Mark It 8, Dude

 

I missed it when Smokey turned 80 on May 6 (hat tip to Traces of Texas).  Smokey is Jimmie Dale Gilmore, a singer-songwriter from Texas who has been performing with the Flatlanders since 1972 and been nominated for three Grammys.

For most of us, however, Jimmie is best known as Smokey in The Big Lebowski, his only acting role.  Playing an aging, pacifist bowler he is drawn into a dispute with Walter Sobchak about whether his foot slipped over the line.  Smokey's request that the Dude mark his score as 8 triggers a response from Walter, in which the latter prevails and the Dude marks it zero.  It is Jimmie's only scene in the movie and it is quite memorable.