00:02The next speaker is an acclaimed actor, author, and advocate whose career spans more than four
00:09decades across film, television, and theater. He is best known for his memorable roles in Scrubs,
00:17Platoon, Office Space, and most recently, Rooster with Steve Carell. His remarkable
00:24versatility and dedication have earned him a lasting place as one of Hollywood's most
00:30respected performers. Please welcome John C. McGinley to the stage.
00:39Thank you. Thank you. Keith, congratulations. I love you. In 1986, Oliver Stone wrote the screenplay
00:49for a film titled Platoon. In his story, the character of King is introduced in the film's
00:55first act. On the page, Oliver described the character of King as a lion of a man. At the
01:03very moment Keith David walked into the audition room to meet Oliver Stone, Oliver immediately
01:07knew that he had found his lion of a man. Keith David is a lion of a man.
01:17His voice, his elegance, his appetite for life, his song, his excellence, his unlimited capacity
01:24to astonish his way. Keith was once asked, what is it that actually makes an actor great? And his
01:34response was the stuff of legend. Keith said that great actors are the ones who can find a way to
01:40reduce the profundity of the lie. And to this day, I've never let go of that truth. To reduce the
01:47profundity of the lie. Got to let that one marinate for a second. Keith David and I have been in
01:54films
01:55around the world together. We were in Platoon in 86 in the Philippines. We were together in Kansas
02:01City in 92 filming a medical dramedy called Article 99. And then the very next year in 93, we found
02:09ourselves together once again in Santa Fe, New Mexico, shooting a Western called The Last Outlaw.
02:15While we were filming in Santa Fe, one night we ate dinner at a very new fancy Tex-Mex restaurant
02:21called the Coyote Cafe. Now we were dirty. We'd just come from Rapp. We wanted to get there before the
02:28kitchen closed. And we were famished from a hard day running around on horses. So we immediately put in an
02:35order for the house special appetizer. Morita citrus white prawns. The dish came out. We devoured it.
02:44And after we finished, Keith turned to me and said, Johnny C., I have to testify.
02:49And then Keith David did the most amazing thing. The most miraculous thing. He pushed himself
02:54away from the table. He stood up. And he sang an impromptu bass baritone aria to the entire restaurant
03:02about how delicious the Morita citrus white prawns were.
03:09Every customer in the joint was wrapped. They were utterly spellbound. When he finished the song,
03:14he sat down and there wasn't a sound. I've never seen anything like it. And then the entire restaurant
03:21rose to their feet in unison and gave him a standing ovation. It was glorious. It was dazzling
03:28without even trying. And it was Keith. In the famous alley scene in the 1950 film Harvey,
03:37Jimmy Stewart's character Elwood P. Dowd explains that he and Harvey spend time in bars together.
03:43He says that people gradually come over and share stories. They tell us about the great big terrible
03:49things they've done and the great big wonderful things they'll do. Their hopes, their regrets, their
03:54loves, their hates, all very large because nobody brings anything small into a bar. And he continues,
04:01and then I introduce them to Harvey. And he's bigger and grander than anything they offer me.
04:06And when they leave, they leave impressed. And then he adds the most charming line in the film,
04:12the same people seldom come back. But that's envy, my dear. That's a little bit of envy in the best
04:18of us.
04:20When Keith David is in the frame or on the stage or in a voiceover booth,
04:26he is bigger and grander than anything we can offer him. And when he exits the frame or the stage
04:32or the booth, he leaves us impressed. But we do not envy Keith, his magnanimous soul, no,
04:41because we are in fact better for having paid witness to it. That is as good as it gets. And
04:47that
04:48is finally just exactly what Keith David truly is. As good as it gets. I love you, Daddy.
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