Passed away today, aged 65. Mainly known for his collaborations with the Coen Brothers, for instance in Miller's Crossing and The Big Lebowski, and The Man Who Wasn't There.
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Jon Polito
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- Mar 2008
- 17
- Elsewhere.
- Tottenham Hotspur; Toronto's Maple Leafs, Blue Jays, Raptors, and Football Club; England, and Canada
- The Finger
Jon Polito
"I'm talkin'about friendship. I'm talkin' about character. I'm talkin' about -- Hell, Leo, I ain't embarrassed to use the word. I'm talkin' about ethics.
You know I'm a sportin' man. I like to lay the occasional bet. But I ain't that sportin'. When I fix a fight -- Say I pay a three to one favourite to throw a goddamned fight, I figure I got the right to expect that fight to go off at three to one.
But every time I lay a bet with this son of a bitch Bernie Bernbaum, the odds is even-up. Or worse, I'm bettin' on the short money. Now the sheeny knows I like sure things.
Outta town money comes pourin' in. The odds go straight to hell. He's sellin' the information I fixed the fight. I don't know who he's selling' it to. Maybe the Los Angeles combine. I don't know.
Anyway, the point is, Bernie ain't satisfied with the honest dollar he can make off the vig. He ain't satisfied with the business I do on his book.
He's sellin' tips on how I bet. And that means that part of the payoff that should be riding on my hip... is riding around on someone else's.
So back we go to these questions -- Friendship. Character. Ethics.
So it's clear what I'm sayin'?"
The opening lines to what is still my favourite film, twenty-six years on. He didn't write these words, but he sure said the hell out of them. Sets the tone like almost nothing else. Hell of an actor, and an irreplaceable loss.
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