If you’ve reached the age of 75, and still get to the gym or golf course every day, congratulations. Then there’s 76-year-old actor Scott Glenn—whom you might remember from memorable roles in Apocalypse Now, The Right Stuff, The Silence of the Lambs, and Backdraft. He’s also shown up in the Bourne movies, had a great turn on HBO’s The Leftovers, and most recently, appeared in the Netflix superhero series Daredevil and The Defenders.
Esquire caught up with Glenn, devoting a long, sprawling feature on the storied actor. RCLife has distilled it down to some of its highlights.
-He’s a former Marine and crime reporter.
-Of his daily routine, Esquire‘s Michael Sebastian writes “[Glenn] works out with knives, rides motorcycles, [and] spear fishes in the Pacific Ocean.” He also incorporates Navy SEAL training quirks into his workout regimen.
-In 1978, having basically quit acting, Glenn’s friend writer-actor James Bridges coaxed him into trying out for the role of the villain in Urban Cowboy, opposite John Travolta. Instead of accepting a plane ticket, he drove 2,000 miles in his truck and nailed the audition.
-When playing Alan Shepard in 1983’s The Right Stuff, he taught himself how to be right-handed to fulfill the role.
-Of the nearly completely Emmy-snubbed The Leftovers, Glenn says, “[It] is my favorite job I’ve ever had in my life, anywhere, ever….It is one of the greatest TV shows ever made.”
-He’s having a bit of a resurgence in fame due to his roles on Netflix. On a recent trip to Melbourne, Australia, Glenn said people kept calling him “Stick,” which is his character’s name on the Netflix shows.
-Glenn is set to co-star in Hulu’s upcoming Stephen King–story-based show, Castle Rock.
Watch Glenn as the villain in Backdraft below.
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