Keith Snyder

I've never written major characters with actors in mind. Don't know why. Sometimes I've stolen faces and mannerisms from friends, but only occasionally would I imagine a well-known actor, and then only in a minor role. (The only one I can remember now is James Woods as Mr. Pascal, a criminal who appears in SHOW CONTROL and TROUBLE COMES BACK.) For some reason, though, I recently got stuck on John Mahoney. Most people would know him as the father on Frasier. I've now written two characters for whom I can't picture anyone else.

Why John Mahoney? I couldn't begin to tell you. Why Spenser when I was 21? Why Afropop when I was 24? Why Richard Feynman when I was 35? Haven't a clue. I just like him whenever I see him onscreen. (Well, the Spenser, I can explain. The rest is anyone's guess.)

So being a completist whimsyist, I lined up a Mahoney DVD Festival at Netflix and went looking around the web for biographical information. Turns out he started acting professionally at age 37—same age I started the long turn from writing mystery novels to making screen musicals. Though people who change direction in their late 30s aren't entirely absent from the writing profession, I haven't bumped into many out in the real world. So it's... encouraging is too strong a word, but vaguely gratifying works. It's vaguely gratifying to see that it worked for somebody.

The guy's done some cool stuff. Remember the drunk, Faulkneresque novelist/screenwriter in BARTON FINK? That was him. So was the edgy, eerie dad in SAY ANYTHING. (And Martin Crane, obviously. As I've said elsewhere, the first season of FRASIER was as close as American TV has ever gotten to P.G. Wodehouse.)

I read that he's stopped doing TV and now he's concentrating on the theater. Too bad for me—but in the meantime... Got Netflix?

And this—to answer a recent conversation on the Mystery Writers of America mailing list—is what blogs are good for. I get to spend 8 minutes talking about whatever flits through my mind, and you get to see some movies.

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Keith Snyder Door always open.
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