No one remembers or cares about Carol Reed‘s The Running Man, but the poster reminds that there’s nothing worse than for a lead actor known for a full head of intensely dark hair to suddenly dye it blonde.

Some actors have gotten away with this, I suppose, but it was certainly a terrible thing for Laurence Harvey to have done.

Yeah, I know…Laurence who? The poor man died 46 years ago, but he really had the lightning for a six-year period. His hot streak began with Room at the Top (’59) and continued with Expresso Bongo, The Alamo, Butterfield 8, Summer and Smoke, Walk on the Wild Side, The Manchurian Candidate, The Running Man (which wasn’t half bad if you ignored Harvey’s dye job), Of Human Bondage, Darling, The Outrage and Life at the Top (’65). His career didn’t die from that point on but it sort of withered. The fire began to flicker, and the quality of his films declined.

Wiki excerpt: “A heavy smoker and drinker, Harvey died at the age of 45 from stomach cancer in Hampstead, London, on Sunday, 11.25.73. His daughter Domino, who later became a bounty hunter, was only four years old at the time; she died at age 35 in 2005 after overdosing on painkillers. They are buried together in Santa Barbara Cemetery in Santa Barbara, California.”

Born in Lithuania in 1928, Harvey’s given name was Laruschka Mischa Skikne.