Monday, October 17, 2005

Daaaaaamn.

Not sure how many people know who he is, but Charlie Rocket was a pretty damn funny guy, especially as Pat's obsessed next-door neighbor in the otherwise godawful It's Pat, and as a deranged general in Wagons East. He was also one of the castmembers who replaced the original Not Ready For Primetime Players on SNL in the early 80s, and was notoriously fired for swearing on the air.

Rocket, 56, whose real name was Charles Claverie, was found dead in a field near his home in Canterbury on October 7. His throat had been cut, the medical examiner said.

"An investigation determined there was no criminal aspect to this case," State Police Sgt. J. Paul Vance said Monday.

(snip)

His movie credits included "Earth Girls are Easy," "Dumb and Dumber" and "Dances With Wolves," according to the Internet Movie Database.

Cutting your own throat seems like kind of an odd way to commit suicide, but hey, they're the experts...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's really too bad. I'm just young enough not to remember Charles Rocket being on SNL. But I do remember reading the "I just want to know... who the fuck shot me" story and being impressed. I was always happy to see him get any work, though I'm probably one of the few who would recognize him.

Eli said...

Yeah, same here. I initially figured him as just another unfunny loser like, say, Gary Kroeger, but everything I saw him in, I thought he was really surprisingly funny.

I don't remember much about his serious role in Dances With Wolves, but I *think* he did a pretty good job there...


I wonder what drove him to it.

Anonymous said...

Wow ... he also was in the video for Tom Petty's 'You're So Bad.' He played the yuppie Petty's narrator character sing about his sister dumping. "Now he's got nothin' ... head in the oven ... I can't decide which is worse."

It makes it really sad that the last thing I remember seeing him do was the role of a suicidal ex-husband in a Tom Petty video. I was watching SNL the night he said that -- I remember staring at the TV all the way through the credits wondering if I'd actually heard him say what I thought he said.

Anonymous said...

He was the only funny thing in Its Pat. Kind of sucks that he did not leave a note for his family. And I guess he did it in a field so as to not mess up the house.
Still, everybody who knew him all agree he was a super nice guy.
Too bad.