Meat Loaf Fans Honor Actor in Classic ‘Fight Club’ Fashion

Fight Club fans on Friday honored Meat Loaf in classic fashion.

Born Marvin Lee Aday, the actor-musician died Thursday. He was 74.

More from The Hollywood Reporter

• Cher, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Marlee Matlin Lead Tributes to Meat Loaf: "A Gentle Hearted Powerhouse Rockstar"

• Meat Loaf Once Claimed He Tried to Push Prince Andrew in a Moat

• Meat Loaf, 'Bat Out of Hell' Singer and 'Rocky Horror Picture Show,' 'Fight Club' Actor, Dies at 74

After news of his death broke, throngs of Twitter users posted a simple message: “His name is Robert Paulson.” Most of the tweets were just that phrase without any other context, so you either got it or didn’t. The message was among Twitter’s trends.

Everett Collection

The line comes from the 1999 classic, Fight Club, starring Brad Pitt and Edward Norton, which revolves around an underground fighting ring that turns into a criminal organization, “Project Mayhem.”

Meat Loaf appears in the film as Robert “Bob” Paulson, who Norton’s narrator initially meets in a support group and who later joins a fight club and ultimately Tyler Durden’s Project Mayhem.

During one of the group’s missions, Bob is shot dead by police, and his body is brought back to the group HQ. Norton’s narrator is overcome with frustration and grief in seeing his friend dead.

When a person joins the group, they are to have no name, no identity. They are just a soldier for Durden. But a grieving, angry narrator tells the men Bob had a name and a family. This is when Holt McCallany’s character says he believes he understands; that in death, a member of the group will have a name: Robert Paulson. The group then begins to chant, “His name is Robert Paulson.”

Click here to read the full article.