We the common and ordinary only see tall men in relation to basketball hoops. They appear useless and clumsy anywhere else. Despite suit, tie and title, a grown man would be dressed down into gym shorts or an easy punchline by passers by. Tall brothers are easily objectified. Their body a uniform. They’re stared at yet stared through. Every tall brother suffers a world of midgets: certain cars equate to torture devices, most furniture inadequate. Ask Andre The Giant’s opinion on hotel room toilets. Human beings in extremes short circuit our brains. Our eyes drift up and fall back into the same awe reserved for the moonrise. We tourists stunned by skyscrapers. Strangers belong to us when they stand out. We see them as alien.
In America, every black man must own a mask, and in Hollywood—for a tall brother without a basketball—having a mask is the only way to be seen. The man behind the original and now iconic Xenomorph mask in 1979’s ‘Alien’ was a Nigerian graphic design student, Bolaji Badejo. No acting experience is needed if you stand 6’10”, but Bolaji studied mime after being cast as the titular, silent Alien. Wikipedia: “described as ‘mild mannered and withdrawn’, effects supervisor Nick Allder said of Badejo, “to have been the center of attention was a bit of a shock to him.”
We see the alien while overlooking the man.
Despite coming from a family of over six-footers, actor Kevin Peter Hall towered over them at 7’ 4”. Standing next to him on an elevator, you’d feel yourself a mistake. Cheated by biology, as if everyone had a right to perfection—whatever that is. You reach for jokes, ask team names or preferences, unarmed with anything else. The 1987 film Predator was filled with wrestlers, competitive bodybuilders. Kevin’s body having already been built stood above them, their engorged muscles must’ve amused Hall, looking down on Schwarzenegger as if he were a plump chicken.
“I’m bigger than life,” Kevin admitted in an interview. While he did play some ball, in college he majored in Theatrical Arts. “The problem is there aren’t many calls for 7’4″ black actors. I’m not just somebody shuffling around in a monster suit. I’m a kind of puppeteer from the inside who is attempting through arm and body movements to give the creatures I play a sense of personality.” (Quotes from IMDB.com)
As an actor, Hall appeared in the 1980’s sitcom 227, where he met and married actress Alaina Reed-Hall, both as plotline to the series and in real life. He was best known for appearing in the first two Predator films, then in the lead of 1987’s Harry and The Hendersons.
Kevin Peter Hall suffered a major car accident and received contaminated blood during emergency surgery, from which he contracted AIDS. His final film, Predator II, opened around Christmas of 1990. Hall died the following April, 1991. He was 35. (His wife, actress Alaina Reed Hall eventually remarried. She was born Nov. 1946 and passed in Dec. 2009 of breast cancer)
Bolaji Badejo suffered Sickle Cell disease and died at age 39 in 1992. Alien was his only film role.
The Dirty Rat 