Dexter Fletcher
I was watching the TV last night as the History Channel was playing – yet again – the series “Band of Brothers”. It is the 10 episode series about the men of Easy Company of the 101st Airborne during World War II, that was first shown on HBO in 2001. It is produced my Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks.
Don’t get me wrong. I love the series and I watch every time the History Channel shows it, but they do tend to over do it sometimes with repeats (but not near as bad as AMC or VH1). I like how they added to the realism of the battle scenes like Spielberg did in “Saving Private Ryan” as well as having episodes viewed from the POV of different characters.
So while watching it I was surfing the IMDB and Wikipedia looking at info on the series. Looking at the bios of the cast I came onto the guy who played SSgt. John Martin in the series. The name of the guy was Dexter Fletcher. The name sounded familiar so I looked at his filmography and my jaw dropped.
Fletcher played none other than Charles Highway in the film “The Rachel Papers” in 1989. It is one of my favorite movies of that time period. I had read the book and also enjoyed the film. The real reason I saw it the first time back then was it also starred Ione Syke of “Say Anything” fame and regular bad ass James Spader.
Side Track – looking through Spader’s filmography helped me remember another favorite movie – and no if you guessed “Pretty in Pink” you are wrong (it is a favorite but not for Spader). My favorite Spader film is “Tuff Turf” (1985). It co-starred Kim Richards (who played Tia in the Witch Mountain films back in the 1970’s).
Okay, so I really wanted to see “The Rachel Papers” to see Ione as I heard she had scene or two with little or no clothes on – I was younger then so leave me alone.
Dexter Fletcher wasn’t James Spader good looking. He looked like a stereotypical Brit but he was funny in the movie and you really pulled for him in his plans to woo Rachel. To be honest, at the end of the film I liked Fletcher’s character better.
Back to now…..
So I watched “Band of Brothers” a couple of times and the Martin character didn’t stand out in anyway. The guy seemed like an average American and the real John Martin was born here in Columbus. I assumed that the character was played by an American.
I was shocked when I learned that the main character Richard Winters was played by a Brit (Damian Lewis) but I was knocked to the floor upon learning that SSgt Martin was played by Dexter Fletcher.
Anytime someone can play a character so well that the character and actor seem as one is a great actor.
A tip of the hat to Dexter Fletcher in “Band of Brothers”.
