Love for Lana Clarkson

I was inspired to write this post by Showtime’s excellent 4 part documentary series Spector (2022). The title is a little bit of a distortion, if an understandable one; one of the series’ principal virtues is that it de-emphasizes the well-established musical genius and career success of Phil Spector, and devotes a good bit of time instead to a respectful and eye-opening portrait of the victim of his reckless, drunken gunplay, actress Lana Clarkson (1962-2003).

Have I mentioned that the media sucks? There is an inevitable tendency to make everything about the biggest celebrity in any story, to make it their story. The public, in turn, seems all too willing to forgive ANY outrage committed by their favorite stars, whether it be serial rape, pedophilia, sexual abuse, assault, or murder. I’m not saying don’t play any Phil Spector records any more, but honestly, the telling of the story HAS to be better than that stupid 2013 HBO movie with Al Pacino. As does the treatment by the news people, who always seemed to reduce Clarkson to her day job at the time of her death, which was as a hostess at Dan Aykroyd’s House of Blues club in West Hollywood.

But the point of this post is to reinforce the truth that Clarkson was more than that. And more too than a “human being” and a “good person” and the rest, which naturally matter very much, and always do matter when someone’s life is taken from them. But Clarkson was also a person with aspirations in show business. She’d want you to know what she DID, what she’d been in. One wants one’s work to matter, too, and that it was valued. And Clarkson had a pretty great career, especially at the outset. Initially a model, she landed eye-catching supporting roles inMy Favorite Year (1982), Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), Brainstorm (1983), Scarface (1983–starring the man who would play her murderer!), Blind Date (1984) and Amazon Women on the Moon (1987). She also had guest shots on the tv shows Three’s Company, The Jeffersons,The New Mike Hammer, Knight Rider, The A Team, Night Court, Amazing Stories, The Love Boat, Wings, and many other shows. She was even in a sketch on a George Burns variety special! She even had some starring roles, albeit in low-budget horror and fantasy films, most of them produced by Roger Corman (with whom she shared a birthday). These included Deathstalker (1983), Barbarian Queen (1985), Wizards of the Lost Kingdom II (1989, Charles B. Griffith’s last film, with David Carradine and Mel Welles!), The Haunting of Morella (1990), and Barbarian Queen II: The Empress Strikes Back (1990).

By the mid to late ’90s Clarkson’s career had begun to slow down, exacerbated by an injury (she broke both wrists in an accident sustained while dancing in stiletto heels). And that is why she had to resort to the job at the House of Blues, which ought to be characterized as a smart play, because it kept her in constant contact with helpful celebrities and show biz professionals, plenty of whom still knew her. Unfortunately, on February 3, 2003 (just over 20 years ago), one of those celebs happened to be a blotto and friendless Phil Spector, who pressured her into coming back to his Beverly Hills mansion Pyrenees Castle, where he proceeded to shoot her in the face.

At the time, I recall the media painting Clarkson as some sort of hanger-on or adult film star or something, like they usually do. The Showtime series makes the excellent case that she had gone back with Spector to his place merely to be polite. He was a recluse, crazy, and completely wacked out on booze and pills or whatever. The film also reinforces what most people who paid attention had always known: that it was only a matter of time before Phil Spector killed somebody. He’d been waving around guns and threatening people for decades. He was paranoid and violent. He’d stolen the masters to John Lennon’sRock and Roll sessions, and kept his wife Ronnie Spector a prisoner for years. The show has terrific interviews with people who knew him well from every period of his life, all of whom (even close friends) testify to what a loose cannon he was. It was Clarkson’s rotten luck to be there the one time he pulled the trigger with a person in front of the barrel.

It wasn’t until 2009 that a jury found Spector guilty and sent him to prison on a 19 year sentence. It was ruled a second degree homicide. Which seems roughly appropriate. It wasn’t premeditated, he was just drunken and reckless, for which he deserved a stiff punishment. I’m guessing it was his 2021 death that accounts for the timing of the 2022 doc series. She’d have been 60 at the time this series debuted. It’s a pity she wasn’t around to hear the many nice things that were said about her.