Bob Geldof blasts 'sociopathic loser' Elon Musk
Bob Geldof has branded Elon Musk a "prime w*****" for disregarding empathy.
The 73-year-old musician and Live Aid pioneer spoke to the audience after the opening night of Just For One Day: The Live Aid Musical on London's West End at the Shaftesbury Theatre, and he took aim at the billionaire.
In a video shared by Theatre-News.com, he said: "A couple of weeks ago, that prime w***** Elon Musk said something seriously wrong. He said, 'The great weakness of Western civilisation is empathy'.
"The great weakness? ... You sociopathic loser. Empathy is the glue of civilisation. Empathy is the glue of humanity.
"It's how we do things together. It's how we sit here together and clap because we actually understand that this is the stuff that works."
During a recent interview with Joe Rogan in February, Musk insisted while "you should care about other people", empathy was being "weaponised".
He added: "The fundamental weakness of Western civilisation is empathy, the empathy exploit."
The musical - which started at The Old Vic in January 2024 before moving to the US and now returning to London - retells the events leading up to the Live Aid benefit concert in 1985, which raised money for the famine in Ethiopia.
Geldof - who also called out United States President Donald Trump, his vice president JD Vance, and British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer - used his passionate speech to encourage people to help those in need.
He continued: "We need to be helped, we need to help the NHS, we need to re-arm because there's a thug currently invading our continent, but really?
"All that intellect, that's all you can do? Snatch it from those people? It can't work like that. It doesn't have to work like that.
"It began working like that in 1985, and we took it all the way 20 years later to Live 8. That really tipped the balance in the favour of those we wanted to help."
Bob Geldof has branded Elon Musk a "prime w*****" for disregarding empathy.
The 73-year-old musician and Live Aid pioneer spoke to the audience after the opening night of Just For One Day: The Live Aid Musical on London's West End at the Shaftesbury Theatre, and he took aim at the billionaire.
In a video shared by Theatre-News.com, he said: "A couple of weeks ago, that prime w***** Elon Musk said something seriously wrong. He said, 'The great weakness of Western civilisation is empathy'.
"The great weakness? ... You sociopathic loser. Empathy is the glue of civilisation. Empathy is the glue of humanity.
"It's how we do things together. It's how we sit here together and clap because we actually understand that this is the stuff that works."
During a recent interview with Joe Rogan in February, Musk insisted while "you should care about other people", empathy was being "weaponised".
He added: "The fundamental weakness of Western civilisation is empathy, the empathy exploit."
The musical - which started at The Old Vic in January 2024 before moving to the US and now returning to London - retells the events leading up to the Live Aid benefit concert in 1985, which raised money for the famine in Ethiopia.
Geldof - who also called out United States President Donald Trump, his vice president JD Vance, and British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer - used his passionate speech to encourage people to help those in need.
He continued: "We need to be helped, we need to help the NHS, we need to re-arm because there's a thug currently invading our continent, but really?
"All that intellect, that's all you can do? Snatch it from those people? It can't work like that. It doesn't have to work like that.
"It began working like that in 1985, and we took it all the way 20 years later to Live 8. That really tipped the balance in the favour of those we wanted to help."
Bob Geldof has branded Elon Musk a "prime w*****" for disregarding empathy.
The 73-year-old musician and Live Aid pioneer spoke to the audience after the opening night of Just For One Day: The Live Aid Musical on London's West End at the Shaftesbury Theatre, and he took aim at the billionaire.
In a video shared by Theatre-News.com, he said: "A couple of weeks ago, that prime w***** Elon Musk said something seriously wrong. He said, 'The great weakness of Western civilisation is empathy'.
"The great weakness? ... You sociopathic loser. Empathy is the glue of civilisation. Empathy is the glue of humanity.
"It's how we do things together. It's how we sit here together and clap because we actually understand that this is the stuff that works."
During a recent interview with Joe Rogan in February, Musk insisted while "you should care about other people", empathy was being "weaponised".
He added: "The fundamental weakness of Western civilisation is empathy, the empathy exploit."
The musical - which started at The Old Vic in January 2024 before moving to the US and now returning to London - retells the events leading up to the Live Aid benefit concert in 1985, which raised money for the famine in Ethiopia.
Geldof - who also called out United States President Donald Trump, his vice president JD Vance, and British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer - used his passionate speech to encourage people to help those in need.
He continued: "We need to be helped, we need to help the NHS, we need to re-arm because there's a thug currently invading our continent, but really?
"All that intellect, that's all you can do? Snatch it from those people? It can't work like that. It doesn't have to work like that.
"It began working like that in 1985, and we took it all the way 20 years later to Live 8. That really tipped the balance in the favour of those we wanted to help."
Bob Geldof has branded Elon Musk a "prime w*****" for disregarding empathy.
The 73-year-old musician and Live Aid pioneer spoke to the audience after the opening night of Just For One Day: The Live Aid Musical on London's West End at the Shaftesbury Theatre, and he took aim at the billionaire.
In a video shared by Theatre-News.com, he said: "A couple of weeks ago, that prime w***** Elon Musk said something seriously wrong. He said, 'The great weakness of Western civilisation is empathy'.
"The great weakness? ... You sociopathic loser. Empathy is the glue of civilisation. Empathy is the glue of humanity.
"It's how we do things together. It's how we sit here together and clap because we actually understand that this is the stuff that works."
During a recent interview with Joe Rogan in February, Musk insisted while "you should care about other people", empathy was being "weaponised".
He added: "The fundamental weakness of Western civilisation is empathy, the empathy exploit."
The musical - which started at The Old Vic in January 2024 before moving to the US and now returning to London - retells the events leading up to the Live Aid benefit concert in 1985, which raised money for the famine in Ethiopia.
Geldof - who also called out United States President Donald Trump, his vice president JD Vance, and British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer - used his passionate speech to encourage people to help those in need.
He continued: "We need to be helped, we need to help the NHS, we need to re-arm because there's a thug currently invading our continent, but really?
"All that intellect, that's all you can do? Snatch it from those people? It can't work like that. It doesn't have to work like that.
"It began working like that in 1985, and we took it all the way 20 years later to Live 8. That really tipped the balance in the favour of those we wanted to help."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Advertiser
3 hours ago
- The Advertiser
Infectious zombie sequel breathes new life into horror genre
Danny Boyle is back at the helm, not quite 28 years later, for the second sequel to his brilliant 2002 zombie movie 28 Days Later, a film that breathed new life into that particular horror genre. Here he delivers a film experience that feels just as fresh as the first. In fact, this film feels closer in tone to Boyle's breakout hit film Trainspotting, in terms of pace, of editing, of music use, of grimy visual spectacle. Boyle's original film's stars are nowhere to be seen, but there are visual touches that throw us back, and I felt nostalgic at a character stepping over a derelict billboard for the British soft drink Tango. Both Boyle and his screenwriter collaborator Alex Garland are at the top of their game, all these years later, with Boyle's mantlepiece home to a best director Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire. Garland was quite prescient with last year's Civil War, a film he wrote and directed, with a message that felt just a few weeks ago, as citizens of Los Angeles had the National Guard called on them by their President, like it was a crystal ball into a likely future. In their first zombie film, England has been ground zero for an infection called Rage, passed on by bodily fluids - a sneeze, the saliva of a bite, a drop of blood - that turns its victims almost immediately into fast-moving killing machines that aren't zombies so much as carriers of an aggressive human form of distemper. We learn as the film opens that the rest of the world has written England off to keep the infection under control, the entire island a quarantine zone that no remaining human is allowed to leave, which is fairly Brexit-coded. Twelve-year-old Spike (Alfie Williams) lives with dad Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), grandfather Sam (Christopher Fulford) and ma Isla (Jodie Comer) in a community of survivalists thriving on an island just off the Scottish coast. Jamie is taking his son for one of the community's rites of passage, a hunting trip to mainland Scotland to make his first kill of the infected, which in 28 years have evolved into two species, one a slow slug-like eater of worms, and one athletic and sentient. Isla is bedridden by a mystery ailment that has her rambling and feels like it might scarily turn into the Rage virus at any moment, and full of his own success at having survived his mainland killing trip, Spike takes his mother with him back to the mainland on the trail of a rumoured doctor who might heal her. They find this doctor, Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), but he has tragic observations to share about Isla, but also about the evolving nature of the infected. Like Garland did with his Civil War screenplay, there's been some dramatic upheavals in real-life that allow him to make some keen observations about us as a society with this script, knowing his audience have already survived their own infectious pandemic. He must have had a bunch of insights to share, because 28 Years Later is actually the first in a planned trilogy, the final instalment filmed back-to-back with this film and due out in cinemas just after Christmas. The performances are very strong and sometimes against type, like Jodie Comer's non-action film tragic figure, or Aaron Taylor-Johnson's very action-film approach. Danny Boyle and his crew do some fairly amazing technical work, including filming with an array of iPhones that give gorgeous crisp visuals and are carried in a lightweight frame specially designed to allow cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle to follow his cast into tight spaces or up ladders and hills at a matching speed. It really amps up the film's pull-your-legs-up-onto-the-seat-with-you terror. Danny Boyle is back at the helm, not quite 28 years later, for the second sequel to his brilliant 2002 zombie movie 28 Days Later, a film that breathed new life into that particular horror genre. Here he delivers a film experience that feels just as fresh as the first. In fact, this film feels closer in tone to Boyle's breakout hit film Trainspotting, in terms of pace, of editing, of music use, of grimy visual spectacle. Boyle's original film's stars are nowhere to be seen, but there are visual touches that throw us back, and I felt nostalgic at a character stepping over a derelict billboard for the British soft drink Tango. Both Boyle and his screenwriter collaborator Alex Garland are at the top of their game, all these years later, with Boyle's mantlepiece home to a best director Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire. Garland was quite prescient with last year's Civil War, a film he wrote and directed, with a message that felt just a few weeks ago, as citizens of Los Angeles had the National Guard called on them by their President, like it was a crystal ball into a likely future. In their first zombie film, England has been ground zero for an infection called Rage, passed on by bodily fluids - a sneeze, the saliva of a bite, a drop of blood - that turns its victims almost immediately into fast-moving killing machines that aren't zombies so much as carriers of an aggressive human form of distemper. We learn as the film opens that the rest of the world has written England off to keep the infection under control, the entire island a quarantine zone that no remaining human is allowed to leave, which is fairly Brexit-coded. Twelve-year-old Spike (Alfie Williams) lives with dad Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), grandfather Sam (Christopher Fulford) and ma Isla (Jodie Comer) in a community of survivalists thriving on an island just off the Scottish coast. Jamie is taking his son for one of the community's rites of passage, a hunting trip to mainland Scotland to make his first kill of the infected, which in 28 years have evolved into two species, one a slow slug-like eater of worms, and one athletic and sentient. Isla is bedridden by a mystery ailment that has her rambling and feels like it might scarily turn into the Rage virus at any moment, and full of his own success at having survived his mainland killing trip, Spike takes his mother with him back to the mainland on the trail of a rumoured doctor who might heal her. They find this doctor, Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), but he has tragic observations to share about Isla, but also about the evolving nature of the infected. Like Garland did with his Civil War screenplay, there's been some dramatic upheavals in real-life that allow him to make some keen observations about us as a society with this script, knowing his audience have already survived their own infectious pandemic. He must have had a bunch of insights to share, because 28 Years Later is actually the first in a planned trilogy, the final instalment filmed back-to-back with this film and due out in cinemas just after Christmas. The performances are very strong and sometimes against type, like Jodie Comer's non-action film tragic figure, or Aaron Taylor-Johnson's very action-film approach. Danny Boyle and his crew do some fairly amazing technical work, including filming with an array of iPhones that give gorgeous crisp visuals and are carried in a lightweight frame specially designed to allow cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle to follow his cast into tight spaces or up ladders and hills at a matching speed. It really amps up the film's pull-your-legs-up-onto-the-seat-with-you terror. Danny Boyle is back at the helm, not quite 28 years later, for the second sequel to his brilliant 2002 zombie movie 28 Days Later, a film that breathed new life into that particular horror genre. Here he delivers a film experience that feels just as fresh as the first. In fact, this film feels closer in tone to Boyle's breakout hit film Trainspotting, in terms of pace, of editing, of music use, of grimy visual spectacle. Boyle's original film's stars are nowhere to be seen, but there are visual touches that throw us back, and I felt nostalgic at a character stepping over a derelict billboard for the British soft drink Tango. Both Boyle and his screenwriter collaborator Alex Garland are at the top of their game, all these years later, with Boyle's mantlepiece home to a best director Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire. Garland was quite prescient with last year's Civil War, a film he wrote and directed, with a message that felt just a few weeks ago, as citizens of Los Angeles had the National Guard called on them by their President, like it was a crystal ball into a likely future. In their first zombie film, England has been ground zero for an infection called Rage, passed on by bodily fluids - a sneeze, the saliva of a bite, a drop of blood - that turns its victims almost immediately into fast-moving killing machines that aren't zombies so much as carriers of an aggressive human form of distemper. We learn as the film opens that the rest of the world has written England off to keep the infection under control, the entire island a quarantine zone that no remaining human is allowed to leave, which is fairly Brexit-coded. Twelve-year-old Spike (Alfie Williams) lives with dad Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), grandfather Sam (Christopher Fulford) and ma Isla (Jodie Comer) in a community of survivalists thriving on an island just off the Scottish coast. Jamie is taking his son for one of the community's rites of passage, a hunting trip to mainland Scotland to make his first kill of the infected, which in 28 years have evolved into two species, one a slow slug-like eater of worms, and one athletic and sentient. Isla is bedridden by a mystery ailment that has her rambling and feels like it might scarily turn into the Rage virus at any moment, and full of his own success at having survived his mainland killing trip, Spike takes his mother with him back to the mainland on the trail of a rumoured doctor who might heal her. They find this doctor, Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), but he has tragic observations to share about Isla, but also about the evolving nature of the infected. Like Garland did with his Civil War screenplay, there's been some dramatic upheavals in real-life that allow him to make some keen observations about us as a society with this script, knowing his audience have already survived their own infectious pandemic. He must have had a bunch of insights to share, because 28 Years Later is actually the first in a planned trilogy, the final instalment filmed back-to-back with this film and due out in cinemas just after Christmas. The performances are very strong and sometimes against type, like Jodie Comer's non-action film tragic figure, or Aaron Taylor-Johnson's very action-film approach. Danny Boyle and his crew do some fairly amazing technical work, including filming with an array of iPhones that give gorgeous crisp visuals and are carried in a lightweight frame specially designed to allow cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle to follow his cast into tight spaces or up ladders and hills at a matching speed. It really amps up the film's pull-your-legs-up-onto-the-seat-with-you terror. Danny Boyle is back at the helm, not quite 28 years later, for the second sequel to his brilliant 2002 zombie movie 28 Days Later, a film that breathed new life into that particular horror genre. Here he delivers a film experience that feels just as fresh as the first. In fact, this film feels closer in tone to Boyle's breakout hit film Trainspotting, in terms of pace, of editing, of music use, of grimy visual spectacle. Boyle's original film's stars are nowhere to be seen, but there are visual touches that throw us back, and I felt nostalgic at a character stepping over a derelict billboard for the British soft drink Tango. Both Boyle and his screenwriter collaborator Alex Garland are at the top of their game, all these years later, with Boyle's mantlepiece home to a best director Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire. Garland was quite prescient with last year's Civil War, a film he wrote and directed, with a message that felt just a few weeks ago, as citizens of Los Angeles had the National Guard called on them by their President, like it was a crystal ball into a likely future. In their first zombie film, England has been ground zero for an infection called Rage, passed on by bodily fluids - a sneeze, the saliva of a bite, a drop of blood - that turns its victims almost immediately into fast-moving killing machines that aren't zombies so much as carriers of an aggressive human form of distemper. We learn as the film opens that the rest of the world has written England off to keep the infection under control, the entire island a quarantine zone that no remaining human is allowed to leave, which is fairly Brexit-coded. Twelve-year-old Spike (Alfie Williams) lives with dad Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), grandfather Sam (Christopher Fulford) and ma Isla (Jodie Comer) in a community of survivalists thriving on an island just off the Scottish coast. Jamie is taking his son for one of the community's rites of passage, a hunting trip to mainland Scotland to make his first kill of the infected, which in 28 years have evolved into two species, one a slow slug-like eater of worms, and one athletic and sentient. Isla is bedridden by a mystery ailment that has her rambling and feels like it might scarily turn into the Rage virus at any moment, and full of his own success at having survived his mainland killing trip, Spike takes his mother with him back to the mainland on the trail of a rumoured doctor who might heal her. They find this doctor, Kelson (Ralph Fiennes), but he has tragic observations to share about Isla, but also about the evolving nature of the infected. Like Garland did with his Civil War screenplay, there's been some dramatic upheavals in real-life that allow him to make some keen observations about us as a society with this script, knowing his audience have already survived their own infectious pandemic. He must have had a bunch of insights to share, because 28 Years Later is actually the first in a planned trilogy, the final instalment filmed back-to-back with this film and due out in cinemas just after Christmas. The performances are very strong and sometimes against type, like Jodie Comer's non-action film tragic figure, or Aaron Taylor-Johnson's very action-film approach. Danny Boyle and his crew do some fairly amazing technical work, including filming with an array of iPhones that give gorgeous crisp visuals and are carried in a lightweight frame specially designed to allow cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle to follow his cast into tight spaces or up ladders and hills at a matching speed. It really amps up the film's pull-your-legs-up-onto-the-seat-with-you terror.
The Advertiser
3 hours ago
- The Advertiser
Monty Python's Black Knight doesn't want a knighthood
John Cleese would refuse a knighthood if he were offered the British honour. The Monty Python star - who played the Black Knight in the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail - previously turned down the offer of a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) and a peerage. Cleese is adamant that if King Charles selected him for the most prestigious accolade to make him "Sir John Cleese", he would say no to the title because he does not need or want the validation. "I would. I simply don't need that sort of validation," Cleese said, asked if he would turn down a knighthood in the New Year's Honours List. "It's enough for me to know - because people often tell me - that I've helped them through difficult times by making them laugh. "They come home, turn on an episode of Fawlty Towers, and the world doesn't seem quite so bleak. That's my reward. "Frankly, I think those things are rather silly." Cleese's fellow Monty Python troupe member Michael Palin accepted a knighthood and although Cleese was not interested in receiving one himself, he was happy for his long-time friend. "Good luck to him," Cleese said in an interview with Candis magazine. "I was genuinely pleased. I call him Sir Mickey: that's how I always address my emails to him. He's a lovely guy." The late rock star David Bowie and The History Boys writer Alan Bennett famously turned down knighthoods. "Just look at those men who have turned down awards and titles: David Bowie, Michael Frayn, Alan Bennett and Albert Finney," Cleese said. "I have respect for them." Cleese admits his political beliefs are still on the left when it comes to the distribution of wealth, despite him presenting a show on the right-wing TV channel GB News. "I'm more to the left economically," he said. "I think greed is in danger of killing everyone. "People should be paid good salaries, where possible. We should be generous, not try to save money so billionaires can get richer." The Life of Brian actor also wishes the world would lighten up and enjoy more "good old-fashioned laughter". "I think we need much more laughter in the world," he said. "I'm not advocating mean-teasing - just good old-fashioned laughter. "There's nothing to beat it." John Cleese would refuse a knighthood if he were offered the British honour. The Monty Python star - who played the Black Knight in the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail - previously turned down the offer of a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) and a peerage. Cleese is adamant that if King Charles selected him for the most prestigious accolade to make him "Sir John Cleese", he would say no to the title because he does not need or want the validation. "I would. I simply don't need that sort of validation," Cleese said, asked if he would turn down a knighthood in the New Year's Honours List. "It's enough for me to know - because people often tell me - that I've helped them through difficult times by making them laugh. "They come home, turn on an episode of Fawlty Towers, and the world doesn't seem quite so bleak. That's my reward. "Frankly, I think those things are rather silly." Cleese's fellow Monty Python troupe member Michael Palin accepted a knighthood and although Cleese was not interested in receiving one himself, he was happy for his long-time friend. "Good luck to him," Cleese said in an interview with Candis magazine. "I was genuinely pleased. I call him Sir Mickey: that's how I always address my emails to him. He's a lovely guy." The late rock star David Bowie and The History Boys writer Alan Bennett famously turned down knighthoods. "Just look at those men who have turned down awards and titles: David Bowie, Michael Frayn, Alan Bennett and Albert Finney," Cleese said. "I have respect for them." Cleese admits his political beliefs are still on the left when it comes to the distribution of wealth, despite him presenting a show on the right-wing TV channel GB News. "I'm more to the left economically," he said. "I think greed is in danger of killing everyone. "People should be paid good salaries, where possible. We should be generous, not try to save money so billionaires can get richer." The Life of Brian actor also wishes the world would lighten up and enjoy more "good old-fashioned laughter". "I think we need much more laughter in the world," he said. "I'm not advocating mean-teasing - just good old-fashioned laughter. "There's nothing to beat it." John Cleese would refuse a knighthood if he were offered the British honour. The Monty Python star - who played the Black Knight in the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail - previously turned down the offer of a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) and a peerage. Cleese is adamant that if King Charles selected him for the most prestigious accolade to make him "Sir John Cleese", he would say no to the title because he does not need or want the validation. "I would. I simply don't need that sort of validation," Cleese said, asked if he would turn down a knighthood in the New Year's Honours List. "It's enough for me to know - because people often tell me - that I've helped them through difficult times by making them laugh. "They come home, turn on an episode of Fawlty Towers, and the world doesn't seem quite so bleak. That's my reward. "Frankly, I think those things are rather silly." Cleese's fellow Monty Python troupe member Michael Palin accepted a knighthood and although Cleese was not interested in receiving one himself, he was happy for his long-time friend. "Good luck to him," Cleese said in an interview with Candis magazine. "I was genuinely pleased. I call him Sir Mickey: that's how I always address my emails to him. He's a lovely guy." The late rock star David Bowie and The History Boys writer Alan Bennett famously turned down knighthoods. "Just look at those men who have turned down awards and titles: David Bowie, Michael Frayn, Alan Bennett and Albert Finney," Cleese said. "I have respect for them." Cleese admits his political beliefs are still on the left when it comes to the distribution of wealth, despite him presenting a show on the right-wing TV channel GB News. "I'm more to the left economically," he said. "I think greed is in danger of killing everyone. "People should be paid good salaries, where possible. We should be generous, not try to save money so billionaires can get richer." The Life of Brian actor also wishes the world would lighten up and enjoy more "good old-fashioned laughter". "I think we need much more laughter in the world," he said. "I'm not advocating mean-teasing - just good old-fashioned laughter. "There's nothing to beat it." John Cleese would refuse a knighthood if he were offered the British honour. The Monty Python star - who played the Black Knight in the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail - previously turned down the offer of a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) and a peerage. Cleese is adamant that if King Charles selected him for the most prestigious accolade to make him "Sir John Cleese", he would say no to the title because he does not need or want the validation. "I would. I simply don't need that sort of validation," Cleese said, asked if he would turn down a knighthood in the New Year's Honours List. "It's enough for me to know - because people often tell me - that I've helped them through difficult times by making them laugh. "They come home, turn on an episode of Fawlty Towers, and the world doesn't seem quite so bleak. That's my reward. "Frankly, I think those things are rather silly." Cleese's fellow Monty Python troupe member Michael Palin accepted a knighthood and although Cleese was not interested in receiving one himself, he was happy for his long-time friend. "Good luck to him," Cleese said in an interview with Candis magazine. "I was genuinely pleased. I call him Sir Mickey: that's how I always address my emails to him. He's a lovely guy." The late rock star David Bowie and The History Boys writer Alan Bennett famously turned down knighthoods. "Just look at those men who have turned down awards and titles: David Bowie, Michael Frayn, Alan Bennett and Albert Finney," Cleese said. "I have respect for them." Cleese admits his political beliefs are still on the left when it comes to the distribution of wealth, despite him presenting a show on the right-wing TV channel GB News. "I'm more to the left economically," he said. "I think greed is in danger of killing everyone. "People should be paid good salaries, where possible. We should be generous, not try to save money so billionaires can get richer." The Life of Brian actor also wishes the world would lighten up and enjoy more "good old-fashioned laughter". "I think we need much more laughter in the world," he said. "I'm not advocating mean-teasing - just good old-fashioned laughter. "There's nothing to beat it."
Perth Now
13 hours ago
- Perth Now
Spider-Man and Spaghetti Western actor Jack Betts dead aged 96
Actor Jack Betts has died aged 96. The American star was best known for his roles in Spider-Man, Batman Forever and a long list of Italian Spaghetti Westerns under the name Hunt Powers, and passed away in his sleep at his home in Los Osos, California, on Thursday (18.06.25), according to a statement from his family, with news of his death only emerging on Saturday. (21.06.25) Born in Miami, Florida, in 1929, Jack studied theatre before launching his acting career on the Broadway stage in a production of William Shakespeare's Richard III. He later found fame in Italy after landing the lead role in Sugar Colt, directed by Franco Giraldi, in 1966. Though he had no formal Western experience at the time, Jack bluffed his way into the role — the first of a dozen films in which he would play a gunslinger from 1966 to 1972. Jack told The Dev Show in a 2021 interview: 'In the hotel next to mine was Clint Eastwood. He'd go up to his mountain and do his Western and I'd go up to my mountain and do my Western. But while his films had distribution all over the world, my films were distributed (everywhere) except Canada and America.' Despite the lack of the North American distribution, Jack's performances earned him international recognition. Upon returning to the US in the 1970s, he resumed theatre work, including a run as Dracula on Broadway between 1977 and 1980. He later took on television roles, most notably as Dr Ivan Kipling in the soap opera One Life to Live, which he appeared in until 1985. In 1988, Jack accepted an invitation from his longtime friend, actress Doris Roberts, to move into a downstairs apartment in her Hollywood Hills home. Doris, known for her role in Everybody Loves Raymond, passed away in 2016. Jack said they were 'best friends to the very end' and that they had 'wonderful times together'. The pair also appeared together on Everybody Loves Raymond in a 1999 episode. Over the years, Jack made guest appearances on several hit TV shows including Seinfeld, Frasier, Friends and Power Rangers. He also had small roles in Batman Forever (1995) and Batman and Robin (1997.) In 2002, he appeared in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man as Henry Balkan, a board member of Oscorp Industries. His character delivers the line informing Norman Osborn, played by Willem Dafoe, that he is being ousted from the company — a pivotal moment that sets Osborn on the path to becoming the Green Goblin. Jack's character, along with fellow board members, is later killed in the storyline. Fans of the actor have paid tribute on social media following news of his death. One said: 'Well shoot, another Hollywood gunslinger rides into the sunset. Jack Betts was one of those actors who could make even a B-movie feel like an A-list production.' Another fan added: 'RIP to a legend. Jack Betts brought so much to the screen – from gritty westerns to comic book charm.'
