Actor and director Tim Matheson’s career spans decades, with iconic work as an actor which includes: Portraying Eric “Otter” Stratton in the classic 1978 comedy National Lampoon’s Animal House, voicing Jonny Quest in the 1964 animated series of the same name, collaborating with comedy legend Lucille Ball, antagonizing Chevy Chase in Fletch, and embodying Vice President John Hoynes in the hit drama series The West Wing — a role that earned him two Emmy nominations.
Matheson recounts juicy behind the scenes stories from his storied career and his experiences working with Hollywood legends in his recent memoir, Damn Glad to Meet You: My Seven Decades in the Hollywood Trenches.
More: Actor Tim Matheson is an open book (The Treatment, 2024)
For his Treat, Matheson reminisces about one of his earliest and most formative cinema experiences. In 1964, he witnessed a classic double feature: Mel Brooks’ Oscar winning short The Critic followed by Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. The biting humor of The Critic had him in stitches, while the brilliant absurdity of Dr. Strangelove captivated him. Taken together, these films inspired in Matheson a desire to work on projects that were equally “profound and insane.”
This segment has been edited and condensed for clarity.
The first time I was ever really blown away in a movie theater… it was 1964, I think. I had seen this title that was the longest title I'd ever seen of a movie — Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.
So I'm in this theater, I'm watching it, and the first thing that comes up is a Mel Brooks short called The Critic (which won an Oscar).
And watching it, it's an animated thing with Mel kibitzing with two people in the theater, kibitzing about: "What is this?" It's hysterical. It is just brilliant. And I sort of knew who Mel Brooks was, but now I really knew who Mel Brooks was. Who is crazy enough to have done something like this?
And then, you know, the lights go down, I think maybe coming attractions, and then now comes Stanley Kubrick and Dr. Strangelove. I'd never seen anything like it. I didn't know how to wrap my head around it. It's hysterical without playing for laughs. And Peter Sellers is playing three different parts in it. He's playing an American president, he's playing Dr. Strangelove, and he's playing a Canadian officer. And Sterling Hayden is this mad general who's unleashed the Strategic Air Command on Russia because he thinks the time is right for us to just take them out.
It taught us a lesson without a bitter pill to swallow, and it made us aware of the delicacy of this wonderful country we live in, this crazy world we live in, and how we have to protect that.
George C. Scott's performance was just so grounded and so real. I was blown away, and I just thought: “I want to head in that direction. I want to head there as an actor, and perhaps as a director.” That was a hallmark for me to see. To do something that's as profound and insane as that; I think it broke so many rules and reset the odometer [for] cinema.