Before They Were Stars: Jeff Goldblum as Freak#1 in “Death Wish”

Yesterday, Gill posted a very bizarre clip of Jeff Goldblum acting in a Goosebumps CD-ROM game and pondered why he would take a job like that long after he was already an established star. I then slapped my head and wondered why the hell I hadn’t gotten around to doing a “Before They Were Stars” feature on Jeff Goldblum’s infamous debut performance as “Freak#1” in the Charles Bronson classic, Death Wish. Goldblum plays one of the gang members who murders Bronson’s wife and rapes his daughter at the beginning of the film, and paves the way for Charlie going from mild-mannered architect to ultra-violent vigilante who winds up killing 108 (I looked it up!) bad guys throughout the course of five Death Wish movies. His performance here is incredibly campy and over-the-top, but those who say that Jeff Goldblum can’t play anything but nerdy intellectuals will probably be shell-shocked to see him beating up a middle-aged lady while screaming: “God damn rich cunt! I kill rich cunts!”.