{"id":249,"date":"2002-02-23T14:41:17","date_gmt":"2002-02-23T19:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/burgwinkel.com\/blog\/?p=249"},"modified":"2002-02-23T14:41:17","modified_gmt":"2002-02-23T19:41:17","slug":"thaw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/burgwinkel.com\/blog\/?p=249","title":{"rendered":"thaw"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>thaw<\/div>\n<p><a HREF=\"opWin('http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/hi\/english\/entertainment\/tv_and_radio\/newsid_1399000\/1399178.stm', 'bbcPop', 'toolbar=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=20,top=10,width=640,height=480,scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes');\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"180\" src=\"\/img\/JohnThaw.jpg\" align=\"left\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>He was an unkown man to me, but there was something in that face, a humanity and grace that informed and illuminated whatever character he placed upon it.&nbsp;  His face was honest and genuine, with a hint of painful history yet revealing a clear optimism.&nbsp; John Thaw was something rare among actors.&nbsp;  He was real.&nbsp;  <\/p>\n<p>Acting, at its best, is about becoming real.&nbsp;  One does not achieve authenticity in a role by compressing one&#8217;s personality down to an invisible speck, and assuming an artificial personality.&nbsp;  A good actor finds and magnifies that speck within him that <b>is<\/b> the character he seeks to portray, giving it such force and prominence that we lose sight of the actor, and even forget he is acting.&nbsp;  A <i>great<\/i> actor does exactly the same thing?but he never disappears; the actor remains himself the whole time, yet the character he plays is absolutely and undeniably real.&nbsp;  They are two as one.&nbsp;  John Thaw was real when he played the sometimes cranky, sometimes contemplative <a href=\"opWin('http:\/\/www.inspectormorse.co.uk\/', 'PopupWin', 'toolbar=no,menubar=yes,status=no,left=20,top=10,width=860,height=640,scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes');\">Chief Inspector Morse<\/a>.&nbsp;  This makes his passing all the more difficult; he was not a stranger to us for his being an actor, he was not an unknown person behind a role.&nbsp;  Such is the value of being a great actor; he gave of his substance, of his treasures, he gave of his most deeply held self in his craft?something I find hard to do even for those I love.&nbsp;  John Thaw showed us how to give, simply for the love of giving.&nbsp;  <\/p>\n<p><a HREF=\"opWin('http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/hi\/english\/entertainment\/tv_and_radio\/newsid_1399000\/1399178.stm', 'PopupWin', 'toolbar=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=20,top=10,width=640,height=480,scrollbars=yes,resizable=yes');\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"170\" height=\"47\" src=\"\/img\/JohnThawBtn.gif\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I wish, right now, that he had not been quite so real, for I would prefer not to feel the passing of such a one as he.&nbsp;  How would I handle it if I were real?&nbsp; I would acknowledge the sad loss, and go to work&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>thaw He was an unkown man to me, but there was something in that face, a humanity and grace that informed and illuminated whatever character he placed upon it.&nbsp; His face was honest and genuine, with a hint of painful &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/burgwinkel.com\/blog\/?p=249\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[472,473,470,471,474],"class_list":["post-249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-actor","tag-great-actor","tag-john-thaw","tag-morse","tag-sometimes-contemplative-chief-inspector"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/burgwinkel.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/burgwinkel.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/burgwinkel.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/burgwinkel.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/burgwinkel.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/burgwinkel.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/burgwinkel.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/burgwinkel.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/burgwinkel.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}