The Internet Movie Database and Wikipedia sure are some amazing resources. Before the so-called “internet” came around, we had to just live with the idea that we might never know whether “That Guy” we just saw in a movie was someone we’d seen before in a different movie. Now, such useless information is at our fingertips and that’s just what we plan to focus on in this new feature.
Our first featured “That Guy” is from the Patrick Swayze classic Road House. When Patrick Swayze first arrives at the downtrodden Double Deuce bar and before he gets the chance to show everyone that it truly is “His way or the highway”, all hell breaks loose inside the bar nightly. Folks start huge fights, advertise “Great Buicks” and revel in sleaze and impropriety. And nobody was sleazier or more improper than a character who is listed in the credits as “Sharing Husband”.
“Sharing Husband” offers up his wife’s breasts to anyone with $20, and she’s a willing participant. This sleazy and sad enterprise is shown being taken advantage of in the movie, as a gentleman “sizes up the goods” before letting the world’s worst husband know that he doesn’t have $20 to pay them. Of course, both Mr. Sleazeball and his wife are offended at this guy’s bad manners. Everyone knows that it is bad manners to take a sample if you cannot afford to pay for the product itself. (At this point, it is only natural for viewers of Road House to want to run to the nearest shower and wash off the sleaze and grime that occurs from witnessing such depravity.)
So who is “That Guy”? He’s the late Chris Latta, who besides starring onMarried… with Children (Big surprise there) was also the original voice of both Mr. Burns and Moe the Bartender from The Simpsons!!! Wrap your brain around that one folks. While it probably wouldn’t be a surprise to see such boorish behavior in Moe’s Tavern (or even perpetrated by Moe himself) it is a bit of a shock to know that Mr. Burns’ voice was originally provided by the guy who played the sleaziest customer at the bar in Road House. Mr. Latta was eventually replaced by Hank Azaria as Moe’s voice and by Harry Shearer as Mr. Burns’ voice. In 1994, he passed away of unknown causes, but his legacy lives on, as Harry Shearer has acknowledged that he merely copied Mr. Latta’s distinctive interpretation of Mr. Burns for his own voice-over work as the character. So we salute Mr. Latta, for originating the voices of two of the funniest Simpsons characters, and giving sleazy barflies who pimp out their wives a role model to look up to.
