Death! Death is the topic of today's post, as the ghastly hand was laid upon two notable men recently.

Six days ago the greatest of the great, the wizard, the genius Robert James Fischer, affectionately known as "Bobby" Fischer (Bobby Fischer, Where is he? I don't know! I don't know! well I think we do now cuz he's dead) passed away. He was 64. The Chicago born Jewish Fischer has been the only American to win the World Chess Championship, and he was flashing his talent on the chessboard from the very beginning. A glimpse into his life:



Here is the prodigal lad of 13 in a New Jersey YMCA, trying his hand against adults...21 of them. The undaunted Fischer won 19 of the games, lost one, and stalemated the other.

Fischer...victorious, self-assured, confident, elegant, robust, handsome, of sexually reproductive age.....certainly a healthy individual.

The grandmaster in a rare shot not playing chess, but rather pinball, on Coney Island. The facial structure is just...stunning.

A match that, like so many other things (Olympics, Space race) symbolized the conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States. Fischer defeated the Russian great, Boris Spassky, handedly.

Wow

I enjoy chess; perhaps one day I'll learn a thing or two about strategy. Themed chessboards are also of interest. I've seen Lord of the Rings chessboards, Big Five (the large African mammals) chessboards, chessboards that reflect social and political movements. I think a philosopher theme would be sweet, Reason-based vs. Faith-based. The king and queen on Reason would be Aristotle and Aquinas, Plato and Augustine on Faith. Appropriate candidates would fill the remaining slots...but the pawns! What a mind-boggling decision! They could all be different people or the same person. Faith's pawns - self-flagellating Carmelites or Mormon bicyclists with ties? And gracious Reason! - cynical spectacled raised-arm professors or modern high teenagers? (seriously, their logic would make Kant cry) The possibilities are too numerous to fathom. But Faith would surely be light and Reason dark because Reason is the work of the Devil, obvi.

Our other man of note is Heath Ledger who died yesterday in his Manhattan apartment of unknown causes, perhaps a drug overdose. He was not 64 but 28. I have seen all his movies save two, Brokeback Mountain, which I will prolly see at some point, and the highly anticipated, for me at least, Batman: The Dark Knight, which is scheduled to release sometime this summer. I am highly anticipating this movie and Ledger's role because 1) the Joker is such a ridiculous character and compared to Ledger's other roles it will be a solid determinant of his acting ability and 2) my favorite actor and one of the greatest actors of all time Jack Nicholson played the original Joker (arguably one of the greatest cinematic characters of all time) in the original Batman of 1989. Besides Nicholson's obvious acting prowess as exhibited in his movies, his career spans from 1958 to 2008, and no male actor has won more Oscars for Best Actor than his three (Walter Brennan also won three and Katherine Hepburn won four).

By the way, there are only two other actors that belong in the same sentence as "one of the greatest actors of all time." Those two are Daniel Day-Lewis (My Left Foot, The Last of the Mohicans, Gangs of New York, There Will Be Blood) and Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Big Lebowski, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Mission Impossible III, Capote, Charlie Wilson's War).

Daniel Day-Lewis' devotion to acting is ludicrous. During the filming of My Left Foot, in which he plays the paralyzed, wheelchair-confined Christy Brown (and in which he won the Oscar for Best Actor that year), he refused to come out of character. During breaks castmates would have to haul his ass in his wheelchair around, sometimes carrying him over camera and lighting wires. He did this to better understand Christy Brown's embarrassment. Because he maintained a hunched over position for several weeks he had two broken ribs once filming was finished.

Or take The Last of the Mohicans, where he learned how to hunt game, skin animals, fish, and live off the land in the Pisgah National Forest. He lifted weights religiously and set down his rifle only to sleep. As Bill the Butcher (another fabulous character) in Gangs of New York he kept in his New York accent off stage, and even took lessons in butchering. He turns down many offers because he spends YEARS researching his characters. Even if it weren't for the extreme devotion, his performances are impeccable.

Philip Seymour Hoffman's acting greatness is just plain obvious in his delivery. A man truly in his element.