He crapped bigger than you

Jack Palance: 1919 – 2006

Of course, he'll be best remembered for Shane and City Slickers. For most of my life, though, he was the Ripley's Believe it or Not guy who also played the space-tyrant-with-the-glowing-touch-of-death on Buck Rogers. That guy freaked me out when I was seven.

As villains go, Palance was always the happy badman — not crazy-happy like a giggling Richard Widmark or sleazy-happy like an oily George Sanders — but coldly pleased with himself. A coiled, smirking, naughty snake who liked to toy with his prey. He even hissed when he spoke.

For the best possible elegy to this man, we need look no further than the one offered by Billy Crystal in City Slickers: “Lord, we give you Curly. Try not to piss him off.”