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Lary Crews ®

@larycrews.bsky.social

11K followers 15K following 17K posts

79-year-old Navy Veteran kept alive by Reno VA so he can care for his college-educated cat, Stanford. Bluesky content creator. Atheist. Widower. Democrat. Retired journalist and writer with 8 published books. Actor in horror film INSIDIOUS 2011.

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Lary Crews ® @larycrews.bsky.social · 10d

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Lary Crews ® @larycrews.bsky.social · 2h

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Lary Crews ® @larycrews.bsky.social · 2h

James Wan's film Insidious crossed the $50 million mark in the US and ended up with a worldwide gross of $97,009,150, almost a hundred million. That gives the indie horror pic, made for under $1.5 million, the best cost-to-gross ratio of 2011, a good measurement of profitability.

Lary Crews ® @larycrews.bsky.social · 2h

When he returns to the living room, my daughter, my wife, and I are dead. The other daughter shot us.
For a split second, he thinks we are smiling at him and then he heads up the stairs still looking for his son.

Lary Crews ® @larycrews.bsky.social · 2h

Since Patrick is looking for his son, Dalton, we must "play dead" as he passes with the light. But my "wife" blinks, giving us away. When he looks at me again my newspaper is now quivering. He hears a gun being cocked and discovers one of my daughters in the dining room.

Lary Crews ® @larycrews.bsky.social · 2h

Wan explained that I should look like I was whistling. "Don't worry. We've hired a professional whistler to actually do it in post." The whistling is what got Patrick's attention. (That's the reason I stop whistling when I see the light from his lantern.)

Lary Crews ® @larycrews.bsky.social · 2h

Wan explained that Patrick was going pass in front of us with a high-tech lantern, to see if we were dead. He told us to remain still and look straight ahead. As we would do the scene, the crew had to repeatedly pump smoke in close to the floor.

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Lary Crews ® @larycrews.bsky.social · 2h

James Wan was an easygoing man who addressed me as "Sir." He asked me to sit on the (screen left) side of the couch facing the fireplace with the girl playing one of my daughters to my left and he stationed my "wife" behind an ironing board to my right.

Lary Crews ® @larycrews.bsky.social · 2h

Moose, the extras handler, had me report to the living room of the house. Inside, it was dark and smoky (smoke machines, not cigarettes).
The strange woman assigned to be my wife was there. I had tried to make friends the day before and she would have none of it, so we didn't speak at all.

Lary Crews ® @larycrews.bsky.social · 2h

I went to a make-up trailer to get my hair cut into a 1940s style. Using airbrushes, and special material, it took three hours to transform me from an old guy to an 1940s dead guy. They made up my face, neck, about an inch onto my chest, and my hands up to about two inches on my arms.

Lary Crews ® @larycrews.bsky.social · 2h

With Insidious, director James Wan was taking a chance. He wanted to make a haunted-house thriller that relied on suspense and atmosphere instead of gore and blood. He said, “Making something that’s scary and creepy is extremely hard, and I really relish that challenge.”

Lary Crews ® @larycrews.bsky.social · 2h

The last film I made before leaving LA was Insidious, in which I have a "featured extra" role. I made the final cut in a three-minute scene with leading man Patrick Wilson. YouTube viewers email me about how scary my scene is. I am basically "a whistling 1940s ghost dad."

Lary Crews ® @larycrews.bsky.social · 2h

Cool. Thanks for that memory!

Lary Crews ® @larycrews.bsky.social · 16h

Yeah.

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Mark Feltskog @markstextterminal.bsky.social · 20h

Went in to have a mole removed from my neck because I was tired of shaving around it. Next thing I knew I was diagnosed with a melanoma and scheduled for sentinel node exploratory surgery. Two surgeries (the radical neck dissection followed by a thyroidectomy), and 21 years later, I am cured.

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Lary Crews ® @larycrews.bsky.social · 16h

That is exactly right. I was in a group scheduled for a read-thru and Robin Williams called her "Oyl" instead of her name.

Lary Crews ® @larycrews.bsky.social · 16h

I am so glad for you. I was acting in Damn Yankees at the Golden Apple Dinner Theater when I had a painful lump on my left neck. I went to chiropractor, and he rushed me to an oncologist. 52 weeks of radiation, five weeks waiting for surgery. 5-hour operation. 44 more years.
(5 is my lucky number!)