Memories of Kubrick

Comic-Con is winding down and you can see people checking their watches and getting ready for plane flights back to the real world. At the Omni Hotel, I spotted Joe Turkel getting ready to head back home to Santa Monica. "It was a great weekend. I got to tell the old stories again."

Turkel was here promoting the 25th anniversary of "Blade Runner" and the release of the souped-up version that Ridley Scott has made by melding the original theatrical release with alternate versions and even some new footage.

Turkel was not only in "Blade Runner"; he was the ghostly barkeep at the hotel in "The Shining." That wasn't his first film with Stanley Kubrick: "Kirk Douglas and I are the only living members of the cast from 'Paths of Glory,'" Turkel told me.

"I miss Stanley so much. I cried for a month when he died. He was the inspiration of my life."

Turkel said Kubrick would arrive on set in rumpled clothes with a pure focus on the movie at hand. "One of these" -- Turkel pulled out a black plastic comb -- "never touched Stanley's head."

Turkel has a salty mouth and a backslapper's grin. "Let me tell you this, when I did 'Blade Runner,' there were two or three times where he [Scott] would say, 'Joe, do you think Stanley would have shot it like this?'"

Turkel said he had to catch his ride. His last thought was on how different Kubrick was from his severe reputation.

"He was as sweet as sugar."

-- Geoff Boucher