R.I.P. Edward Woodward

It was with great sadness that it was learned that British actor Edward Woodward passed away yesterday at age 79. For cinemaphiles, Woodward will be remembered for the classic films The Wicker Man (1973) and Breaker Morant (1980), but for TV addicts he will always be Robert McCall a.k.a. The Equalizer.

Woodward had previously starred in the British television show Callan which ran from 1967 to 1972. In it, he played cynical government agent David Callan, a character that neatly foreshadowed his Equalizer role. Another part he played in this tradition was the mysterious Mr. Jones who turns out to be the title character’s father on the last season of La Femme Nikita (2001).

But Woodward didn’t achieve star status in this country until The Equalizer (which ran from 1985 to 1989). The main character was disillusioned C.I.A. agent Robert McCall who has retired from the agency and sets up shop in New York City to be near his estranged son. In order to make amends for some of the dirty jobs he did in the past, McCall takes out an ad in the newspapers and The Yellow Pages offering those in danger who can’t rely on the police the services of The Equalizer who will balance the scales of justice.

Filmed on location with cutting edge music by Stewart Copeland, The Equalizer was an immediate hit in the ratings. When Woodward suffered a coronary in 1987, the show was too popular to cancel, so a series of guest stars like Robert Mitchum stood in for Woodward until he could return to the set.

Other notable TV roles Woodward played were Drummond in a two-part episode of the 80s retread of Alfred Hitchcock Presents called The Hunted (which is why several obituaries erroneously claimed that Woodward worked with Hitchcock), The Ghost of Christmas Present in the definitive television adaptation of A Christmas Carol (1984) starring George C. Scott as Scrooge and the world’s most corpulent Sherlock Holmes opposite an equally unlikely Watson played by a bearded John Hillerman in Hands of a Murderer (1990).

Farewell, Edward Woodward. You were definitely a class act.

The first season of The Equalizer is available from Netflix and Amazon.