Past Oscars PT 5 – (1961-66)

November 16, 2016 Alan Royle 0

    1961               West Side Story – Best Picture                         Maximilian Schell – Best Actor for Judgment at Nuremberg                         George Chakiris – Best Supporting Actor for West Side Story                                                               Except for Fanny, I have seen each of the nominees – West Side Story, Judgment at Nuremberg, […]

The Mike Todd saga.

September 19, 2016 Alan Royle 12

    In 1958 Kirk Douglas accepted an invitation from film producer Mike Todd to accompany him on a flight to New York aboard Mike’s private plane dubbed The Lucky Liz, in honor of his wife Elizabeth Taylor. ‘As I was packing my bags I suddenly felt a painful knotting […]

Actors marrying other actors – Pt 11.

September 7, 2016 Alan Royle 0

  BRUCE, Virginia                              GILBERT, John                                1932-4 (div.)   Virginia Bruce may have started out as one of the original 20 Goldwyn girls, along with Betty Grable, Paulette Goddard and Ann Sothern, but she soon showed she had talent. In all she chalked up 82 screen credits between 1929 and […]

Did you know? (G)

July 3, 2016 Alan Royle 4

    Olivier & Leigh If you look closely at the long shots of Elizabeth Taylor in Elephant Walk (1954), you can see they are actually of Vivien Leigh, the actress she replaced four weeks after filming began. Miss Leigh had a major breakdown on the set, suffering memory loss […]

Did you know? (B)

June 23, 2016 Alan Royle 6

  Jude Law’s marriage to Sadie Frost began in 1997 and ended in 2003. A contributing factor to the break-up was a near tragedy in October 2002 when Iris, their two year-old daughter, swallowed an ecstasy tablet she found on the floor at a children’s party and was rushed to […]

Victor Mature – catnip to the ladies.

April 4, 2016 admin 13

    From 1939 until 1984 Victor Mature appeared in 55 movies and one TV series, The Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1966). He wasn’t very good in many of them, and no-one was more aware of that than him. My Darling Clementine (1946) and Kiss of Death […]

Great character actors. Pt 1

March 5, 2016 admin 2

    Obviously, most of us are drawn to a movie more often than not because of the lead players, yet very few great movies are carried entirely by their stars. The support players can make a profound difference to the quality of a picture. A prime example of this […]

Robert Wagner – matinee idol of the fifties.

January 19, 2016 admin 2

  RJ & Natalie, marriage #1 ‘RJ’, as Robert Wagner is known to most of his friends, was always destined to end up acting. As a boy he attended schools and Military Colleges with the offspring of movie stars and other celebrities. These included Charlie Chaplin’s son Sydney, Irving Thalberg […]

A few snippets from Frank Langella.

July 20, 2015 admin 2

  Oscar-nominated actor Frank Langella published his most entertaining biography titled, Dropped Names: Famous Men & Women as I Knew Them, in 2013. It is a scathing one that pulls few, if any, punches. Here are a few snippets from it, some of his observations down the decades, along with […]