Thomas: My brother and I were in our bedroom watching the heat lightening go off and he asked, "What's that?" and I said, "That's it. That's the big one. We're all gonna die."

John Heard, the actor, died this weekend. He was 71 years old.

He had a good run in movies, with solid supporting roles as his backstop. He had some lucky breaks, too, as with Home Alone, which made him famous among the general public.

For my money, his best work was in his smaller films, and perhaps the best of all was in 1990's Mindwalk.

A film about talking about ideas- like My Dinner with Andre', only with the three principals wandering Mont Saint Michel- Mindwalk features Heard, Sam Waterston, and Liv Ullman, with a beguiling score by Phillip Glass.

It's the kind of movie that rarely gets made, and even less often, gets its critical due. But I saw it in its first run, and count myself lucky.

Luckier still, when writing this short appreciation, to find the movie, entire, on YouTube.