A couple of weeks ago, Zap2It did a photo feature on what actors could play what presidential candidates. (The feature doesn’t seem to be available anymore, but you can find individual photos by searching for candidate names.)
As Barack Obama, they suggested Harry Lennix. And both before and after I clicked through to see who they selected, I was thinking, “It should be that guy who played an epidemiologist on ER. He was in Ray. That guy.”
That guy who, when I saw Ray, I remembered him as the guy from ER, and looked him up, and then afterwards I still couldn’t remember his name. That guy.
So after I finished looking at the photo essay, I looked up ER and Ray. “That guy”? Harry Lennix. Which I couldn’t figure out from looking at his picture and seeing his name, only from looking up things I’d seen him in.
What did we do before IMDB was invented? I used to go half-crazy trying to match names and faces, knowing I’d seen someone before in something, but not quite being able to place them.
Oh, and I think of Harry Lennix as Aaron from “Titus Andronicus.”
I should clarify that I spent a lot of time with ER when my knee was broken. TNT “Drama in the Daytime.” Two episodes of ER in the morning, and Angel in the afternoon.