Sunday, August 10, 2008

Isaac Hayes R.I.P.

Isaac Hayes died today at the age of 65. The multi-talented Hayes, who was a self-taught songwriter, singer, record producer, actor and more, will be missed by fans of all ages. I first discovered Isaac Hayes thanks to his Academy Award and Grammy winning theme song for the motion picture "Shaft." I've never met a person who didn't like THAT song. If the theme from "Shaft" was all that he ever did, Isaac Hayes would have left his mark on popular culture. Hayes went on to produce more albums as well as work on the soundtracks of dozens of movies.

I first saw Isaac Hayes the actor guest starring on "The Rockford Files" as ex-con Gandolph Fitch. He was excellent in the role and who can forget him repeatedly calling James Garner's Rockford character "Rockfish"? Hayes reprised the role three different times. My next memory of Isaac Hayes the actor, is in the cult classic, John Carpenter's "Escape from New York" where he played the Duke of New York. The role was tailor made for Hayes. Younger fans probably know Isaac Hayes best as the voice of "The Chef" on "South Park."

Isaac Hayes will be missed. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family, friends and fans.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I just had those episodes running Thursday and Friday while I worked. Hayes was great and the writing of the episodes were terific.