Robert Walker Jr.

Robert Walker Jr. photographed by Dennis Hopper in 1964... Robert Walker Jr. has been on my mind lately, mostly due to Strangers on a Train in which his father played one of Hitchcock's most unnerving psychopaths. I was just leafing thru my copy of Taschen's unwieldy book of Dennis Hopper photographs and Walker Jr. features in a few of them, having fun at home in Malibu with his 2nd wife Ellie and friend Peter Fonda. I like this photograph with scraggy anti-establishment beard, which he would also wear for his role as the commune leader in Easy Rider. My favourite Robert Walker Jr. performance is from the 1966 Star Trek episode Charlie X, playing an omnipotent being with a bad case of teenage blues, an older brother of sorts to the little monster in the great Twilight Zone episode It's a Good Life. It's a shame Walker's filmography is not terribly distinguished, apart from Easy Rider, he can be seen in two curios - Larry Hagman's 1972 film Beware ! The Blob ("The Film J.R. shot!") and the eccentric New Testament film The Passover Plot, from 1976...