All true cult legends should enjoy at least one dalliance with the mainstream. One of the many remarkable things about Crispin Glover's career, however, is how this most out-there of US surrealists has continued to ply his unique trade as a performer in mainstream Hollywood movies - most recently as the psychotic Thin Man in last year's Charlie's Angels - while producing the uniquely twisted work he considers his life's true calling.
Glover's cinematic immortality is assured thanks to his memorably off-kilter turn as uber-nerd George McFly in the first Back To The Future movie (indeed, the man successfully sued producer Steven Spielberg and studio Universal when another actor was prosthetically enhanced to resemble Glover after the actor refused roles I the BTTF sequels). He's also essayed roles for film-making heavyweights such as Milos Foreman (The People Vs Larry Flint), Lasse Hallstrom (What's Eating Gilbert Grape?), Jim Jarmusch (Dead Man), Gus Van Sant (the lamentable Even Cowgirls Get the Blues), David Lynch (Wild at Heart) and even Oliver Stone (he was a pretty perfect Andy Warhol in The Doors). In some cases, the roles might have been relatively minor, but Glover's penetrating gaze, barely pent-up hyperactivity and rather, em, uniquely off-kilter line delivery - he . . . tends . . . to . . . enunciate . . . very . . . slowly . . . and . . . deliberately . . . - make them linger in the memory.
When allowed to hold stage - as an inept delinquent attempting to cover up a murder in Tim Hunter's controversial River's Edge, for example - he can also be stunningly effective.
Then, lest we forget, there's Crispin Hellion Glover, revered author of such unique tomes as Rat Catching and Oak-Mot, Victorian-era stories updated with macabre illustrations and densely deconstructed text, sold - along with a series of rather macabre music boxes - through his own Volcanic Eruptions company.
The self-same artist who, in 1989 released a now highly coveted album of spoken-word readings and cover tunes, including a jaw-dropping rendition of These Boots Are Made for Walkin' and the frankly disturbing Clowny Clown Clown.
Indeed, in recent years, Mr Density (to borrow the title of a fanzine devoted to various characters from the Glover canon) dropped out of acting entirely to focus on his directorial dΘbut, the as-yet unreleased What Is It? - a non-narrative feature populated entirely by actors with Down- and on touring the US with his one-man tribute to the world of vaudeville, The Big Slide Show.
That aforementioned Charlie's Angels gig, along with an alarmingly straight turn in Neil LaButeGlover back to the multiplexes (and he hasn't aged a day since his McFly gig, some 15 years ago).
Have we mentioned that his Dad Bruce was one of the two gay hitmen in 1970 Bond-goes-Vegas classic Diamonds Are Forever? Crispin Glover: he celebrates his birthday twice a year, you know.
Website: www.volcaniceruptions.com