Courtesy of Andrew Cooper/Sony Pictures
Quentin Tarantino praised his fictional “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” star Rick Dalton on a recent episode of his Video Archives podcast.
On May 19, Tarantino announced the The video archive‘ Twitter that the fictional character had passed away, writing: ‘We are saddened by the news of the passing of actor Rick Dalton, best known for his roles in the hit TV series ‘Bounty Law’ and ‘The Fireman’ trilogy. “
On the podcast, co-hosted by his “Pulp Fiction” co-writer Roger Avary, Tarantino paid tribute to the late “Once Upon a Time” character with help from Avary’s daughter Gala, the podcast’s producer. .
“On May 19, 2023, actor Rick Dalton passed away peacefully at his home in Honolulu, Hawaii,” Gala said. “He is survived by his wife, Francesca. Dalton was beloved by fans of “Bounty Law,” where he played bounty hunter Jake Cahill for five seasons, as well as for his iconic role as flamethrower-wielding vigilante Eddie Karpinski in “The Fireman,” “The Fireman Part 2”. and ‘The Fireman 3: CIA Crackdown.’ But he was much more than that, with a career spanning over 20 years. In this episode of the Video Archives podcast, we invite you to remember Rick Dalton.
Tarantino continued to reference a conflict Dalton was engaged in, as depicted in “Once Upon a Time.”
“He also had something happen to him in the late ’60s, where three hippies broke into his house, and they were tripping, and they had a gun with them, and his stunt man basically beat the brains out. of two of them, and Rick set the other on fire with the flamethrower from “The 14 Fists of McCluskey,” Tarantino explained.
“So he was invited to, like, the Republican Convention, okay, because it became this thing for, like, the Nixon Silent Majority. And he’s a lifelong Democrat but he went there and they screwed him up. Rick was very happy to be dug,” Tarantino said. “But they put him on Johnny Carson after that, and he was a big hit on ‘The Johnny Carson Show,’ and then all of a sudden, because of the notoriety, he started doing better shows. He went from “Land of the Giants” and “Green Hornet” to “Mission: Impossible.”