Larry Hankin has never been a conformist – he readily admits that. The veteran actor has been bucking the system since his earliest days as a student at Syracuse University and has kept himself uniquely independent throughout his illustrious career as a familiar face on screen.
“I am a 1960 Graduate of Syracuse University,” Hankin explained. I was just going to college because my parents wanted me to go to college.” It was a five-year program in Industrial Design. I did actually get kicked out of Syracuse twice just for screwing around in class, really. I had, and still have, an attitude problem – though now they call it ADHD. I told teachers to go to hell and things like that. It was fun.”
It was the fun of Syracuse’s Drama Department that inspired Mr. Hankin after graduation, when he and good friend and fellow SU grad, Carl Gottlieb (writer of Jaws) took their anti-establishment views to New York City. “We didn’t know we were going to be in show business – he was a writing and journalism major and I was industrial design – we just found ourselves hanging out together. We were in Greenwich Village and I was doing my stand-up and some summer stock.”
It was his comedic routines that made Hankin feel at home on stage, though he might have not always received the warmest welcomes.
“I always was a funny guy. I just wanted to make people laugh. But, I couldn’t get a job anywhere because I was considered a ‘hippie,’” Hankin said. “I was like Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor – I was too raw to be on TV or the variety shows because I talked about pot and cursed on stage – I was a bad boy.” He continued, “I was opening for The Kingston Trio, Miles David and Woody Allen but the audiences stopped me from doing that – the vitriol was horrible. I was booed off the stage, people came at me with bottles – it was really rough. I had to get police protection! I was just a middle-class Jewish kid and I didn’t know what was going on.”
Greenwich Village’s loss was Second City’s gain, as Hankin joined the comedic troupe in the early ’60s. But his experience with Second City was just a precursor to his next adventure – The Committee.
“Alan & Jessica Myerson didn’t like what was going on and wanted to be more anti-establishment so they started The Committee out in San Francisco,” Hankin explained. “It was either L.A. or San Francisco – and they made the right choice because when we got there it was just as Mario Savio began his movement at Berkeley. We got the brunt of the ‘60s movement because of our juxtaposition to Berkeley. I was happy to make people laugh. that’s all any of us wanted, until we got into movies – and got ‘the disease,’” he joked.
After couch-surfing in Los Angeles for a bit, Hankin found himself back in San Francisco at the behest of his agent. “I was doing some sitcom and television work, Laverne & Shirley and things like that and my agent just said ‘go up there.’ I hadn’t read a script, I wasn’t called to audition – it was different in those days, you can’t do that today,” he said.
The audition was for Escape From Alcatraz, and Hankin found himself in front of legendary director Don Siegel. “They were in the room talking about me – it was just a weird audition,” Hankin said. “They (Siegel and the casting director) kept saying, ‘what about this guard part’ and ‘but nobody would believe he could beat up Clint Eastwood.’ So he asked me to read for Charlie Butts, a co-star role – and I read it there cold and they hired me on the spot. It was a major job and kept me going financially for a while.”
Before the paycheck, however, Hankin had the difficult task of crying on camera for an instrumental scene in Alcatraz where his character gets left behind.
“I really had trouble with the scene,” Hankin explained. “I was an improviser. And Don wanted me to cry. I just said, ‘Fuck it, I’ll get fired.’ When it came time for me to cry, I couldn’t – so Siegel took some wintergreen and blew across the top of the bottle and the fumes went right into my eyes; I started welling up and Don said, ‘Action’ and we shot scene and he said, ‘Cut – Perfect, Larry.”
“Hankin – with the same spirit as the kid who used to get police protection during his comedy routines, heartily agreed, “Right The Fuck On!”
After his impressive performance, Larry Hankin focused his efforts on Sometimes Jones – a character he couldn’t get out of his head.
“I always wanted to do the stuff that was in my head,” Hankin pointed out. After ‘Alcatraz,’ I had a shitload of money at the time. It happened that my friend Harry Mathias – a cinematographer – needed a reel. Harry asked me to write and direct something he could film, so we decided to make Solly’s Diner. I didn’t want to be a filmmaker, I just wanted to see Sometimes Jones.”
While Hankin and Mathias agreed on working together, they disagreed about the quality of the finished product – a disagreement Hankin is glad to have lost. “Harry wanted to hand it to the Academy,” Hankin recalled. “I was totally against it – I didn’t think it was good enough. A month later Harry called and told me he had sent it in despite my disapproval and that we’d been accepted and nominated.”
As for the entire Academy Award experience? “I bought my girlfriend a dress and we rented a limo and it was great,” Hankin said. “Until they announced, ‘The Winner of the Oscar for Best Short Film goes to Not Larry Hankin.’ At least that’s what I heard. I just wanted to go home, because unless you win, nobody wants to talk to you.”
That feeling was short-lived because just a few days later Hankin’s phone was ringing off the hook with calls from managers and agents wondering what his next project would be – a question for which he had no answer. “They all looked at me like I was nuts,” he laughed. “Turns out you don’t make a short film unless you have a project in the works.”
Staying busy would not be difficult for Larry Hankin, whose credits include: Annie, Home Alone, Pretty Woman, Armed & Dangerous, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Billy Madison, Seinfeld, Friends, and many more.
Hankin says he gets recognized “99%” of the time for Armed & Dangerous, Billy Madison and Seinfeld – but that doesn’t mean all of his memories from those experiences are positive – especially one widely known to many moviegoers.
“I don’t like doing the Weasel laugh,” he admitted. “The weasel laugh was a punch line to a joke and in the middle of shooting the scene, Adam (Sandler) said, ‘Hankin, do that weasel laugh.’ I still have people that ask me to do it when they see me and I hate that laugh.”
Most of his experiences are positive, however, and Hankin credits another Larry with being one of the best people to work with in show business. “I really learned a lot from Larry David. He’s a genius, no question about it – he’s always thinking, very calculating,” he said. “Larry saw where I was coming from – I was trying hard to do ‘nothing,’ but he told me to do the nothing you want to do – stop doing the something you’re doing. He was kind about it and he really just understood. It was really cool – and it’s what great directors do.”
More recently, Hankin has be seen as Gandalf in a college humor webisode, Old Joe in Breaking Bad and in the recently released Pain and Gain.
“It was amazing to work with The Rock,” Hankin explained. “And Michael Bay is an amazing filmmaker. If Don Siegel was the Yin, Bay is the Yang. If I had to be honest, I would say that ‘Alcatraz’, ‘Solly’s Diner’, the College Humor experience and ‘Pain and Gain’ are really a true cross-section of great filmmaking that I have been fortunate to be part of in my career.”
Larry Hankin is putting all his efforts into his next project – Emmett Deemus. “I put Don Quixote on a motorcycle,” Hankin described. “‘The Outlaw Emmett Deemus’ short films have won prizes at a few film festivals and I am turning it into a feature film. Everything I learned over the years is being put into this. I’m a learner. If I am part of something, I am on set, always learning.” For Larry Hankin, that knowledge gained over his 50 years in show business is immeasurable and beyond compare – something that separates him from his peers.
When asked about perhaps coming full circle and actually enjoy an Oscar Nomination if it comes his way this time – Hankin – with the same spirit as the kid who used to get police protection during his comedy routines, heartily agreed, “Right The Fuck On!”