F. Darwin Solomon (December 9, 1937- June 1, 1998) was an American actor known professionally as Darwin Joston (sometimes credited as Darwin Jostin during the early years of his career ). A North Carolina native, Joston was born in Winston-Salem and graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He later moved to Los Angeles, California when he began his acting career. December 9 is the 343rd day (344th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... June 1 is the 152nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (153rd in leap years), with 213 days remaining. ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... Official language(s) English Capital Largest city Raleigh Charlotte Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 28th 139,509 km² 805 km 240 km 9. ... Winston-Salem is a city located in Forsyth County, North Carolina. ... The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public, coeducational, research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. ... Nickname: City of Angels Official website: http://www. ...

Joston appeared in many popular television shows during the 1960's, early 1970's, and mid-1980's, but he is best known for his performances in independent films that later achieved cult status, particularly Assault on Precinct 13. The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... Assault on Precinct 13 is a 1976 action/thriller movie, directed by John Carpenter. ...

Early acting career

From the mid-1960's through the mid-1970's, Joston worked primarily in television and was often cast as a soldier. He appeared in a number of popular series including Lassie (in which he had a recurring role), The Virginian, The Rat Patrol, Ironside, The Rookies, and McCloud. He also had guest roles in episodes of the short-lived series Longstreet and Ghost Story/Circle of Fear. In Knights story, a young Yorkshire boy owns an exceptionally beautiful and loyal collie, but when the family faces severe economic hardship, the dog is sold to a wealthy nobleman. ... The Virginian is an album by Neko Case and Her Boyfriends, released on Mint Records in 1997. ... The Rat Patrol was an American TV program that aired on ABC during the 1966-1968 seasons. ... Ironside may refer to: Ironside, the book by Holly Black Oliver Cromwell, the English political leader who was nicknamed Old Ironsides Ironside, a cavalry trooper in the army formed by Cromwell The USS Constitution, which was nicknamed Old Ironsides Ironside, the American television program starring Raymond Burr Edmund II Ironside... The Rookies was a television series running from 1972 until 1976. ... McCloud was an American television police drama that aired on NBC from 1970 to 1977. ... Longstreet can mean: Longstreet, a place in Louisiana, United States. ...

Joston appeared in two genre films during this phase of his acting career. The first of his early film roles was that of Billy-Joe, the psychopathic, mother-obsessed, sexually-warped confederate soldier in the western-themed, 1971 exploitation film, Cain's Cutthroats. Joston's intense, disturbing performance stands out in a cast comprised largely of little-known actors. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Cains Cutthroats is a 1971, western-themed exploitation film. ...

Joston's second film was the 1975 horror movie, Rattlers, in which his character ranked among the film's "body count." He played a soldier who is attacked by legions of snakes while trying to change a flat tire. Body count refers to the total number of people killed in a particular event. ...

Assault on Precinct 13

Joston is best known for his iconic portrayal of the sardonic, shotgun-toting, anti-hero Napoleon Wilson in Assault on Precinct 13, John Carpenter's 1976, Howard Hawks-inspired, action film. This was Joston's largest role, and it is considered to have been his best. Joston's singular performance not only conveys Wilson's stoic toughness, but also emphasizes his irreverent, ironic sense of humor and slowly reveals the character's unexpected capacities for loyalty and tenderness, thereby adding emotional depth and humanity to what otherwise could have been a stereotypical action-hero role. Moreover, Joston's performance has been repeatedly singled out as the film's best and is often cited as one of the primary reasons for Assault on Precinct 13's continued audience appeal. In literature and film, an anti-hero is a central or supporting character that has some of the personality flaws and ultimate fortune traditionally assigned to villains but nonetheless also have enough heroic qualities or intentions to gain the sympathy of readers or viewers. ... Napoleon Wilson is a fictional character created by John Carpenter and played by Darwin Joston in Carpenters 1976 film, Assault on Precinct 13. ... Assault on Precinct 13 is a 1976 action/thriller movie, directed by John Carpenter. ... John Carpenter John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948 in Carthage, New York) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film music composer. ... Howard Hawks Howard Hawks (May 30, 1896 – December 26, 1977) was an American film director, producer and writer of the classic Hollywood era. ... Action movies usually involve a fairly straightforward story of good guys versus bad guys, where most disputes are resolved by using physical force. ...

Eraserhead, The Fog, Gunmen's Blues

During the five years following the release of Assault on Precinct 13, Joston appeared in three more independent films. He played Paul, the beleaguered pencil-factory clerk, in David Lynch's classic 1977 cult film, Eraserhead. He worked with Carpenter again in the 1980 horror film, The Fog, playing the coroner, Dr. Phibes. Shortly afterward, Eric Red, then a young film-maker and a fan of Joston's performance in Assault on Precinct 13, cast Joston in the lead role of the world-weary hitman in Red's 1981 short film, Gunmen's Blues. David Lynch at Cannes in 2001 David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946, in Missoula, Montana) is an American filmmaker. ... A cult film is a movie that attracts a small but devoted group of fans, usually failing to achieve considerable success outside that group. ... Eraserhead (released in France as The Labyrinth Man) is a 1977 film written and directed by David Lynch and starring Jack Nance. ... DVD cover showing horror characters as depicted by Universal Studios. ... John Carpenters The Fog is a 1980 horror movie directed by John Carpenter, who also wrote the screenplay and composed the music of the film. ... Eric Red (born February 16, 1961, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is a screenwriter and director, best known for writing the horrror classics The Hitcher and Near Dark. ...

Joston also worked on the production crews of two 1978 movies, The Buddy Holly Story and Ruby and Oswald. The Buddy Holly Story is a 1978 biographical film which tells the life story of rock musician Buddy Holly. ...

Later career

After 1981, Joston got fewer roles, and he stopped acting in 1986, when he was 48 years old. Joston's last film role was in the 1982 B-movie (and Mystery Science Theater 3000 favorite), Being from Another Planet, in which he appeared with his Assault on Precinct 13 co-star, Austin Stoker. The term B-movie originally referred to a film designed to be distributed as the lower half of a double feature, often a genre film featuring cowboys, gangsters or vampires. ... Movie theater view, featuring the short film Hired!. Mystery Science Theater 3000 (1988–1999), usually abbreviated MST3K, is a cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson featuring a man and his robot sidekicks who are trapped on a satellite in space and forced to watch particularly bad movies. ... Being from Another Planet (originally released as Time Walker) is a 1982 B-movie. ... Austin Stoker (b. ...

Joston spent the last two years of his acting career playing guest roles in television series such as Hill Street Blues, Spenser: For Hire, and Remington Steele and performing as a voice actor in Showtime's 1985 animated series Washingtoon. His final role was in a 1986 episode of the comedy series Alf. Hill Street Blues was a serial police drama that first aired on NBC in 1981 and ran for 146 episodes on primetime into 1987. ... Spenser: For Hire is a mystery, P.I. television series based on Robert B. Parkers Spenser novels. ... Pierce Brosnan and Stephanie Zimbalist in Remington Steele. ... A voice actor (also a voice artist) is a person who provides voices for animated characters (including those in feature films, television series, animated shorts), voice-overs in radio and television commercials, audio dramas, dubbed foreign language films, video games, puppet shows, and amusement rides. ... This article needs to be updated. ... ALF or Alf can have several meanings: ALF is an acronym standing for Animal Liberation Front, an animal rights group Alf is an acronym for the Africa Leadership Forum. ...

In the late 1970's, Joston had worked on film production crews when he was between movie roles, and after he stopped acting, he returned to this line of work and made it his full-time career. From 1986 until the mid-1990's, he worked as a driver, driver captain, or transportation captain (sometimes with his son, Shawn Solomon) on television productions and on films such as Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986), La Bamba (1987), Lynch's 1990 film Wild at Heart, and The American President (1995). Down and Out in Beverly Hills is a 1986 American comedy motion picture starring Nick Nolte, Bette Midler and Richard Dreyfuss. ... La Bamba is a traditional song created in the Mexican state of Veracruz over 300 years ago. ... Wild at Heart is a 1990 film directed by David Lynch. ... Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: The American President (film) This article is about a movie. ...

Death

Joston died of leukemia on June 1, 1998 at age 60. Several months after his death, Joston's friends and family established the F. Darwin Solomon Endowment at the North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem to commemorate his life and career. Leukemia or leukaemia (see spelling differences) is a cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal proliferation of blood cells, usually white blood cells (leukocytes). ... An arts conservatory of international renown, the North Carolina School of the Arts was the first state-supported, residential school of its kind in the nation. ...

Since the DVD release of Assault on Precinct 13, which has exposed new audiences to Joston's work, many now consider him to have been a vastly underrated actor whose talent was not duly recognized during his lifetime.

Trivia

• John Carpenter has said that he had Joston in mind while he was developing the role of Napoleon Wilson. When Carpenter was writing Assault on Precinct 13, he and Joston lived next door to each other in a Los Angeles neighborhood. Having gotten to know Joston and his dark sense of humor, Carpenter felt that his neighbor would make an interesting anti-hero.
• In the early 1980's, when Carpenter was involved in negotiations to direct the film adaptation of Stephen King's novel Firestarter, he wanted Joston to play the role of the Native-American assassin, John Rainbird, but when Carpenter was no longer attached to the project (it was ultimately directed by Mark L. Lester), the role of Rainbird was given to George C. Scott.

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author best known for his enormously popular horror novels. ... Firestarter is a novel by Stephen King originally published in 1980. ... Mark L. Lester (b. ... George C Scott as General Buck Turgidson in Stanley Kubricks George Campbell Scott (October 18, 1927 – September 22, 1999) was a film/stage actor, director, and producer. ...

External links

• Darwin Joston at The Internet Movie Database