Is Warren Oates the coolest actor ever, or what?The other night, with the kids in bed and my wife out with her sister, I decided to once again cue up "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia" on the DVD player. This is a DVD you can get for $5.99 at BestBuy. It's everything a Warren Oates movie ought to be: messy, unsettling, cynical, world-weary and incredibly cool.That was Oates. The actor died back in the mid-80's, just after he wrapped up what would be his most famous role, that of Sergeant Hulka in the classic Bill Murray comedy "Stripes". Ironically, the role was a bit of a departure from the typical Oates character. Hulka is a comic foil with a sense of dignity and gravity. Oates built a career playing anything BUT Sergeant Hulka.Maybe you remember him as GTO, the down-on-his-luck driver who bedevils James Taylor and Dennis Wilson in the cult race movie "Two Lane Blacktop". Maybe you caught him as the doomed RV owner in the drive-in 70's staple "Race With the Devil", (70's drive-in bonus: he co-starred with Peter Fonda!) I still remember sitting in the Elizabeth Theatre in Falmouth, Massachusetts, watching him as Muff Potter in a surprisingly enjoyable version of "Tom Sawyer" that was produced by Reader's Digest and starred Johnny Whittaker. Oates brought a serious sense of earthiness to the role. He also starred in another great drive-in flick, "Dixie Dynamite", and even played Charlie Allnut in a TV adaption of "Tha African Queen". I've never seen that one, but I can only imagine how good he was in a role that seems perfect for the classic Oates demeanor. After all, this is the guy about which Aussie singer Dave Graney once said : "He always played a lovable loser. A guy in a filthy white suit who knew how to live, love, and lose with a lot of style, with tomato sauce all down the front of his jacket."