Rip Torn’s title card in a trailer for One Spy Too Many, movie version of a two-part episode of The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
Rip Torn, a quirky character actor, died today at 88, The Hollywood Reporter said, citing Torn’s publicist.
Torn was known for playing Artie the producer on The Larry Sanders Show. He also portrayed Zed in Men in Black. His IMDB.COM ENTRY lists almost 200 acting credits going back to 1956.
The actor also participated in 1960s spymania. Torn played Alexander, an industrialist who idealized Alexander the Great, in Alexander the Greater, a two-part story on The Man From U.N.C.L.E. The story, with some additional scenes, was released as the film One Spy Too Many.
Alexander’s plot involves staging a coup in an unnamed Asian country. He intends to manipulate the coup’s leaders, in effect controlling the country. As part of Alexander’s plan, he will break each of the Ten Commandments. For example, he has imprisoned his parents as slave labor at a rock quarry in Greece. Alexander’s plot will be complete when he personally kills the leader of the Asian nation.
Alexander the Greater led off U.N.C.L.E.’s second season as the show was nearing the peak of its popularity. The trailer for the movie version is below.
Filed under: The Other Spies | Tagged: Men in Black, One Spy Too Many, Rip Torn, The Hollywood Reporter, The Larry Sanders Show, The Man From U.N.C.L.E |
The Spy Command 
Wasn’t the scene with “Alexander’s” parents shown as slave labor inside the rock quarry deleted after the original airing of the show, because it was considered (by the network) as being too violent?
I don’t think so. The parents were taken out of One Spy Too Many but they remained in TV prints.