Richard Schickel’s biography of director Elia Kazan tells how Marlon Brando was tricked into accepting the role of Terry Malloy in On The Waterfront (1954). Kazan had actor Karl Malden direct a scene featuring a young unknown from the Actors Studio speaking Malloy’s lines, knowing full well that Brando’s competitive […]
A lot has been written about John Wayne and his early days as an actor in ‘B’ westerns during the 1930s, although even he thought ‘B-Grade’ was rather over-generous description. ‘Hell, they were a lot farther down the alphabet than that’, he recalled. And they were, too. Rock bottom in […]
Whenever Don’t Look Now (1973) is mentioned, the talk, sooner or later, turns to the controversy surrounding the four minute sex scene between Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie. For some reason scores of commentators insist that the scene was not simulated, that the actors really had sex on the set. Despite […]
Few character actors can boast a resume like that of the late Peter Ustinov, probably because few possessed the extraordinary qualities he possessed. Not only was he an outstanding actor in both movies and stage plays, but he was also a successful writer, director, producer, journalist and raconteur. He […]
French-born Claudine Longet was the lead dancer of the Folies Bergere revue at the Tropicana Casino in Las Vegas. A year later she became Mrs. Andy Williams and was suddenly in the spotlight. Her beauty, combined with her French accent, saw her in demand as a ‘guest star’ […]
Dino Crocetti was an Italian from Steubenville, Ohio, and Joseph Levitch was a Jewish boy from Newark, New Jersey, and nearly nine years his junior. From the moment they joined up in 1946 to form the comedy duo of Martin & Lewis they were a hit. Within three years […]
When Patty Duke was just twelve years old in 1958 she appeared on the TV quiz show, The $64,000 Question, in the category of ‘music’. Pitted against child pop singer Eddie Hodges (he had a hit with a song called I’m Gonna Knock on Your Door around that time), […]
2010 Natalie Portman played a schizophrenic ballet dancer in Black Swan. This would become the first of five consecutive Best Actress Oscars going to portrayals of characters with mental illnesses. Natalie trained for an entire year (at her own expense) as a dancer for this role. She also lost […]
1991 Anthony Hopkins played a cannibal in The Silence of the Lambs. I suppose you could class cannibalism as some kind of affliction or disease. It certainly isn’t normal behaviour. Hopkins only appeared on screen for 24 minutes 52 seconds, the second shortest time ever for an actor to […]
Since Academy Awards have been introduced there have been, by my count, 32 Best Actor or Best Actress Oscars won by players portraying someone with a medical condition or an affliction. No wonder actors go after these roles with a vengeance. They know that a strong performance will almost […]
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