John Gilbert - The House Lights Lowered

I hadn't talked to John Gilbert for years, the last time being to organize some get-togethers with a local actor who'd moved away and was coming back, as it happened, to say goodbye to old comrades. I'd heard John was living in Arizona, acting. He no longer was playing Sherlock Holmes for Jim French's "Imagination Theater" series. Then, a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that someone had been directed to "An Unpublished Life" via search engine using the words "Seattle actor John Gilbert" (I'd mentioned John here). I knew something was up.

John died a couple weeks ago. If you've lived in Seattle for very long, you probably'd heard of John from the decades of stage work he did here: first, at the UW, then the Rep, ACT, Intiman. He trod the boards of all of them. But, he was most known for playing Scrooge in ACT's annual production of "A Christmas Carol." John and ACT's production were as integral to a Northwest Christmas as the star over The Bon Marche, or visiting Santa at Frederick & Nelson's, or lighting the Christmas tree lights on the torch of the Space Needle...buying your tree for cheap at Chubby & Tubby's. It seemed like John always played Scrooge, and he did it with such verve--both as the penny-pinching miser, and the born-again philanthropist, that it was a thrill to see...however many times you'd seen it. A fellow actor (Hi, Bob Zenk) I traded Gilbert stories with last week told me he can't see the Dickens lines without hearing John's intonations.

But he did so much more than Scrooge. The last time I saw him on stage he played not only Tito, but Lucifer in a play by two Bosnian playwrights. And he also played The Devil for the Globe Radio Repertory Chekhov plays I worked on with Jean Sherrard years ago. We talked about adding something to John's voice to make him sound more sepulchral...and we ended up just putting the slightest shade of echo on it, and that was it...John had nailed it. That's what John did.

Once at a session, John hung out for longer than normal, talking and yacking and smoking. It was only after he'd gone and taken a sip from my Coke that I found out he'd been flicking his ashes in my Coke can. But I got him back. Once, on the rare occasion he couldn't make a recording date, I'd done an imitation of him as a stop-gap. He wasn't too pleased when he heard it.

A lifelong smoker, he died of cancer and emphysema.

A lifelong Communist, he now resides in the Worker's Paradise.

There is a Memorial Service for him tonight at the Leo "K" Auditorium at the Rep.

One final bow, John.