Hollywood Actors Archives - Page 49 of 126

Jude Law

Jude Law was born in 1972 in London. His first major break in film was in “The Talented Mr Ripley” in 1999. Other movies since include “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil”, “Cold Mountain” and “Sherlock Holmes”.

TCM overview:

Plagued with being called a heartthrob and a Golden Boy, British actor Jude Law managed to develop into a respected actor known for tackling challenging and often flawed characters. Though he struggled a bit early in his career to make a name for himself, Law finally burst onto the scene full force with his Oscar-nominated performance in “The Talented Mr. Ripley” (1999). From there, he was suddenly everywhere onscreen, playing a Russian sniper battling a Nazi sharpshooter during the Battle of Stalingrad in “Enemy at the Gates” (2001), a scarred assassin fond of photography in “Road to Perdition” (2002), and a Confederate soldier presumed dead and struggling to make in home in “Cold Mountain” (2003). Though he was often the subject of tabloid fodder due his trouble-plagued relationship with starlet Sienna Miller, Law oscillated between small indies like “I [Heart] Huckabees” (2004) and “Breaking & Entering” (2006) and large-scale studio movies like “The Aviator” (2004) and “Sherlock Holmes” (2009). .

Born on Dec. 29, 1972 in Lewisham, England, a borough in southwestern London, Law was the son of schoolteachers who encouraged their son to act at an early age. When he was 12 years old, Law began performing with the National Youth Music Theatre. A leading role in “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” led to his TV debut in a musical based on Beatrix Potter’s “The Tailor of Gloucester” (1990). That same year, Law dropped out of school for the British soap, “Families.” Fourteen months after his debut, Law left the series and returned to the stage, touring Italy as Freddie in “Pygmalion” and making a splash in London in “The Fastest Clock in the Universe.” In 1994, Law made an impression on theatergoers in both London and New York as a young man coping with his suffocating parents in “Les Parents Terrible,” particularly for an extended bathing scene in the second act which required complete nudity. Making enough of an impression, he was the only member of the English production invited to reprise his role on Broadway and was honored with a Tony Award nomination for his effort.

Law’s first film role – he played a passive car stealing street kid in “Shopping” (1994) – did little to propel him into the consciousness of American audiences. This set an unfortunate pattern for his early film career throughout much of the 1990s, during which he delivered strong turns in under-performing features. Often touted as the “next big thing,” Law would find himself quickly relegated to the “Who’s he?” list after a string of disappointing films. In 1997 alone, he offered three diverse portraits: the spoiled Lord Alfred Douglas in the well-intentioned biopic “Wilde,” an alcoholic paraplegic in “Gattaca,” and a bisexual hustler who ends up a murder victim in the based-on-fact “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.” In each case, the actor brought energy and charisma to the screen, yet each film failed to find much audience support. His losing streak continued with the barely released “Music From Another Room” (1998) with Jude starring as an artist who reconnects with a girl at whose he birth he assisted, and “The Wisdom of Crocodiles” (1998) as a vampire-like predator. While many believed that David Cronenberg’s sci-fi thriller “eXistenZ” (1999) might finally catapult Law onto the A-list, it proved too esoteric for mainstream audiences.

Law finally caught a break when Anthony Minghella tapped him to play the decadent playboy Dickie Greenleaf who becomes an object of envy to Matt Damon’s “The Talented Mr. Ripley.” Law was perfectly cast, shading the character with – as Janet Maslin wrote in her New York Times review – “the manic, teasing powers of manipulation that make him ardently courted by every man or woman he knows. During the first half of the film, Dickie is pure eros and adrenaline, a combination not many actors could handle with this much aplomb.” With talk of an Oscar nomination – which he later received – Law finally seemed truly on the verge of fulfilling the predictions of his becoming a movie star, though he would take his time getting there, cultivating pet projects before stepping up the pace of his soon-to- skyrocket film career. Prior to the release of “Ripley,” he returned to the London stage and earned strong notices in “‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore,” as well as making his directorial debut with a segment of the omnibus TV-movie “Tube Tales” (1999). Along with his wife Sadie Frost, whom he had met on the set of “Shopping,” and best mates Johnny Lee Miller, Ewan McGregor and Sean Pertwee, Law formed the production company Natural Nylon, with a slate of films in various stages of development.

As predicted, Hollywood came looking for him again in 2001 to take on the leading role in “Enemy at the Gates.” His enigmatic performance soon led to an inspired turn as a gigolo robot in Spielberg’s highly anticipated “A.I.” From there, Law would soon become a highly-coveted talent among Hollywood royalty. In 2002, he had a supporting role as a murderous photographer opposite Tom Hanks in “Road to Perdition,” before coming into his own as a leading man in 2003 when he took over a role initially for Tom Cruise opposite Nicole Kidman and Renee Zellweger in director Anthony Minghella’s “Cold Mountain” an adaptation of Charles Frazer’s best-selling Civil War melodrama. Playing Confederate Army deserter Inman, who flees his unit to return to his beloved Ada (Kidman) at Cold Mountain and faces incredible hardship on his long, harrowing journey back, Law was an utterly believable and compelling screen presence. The actor’s work was rewarded with a spate of critical recognition, including an Academy Award nomination as Best Actor. Of course, his was also subject to some of the prices of fame, which included intense media scrutiny of the gradual, messy breakup of his marriage to Frost.

Law’s next big-screen entry was the retro-yet-original action-adventure “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” (2004) opposite Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie, in which he played the titular character, a daring aviator in an Art Deco New York, battling giant robots and searching for missing scientists. “Sky Captain” was the first in a succession of Law-headlined films that were released in late 2004: He next appeared in the ensemble of writer-director David O. Russell’s “existential comedy” “I [Heart] Huckabees” as Jason Schwartzman’s rival, an executive climbing the corporate ladder at retail superstore Huckabees, whose seemingly perfect life is explored by a pair of existential detectives. Law had nearly dropped out of the film in favor of a Christopher Nolan project until Russell reportedly ran into Nolan at a Hollywood party, yanked him into a headlock and demanded he release Law. To the surprise of none, the following day the actor called to discuss his “Huckabees” role with no mention of the incident. Law then took on the titular caddish rogue with a comeuppance coming (originally played by Michael Caine) in a remake of the 1960s British comedy, “Alfie.”

He next appeared in the Mike Nichols-directed drama “Closer” opposite Julia Roberts, Natalie Portman and Clive Owen as a pair of couples whose relationships become messily intertwined; the performance was Law’s best of the busy year. The actor also gave his all when he had a cameo as the suave but debauched Hollywood superstar Errol Flynn in Martin Scorsese’s Howard Hughes biopic “The Aviator.” He closed the year as the voice of the title role in the children’s fantasy “Lemony Snicket’s Unfortunate Series of Events.” At the 2005 Oscar ceremony, Law’s now notable ubiquitous visage was notoriously skewered by host Chris Rock, who wondered who Law was to get so many roles, prompting über-serious Sean Penn, who was filming “All the King’s Men” with the actor, to defend Law’s talent from the stage. Later that year more unwanted publicity ensued when Law released a statement apologizing to his then-fiancée Miller for having an affair with his children’s nanny three months into their seven-month engagement. Not surprisingly, the British and American tabloids had a field day. The couple attempted to reconcile, but ultimately called it quits.

In “All the King’s Men” (2006), Steven Zaillian’s botched rehash of Robert Penn Warren’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Law joined a promising cast that included Penn, Kate Winslet, Anthony Hopkins, Patricia Clarkson and James Gandolfini. Unfortunately, talent could not make up for bad production all around, as the respected original film turned out to be a laughing stock of a remake that was plagued by bad Southern accents, weak acting and a poorly-conceived script. Law next starred in a more palpable film, “The Holiday” (2006), a romantic comedy centered on two women – one British (Kate Winslet) and the other American (Cameron Diaz) – whose torn love lives prompt them to cross the ocean and switches houses for the Christmas holiday. Meanwhile, Law collaborated again with director Anthony Minghella for “Breaking and Entering” (2006), playing a partner at a thriving architecture firm who embarks on a quest of self-discovery and ultimately redemption when he hunts for the burglar who twice broke into his office and stole all his company’s high-tech equipment.

In another remake, “Sleuth” (2007), a play by Anthony Shaffer turned into a 1972 film starring Michael Caine and Laurence Olivier, Law played Milo Tindle (Caine’s character in the original film version), a hairdresser being set up by Andrew Wyke, an older, but wealthy society man (Caine assuming the Olivier role) determined to exact revenge on Tindle for stealing his wife. Following a turn as a celebrity supermodel in Sally Potter’s ensemble media satire “Rage” (2009), Law joined Johnny Depp and Colin Farrell in portraying a transformed version of Heath Ledger’s character in “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” (2009), following the overdose death of the actor in 2008. Returning to blockbuster filmmaking, he portrayed Dr. Watson to Robert Downey, Jr.’s titular “Sherlock Holmes” (2009), a rousing action movie that was a global hit at the box office. Meanwhile, Law rekindled his relationship with Miller despite fathering a child after his brief dalliance with model Samantha Burke in 2009, though the couple again split two years later. After starring with Forest Whitaker in the sci-fi thriller “Repo Men” (2010), Law was a messianic conspiracy theorist in Steven Soderbergh’s thriller “Contagion” (2011), which focused on the death and destruction caused by a rapidly spreading virus.

Reprising his role as Dr. Watson, Law starred with Downey, Jr., in the commercially successfully, but critically derided sequel “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows” (2011). Working with Martin Scorsese in the Oscar-nominated “Hugo” (2011), he was the deceased father of the titular Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield), a young boy living in the walls of Paris’ famed Gare Montparnasse railway station. After co-starring with Ben Foster, Rachel Weisz and Anthony Hopkins in the foreign-made drama “360” (2012), Law had a leading role as Alexei Karenina to Keira Knightley’s titular “Anna Karenina” (2012), Joe Wright’s Academy Award-nominated adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s literary masterpiece. From there, he voiced Pitch Black the Boogeyman in the animated “Rise of the Guardians” (2012), and made some news for dropping out of filming the indie film “Jane Got a Gun” in 2013, the day after director Lynne Ramsay exited the film. Law had signed on to the project exclusively to work with Ramsay.

Scott Glenn was born in Pittsburgh in 1941. His films include “Nashville” in 1975, “Personal Best” in 1982, “The Right Stuff” and “Silence of the Lambs”.

TCM overview:

An intense and highly respected performer who excelled in a variety character roles, Scott Glenn struggled for nearly a decade before breaking through as the main antagonist in the box office hit, “Urban Cowboy” (1980). Prior to that, Glenn first became a known commodity with a standout turn in Robert Altman’s large ensemble classic “Nashville” (1975), but in the ensuing decade he catapulted to fame as an Olympic track coach in “Personal Best” (1982), astronaut Alan Shepard in “The Right Stuff” (1983), and one of four accused outlaws out for revenge in “Silverado” (1985). After playing a submarine commander who joins “The Hunt for Red October” (1990), he was the head of the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit in the Oscar-winning thriller “The Silence of the Lambs” (1991). Glenn kept busy with appearance in a variety of low-profile features before turning up with character parts as a murderous Secret Service agent in “Absolute Power” (1997), a cop-turned-drug dealer who meets a grizzly fate in “Training Day” (2001), and the Director of the CIA in both “The Bourne Ultimatum” (2007) and “The Bourne Legacy” (2012). Though he never quite became a leading man, Glenn was a vibrant character actor who routinely surprised with the depth of his performances.

Born on Jan. 26, 1941, Glenn was raised in Pittsburgh, PA, by his father, Theodore, a business executive, and his mother, Elizabeth, a homemaker. As a child, Glenn routinely battled illness and was bedridden for a full year with scarlet fever. During that time, a legend that poet Lord Byron was in the family ancestry kept Glenn’s imagination active with dreams of becoming a poet himself, and he wrote as much as his illness would allow. His long recovery marked the beginning of an intense and lifelong passion for physical fitness and adventurous sports, though his literary leanings remained closest to his heart. After graduating high school in Pittsburgh, Glenn attended the College of William and Mary, where he earned a journalism degree. But his professional plans were put on hold because of a three-year stint in the marines, during which he served in Southeast Asia. Following his discharge from the military, Glenn worked as a crime reporter for a short time at the Kenosha Evening News in Kenosha, WI, before being offered a newspaper job in the Virgin Islands.

Though he accepted the job offer, Glenn decided to finish a play he had been writing before he began work. Since he was struggling with creating dialogue, a friend suggested that acting classes might help him with the problem. Two weeks in, Glenn realized that he was born to act and he continued studying with renowned actor William Hickey, before training with the legendary Lee Strasberg at the Actor’s Studio while working as a laborer and bouncer. Within a year, he was onstage in off-Broadway productions at La Mama and The Public theaters, and by 1969 he was receiving regular paychecks for a recurring role on the daytime soap “The Edge of Night” (CBS/ABC, 1956-1984). In 1970 he was cast in his first feature, playing opposite Barbara Hershey in “The Baby Maker,” which led to a decision to move to Los Angeles in pursuit of more film work. But for the next several years, Glenn struggled to find his footing, landing roles in low budget biker films like “Angels Hard as They Come” (1971) and horror flicks like “The Gargoyles” (1972) and “Hex” (1973).

Frustrated by the lack of quality work, Glenn finally began to break out when director Robert Altman cast him in his landmark film, “Nashville” (1975), in which he played a Vietnam war veteran who has arrived in the capital of country-western music to see popular singer Barbara Jean (Ronee Blakley) perform while seemingly harboring ulterior motives. With a large ensemble cast that included Lily Tomlin, Ned Beatty, Shelley Duvall, Jeff Goldblum, Barbara Harris and Keith Carradine, “Nashville” helped open doors for Glenn and he was next seen briefly in Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now” (1979), as an army colonel who was sent to exterminate the mad Colonel Walter Kurtz (Marlon Brando), only to be seduced into joining his private army. But after co-starring in the Western “She Came to the Valley” (1979), Glenn was so disillusioned by Hollywood that he moved to Ketchum, ID, where he worked as a bartender and mountain ranger for two years, though he did stay in fighting shape on stage in Seattle. Following this brief interlude, Glenn was lured back into showbiz by playing an ex-convict and arch-rival of John Travolta’s Bud Davis in the hit “Urban Cowboy” (1980).

With his career finally kicked into high gear in his early forties, Glenn began to enjoy steady and varied work on the big screen, playing Mariel Hemingway’s track coach in “Personal Best” (1982) and the first man in space, Alan Shepard, in “The Right Stuff” (1983), an epic docudrama about the birth of America’s space program. After starring opposite Sissy Spacek and Mel Gibson in the family drama, “The River” (1985), he joined Kevin Kline, Kevin Costner and Danny Glover for Lawrence Kasdan’s revisionist Western, “Silverado” (1985), where the four played a group of disparate outlaws going up against a crooked sheriff (Brian Dennehy). Glenn went on to play notorious mob hit man Verne Miller in “Gangland: The Verne Miller Story” (1987), before co-starring with Willem Dafoe and Gregory Hines in the action thriller “Off Limits” (1988). Meanwhile, his reputation continued to grow in the following decade with a turn as a submarine commander in the Tom Clancy-based thriller “The Hunt for Red October” (1990) and stoic F.B.I. agent Jack Crawford, who helps a young recruit (Jodie Foster) track down a serial killer (Ted Levine) with the help of Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) in the Oscar-winning Best Picture, “The Silence of the Lambs” (1991).

Glenn continued his box office hot streak by playing the arsonist firefighter in “Backdraft” (1991), for which the middle-aged actor also contributed his own stunt work, and reunited with “Nashville” director Robert Altman for a memorable cameo opposite Lily Tomlin in “The Player” (1992). Following a series of forgettable thrillers – “Slaughter of the Innocents” (1993), “Extreme Justice” (1993) and “Night of the Running Man” (1995) – Glenn scored with his portrayal of an investigative reporter in “Courage Under Fire” (1996), a political drama about the investigation of a friendly fire incident starring Meg Ryan and Denzel Washington. He went on to play a Secret Service agent embroiled in scandal after taking part in the shooting death of the president’s (Gene Hackman) mistress in “Absolute Power” (1997), which starred Clint Eastwood as a master jewel thief who bears silent witness to the crime. Branching out into indie dramas, Glenn had a small role as a priest in Sofia Coppola’s film debut “The Virgin Suicides” (1999), and went on to further acclaim for his acting – and stunt work – in the Mt. Everest action thriller, “Vertical Limit” (2000), starring Bill Paxton and Chris O’Donnell.

Slipping comfortably into character parts, Glenn shined as a former cop-turned-drug dealer in “Training Day” (2001) and was an eccentric fisherman who owns a local Newfoundland newspaper in “The Shipping News” (2001), starring Kevin Spacey and Julianne Moore. He turned to television in the early part of the new century, starring as a cotton farmer in “A Painted House” (CBS, 2003) and an FBI agent brought in to organize the new government bureaucracy of “Homeland Security” (NBC, 2004). Glenn next played Admiral Jack McCain in “Faith of My Fathers” (A&E, 2005), and returned to indie filmmaking with a starring turn opposite Brendan Fraser in the crime thriller “Journey to the End of the Night” (2006). After supporting Hilary Swank in “Freedom Writers” (2007), he was the director of the CIA in “The Bourne Ultimatum” (2007) and portrayed U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in Oliver Stone’s satirical biography, “W.” (2008). Sticking with real-life personages, Glenn portrayed businessman and thoroughbred horse owner Christopher Chenery in “Secretariat” (2010), before being seen as the Wise Man in the action-fantasy “Sucker Punch” (2011) and reprising his CIA director role for “The Bourne Legacy” (2012).

The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

Eva Gabor was born in 1919 in Budapest, Hungary. She was the younger sister of Zsa Zsa Gabor. She is best remembered for her role as ‘Lisa Douglas’ wife of Eddie Albert in the popular television series “Green Acres”. The series ran from 1965 until 1971. Her films include “Don’t Go Near the Water”, “My Man Godfrey” and “Gigi”. She died in 1995.

TCM overview:

The youngest of the Gabor sisters, Eva came first to the United States in the thirties, establishing a fluffy career in films and later on Broadway. Fluffy best delineates the difference between the two sisters. Despite her jump on Zsa Zsa, her publicity was based more on mere sophistication, continental understanding and sweetness; she lacked the tartness and bite of Zsa Zsa. In the 1950’s, when publicity aspired to its peak for cynicism and zaniness, Zsa Zsa was destined to be the public favorite, just as she was Mama Jolie’s favorite at home.

But Eva paved the way, especially in early television’s live dramatic series that came out of New York (“GE Theater”, “Philco Playhouse”, “Climax”, etc.) and later guesting enough in the 1960s to keep herself moderately known. As Zsa Zsa’s career outstripped itself in the 60s on “Hollywood Squares”, Eva received a plum series opportunity on the inane, but popular, “Green Acres”. As Lisa Douglas, Manhattan socialite turned farmer’s wife (“I gad allergic smalling hay”) she was the Desi/Ricky figure opposite Eddie Albert’s supposed Lucy, drifting through chicken coops and hogpens in her eternal maribou negligees, blank but childlike, trusting and sweet. Middle America tuned in for a surprising five years and 170 episodes.

Her charm remained intact guesting on such happening series as “The Love Boat” and “Fantasy Island” and showing up to chat amicably on Merv Griffin and Mike Douglas, the former of which was engaged to her in some press agent’s dream. She smiled glamorously from the covers of her wig catalog, bewigged in the usual lookalike Gabor style, causing more confusion about who’s-who than ever.

The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

Peter Sellers wasone of the great film comics of all time. He was born in Portsmouth in 1925. He began his career with ‘The Goons’ on BBC Radio. His first film was “Penny Points to Paradise” in 1951. He had a major role in the Ealing classic of 1955, “The Ladykillers”. He made many terrific movies in the the U.K. in the late 1950’s including “The Smallest Show on Earth” and “The Naked Truth”. In 1963 he had enormous success with “The Pink Panter”. He went to Hollywood soon therafter to make “Kiss Me Stupid” but suffered a heart attack and was replaced by Dean Martin. After recovering he went on to make “What’s New Pussycat” and “The Wrong Box”. One of his last roles was “Being There” and he died of another heart attack in 1980 at the age of 54.

TCM overview:

One of the most accomplished comic actors of the late 20th century, Peter Sellers breathed life into the accident-prone Inspector Clouseau in “The Pink Panther” (1963) and its three sequels, as well as such classics as “Lolita” (1962), “Dr. Strangelove” (1964), “The Party” (1968) and “Being There” (1979). The son of English vaudevillians, his ability to completely transform himself into outrageous comic characters received its first showcase on the legendary radio series “The Goon Show” in the 1950s. Film roles in the 1950s and 1960s were devoted to his knack for mimicry of accents and character types, with Stanley Kubrick’s “Lolita” and “Dr. Strangelove” underscoring his talent for drama as well. His best-known role of Inspector Clouseau surfaced in 1963, and he would return, sometimes reluctantly, to the franchise throughout his life before scoring a personal triumph as the simple-minded gardener who influences the Presidency in Hal Ashby’s “Being There” (1980). Off camera, Sellers could be cold, cruel, even unstable, but when the cameras were rolling, he showed a dedication to performance and humor that made him one of the greatest inspirations to comedians and film fans for decades.

He began life as Richard Henry Sellers on Sept. 8, 1925 in the seaside resort town of Southsea, in Portsmouth, England. His family, who were performers on the British vaudeville circuit, bestowed a particularly morbid nickname upon their son: Peter was the name of a brother who did not survive birth. He took up his family’s profession at an early age, dancing and singing alongside his mother in stage shows when he was just five years old. He became skilled at a variety of talents, including drums, banjo and ukulele, and for a while, he toured as a drummer with various jazz bands. Sellers was also an expert mimic, which he put to excellent use during his service as an airman with the Royal Air Force during World War II. He frequently impersonated his superior officers as a way to gain access into the Officers’ Mess, and made them part of his performances with the Entertainments National Service Association, which put on plays and skits for British troops. His knack for mimicry also served him well in the years after his discharge in 1948. Sellers supported himself by performing stand-up comedy and celebrity impressions on the variety theater circuit, and at one point, secured a meeting with BBC producer Roy Speer by pretending to be radio star Kenneth Horne. The ruse clearly worked, as the 23-year-old Sellers was soon granted an audition, which lead to a role on the popular radio comedy “Ray’s a Laugh,” starring comedian Ted Ray. Audiences had their first glimpse of Sellers’ astonishing voice talent on the series, which allowed him to play everything from an obnoxious little boy to a bizarre older woman.

During this period, Sellers was also performing in an informal group with comics Spike Milligan and Michael Bentine and singer Harry Secombe. The quartet, who dubbed themselves the Goons, recorded their antics at a local pub, and the tape made its way into the hands of a BBC producer, who granted the quartet their own radio series. “The Goon Show” premiered in 1951 and became a massive hit with British audiences, thanks to its surreal humor which parodied traditional radio drama with absurd leaps in logic. Each episode was filled with countless bizarre characters, many of which were voiced by Sellers, including the program’s chief villain, Hercules Grytpype-Thynne; the hapless scoutmaster Bluebottle; the cowardly, flatulent Major Bloodnok (who was based on many of Sellers’ superior officers), and many others. On more than one occasion, Sellers was called upon to voice all of Milligan’s characters as well, and at times, carry out complete conversations between two or more people.

The popularity of the Goons’ radio program led to a few abortive attempts at television series, including “The Idiot Weekly, Price 2d” (ITV, 1956), but most filmed efforts were unable to match the stream of consciousness that comprised their recorded efforts. More successful were the Goons’ comedy LPs and novelty songs, as well as a quartet of films – the feature length “Let’s Go Crazy” (1951), which marked Sellers’ screen debut, “Penny Points to Paradise” (1951), “Down Among the Z Men” (1952), and the shorts “The Case of the Mukkinese Battle Horn” (1956) and “The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film” (1959). The latter, directed by Sellers and Richard Lester, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short, and also served as the impetus for the Beatles – all dedicated Goons fans – to hire Lester to direct “A Hard Day’s Night” (1964). The Goons were also acknowledged influences on the members of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Eddie Izzard, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy author Douglas Adams, Peter Cook, the Firesign Theater and countless British and American television comedies.

In 1954, Sellers began branching out on his own as a supporting player in feature comedies. He quickly established himself as versatile a performer on screen as he was over the radio airwaves, with richly varied characters in some of the greatest British comedies of the late 1950s and early 1960s. He was the nervous Teddy Boy that joined Alec Guinness’s inept criminal crew in Alexander Mackendrick’s “The Ladykillers” (1955), an obsequious game show host in “The Naked Truth” (1957), a baffled military officer in Val Guest’s “Up the Creek” (1958), and most impressively, three roles in “The Mouse That Roared” (1959), including the addled Duchess of the tiny European nation of Fenwick, which declares war on – and defeats – the United States. Several of these pictures were international successes, especially in America, which brought Sellers to the attention of Hollywood. In 1958, he made his stateside debut in “tom thumb” (1958), fantasy director George Pal’s musical adaptation of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale about a tiny hero who outwits a pair of thieves (Sellers and Terry-Thomas).

Sellers’ stature as a film star grew in the 1960s, thanks to several key films. “Never Let Go” (1960) was a thriller that afforded him a rare opportunity to play a straight role as a murderous car dealer, while “I’m All Right Jack” (1959) proved he could bring pathos to his comic roles. His turn as a Communist shop steward who becomes a reluctant strike leader in the latter film earned him a BAFTA for Best Actor in 1959. However, it was Stanley Kubrick’s controversial adaptation of “Lolita” (1962) that made him an international star. His protean nature was given full reign as Clare Quilty, the decadent playwright who attempts to lure Sue Lyon’s teenage Lolita into his depraved world, prompting his murder by Humbert Humbert (James Mason). Kubrick’s version expanded the role considerably, allowing Sellers to don several disguises and accents throughout, including a Germanic doctor, Zempf, who foreshadowed Sellers’ turn as Dr. Strangelove two years later. For his efforts, Sellers was critically acclaimed, as well as a Golden Globe nominee for Best Supporting Actor.

In 1963, Sellers made his first appearance in his most iconic role – that of Chief Inspector Jacques Clouseau in “The Pink Panther.” Fiercely dedicated to fighting crime and upholding the dignity of France, Clouseau is also wildly accident-prone, egotistical to a fault and burdened with an impenetrable accent that transformed English into a wholly unknown language. A supporting character in “Panther,” which was intended as a comic caper series devoted to star David Niven’s gentleman jewel thief, it was Sellers that captured audiences’ attention, and led to a long and tumultuous series of films. The second in the series, “A Shot in the Dark” (1964), followed a year later with Clouseau now the central character. It too was a success, but the relationship between Sellers and director Blake Edwards deteriorated to such a degree that the pair refused to work together again until 1968’s “The Party.” A third Clouseau film, “Inspector Clouseau” (1968), continued the franchise with Alan Arkin in the title role, but it was not a success, prompting MGM to urge Sellers and Edwards to patch up their differences and return to the series for 1975’s “Return of the Pink Panther.”

Clashes such as the one with Edwards were not uncommon for Sellers during his career. In both Europe and America, he soon developed a reputation as a difficult performer, prone to lashing out at castmates over perceived slights. His personal life was also marked by moments of astonishingly casual cruelty towards his spouses and children. His first marriage, to Anne Howe, ended in a difficult divorce that may have been prompted by an affair with actress Sophia Loren; his second marriage, to actress Britt Ekland, was marked by domestic violence spurred by allegations of infidelity. Biographers surmised that Sellers suffered from depression and anxiety over his career, which he often viewed as a failure. Further evidence of his troubled psyche was glimpsed in interviews that asked him about his penchant for disappearing into his characters. His response was that there was no “Peter Sellers,” but rather, a blank slate that adapted to the needs of the role.

The greatest example of the extent to which Sellers could immerse himself into a role was perhaps Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove, Or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb” (1964). The black comedy, about a series of political blunders which lead to World War III, allowed Sellers to play several roles: U.S. President Merkin Muffley, British officer Lionel Mandrake, and the sinister Dr. Strangelove, a wheelchair-bound nuclear scientist whose crippled body seemed hellbent on betraying his Fascist past. Sellers was initially asked to also play Major T.J. “King” Kong, the U.S. Air Force officer who rides the bomb bronco-style as it descends on the Soviet Union, but an injury forced Sellers to abandon the role, which was given to veteran Western performer Slim Pickens. Sellers found both the humor and the horror of the characters in his performances, which received an Oscar nomination, and seemed to indicate that he could move into dramatic roles – his abiding wish. However, he suffered a string of debilitating heart attacks – 13 over the course of a few days – that curtailed his availability. Desperate to return to work, he sought the aid of psychic healers for his condition, which would continue to deteriorate over the next two decades. He also threw himself headlong into film work, which varied, often wildly, in quality.

Sellers longed to play romantic roles, such as his singing matador in “The Bobo” (1967), but audiences responded more to his buffoonish turns, like the accident-prone Indian actor in Edwards’ “The Party” (1968) or the Italian jewel thief who poses as a film director in order to smuggle gold out of Europe in the Neil Simon-penned “After the Fox” (1966). He attempted to play James Bond in the all-star vanity project “Casino Royale” (1967), but abandoned the film after clashing with co-star Orson Welles and, allegedly, realizing that the film was in fact, a comedy and not a straight action piece. The end of the decade, which saw him diving into the counterculture with “I Love You, Alice B. Toklas!” (1968) and “The Magic Christian” (1969), which co-starred his close friend, Beatle Ringo Starr, also marked the conclusion of his lengthy tenure as a movie star for some years.

The first half of the 1970s was a period of deep personal and public failure for Sellers. His marriage to Eklund had ended on an explosive note in 1968, and his 1970 marriage to Australian model Miranda Quarry followed suit in 1974. His film career was in total freefall; pictures like “There’s a Girl in My Soup” (1970), “Ghost in the Noonday Sun” (1973), which reunited him with Spike Milligan, and “The Great McGonagall” (1974), were box office disasters. Sellers’ health also continued its downward spiral due to his reluctance to treat his condition with Western medicine, and a growing dependence on alcohol and drugs. The spell of bad luck broke in 1974 with the fourth “Pink Panther” film, “Return of the Pink Panther,” which reunited him with Blake Edwards once again. The result was a colossal hit for Sellers, and a career revival that lasted for the remainder of his life.

However, Sellers was mentally and physically unprepared for the rush of attention and work that came in the wake of “Return.” His relationship with Edwards had crumbled. By the time they began the rushed sequel to “Return,” 1976’s “The Pink Panther Strikes Again,” Sellers was unable to perform many of his own physical gags, and Edwards would later describe his emotional state at the time as “certifiable.” “Strikes Again,” however, was another hit, with Golden Globe nominations for the film and its star, who began working in earnest on several films. “Murder By Death” (1976) was an all-star parody of detective films, with Sellers playing a short-tempered version of Charlie Chan, while “The Prisoner of Zenda” (1978) was a lukewarm adaptation of the familiar Anthony Hope novel about a commoner (Sellers) recruited to impersonate his look-alike, the king (also Sellers) of a tiny European country. Sellers, however, had his attention fixed elsewhere.

For several years, he had worked in earnest to secure the film rights to Jerzy Kosinski’s novel Being There, about a simple gardener who becomes the confidante to the rich and powerful. The project went before cameras in 1979, with Sellers giving one of his richest performances in a role that seemed tailor-made for him – a man with no discernible personality, yet the ability to fascinate and inspire so many around him. The film was a critical and audience success, and won Sellers a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination. The validation and acclaim, however, would be short lived.

Sellers had suffered another punishing heart attack in 1977, which required him to be fitted for a pacemaker. Though he had resisted having heart surgery for years, he finally relented, and in 1980, was slated to undergo an operation in Los Angeles. Just days before the surgery, Sellers suffered a massive heart attack which sent him into a coma. He died two days later on July 24, 1980, just one day before a scheduled reunion dinner with his Goon Show partners, Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe. He was survived by his fourth wife, actress Lynne Frederick, and his three children. At his funeral, the Glenn Miller song “In the Mood” was played for mourners. It was a fitting touch for a man who reveled in the darker side of humor; the song was reportedly one that the 54-year-old Sellers had long hated.

While the Hollywood community mourned his premature loss, the anarchy that swirled around Sellers continued to broil after his death. In 1979, Blake Edwards shocked many by releasing “Revenge of the Pink Panther,” which featured Sellers in outtakes from several of the previous films. It was roundly panned, but did not dissuade him from cobbling together another Clouseau movie, “Trail of the Pink Panther” (1982), from outtakes. Sellers’ final film, a dismal comedy called “The Fiendish Plot of Fu Manchu,” which he also co-directed, was released in 1980. Edwards would continue to labor over the Pink Panther franchise for two more films – “Curse of the Pink Panther” (1983), with Ted Wass as a Clouseau-esque policeman, and “Son of the Pink Panther” (1993), with Roberto Begnini as Clouseau’s illegitimate offspring – both of which were disastrous failures. Sellers’ estate was also the source of considerable dismay for his family members. .

The above

Andy Griffith

Andy Griffith (June 1, 1926 – July 3, 2012) was an American actor, television producer, Grammy Award-winning Southern-gospel singer, and writer. He was a Tony Award nominee for two roles, and gained prominence in the starring role in director Elia Kazan‘s film A Face in the Crowd(1957) before he became better known for his television roles, playing the lead characters in the 1960–1968 situation comedy The Andy Griffith Showand in the 1986–1995 legal drama Matlock.

TCM overview:

With his folksy, down-to-earth charm and winning smile, actor Andy Griffith brought a warm sincerity to his most popular roles – small-town Sheriff Andy Taylor on “The Andy Griffith Show” (CBS, 1960-68) and the crafty southern lawyer Ben Matlock on “Matlock” (NBC/ABC, 1986-1995). Prior to becoming a friendly face in many American living rooms, Griffith was a talented musician with early aspirations to be an opera singer. But instead he rose to fame as a monologist, delivering a parody of the Johnny Ray son “Please Mr. Sun” and the woodsy “What it Was, Was Football” (1953), one of the most popular recorded monologues of all time. Griffith turned to television with “No Time for Sergeants” (1955) – a role he reprised for the 1958 film of the same name – and made his feature debut with a thunderous dramatic performance as a manipulative, power-hungry grifter who becomes a television host in Elia Kazan’s “A Face in the Crowd” (1957). He was a regular on “The Steve Allen Show” (1956-1964) before introducing Sheriff Andy Taylor alongside Ron Howard’s Opie on the seventh season of “The Danny Thomas Show” (1953-1964). Following several spin-offs of “Andy Griffith” throughout the decades, he reprised his stardom as “Matlock” and made many noted guest appearances well into the new millennium. Meanwhile, over the course of his career, Griffith returned to his first love of music and won a Grammy for a 1997 gospel album. Often exerting strong creative control over his efforts, Griffith brought a sense of realism, charm and honesty to his shows and characters that managed to never stray into caricature, and whose appeal endured for generations of viewers.

Born on June 1, 1926, in Mt. Airy, NC, Griffith developed a strong interest and talent in music at an early age. First hoping to become an opera singer, he shifted gears and set out to become a preacher, enrolling at the University of Chapel Hill in North Carolina as a pre-divinity student. While in college, his focus turned again to the arts with an emphasis on music and theater, and he eventually earned his degree in 1949. After graduation, he became a music teacher at Goldsboro High School, but still yearned to perform professionally. After three years of teaching, Griffith and his first wife, Barbara Edwards, began developing comedy and music routines that they performed on the road, including a comedy monologue called “What it Was, Was Football,” a first-person point of view of a simple farm boy’s first bewildering experience watching a football game. The skit was released on a record album in 1953.

Griffith honed the monologue to perfection and performed it in one of his four appearances on “The Ed Sullivan Show” (CBS, 1948-1971). He was soon tapped to play the lead role in the United States Steel Hour presentation of the Ira Levin play, “No Time for Sergeants” (ABC, 1955). He reprised the role on Broadway the following year, earning a Tony nomination for his performance, and was joined onstage by a young comic actor named Don Knotts, with whom Griffith would enjoy a lengthy professional and personal relationship. He soon caught the eye of acclaimed film director Elia Kazan, who cast him in a startling dramatic role in “A Face in the Crowd” (1957). Griffith played Larry “Lonesome” Rhodes, an Arkansas drifter who is plucked out of obscurity and finds fame as a television host, but whose friendly, folksy charm is cover for scheming ambition for political power. Written by “On the Waterfront” (1954) screenwriter Budd Schulberg, the film was based on the alleged onstage phoniness of Will Rogers and Arthur Godfrey. In his first film role, Griffith arguably never again turned in such a powerful performance playing such a dark character.

Griffith returned to comedy with a feature film version of “No Time for Sergeants” (1958), working again with Knotts, then returned to the stage and earned another Tony nomination for his performance in the musical “Destry Rides Again” (1960). After a series of occasional guest appearances on “The Steve Allen Show” (NBC, 1956-1960), Griffith landed an episode on the Danny Thomas show, “Make Room for Daddy,” (ABC, CBS, 1953-1965), making his first appearance as the no-nonsense, down-home Sheriff Andy Taylor. The episode served as the inspiration for “The Andy Griffith Show,” which debuted on CBS in 1960, where he expanded his character into one of the most beloved television series of all time. Set in the fictional town of Mayberry, the show centered on Taylor, a widower living with his son Opie (Ron Howard) and his Aunt Bee (Francis Bavier), who worked alongside his earnest, but high-strung deputy, Barney Fife (Knotts). The town itself was populated by an array of quirky townspeople, including Gomer Pyle (Jim Nabors), a dim-witted but well-meaning mechanic; his equally dull cousin Goober Pyle (George Lindsey); gossipy Floyd the barber (Howard McNear); and a rock-throwing town clown named Ernest T. Bass (Howard Morris). Part of the show’s appeal was avoiding the stereotype that Mayberry’s locals were irreproachably moral – the citizenry, including Andy himself, were just as petty, judgmental or selfish as the outsiders who passed through town.

Throughout the years, Griffith made subtle adjustments to his performance. For the second season, he began to rein in some of his wide-eyed, “gee whiz” qualities, and became more of a straight man to comic foil, Knotts. The show was also remarkable for its portrayal of Taylor as a single father going through the dating process; first with Mayberry’s pharmacy clerk Ellie Wakler (Elinor Donahue), then Opie’s schoolteacher, Helen Crump (Aneta Corsaut). Initially, Griffith and Knotts figured on the show running just five years and signed contracts accordingly. But when the first five years were up, Knotts left the series, while Griffith chose to remain until the show finished its run in 1968 after eight seasons. The series remained a ratings success and finished number one in the ratings in its last season. Griffith stepped into an executive producer role for the spin-off, “Mayberry R.F.D.” (CBS, 1968-1971), though he did appear in the pilot episode. Despite setting a ratings record for a new show, the spin-off was nonetheless cancelled when the network elected to rid itself of rural-themed shows.

Griffith went on to occasionally star in movies, but it was mostly forgettable fare like “Angel in My Pocket,” (1969) and “Hearts of the West” (1975). On television, he tried to recapture some of his down-home appeal with the short-lived “The New Andy Griffith Show” (CBS, 1971), a confusing program on which Griffith played Andy Sawyer, a man who made good and left his small rural hometown, only to return to fill in as a replacement mayor. Regarded as distinctly inferior to the original, “The New Andy Griffith Show” was cancelled after a few months on air. Meanwhile, Griffith continued appearing in guest spots on shows like “The Mod Squad” (ABC, 1968-1973), “Hawaii Five-0” (CBS, 1968-1980), “Here’s Lucy” (CBS, 1968-1974) and “The Bionic Woman” (ABC/NBC, 1976-78). Griffith had a leading role in the television movie “Salvage” (ABC, 1979) and its subsequent series, “Salvage 1,” (ABC, 1978-1980), playing Harry Broderick, an ordinary junk dealer who creates a working rocket ship to fly to the moon to retrieve spare parts left behind by NASA astronauts.

After a string of guest spots and the disappointing ratings of “Salvage 1,” Griffith turned in an Emmy-nominated performance as the suspicious father of a woman believed to have been murdered by her plastic surgeon husband in the TV movie-of-the-week “Murder in Texas” (NBC, 1981). He then appeared in the James Burrows-produced old west sitcom “Best of the West” (ABC, 1981-82), before turning in a cameo in a 1982 episode of “Saturday Night Live” (NBC, 1975- ). But in 1983, his acting career was put on hold when he became stricken with Guillen-Barre syndrome, a muscular disease that left him partially paralyzed for several months. But in a few years, he made a triumphant return, joining co-stars Don Knotts, Ron Howard and others for a reunion movie, “Return to Mayberry,” (CBS, 1986). That same year, Griffith made a significant return to series television with the courtroom drama, “Matlock” (NBC, ABC, 1986-1995). His portrayal of lawyer Ben Matlock, whose country charm and simple mannerisms belied a sharp, cunning mind, struck a chord with millions of viewers – many of them older and likely fans of his previous work as a Sheriff Taylor. Griffith also served as executive producer on the show and appeared in all 180 episodes. After the long-running series left the airwaves, he reprised the role in a special guest appearance for two-part storyline on “Diagnosis Murder” (CBS, 1993-2001).

Of all the characters he played over the years, Griffith remarked that Matlock was his favorite. During the show’s run, he played the character in several well-received movies-of-the-week, including “Matlock: The Vacation” (ABC, 1992), “Matlock: The Legacy” (ABC, 1992) and “Matlock: The Heist” (ABC, 1995). Griffith continued working even after the show, playing a villain in the Leslie Nielsen espionage spoof “Spy Hard” (1996), while appearing on episodes of “Dawson’s Creek” (The WB, 1998-2003) and “Family Law” (CBS, 1999-2002). He also recorded a series of Christmas and gospel albums, including I Love to Tell the Story: 25 Timeless Hymns which won a Grammy Award in 1997. Griffith made frequent appearances on television after the death of his old co-star Don Knotts in early 2006, including a tribute to his friend on “Larry King Live” (CNN, 1985-2010). As the years piled on, the aging star appeared less frequently on screen, while several health issues began to take prominence. In 2000, he underwent a successful quadruple bypass surgery. After receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005, Griffith re-emerged for a return to the big screen in the independent romance, “Waitress” (2007), playing Old Joe, a wise patron of a small town diner where an unhappy waitress (Keri Russell) works. Only two months after his “Andy Griffith Show” co-star George Lindsey died, the beloved television star passed away from a heart attack on July 3, 2012 at age 86. Ron Howard released a statement, saying “His pursuit of excellence and the joy he took in creating served generations and shaped my life. I’m forever grateful. RIP Andy.”

The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

Rosalind Russell was one of the great actresses of Hollywood’s Golden Age. She was born in Waterbury, Connecticut in 1907. In the 1930’s, she gave strong supporting roles in such movies as “China Seas” with Clark Gable and Jean Harlow and “The Women” with Norma Shearer and Joan Crawford. She came into her own in the 1940’s and is especially remembered for her performance opposite Cary Grant in “His Girl Friday”. In 1955 she starred with William Holden and Kim Novak in “Picnic” and then in 1958 in “Auntie Mame”. She was a generous contributor to charitable causes. She died in 1976.

TCM overview:

She was born into wealth and privilege but for Golden Age moviegoers, Rosalind Russell represented the epitome of the working woman. Warehoused as a Universal acquisition and underutilized at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the lanky, dark-eyed actress tested her comic chops in George Cukor’s “The Women” (1939) before coming into her own as Cary Grant’s co-star in Howard Hawks’ “His Girl Friday” (1940) – a role refused by almost every A-list actress in Hollywood. Tailoring the script to the talents of his stars, whom he encouraged to ad lib for the camera, Hawks delivered the rare Hollywood hit to please critics and audiences alike, while Russell made of her brassy distaff journalist Hildy Johnson a role model for American women braving the male-dominated workforce. If Russell’s subsequent films rarely matched the quality of “His Girl Friday,” she found greater satisfaction on stage, winning a Tony for “Wonderful Town” in 1953 and reprising her 1956 Broadway success as “Auntie Mame” in Warner Brothers’ lavish Technicolor film adaptation. The four-time Academy Award nominee transitioned deftly to middle-age, playing a small town spinster in “Picnic” (1955) and mentoring Natalie Wood’s budding burlesque star in “Gypsy” (1962). Diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, Russell threw herself into charity work, for which she received the 1973 Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award only a few years before breast cancer robbed Hollywood of one of its most unique talents, a glamorous leading lady with the soul of a vaudevillian.

Catherine Rosalind Russell was born on June 4, 1907, in Waterbury, CT. The fourth of seven children born to James Edward Russell, a trial attorney, and the former Clara McKnight, a school teacher, Russell was raised in affluence on Waterbury’s Cracker Hill, a conclave of stately Victorian homes shaded by fruit trees and backed by rose gardens. Called Rosalind by her parents, in memory of a happy sea cruise to Nova Scotia aboard the S.S. Rosalind, Russell developed into a tomboy, climbing trees, riding horses from her father’s stable, and cutting classes to attend movies at her local bijou. Upon her high school graduation from the Notre Dame Academy, she enrolled in Tarrytown, New York’s Marymount College, with the stated aim of becoming a teacher. Drawn to campus theatricals, Russell played the Jesuit saint Francis Xavier in a religious play and was given the lead role in a student production of the operetta “The Bohemian Girl.” Leaving Marymount in 1927 after only two years, she enrolled in classes at the American Academy of Dramatic Art in Manhattan, assuring her now widowed mother that a diploma from AADA would enable her to teach voice and diction.

In 1929, Russell was cast in the lead role in Frederick Lonsdale’s comedy of manners “The Last of Mrs. Cheney,” which also featured another young AADA enrollee – Agnes Moorehead. Upon her graduation from the Academy, Russell transitioned to summer stock, joining a repertory company based at New York’s Saranac Lake, and later traveling for acting work in Boston. As a member of the Adirondack Players, she starred in a regional staging of Edwin Burke’s “This Thing Called Love,” a recent Broadway hit. In 1930, Russell made her Broadway debut with an ensemble role in the Theatre Guild revue “Garrick Gaieties,” alongside future television comedienne Imogene Coca. Equally short-lived was her return to the Great White Way in the Alma Wilson farce “Company’s Coming!,” which closed after a week at the Lyceum Theater. Tapped by Universal Pictures in Hollywood for potential film work, Russell traveled west but her brief time at Universal was an unhappy one. Breaking her studio contract, Russell found a more welcoming home at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, for whom she made her feature film debut in “Evelyn Prentice” (1934), as Myrna Loy’s snooty rival for the love of William Powell.

Despite possessing a flair for comedy, Russell’s initial film roles often cast her as the other woman in such dramas as “West Point of the Air” (1935) with Robert Young and “China Seas” (1935) with Clark Gable. Though romance favored her in the class comedy “It Had to Happen” (1936) with George Raft and in the psychological thriller “Night Must Fall” (1937) with Robert Montgomery, Russell’s unique abilities were largely wasted. A happy exception was her turn as the journalist heroine of Michael Curtiz’s “Four’s a Crowd” (1938), co-starring Errol Flynn, and her breakthrough role as the catty Sylvia Fowler in George Cukor’s madcap “The Women” (1939). The latter classic allowed Russell to bring all of her talents to bear, contrasting her haughty, patrician mien (which so often limited her to playing socialites) with an affinity for slapstick. If “The Women” showed Russell’s great promise as a top-tier comedienne, that promise was fulfilled when she was loaned out to Columbia Pictures to co-star opposite Cary Grant in Howard Hawks’ “His Girl Friday” (1940), a reworking of the Ben Hecht-Charles MacArthur stage play with one of the principle roles gender-reversed for a woman.

Russell’s enthusiasm to take the lead in an A-list comedy tailored to her particular talents was tempered initially when she learned that the role of ace reporter Hildy Johnson had been rejected by nearly every major Hollywood comedienne – among them Irene Dunne, Ginger Rogers, Claudette Colbert, Carole Lombard and Jean Arthur. Glumly submitting to costume tests for Hawks, the actress boldly voiced her apprehension but was reassured by the veteran director and co-star Grant, with whom she enjoyed a professional relationship of complete equanimity that had little precedent in Hollywood at the time. Though Hawks had a reputation for demanding from his actors absolute fidelity to the shooting script, he allowed and encouraged Russell and Grant to ad lib for the camera, even to the extreme of breaking the presumed forth wall separating players and audience. The film’s manic pacing; overlapping, fast-flying dialogue; and the winning union of Russell and Grant made it a hit with both the critics and moviegoers. The production also had the benefit of bringing Russell together with Frederick Brisson, a Danish expatriate and agency executive whom she would marry in 1941, with Cary Grant as their best man.

Russell earned Academy Award nominations for her roles in the comedy “My Cousin Eileen” (1942), for the historical biopic “Sister Kenny” (1946), and for “Mourning Becomes Electra” (1947), an adaptation of the grim Eugene O’Neill play that proved a disastrous venture for RKO-Radio Pictures. If the majority of her subsequent film roles proved unmemorable, Russell found greater job satisfaction by returning to the stage. She toured with a 1951 production of “Bell, Book and Candle” and won a Tony for starring in the 1953 Broadway production of “Wonderful Town” and George Abbott’s musical adaptation of “My Cousin Eileen.” She stayed with the hit show through 556 performances and reprised the role of Ruth Sherwood for a 1958 television adaptation broadcast by CBS. In the interim, the 47-year-old actress accepted a supporting role as a small town spinster in Joshua Logan’s “Picnic” (1955) but refused a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination when Columbia denied her top billing. In 1956, Russell returned to Broadway for the last time to star as the free-spirited “Auntie Mame,” another box office juggernaut that ran for over 600 performances at the Broadhurst Theater.

When Russell reprised her role as Mame Dennis in Morton DaCosta’s film adaptation of “Auntie Mame” (1958), she had found a signature role to bookend her indelible turn as Hildy Johnson in “His Girl Friday” (1940). The film garnered six Oscar nominations, among them one for Russell as Best Actress, but she had to content herself with a Golden Globe and some of the best reviews of her career. After the diagnosis of breast cancer in 1959 required Russell to undergo a double mastectomy, she worked less often. She played Mama Rose to Natalie Wood’s budding burlesque performer Gypsy Rose Lee in “Gypsy” (1962) and appeared as a martinet Mother Superior in the convent comedy “The Trouble with Angels” (1966) and its sequel, “Where Angels Go, Trouble Follow” (1968). “Rosie!” (1967) gave the actress another whack at Mame-style irreverence in the role of a widow whose avaricious daughters have her committed to a sanitarium for fear she will spend their inheritance before she dies. Billing herself as C.A. McKnight (in honor of her mother), Russell co-wrote her final film appearance, playing a New Jersey housewife who volunteers for espionage work in the comedy “Mrs. Pollifax – Spy” (1971), based on a series of novels by Dorothy Gilman.

Russell’s final credit was in the ABC telefilm “The Crooked Hearts” (1972), a geriatric romantic comedy which finds her posing as a socialite in order to meet wealthy widowers, only to snag Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., a debonair confidence man targeting wealthy widows. Diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in 1969, Russell refused to acknowledge her disability publicly but devoted herself to charity work, for which she received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the 1973 Academy Awards. The metastasis of her cancer brought about Russell’s death in her Beverly Hills home on Nov. 28, 1976. Her autobiography, Life is a Banquet (a title cadged from “Auntie Mame”) was published a year after her death. In 1978, the Rosalind Russell Medical Research Center for Arthritis was founded at UCLA-San Francisco. In 2000, “His Girl Friday” and “Auntie Mame” were included in the American Film Institute’s Top 100 comedies. In 2009, Jonathan Gruber’s documentary “Life Is a Banquet: The Rosalind Russell Story” was exhibited at film festivals nationwide.

By Richard Harland Smith

The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

Tom Berenger. TCM Overview

Tom Berenger was one of the major movie stars of the 1980’s. Among his films from that period were “The Big Chill”, “Platoon”,”Someone to Watch Over Me” and “Major League”. In 1990 he starred with Richard Harris in “The Field”. In recent years he has emerged as a powerful character actor in such movies as “Inception”.

“When Tom Berenger smiles out of hi studio stills he seems a sweet-tempered gentle ma, but there are others in which he stares out as disdainfully, with his mouth twisted cruelly. That suggests a wide range, which he effortlessly has, but even in villainy he can seem lost, wistful.” – David Shipman in “The Great Movie Stars – The Independent Years” (1991).

TCM overview :

Having first established himself in brooding, aggressive roles, actor Tom Berenger first came to the public’s attention as the self-effacing Tom Selleck-like television star in Lawrence Kasdan’s iconic drama, “The Big Chill” (1983). But it was his hard-edged turn as the Vietnam War-scarred Sergeant Barnes in “Platoon” (1986) that turned the relatively known actor into a bona fide star. Berenger next emerged in the unlikeliest of places, playing a professional baseball player in the surprise hit comedy “Major League” (1989), a role he reprised five years later in the inferior sequel. From there, he specialized in playing historical figures like Confederate Lt. Gen. James Longstreet in “Gettysburg” (1993) and Theodore Roosevelt in “Rough Riders” (TNT, 1997), while churning out a series of low-quality genre films – many of which went straight to DVD – like “Sniper” (1993) and its two sequels. Whether occasionally popping up in more acclaimed movies like “Training Day” (2001) and “Inception” (2010), co-starring on his first regular primetime series “October Road” (ABC, 2007-08), or winning an Emmy for his work in the acclaimed miniseries “Hatfields & McCoys” (History, 2012), Berenger seemed content playing a wide array of villains and antiheroes in non-theatrical releases.

Born on May 31, 1950 in Chicago, IL, Berenger was raised in a working class home headed by a father who worked as a printer for The Chicago Sun-Times. After graduating Rich East High School in 1967, he attended the University of Missouri to study journalism, only to discover acting after trying out for a school play on a bet. Berenger made his debut in a college production of Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?” before moving on to regional theater following graduation. He soon relocated to New York City, where he studied with Uta Hagen and Herbert Berghof at HB Studio while working in off-Broadway productions like “End as a Man” (1975) for the Circle Repertory Company and “The Rose Tattoo” (1977) at the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, CT. Making his screen debut, Berenger spent a year portraying Tim Siegel on the daytime soap “Once Life to Live” (ABC, 1968-2012) before landing a small role in the biopic about a young John F. Kennedy (Paul Rudd) in “Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye” (NBC, 1977).

Following his feature debut in “The Sentinel” (1977), Berenger landed a significant role as Gary Cooper White, the psychopathic killer of “Looking for Mr. Goodbar” (1977), who threatens a young teacher (Diane Keaton) looking for sexual excitement outside of her usually mundane existence. He next had his first starring role in the erotic drama, “In Praise of Older Women” (1978), which cast him in the underdeveloped role of a Hungarian stud recalling two decades’ worth of sexual conquests. Berenger fared better as the young Butch Cassidy in Richard Lester’s “Butch and Sundance: The Early Years” (1979) while returning to the small screen to take the leading role of a street tough-turned-prison boxer in the two-part miniseries “Flesh & Blood” (CBS, 1979). After a return to the stage to play Stanley Kowalski in “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1981) at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Berenger played a mercenary soldier opposite Christopher Walken in “The Dogs of War” (1981). Two years later, the actor gained his first widespread attention for his standout performance as an insecure television star in the ensemble drama “The Big Chill” (1983), a film that marked similar breakthroughs for Glenn Close, William Hurt and Jeff Goldblum.

Hot on the heels of “The Big Chill,” Berenger earned a cult following with “Eddie and the Cruisers” (1983), playing the former piano player and lyricist for the leader of the titular band (Michael Pare), whose alleged death in a car accident comes into question a few years later. He was underutilized as a smarmy strip club owner in the derided crime thriller “Fear City” (1984), while in “Rustler’s Rhapsody” (1985) he tried to revive the gentle singing cowboy from 1940s Hollywood Westerns, only to have the film fall off the radar and remain forgotten for the rest of his career. But Berenger hit his stride and became a star with his next film, “Platoon” (1986), director Oliver Stone’s searing and realistic look at the Vietnam War as seen from the eyes of the average infantryman. Berenger played Staff Sgt. Barnes, a battle-scarred leader of a platoon who will stop at nothing to ensure his authority, even if it means killing a rival sergeant (Willem Dafoe) while trying to corrupt a young recruit (Charlie Sheen). With his face masked by prosthetic scar tissue, Berenger delivered perhaps the finest performance of his career, earning numerous award nominations, including one for Best Supporting Actor at the Academy Awards.

Building off that triumphant performance, Berenger starred opposite Mimi Rogers in the Ridley Scott thriller “Someone to Watch Over Me” (1987), before proving both forceful and unpredictable as the vulnerable macho white supremacist leader in “Betrayed” (1988). As veteran catcher Jake Taylor, whose damaged knees signal the end of his career, Berenger was the heart and soul of the hit baseball comedy “Major League” (1989), thanks in large part to his comedic chemistry with Charlie Sheen and romantic chemistry with Rene Russo. Following a small role in Oliver Stone’s “Born on the Fourth of July” (1989), he projected the smoldering charisma of a young Brando as the half-breed Cheyenne mercenary who goes native in Hector Babenco’s “At Play in the Fields of the Lord” (1991), adapted from Peter Matthiessen’s 1965 novel. He next delivered a solid portrayal of Confederate Lt. Gen. James Longstreet in “Gettysburg” (1993), while appearing in several Hollywood genre films like “Sniper” (1993) and “Sliver” (1993), the former of which fizzled at the box office, while the latter was panned by most critics.

Around this time, Berenger began a short-lived recurring role during the waning days of the hit sitcom, “Cheers” (NBC, 1982-1993), playing the plumber husband-to-be of bar manager Rebecca Howe (Kirstie Alley). His performance earned him an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series. Following a reprisal for Jake Taylor for the woeful sequel “Major League II” (1994), Berenger appeared in a series of misfires like “Chasers” (1994), “Avenging Angel” (1995) and “An Occasional Hell” (1996), which he also executive produced, before playing a mercenary-turned-teacher in “The Substitute” (1996). He next turned in a fine portrayal of Theodore Roosevelt in the original made-for-cable movie, “Rough Riders” (TNT, 1997), which he followed with a supporting role in Robert Altman’s meandering adaptation of John Grisham’s “The Gingerbread Man” (1998). Berenger starred in “One Man’s Hero” (1998), the story of a group of Irish immigrants who fled to Mexico and fought for their adopted country as the St. Patrick Brigade in the Mexican-American War. Meanwhile, he continued appearing in low-quality genre fare like “Enemy of My Enemy” (1999), “Cutaway” (2000) and “Cruel and Unusual” (2001), which did nothing but help dim memories of strong performances like in “Platoon.”

Though only onscreen for a few minutes, Berenger delivered a memorable turn as a powerful lawyer in the District Attorney’s office who runs cover for a corrupt cop (Denzel Washington) in “Training Day” (2001). He reprised his role from the theatrically released “Sniper” for the direct-to-DVD release, “Sniper 2” (2003) and “Sniper 3” (2004), which he followed with a notable guest appearance on “Third Watch” (NBC, 1999-2005) and a supporting role among an all star cast for Steven Spielberg’s epic 12-hour miniseries, “Into the West” (TNT, 2005). For his first regular series role, Berenger played the gruff, but ultimately kindhearted father of an accomplished writer (Bryan Greenberg) who returns home after 10-year sojourn on the short-lived “October Road” (ABC, 2007-08). Berenger returned to features with several small movies like the direct-to-DVD releases “Stiletto” (2008) and “Smokin’ Aces 2: Assassin’s Ball” (2010) and low budget indies “Charlie Valentine” (2009) and “Breaking Point” (2009). He had his first taste of a major Hollywood film in a long time with “Inception” (2010), director Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster psychological thriller inspired by people’s experiences with lucid dreaming. Following a small turn as the nameless warden in the Dwayne Johnson actioner “Faster” (2010), Berenger shined in a standout performance as Jim Vance in the acclaimed miniseries “Hatfields & McCoys” (History, 2012), which brought huge ratings to the cable network and earned praise from all corners. But most importantly for the actor, it earned him an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie in 2012. The TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

Mamie Van Doren was promoted as a rival to Marilyn Monroe in the lines of Jayne Mansfield and Diana Dors. She is the only one of those ladies still around. She was born in 1931 in South Dakota. She made her movie debut in 1951 in “His Kind of Woman”. Other film credits include “Untamed Youth”, “Teacher’s Pet” and “High School Confidential”.

TCM overview:

Full-figured, hard-edged leading lady of the late 1950s and early 60s who, next to Jayne Mansfield, was one of the best known of the Marilyn Monroe imitators to emerge at that time. Van Doren, however, was not cast primarily in comedies like the more successful Mansfield; instead, she primarily appeared in schlocky “B” melodramas like “Guns, Girls, and Gangsters” (1958), “The Beat Generation” (1959), and “The Navy vs. the Night Monsters” (1966) and exploitation films like “High School Confidential” (1958), “Sex Kittens Go the College” (1960). Van Doren’s minor cult status was acknowledged in 1994’s “Pulp Fiction”, in which a character named “Mamie Van Doren” was played by Lorelei Leslie.

The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.

American born Gary Cockrell originally trained as a dancer and choreographer before turning to acting. He had studied with Matt Maddox in New York and had danced in several Broadway productions before joining the cast of West Side Story. The play was first performed at the Winter Garden in New York in 1957 before transferring to London’s West End in 1958. Gary moved to London, with the production, which took place at Her Majesty’s Theatre, and lived there throughout the 1960’s and 1970’s. He left West Side Story to play the leading acting role in Tennessee Williams Orpheus Descending at both the Royal Court Theatre and the Mermaid Theatre. Following this, he starred in a production of The Golden Touch at the Piccadilly Theatre and performed in the musical Carnival at the Lyric Theatre in Shafetsbury Avenue.

Although he was based in London, he worked as an actor on both sides of the Atlantic. In Britain, he had a leading role in the television series The Corridor People and guest-starred in series such as The Saint, Danger Man and The Persuaders. He had a supporting role in Stanley Kubick’s controversial film Lolita and appeared in Gonks Go Beat!. In America, he played opposite Steve McQueen in the film The War Lovers and had small roles in The Americanisation of Emily, The Bedford Incident and Man in the Middle. He acted on television in Wagon Train and Route 66.

He left the UK to live in St. Lucia in the West Indies, where he opened a hotel. Today, Gary is retired and lives in St. Lucia with his wife, Marie.

Collection of Classic Hollywood Actors

Jude Law

Scott Glenn

Eva Gabor

Peter Sellers

Andy Griffith

Rosalind Russell

Tom Berenger

Tom Berenger. TCM Overview

Mamie Van Doren

Gary Cockrell

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