No!!!!!!!!

[eregyrn]

It's popping up everywhere in just the last 45 minutes: Don S. Davis, wonderful genre-tv character actor probably best known as Gen. George Hammond (of Texas) on "Stargate SG-1", died yesterday. Heart attack. He was only 66. There is not enough :( in the world.

DSD was one of those people who took what is often a stock bit part (the guy in charge; the guy who sends out the teams) and turned it into gold. I always found it difficult to put my finger on WHY he was so effective as Hammond -- why his performance inspired so much love and loyalty and shouts of "BEST. BOSS. EVER!!!" I guess he just seemed... *genuine*. His kindliness seemed completely natural, but you never forgot that he was in command and his lenience had limits. His anger was intense, never blustery. He wasn't a bluff, hearty military commander, and he wasn't a smartass type -- he was an old-fashioned gentleman.

I feel badly for him, for a retirement cut short; and badly for his family, of course. And I feel bad that we can never look forward to seeing him in a cameo -- he always lit up the screen.

RIP, Don.

Comments

[jenlev.livejournal.com]

SO very sad. He really was quite something.

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

He really was. (Thank you for the link to his art page.)

*hugs*

[jenlev.livejournal.com]

He's got some amazing stuff there. *hugs* back.

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

Noooo! *Contributes more :(s*

[troyswann.livejournal.com]

Aw that is just so sad. I'm totally weepy now.

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

It made me very sniffly and hot-eyed. *clings*

[thegrrrl2002.livejournal.com]

That is so very sad. He was a marvelous actor, and from all accounts, a very lovely man.

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

He really was. He was *classy*. *sniff*

[brightbeak.livejournal.com]

as i wrote elsehwere, i am profoundly saddened by this. his spirit shone through in all he did, a vitality and sheer enjoyment of life.
he shall be greatly missed

bb

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

I'm having a hard time articulating why this makes me feel *SO* very sad. But it really does.

I am the biggest Jack fan there is, but I can say that I missed Hammond's presence in the later seasons nearly as much as I missed Jack's -- and with far fewer complicated feelings. As much as the main cast, he lent a real vitality to the show. Everyone makes much of the chemistry of the original team, but I honestly think that DSD's contribution as Hammond was a significant part of what made SG-1 the show it was.

[elishavah.livejournal.com]

Oh no. That is just. Dammit.

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

Yeah. :(

[veejane.livejournal.com]

Alas! I will always remember him as Scully's Dad, in which role he got one great soliloquy about his life not being long enough for the greatness of his love for his children.

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

That is a fabulous episode. "Beyond the Sea" remains one of my very favorite X-Files eps. (We should rewatch it soon.)

And I remember when we first got into SG-1, joking about, "does he ever play anything but paternal/avuncular military guys?" But he really did excel in that role.

[paian]

Oh, my.

Yes to everything you say here.

Will be keeping his family and extended showbiz family in my thoughts.

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

I can not even imagine what the Stargate folks are going through. I'm really glad to know that they got him into Continuum, even if I don't yet know in what capacity we'll see him.

Oh man. Gateworld has up a memorial video of him. I just watched it. (I'll post about it in the morning.) And it got to the end, and I STILL thought, "I can't believe it. It can't be real. He can't be gone."

[lerefuge.livejournal.com]

NOOOO!

That is so sad! I am on my ass right now.

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

It's so hard to take in. :(

[drlense.livejournal.com]

:(

More than General Hammond- my first memory of him was as the coach of the Racine team in "League of Their Own".

He did a great job on SG-1. That's too bad- a full life, but gone just a little too soon.

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

Oh! I didn't even realize about "League of Their Own" -- it's been that long since I've seen it!

My first memory of him was definitely "Twin Peaks", and then a small but really memorable role as Scully's dad. I was already primed to like him by the time I started watching SG-1.

I feel very choked up when I think about people who get to the end of a long, good working life, and who have only somewhat recently retired... and who don't get to ENJOY that. Not to mention, who are taken from their families too soon.

[jeffwik.livejournal.com]

Major Briggs! Aw, damn.

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

Indeed. :( The owls are not what they seem.

[unappropriate.livejournal.com]

aww, poor garland. :(

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

Yeah. :( (And you know -- Garland! What an awesome name.)

[unappropriate.livejournal.com]

gaaarland? judy gaaarland?

[katie-m.livejournal.com]

Oh, so sad! Sniff.

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

I really am unreasonably sad about it. :(

[miera-c.livejournal.com]

Honestly what keeps popping into my head is the first regular episode of SG-1 when O'Neill and Kawalsky are goofing around about which completely indistinguishable combination of letters and numbers they want to take for their first missions, respectively, and Hammond interrupts and says "How about you go where I tell you?"

See, if it's Landry giving that line? It's creepy and harsh. Hammond, however, was more affectionate exasperation. :)

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

Yes! I find it really hard to explain, especially without getting into bashing Landry. (Whom I never warmed to.) But I once explained it as: it's not that I think Landry *was* a bully, but that his presentation and manner *struck me* as bullying. That he pushed that button in me. And obviously it was something that others didn't see (I often thought that the people on the show loved Landry so much because they weren't viewing him objectively, but they loved Beau Bridges behind the scene so much that it spilled over to Landry for them). Anyway, and in contrast, Hammond was an old-fashioned gentleman.

And you know, I am the biggest Jack fan there could possibly be -- but I never, never thought he worked as well as commander of the SGC as Hammond had. Nowhere near as well. (I thought it took something away from the character of Jack, and couldn't touch what Hammond had been.)

I honestly can not remember a single Hammond scene that DSD didn't play note-perfect. Not a single one. (I can remember bits from any of the original team that sometimes struck me as off; never Hammond.) He did something amazing with the role, particularly for how low-key it was.

[telepresence.livejournal.com]

I'm really heartbroken.

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

I really am glad that we get him in Continuum. I'm still finding it hard to take in, really.

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

Also, you know... for all the times we yelled "Don't kill off Bra'tac!" or railed about them killing off Jacob... I was never seriously worried that they'd kill off Hammond. I didn't have that little faith in them. It never occured to me to worry that we'd lose one of them through losing them for real. Not at this stage.

[raqs.livejournal.com]

i am ignoring you, VOD.

that can't be true. :-(

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

It really doesn't feel like it CAN be true. :(

[nel-ani.livejournal.com]

*wibbles*

[eregyrn.livejournal.com]

*clings*