The greatest are known by a single name. Satchmo, Pele, Cher, Jimi. It is past time to look at the career of another on the one-name legends, The actor’s actor known simply as Kit.
Few people realize the tremendous body of his work because he , the consummate professional, became the role. Early in his career, he took the title role in the Tony Blake movie "Electra Glide in Blue". He slimmed down so much for the role, losing 1200 pounds and two wheels, that many say he never fully recovered from the role. I think his troubles started well before then. They almost certainly stemmed from his youth, raised by a single parent and abandoned by his father.
Shortly after "Electra Glide" he began working on an auto biography with a working title of "My Mother The Car" As he wrote, he began to focus more on his missing father and renamed the book "Car 54, Where Are You?" These unresolved issues began to hit him harder and harder.
Following his Oscar as Supporting Actor For "Bullitt" with Steve McQueen, His career hit the skids. He began using fuel additives to cope with a pronounced hesitation and heavy weight gear oil to deaden the pain in his rear end. Once he tried nitro-methane (Meth to its users, or Speed), he was hooked. His career followed suit and his nearly continuous methanol consumption did nothing to deaden the pain of the only work he could get. His role in "The Beverly Hillbillies" was rock bottom for the once-proud A-lister.
Kit’s well-publicized arrest for exposing his crank at an auto show resulted in a two year impound sentence. Fortunately, his baymate was a deeply religous E Type Jag doing hard time because of some electrical issues and Kit came out preaching the word of Rolls Royce. His parole officer continued to demand weekly lubricant analyses to help him stay clean and many of his old friends rallied around to offer support.
After a shot-lived gig in "Stingray", he finally got the king of steady work he needed. Starring opposite David Hassellhof in "Knight Rider", everything seemed to be going so well. However, Kit soon tired of carrying Hasselhof through the show.
"Then, he started singing behind the wheel." Kit explained "I couldn’t take the pain anymore, so I quit the series rather than go back to the old ways."
He has never admitted this before, so remember you heard it here first.
Kit has finally found fresh young talent that he cam mold into shape, and tonight, we’ve seen his triumphant return to the role that made him a legend. Viva La Kit.