Saturday, June 17, 2017

Stephen Furst has died :(

The Babylon 5 curse has struck again.  Stephen Furst, who played Vir Cotto on the show, has passed away at the age of 62.

I suppose most people will remember him for playing Flounder on Animal House, but he'll always be Vir to me.  His character was an uncertain, sort of nervous fellow, and could be taken for a wimp at first glance.  And that's exactly how most of the other characters saw him: as a spineless butterball.  But there was a core of iron in Vir.  He was one of the few to resist Mr. Morden's tempting offers.  He assassinated an insane, murderous emperor, and later became emperor himself.  He was a good, honest, noble guy, very different from his fellow Centauri.  One might even say he was the conscience of the show.

And he was a patriot who didn't take any crap from the Drazi:




In an early season--the second one, I think--he meets with Mr. Morden, as each of the main cast did:




Later, in season 4 (I think) Vir gets what he wants:




Stephen Furst lost a lot of weight at some point in the series, and it shows in these two clips.  You can see the difference in his face and build.

It sucks that he finally lost his battle with diabetes, and at such a relatively young age.  He was a fine actor, and, from what I can tell, a fine man.  R.I.P., Mr. Furst.  :(

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