whether he was cast as a villain of the week on a regular series, or as a "good guy" in a film such as Curtis Harrington's classic sci-fi feature, Queen of Blood.

And he was great in Enter the Dragon.

There is no need to go into a credit roll here other than to say that he popped up in The Six Million Dollar Man a couple of times (one of my favourite shows in my youth) and an awful lot of shows I would have just caught a few minutes of. "Hey, it's John Saxon."

Younger folk might know him also as he had parts in a couple of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies.

I never have been one to watch something just because so-and-so is in it. There are exceptions, however: Cary Grant, Robert Mitchum, and John Saxon.