This month we lost Glenn Frey, a consummate entertainer, at the age of 67. Frey is probably best known for his role as Spence, a coke-addled regular Joe from Illinois who, with his buddies, mounts a daring rescue of their buddy who’s being held hostage in Colombia in the 1986 film Let’s Get Harry. This film is notable for a few reasons. First, it represents one of about 17 attempts to kickstart actor Mark Harmon’s (the titular Harry) film career. And boy, did it ever! It pulled in almost $141 million at the box office. Just kidding! It made $140,980. That probably wasn’t even enough to cover the damage co-star Gary Busey inflicted on his trailer. Second, director Stuart Rosenberg had his name taken off of the film and tagged with the infamous “Alan Smithee” moniker after producers insisted he shoot additional footage of Harry’s abduction and time as a hostage. They wanted to capitalize on Harmon’s new status as People‘s “Sexiest Man Alive.” Seriously: he didn’t make an appearance at all until the final rescue scenes. I have to side with the producers on this one, for obvious reasons. As an aside, my mother’s crush on Mark Harmon around this time could not be adequately quantified. Finally, LGH had quite possibly one of the most fascinating casts in modern movie history. It featured three actors who had very recently experienced huge success for the first time. Dig: you had Rick Rossovich (Slider in Top Gun), Michael Schoeffling (Jake in Sixteen Candles), and Thomas F. Wilson (Biff in Back To The Future). Okay, so Ocean’s Eleven this was not. But still. Adding gravitas to the cast was Robert Duvall as Shrike, the mercenary who trains and leads the guys. I’m pretty sure his meeting with producers went something like this:

Producers: “Bobby, we’d love to have you sign on for this. We’ve got the stars of Top Gun, Sixteen Candles, and Back To The Future already. You’d be perfect for the role.”

Robert Duvall: Holy shit! Tom Cruise, Anthony Michael Hall and Michael J. Fox? You bet!

Producers: Uhhh, fantastic! Have another New Coke!

Anyway, this group of guys hire a mercenary named Shrike to train them so they can go down to Colombia and rescue pipefitter Harry, who’s been abducted, along with a diplomat, from the plumbing public works project he was working on. Because those fat cats in DC won’t help! Frey’s character, Spence, is pretty skeptical of the plan…which is crazy, because he’s a coke fiend and you’d think he’d be all nuts and up for grabbing an Uzi and wasting some bad guys. Plus, it’s Colombia and it’s full of drugs! But no, he’s gotta be all Spence-ible. To be fair, maybe he thought they meant Columbia University. So they eventually get to South America and get Harry even though Slider chickens out at the last second. But Spence does get his big moment where he happens upon a room full of white powder! But he quickly remembers the group’s mission: save 1986’s “Sexiest Man Alive” at all costs. And they do!

In summation, one of Hollywood’s bright, shining stars has been dimmed. Also, Glenn Frey was in The Eagles.