Ernie Hudson is the Best Ghostbuster
A Superstar in the Hearts of Fans
If you loved Ghostbusters as a kid, and I know you fucking did,
then your favorite of the foursome might have been Egon because he’s so quirky and nerd-cool. Or, as was my childhood favorite, Ray. There’s something endearing about Aykroyd’s portrayal of the heart of the Ghostbusters. Maybe you were a little Casanova and appreciated the fearless womanizing of Venkman. But to a present day working class adult Ghostbusters fan (Ghostbusters fans never age out of their zeal for the film), you can’t help but be fond of the everyman’s perspective within the Ghostbusters, Winston Zeddemore.
Shockingly, Winston’s character is as underappreciated as the actor who brought him to life.
Born on December 17th, 1945 in Benton Harbor Michigan, Hudson joined the Marines as a teen but was discharged due to complications from his asthma. He later graduated from Wayne State University in Detroit. Not long after he starred in his first film, 1976’s Leadbelly.
As a former childhood Ghostbusters fanatic and punk rock loving teen, I can’t explain how excited I was to see Hudson – fucking Winston! – in Leadbelly.
Everyone who loved Nirvana knew who Huddie Ledbetter was thanks to the success of Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged. Cobain’s blindsiding rendition of Lead Belly’s ‘In the Pines’, otherwise known as ‘Black Girl’, and even ‘My Girl’ but forever remembered as ‘Where Did You Sleep Last Night?’ made the blues singer a household name to little grunge rockers around the world.
My friend and I were obsessed with delving into all the things that had inspired Kurt Cobain. So one day in 1996 we got really high and rented Leadbelly starring Roger E. Mosley to figure out what was up with this old bluesman. The movie was fucking crazy, even having John Henry Faulk from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre as Governor Neff ask Lead Belly (Ledbetter always signed his stage name Lead Belly as opposed to the popular spelling of Leadbelly) to sing for him. I mention all this to demonstrate one thing: despite the abovementioned revered figures at hand, all were immediately superseded when Archie, Ernie Hudson’s character, appeared. “Whoa,” I said, stoned and suddenly reinvested in the film but not because of Ledbetter or Nirvana lore. Suddenly I was taken back in time to when I was a little Ghostbusters fanatic again. “That’s fuckin Winston.”
You never forget a Ghostbuster.
Not even Winston. Because, regardless of what the little shits from Stranger Things said, Winston was just as important as any of the other Ghostbusters. It irked the shit out of me to listen to those brats, EVEN LUCAS, denounce Winston as a character. It made no sense. It still makes no sense.
You’d think at least the black kid would want to be Winston. All you hear is how a certain demographic feels underrepresented and this other one feels left out and on and on. But here you have an example of a great movie character being the same race as, befittingly, the one black kid in the gang on the show and yet he still doesn’t want to be Winston for Halloween. Mind boggling. And none of the little cracker kids wanted to be Winston either. I get Lucas’s point. He didn’t have to be Winston just because he’s the same race. That’s fair. But why didn’t any of the other little shits want to be Winston? I don’t understand what the writers were aiming for with that scene in Stranger Things 2, or if it even had a point. It’s just stupid. And rather meanspirited, if experienced from Hudson’s perspective. After all, with the exception of Venkman’s insisting that Walter Peck has no genitalia in front of the mayor, Winston has the best lines in Ghostbusters. Hands down. That’s not me opining. It can be proven.
Winston first enters the fray when we see him staring up at the Hook & Ladder Company 8 fire station, somewhat nonplussed. When the Ghostbusters’ secretary, Janine Melnitz asks him, “Do you believe in UFOs, astral projections, mental telepathy, ESP, clairvoyance, spirit photography, telekinetic movement, full trance mediums, the Loch Ness monster and the theory of Atlantis?” Winston replies,
“If there’s a steady paycheck in it, I’ll believe anything you say.”
After Gozer the Gozerian, a dimension-shifting entity of evil, asks Ray if he’s a god and Ray says no, they’re nearly killed. Winston informs Ray,
“When someone asks you if you’re a god, you say YES!”
This line should also be applied to all aspects of life for self-esteem upkeep.
Still, there’s more:
“This job is definitely not worth 11-5 a year.”
“I love Jesus’s style.”
“That’s a big Twinkie.”
And this quote for anyone going into a laborious task undeterred:
“We have the tools, we have the talent!”
Lastly is my favorite line in Ghostbusters. Not only because it involves my two foremost proton pack-packing, free floating full torso vaporous apparition catching guys, but because it’s spoken during an actually eerie scene in what is ostensibly a movie about a subject monopolized by the horror genre.
While Ray looks over the “blueprints for the structural ironwork of Dana Barrett’s apartment building,” Winston, driving the Ecto-1 and smoking, asks:
“Hey, Ray. Do you remember something in the bible about the last days when the dead would rise from the grave?”
“I remember in Revelations 7:12, ‘And I looked as he opened the sixth seal and behold there was a great earthquake and the sun became as black as sackcloth and the moon became as blood.’”
“And the seas boiled and the skies fell,” Winston finishes.
To which both say, “Judgement Day.”
“Every ancient religion has its own myth about the end of the word,” Ray surmises.
“Myth? Ray … has it ever occurred to you that maybe the reason we’ve been so busy lately is because the dead have been rising from the grave?”
Ghostbusters didn’t come easy for Ernie Hudson.
Winston is easily the go-to Ghostbuster for most hardworking adults because that is just what he is. And it mirrors the struggle and effort Hudson himself had to put into his career before and after he landed the part. The man is a workhorse, having put down so many screen credits to pay the bills that it rivals most actors at his level. And Hudson’s is a high level. This is no B-Movie actor here, although he’s been relegated to B-Movie worthy roles and comic book and fan conventions. It’s a fucking shame, like watching Lugosi plunge from Tod Browning excellence to Ed Wood exploitation. Only with Hudson, you have no plunge, because he never peaked as he should have. You have no history of drug abuse, no scandal. It’s appalling how someone with such a screen presence, commanding voice and filmography has never been given a leading role. Is racism involved? I’ll let you be the judge of that … for now.
Whatever the case, Hudson’s work ethic can’t be used as an excuse for never being the main attraction on the marquee. His credentials speak for him, and this is just a few:
In 1979 he acted in episodes of The Incredible Hulk, Roots: The Next Generations and The White Shadow. 1981 found him landing parts on Diff’rent Strokes, The Little House on the Prairie, and the second season of Bosom Buddies in an episode as the character Rochelle.
And remember when you’re cancelling old shows like The Dukes of Hazzard that you’re also affecting a black man’s residuals, because Hudson appeared in an episode in 1982.
1983 saw him in such hits as Webster and The A-Team. You may have seen him in a 1987 episode of Gimme a Break! along with Full House and doing voicework on the cartoon Pound Puppies. 1989 showed no signs of Hudson slowing down, as his Ghostbusters fame landed him a gig on The Super Mario Bros. Super Show as himself in an episode titled ‘Slime Busters’.
In 1993 he did a Tales From the Crypt called ‘Food for Thought’.
1997 marked his first appearance as Warden Leo Glynn on HBO’s Oz. In 1999 he portrayed none other than James Jordan, his Airness’s father, in Michael Jordan: An American Hero. By 2001 he acted in a Touched by an Angel episode and in 20006 he was on ER. He became a Lynchian alumni in 2017 by appearing in Twin Peaks and 2022 has him acting in the reboot of Quantum Leap. Those are just some of his many television appearances.
His movie roles range wide and pile up just as high,
from the abovementioned 1976’s Leadbelly to 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife. In 1980, he supplied his talents to the movie Joni, about the diving accident that left Joni Eareckson Tada paralyzed at 17. Of course in 1984 he got Ghostbusters, which forced him to move out of his LA apartment due to unruly fans. He freely admits getting the job was no easy feat. Only after several auditions did he get hired, even though he acted in Space Hunter which was produced by Ghostbusters’ director Ivan Reitman. Hudson also notes that while visiting a friend of his at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, he bumped into Reitman on an elevator. Reitman informed him that he had an anomalous script (Ghostbusters) that he was casting but that there were no roles in it for Hudson.
Eventually, through diligence and despite Reitman’s initial reluctance, Hudson secured a role. And the rest is history.
But Hudson’s history is never so easy or cut and dry. In 1986, a cartoon version of Ghostbusters, The Real Ghostbusters, aired and kids like me loved it. But something about the voices was fucked up - not our Ghostbusters. For one thing, Venkman sounded a fucking hell of a lot like Garfield. Well, that’s because it was Garfield. Lorenzo Music had the most distinctive cartoon voice of all time. You just can’t beat the voice of Garfield and Peter Venkman.
Winston’s voice, however, confused me. Hudson had wanted to reprise his role as Winston for the cartoon adaptation but lost out on the role of himself to Arsenio Hall of all fucking people. It boggles the brain how anyone could bypass the real Ghostbuster in a cartoon called The Real Ghostbusters for a prospective talk show host who had never, to my and Wikipedia’s knowledge, ever busted a single fucking ghost. I guess Hudson’s deeper drawl wasn’t kid-friendly enough whereas Arsenio’s trebly, ‘this is great, isn’t it?’ talk show way of speaking did it for The Real Ghostbusters casting scouts. It exemplifies the shit Hudson has encountered every step of the way.
At least in 1989, they allowed Ernie to play Winston in Ghostbusters II instead of handing it off to Arsenio. What a fucking weird movie that would’ve been. Just replace all the Ghostbusters with talk show hosts. David Letterman could’ve been Egon. Jay Leno could’ve been Ray. Ghostbusters II already finds Peter Venkman as a talk show host, with him hosting The World of Psychics with Peter Venkman. So I guess you could just keep Murray for the job. But to cover all the bases for the era they could’ve brought in Sally Jessy Raphael to play Janine.
Irrefutably, the funniest scene in Ghostbusters II belongs to Hudson.
The scene finds Egon, Ray and Winston beneath the city of New York walking along dilapidated train tracks. They’ve descended into the subway/sewer system to trace the source of “a psychomagnotheric slime-flow that's been collecting under the city.”
Captivated by the dynamic echo within the tunnels, the gang commence yelling into the darkness to hear their voices pulsate into the void. “Hello!” Ray yells, enjoying his echo. “Hey!” Egon hollers, receiving the same. “Hello!” Winston shouts, followed by a dead silence. A guttural and drawn out “Winston,” emanates from the black depths of the tunnels.
“Okay I’m out of here,” Winston says and the guys turn to flee with him. Suddenly, severed heads on pikes appear all around them. After terrorizing the guys, the heads disappear and the Ghostbusters agree that it’s a good time to go get their proton packs. That’s when a ghost train comes ripping down the discontinued tracks. Egon and Ray escape off the edges of the rails but Winston gets caught in the sights of the ghost train which passes through him while he shrieks in terror. His screams last until the specter locomotive passes on by, his voice cracking in a way that left me breathless with laughter as an eight year-old in the theater.
Once the tracks are clear of the train, Egon rushes to Winston’s side and says, “That was the old New York Central, City of Albany. Derailed in 1920. Killed hundreds of people. Did you catch the number on the locomotive?”
“Sorry,” Winston says, hair askew and still flummoxed. “I missed it.”
One thing that struck me about Ghostbusters II as a kid was the fact that Winston finally made it onto the poster.
It confused me why only three Ghostbusters were on the original poster without Winston.
I know it’s show business and that several factors play into what happens behind the scenes of these things, but if you tell me that nefarious reasons regarding race and Hollywood don’t exist, I’ll be like, “Yeah right. And my name is Vinz Clortho.”
The first actor you see in 1994’s The Crow is Ernie Hudson.
Officer Albrecht is standing at the window that Eric Draven has been thrown from on Devil's Night. It's hard to discern whether seeing Hudson in uniform makes you nostalgic for him as a Ghostbuster or if something about him as an actor immediately connects you with his character. I'm sure it's a combination of both. Seeing Officer Albrecht smoking a cigarette expeditiously wrests the viewer back in time to first beholding Winston Zeddemore.
This has got to be the most gothic cult-classic since The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The main difference is that this movie is solid throughout, serious and sad as fuck on all levels.
Just as iconic as Eric Draven running across the rooftops or standing with arms outstretched in the rain is the equally poignant scene involving Albrecht and Sarah, played by Rochelle Davis.
After Sarah learns that her friend Shelly is going to die, Officer Albrecht comforts the young girl with a hug. Amid the flaming destruction of Devil’s Night, you see the girl holding her skateboard and being consoled by the policeman. Venerable imagery from director Alex Proyas sets this film apart.
The awesomeness of getting to see Bruce Lee's son act with Winston Zeddemore in a movie is almost impossible to describe to the layman who is not a Ghostbusters slash Bruce Lee junkie.
Yet this transcends Ghostbusters and Bruce Lee. Here we have two great actors who've gotten ahold of a great script and are giving some of their best work. Much like the scene with Dan Aykroyd where Hudson delivers his Dead Rising from the Grave monologue, here we have him hearing someone who has risen from the grave give the Trivial monologue. In this scene Lee and Hudson provide wide-ranging performances and bounce off one another with comedic, fearful and painful offerings.
Both actors never fulfilled the capacity of their talent. Brandon Lee didn’t because of his death. But as to why Ernie Hudson never did, it’s mystifying. He has all the makings of a superstar. In my mind he’ll always be one. But to continue his filmography, you’ll see that the reality of things doesn’t add up.
Around the time of The Crow, Hudson shared the screen with another actor renowned for his martial arts.
In Sugar Hill, Hudson plays Lolly Jonas. His screen time with Wesley Snipes as Romello Skuggs really makes you wish these two would’ve had a feature of their own.
1994 also had Hudson acting with another legend, Chris Farley, in Airheads. Once again, we have Hudson as a policeman, the practical Sergeant O’Malley, tasked with getting the erroneously pluralized Lone Rangers and their hostages out of a radio station alive.
In 1995, Hudson acted alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in The Basketball Diaries.
DiCaprio portrays poet Jim Carroll and Hudson is his friend, Reggie, who tries his best to get the teen off heroin. Hudson’s performance is brilliant and real as always. You get the feeling that this man who has nothing in common with this teenager truly cares for him and it never feels contrived. And that realness is what makes Hudson so compelling.
However, no matter how great you are, that alone doesn’t cause fate to shine the light of destiny upon you. After 1995, Hudson’s filmography nosedived into ‘pay the bills’ features and straight to video bullshit. Like Mr. Magoo. Clifford’s Really Big Movie. Pastor Brown. Smokin’ Aces 2: Assassins’ Ball. And holy fuck – Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2. Wait, it gets worse. Beverly Hills Chihuahua 3: Viva la Fiesta! Then more shit like Merry Ex-Mas and God’s Not Dead 2 right smack fucking A straight up to the universally condemned Ghostbusters 2016. Was he Winston at least? No, as a matter of fact he was not. Who was he, you ask? Uncle Bill Jenkins. Holy shit, man.
After that he did Nappily Ever After, a 2018 rom-com.
Which forces me to posit a question I’d rather not, but it can’t be overlooked: Why did Hudson never blow up?
I could bullshit around it for a few paragraphs but fuck it. It’s an issue of racism, be it clandestine or overt.
Hollywood has never put out the type of African American cinema that it should, with the exception of inner city gangster flicks or rap biopics. And that’s not even me trying to be funny. It’s true and it’s a fucking shame considering the abundance of African Americana just waiting to be brought to life on film. But who’d make the movies? If you were to ask the average film buff to name five black directors, they’d probably start stuttering after Spike Lee, Tyler Perry and the Hughes brothers. But black directors abound, awaiting their chance to break through.
An argument to make as to the lack of blockbuster black cinema out there is that no one is writing black stories.
I mean, it did seem like the closest thing we got to a good slave revenge film since - well, ever - was Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained. And it’s no secret that every time they make a comic book movie they have to change a white character to a black one to pull in a smidge of diversity. However, I refuse to believe that there are no black authors with stories worthy of being transformed into cinema. Contrary to popular belief and the scholastic system, African American literature runs much deeper than just Lorraine Hansberry, Alex Haley and Maya Angelou. One need look no further than Roxane Gay, Percival Everett and Wayétu Moore to realize that there is so much further to look as far as finding black stories to tell. But what’s the point? Clearly it’s not a lack of black actors, directors or writers. So what is it? I think we all know. If a black person isn’t going for the hoop or grabbing the mic or shooting up the projects or getting their proverbial groove back, Hollywood is indifferent to them. And that’s at the expense of the movie-goer, because these untold tales of regular black people doing atypical things are rich and singular in their ingredients.
It took Ivan Reitman’s son, Jason, to rectify things and get Hudson back to where he belonged.
Finally, Hudson appeared in 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife as the character he not only made famous, but made: Winston Zeddemore. I guess he should count his lucky stars. Young Reitman could’ve cast Arsenio.
In the grand scheme of it all, Ernie Hudson has been wildly successful.
He’s existed within a realm that very few ever achieve. And he’s done it not only with aplomb, but with no crises to show of in his career. He's a person who showed up for work when it was available and performed his best. And that’s another reason why we Grownup Ghostbusters fans love Zeddemore. He’s the epitome of us all, people who may not have the degrees, but instead have the doggedness to clock in and do the job. And Hudson as an actor appeals to us because, despite what we’ve accomplished, who hasn’t felt a touch of being overlooked or slighted here and there? Lots of people put their all into life and get the bare minimum while so many put forth the puniest of efforts and reap the world. But many’s the actor who has flashed brightly only to succumb to Hollywood’s hoary depths. But not Hudson. His steadfast flame is an example of class, giving the fans cogent portrayals and keeping his head together just about as goddamn good as a person can with all these fucking weirdos he probably has to deal with, day in and day out. The two biggest movies he has under his belt are serious cult-driven fanbase films, with the admirers ranging from the casual heavyset dude in the dad cap to the person living in their mom’s basement dressed in full jumpsuit, proton pack glory. Or decked out as the Crow and hanging out at comic conventions to get a pic with Officer Albrecht. I’m sure Hudson tolerates this fanbase because a part of his income necessitates it. But it’s also apparent that, despite all the wild shit Hollywood and being in the public eye has thrown his way, Hudson has maintained more humanity than the average star. And his stardom is not average. In the annals of cinema, I and millions of others respect Ernie Hudson not only for being the man who brought one of our favorite childhood movie characters to life, but also for being a guiding persona to remind us that you don’t have to be the biggest name on the marquee to break records in the box office of the fans’ heart.