On February 14, I posted the first part of this article, featuring a selection of non-Native Americans who have portrayed Amerindians in movies over the past 100 years or so. It was not a comprehensive list. In part two the focus shifts to the genuine Native Americans who now […]
Until around about the eighties very few actual Native Americans were employed playing Indians in Hollywood movies. Thankfully, since then that has changed and there are numerous Native American actors making healthy livings in westerns and other genres. Over the next few days I shall examine some of those […]
Napoleon Solo & Illya Kuryakin The original title for the series that took the TV world by storm was to be Solo, but when it was pointed out that writer Ian Fleming had already used that name for one of the gangsters recruited by Auric Goldfinger to knock over […]
Bette Davis was born Ruth Elizabeth Davis in 1908. Fortunately, she did not hear her mother’s first words on her arrival: ‘Take it away! It’s horrible!’ she screamed. As a child little Ruth was a handful, cantankerous and precocious. She and her mentally unbalanced sister were raised by their […]
Christopher Reeve (1952 – 2004) The 6’4” Christopher Reeve won out over thousands of others for the lead in Superman (1978). Because he was decidedly slim he had to gain 30lbs in weight to portray the ‘Man of Steel’, a process that saw him spend hours each day in […]
LINA BASQUETTE (1907 – 1994) Californian Lina Basquette was born Lena Baskette. Obviously, someone thought the French spelling gave her something that the American spelling didn’t. Her screen career comprised just 48 credits, many of them when she was a child actress signed by Universal during the First […]
DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944) I suppose most fans of old movies have their personal favourite film noir. Mine is without doubt Double Indemnity (1944), which surprises even me because I have never been overly keen on any of the three stars – Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray and Edward G. Robinson. […]
One wonders how many young movie fans of today have any idea why the intersection of Orange Drive and Hollywood Boulevard, just across from Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, is now named ‘Carmen Miranda Square’. How many have even heard of her? Back in 1945 on ‘V-J Day’, at that very […]
Fans of the 1957 movie version of the musical South Pacific will well remember the enchanting Eurasian girl who played Liat. France Nuyen came out of nowhere (literally) and became the dream girl of many men around the world who saw her playing Bloody Mary’s daughter on Bali Hai, […]
Mickey Rooney was at the top of the Hollywood tree in the thirties and lived his life in the fast lane. MGM’s publicity machine had him collecting stamps and coins like any other young American boy. It was even spread about that his favourite author was Eugene O’Neill. Randy […]
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