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

[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.