Samuel Goldwyn – Goldwynisms, real or orchestrated?

March 12, 2015 admin 2

  The most surprising thing about movie producer Samuel Goldwyn is that he had nothing at all to do with the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) studio and its pictures. In 1917, while he was still Samuel Goldfish, he joined with brothers Edgar and Archibald Selwyn to form Goldwyn Pictures Corporation. He liked […]

HUGH GRANT – The jury’s still out.

March 11, 2015 admin 0

While making the enormously successful film Four Weddings and a Funeral (1993), Hugh Grant, its male lead, privately stated that in his opinion the picture was just plain ‘awful’. Andie MacDowell got the female lead at the last minute after it had been turned down by both Melanie Griffith and […]

CHARLIE CHAPLIN – An over-sexed genius.

March 10, 2015 admin 0

For many of Charlie Chaplin’s peers his seemingly effortless grace, style and timing were a wonder, but a source of much frustration. ‘The son of a bitch is a ballet dancer’, wailed comedian W. C. Fields after watching The Great Dictator (1940). ‘He’s the best ballet dancer that ever lived […]

Clark Gable – the King?

March 3, 2015 admin 6

    Clark Gable befriended people he thought could benefit his career. He even married a couple of them. When he arrived in Hollywood in the mid 1920’s he brought with him his much older wife, his acting tutor Josephine Dillon. He quickly ditched her for the equally older (but […]

MICHAEL CAINE – A movie-making machine?

March 2, 2015 admin 0

  Thirty year-old Michael Caine went to London to audition for the role of Private Henry Hook in Zulu (1964), but was informed on his arrival that it had already gone to Cockney actor James Booth. As an afterthought the producer asked him if he could do an aristocratic accent […]

JAMES STEWART – Feet of clay? Surely not.

March 1, 2015 admin 48

    Even though he earned an architectural degree at Princeton and was very intelligent, Jimmy Stewart’s favourite method of relaxation on the set was to read Flash Gordon comic books. Away from the set he was, according to legend, considerably more active. His name has been linked, in fact, […]

Brad Renfro – a wasted life

February 28, 2015 admin 1

  Brad Renfro in The Client ( 1994 ) Author John Grisham did not want a professional Hollywood child actor, complete with phoney southern accent, to play the pivotal role of Mark Sway in The Client (1994). Enter the 11 year-old unknown Brad Renfro from Memphis, Tennessee. His only acting […]

BUD ABBOTT & LOU COSTELLO – Not all laughs?

February 28, 2015 admin 17

  Abbott & Costello in Buck Privates ( 1941 ) Bud Abbott ( 1895 – 1974 ) Lou Costello ( 1906 – 1959 ) Before running off to try his luck in Hollywood, Lou Costello was an amateur boxer in his home town of Paterson, New Jersey, fighting under a […]

RICHARD HARRIS – Hell raiser supreme.

February 27, 2015 admin 0

    Richard Harris’s violent temper and manic drinking bouts were legendary in Hollywood. In fact, it was generally accepted by most producers that the signing of the wild Irishman for any picture meant adding a further week onto the shooting schedule, simply to allow for days lost through his […]

Sean Penn – an enigma?

February 26, 2015 admin 2

    Throughout the entire two-month shoot of Fast Times at Ridgemont High in 1982, Sean Penn insisted on remaining in the Jeff Spicoli character on and off the set. He immersed himself in his character’s persona and refused to answer anyone unless they called him Jeff. Even his message […]