Dead Hollywood Legends Appreciation thread

[0 CaliSto 0]

Does any1 else feel that actresses were much more entertaining years. This thread is for writing about ur fave atress/actor from the golden era.



My Fave would have to be Tallulah Bankhead. Alleged to have slept with over 5000 women and men. Her 'Talluahisms' were great and she lived her life how she liked.



Another fave would have to be Marlene Dietrich: Anyone who can give themselves diy plastic surgery is sound in my book.



Cant tlk bout legends without mentioning Bette Davis. Extremely talented actress and i loved her feud with Joan Crawford.

' i dnt tlk bad of the dead, I say Joan Crawford is dead, good'

-bette



any1 else got any more contributions

[urnofosiris]

Well I have to say Marlene Dietrich of course, what a formidable woman, but also Marilyn Monroe. I saw a documentary about her a few days ago and she really impressed me. It is sad she died so young, but in a way I think it added to her legend and mystique, hardly a comfort though.

[Gatito Grande]

I hope y'all don't mind, but I wanna say something about a guy: my first screen love, Tyrone Power.



First of all, 0 CaliSto 0, I wonder, when Tallulah was doing all those men and women, whether she and Ty did each other: he was out doing men and women too!



Just the other night, I saw him in a movie I'd never seen before, called The Prince of Foxes. Set in the Middle Ages, w/ intrigue amidst the Borgias (and filmed on location in Italy, though sadly not in color), and co-starring an also hunk-a-licious young (and thin!) Orson Welles, it was really great (I almost posted about it on the "I loved, loved" thread).



. . . and it reminded me, once again, just why I so loved TP as a kid. Even though I'm not usually much attracted to men anymore, Ty is still painfully good-looking in my eyes. (Oh baby, that "Black Irish" thang! ) His acting, always underrated, is just so effortless: as a romantic hero, he brings gravitas to the drama, but he's especially charming in the comedy parts.



I fell in love w/ Tyrone at about age 13 via the late, late show (for you youngsters, that's a late night movie, not a CBS comedy program ). I just couldn't believe anybody that beautiful walked the earth . . . though sadly, he died 4 years before I was born (a young heart attack).



Once I discovered him, I started seeing as many movies of his as possible (this is pre-VCR---much less DVD---folks!). Crash Dive, The Luck of the Irish, The Razor's Edge, Alexander's Ragtime Band, Johnny Apollo, A Yank in the R.A.F., the *original* Mark of Zorro (Antonio Banderas? Not even close!): these are just a few of the ones I remember. Whether in black and white or color, that jet black hair, dark eyes and Killer Smile: just dreamy! (Actually, I think Young GG may have progressed beyond dreamy, to outright naughty thoughts. )



Whatever "world" Tyrone was inhabiting in his movie, I wanted to be in that world, too (e.g. win WW2 single-handed! ). He was just terribly important to shy, impressionable me, luring me on to the World of Grown-Ups.



GG Thank you, Tyrone, you Gorgeous Bisexual Hunk o' Man! Out



I don't think I learned about Ty being bi until I was in college---fortunately, I had progressed enough (beyond homophobia) to not be bothered by it. At 13 (in 1975), I'm not sure I could have handled it properly.



ETA: Geez! I'm out composing my paeon to Tyrone, and others of you are already mentioning men, as well as women, of yesteryear!

Edited by: Gatito Grande at: 3/22/04 4:30 pm

[KiwiAlcyone]

My favourite actress of the golden age of film making and one of my all time favourites is Audrey Hepburn.



She had such a presence onscreen and a unique look that made people love her just by looking at her. So talented and graceful, setting fashion trends, renowned for her sense of style...a true class act.



Gregory Peck - they just don't make them like this man anymore. He was every man's hero in the many war films he did - Twelve O'clock high being one of my favourites. He showed his dramatic acting chops in To Kill a Mockingbird and drove girls crazy in Roman Holiday. And he and Audrey made a great onscreen couple.



-Alcy

“It’s just my imagination. Some people have flat feet. Some people have dandruff. I have this appalling imagination…”

The Seven Year Itch.

[gspiggott]

What a great thread!I love old dead movie stars. My favorite Barbara Stanwyck movie is The Lady Eve where she keeps tripping Henry Fonda and gets him to fall in love with her twice. Carole Lombard in 20th Century and My Man Godfrey is hysterical but she really seems forgotten now, and that is a real injustice in an age where an insipid ditz like Meg Ryan is seen as a brilliant comedienne.

I have to go with Myrna Loy as my all round favorite because she could be so funny and so cool at the same time especially opposite my male love William Powell. In one of their non thin man outings he's going on and on about the joys of bohemian life and Myrna just cuts her eyes at him and asks,"Do you take dope?" Kills me every time.

How can anyone not have a massive crush on Tyrone Power no matter how bad his movies he was so handsome.

Louise Brooks wrote a great book called ,"Lulu in Hollywood" she was a smart tough woman with an amazing screen presence but not much of a careerist.

Edited by: gspiggott at: 3/22/04 5:11 pm

[sam7777]

My fav actess is Barbara Stanwyk. She always played strong women who stoop up for themselves. She was great in "The Big Valley" with the leather vest and the skirt ready to wield a rifle in defense of her family. She rocks.

_____________________

I still see dead lesbian cliches

[4WiccanLuv]

Great thread…I absolutely agree that the actors of yesteryear were much more entertaining, not to mention glamorous, sexy and classy!



I read a couple of books on Davis/Crawford feud! Interesting stuff, but I think much of it was played up for publicity! IMO, it seemed more a competitive professional rivalry/envy than hate!



Some of my favs:



Cary Grant - He was a comic genius, but occasionally he tackled some more dramatic roles too. He managed to work with most of Hollywood's hottest leading actresses, but my favorite co-star for him was Katherine Hepburn. They were just magical and had so much chemistry. I believe they worked together four times in such classics as, Holiday, Sylvia Scarlett, The Philadelphia Experiment and Bringing Up Baby! One of my personal favorites is, "I Was A Male Order War Bride," it's very silly, but his cross-dressing antics make it very worthwhile! There were always whisperings about him being a bisexual, don't know how true that was.



Rosalind Russell - Her career started in 1934, but she never really achieved super stardom. She played Mame Dennis, a woman way ahead of her times, on Broadway for over two years then starred in the movie version. I loved her performances in His Girl Friday and The Women. She was beautiful, extremely talented and had a great comedic flare with near perfect timing!



Carole Lombard - She was very versatile…funny as hell in My Man Godfrey for which she won an Oscar nomination! She died so young…it's a shame, I think the world missed out on what would've been a spectacular career.



I really love some of the silent film stars, such as Mary Pickford, Greta Garbo, Norma Shearer, Clara Bow, Lupe Velez, Lillian Gish. Cool that many of these ladies actually made the difficult transition to talkies!



Alcy, Audrey is right up there for me too. She was a goddess!

"Those are my principles. If you don't like them I have others." - Groucho Marx

[seurat]

My list of hollywood legends is actually dominated by the guys, like Cary Grant, Henry Fonda, James Stewart, Astaire and Kelly, Chaplin and Keaton etc. But the very first name I think of is of a lesser-known actress who was briefly famous in the 1920's then faded and lived until the end of the 1970's as a mostly forgotten semi-recluse. Some of you may have already guessed who I'm talking about : Louise Brooks.



I remember the first time I saw Pandora's Box, being riveted by this woman who seemed so modern in what was clearly a very old movie (1929, as it turned out.) Her relationship to the camera; and through it to the audience, was unlike that of other silent movie stars. She didn't overact, she was just there, in the moment and dominating every shot without effort. Later on I came to admire her almost as much for her writing as for her film work and her stunning beauty. She is a bit of a cult figure now, and since Neve Campbell is trying to do a film based on her life she may yet be acknowledged by more than just a relatively small group of film fans. All I can say for sure is that I'll never forget her.

"Learning, playing and loving, and combinations thereof,are a good way to spend a lifetime. Admittedly, a difficult regimen, but nonetheless not beyond attainment.

Start with playing." - Alexei Panshin, The Thurb Revolution

[maudmac]

They just do not make 'em like they used to. Such glamour. Such drama.



Heh, I like my Hollywood legends to be bitches from hell, so, for me, it's Joan Crawford and Bette Davis. They were strong, opinionated, and fierce in a time when that just wasn't done. They had a drive and sense of self-preservation that both helped and hurt their careers. I cannot not admire them for it. Of course, we all know that they were both awful to their children and that's far from admirable.



(Speaking of Joan reminds me that Mercedes McCambridge, who was in Johnny Guitar with her, just died this month. When I read about her death, I hadn't known that she did the voice of the devil in The Exorcist. Learning that messed with my mind.)



I lean toward Joan, I think, because I see her as a more tragic figure, with a harder life, and that makes her seem more complicated to me. To have suffered such poverty as a child, to rise to such heights, to fall again and rise once more and fall yet again...to have been such an approachable, kind, warm-hearted, generous woman to her fans (strangers) while being such a brutal, cold, cruel woman to her own children...to have been so strong and yet so weak and in need of someone to take care of her...God, she just fascinates the hell out of me. The disparities there. It strikes a chord in me.



Though she is my personal favorite, Joan wasn't the actress Bette was, in my opinion. Joan is awesome in Mildred Pierce and that's one of my favorite movies of all time. But her body of work just doesn't hold up to Bette's.



I saw an interview Bette had done, couldn't have been long before she died, and she was sharp as a tack, telling stories about her days in Hollywood, arguing with directors, demanding to be in the last shot, refusing to work with certain people, etc., it was amazing. She just would not compromise when her glory was at stake.



It breaks my heart that she couldn't go out with The Whales of August as her last film, because it was fine work. Wicked Stepmother is horrifically bad and good for her that she walked off. (Although, I believe she left not because the script sucked, but because she was unhappy with her appearance on film.)



Sadly, they both finished their careers with crappy movies. That is such an injustice and I'm tempted to say that Hollywood can go to hell for not embracing them as older actresses still able and willing to work, but...heh, well, I doubt I would have wanted to work with them, either, if I'm honest.



What a dream come true Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? was. Also one of my all-time favorite movies. What I wouldn't give to have been able to be a fly on the wall while that was shooting. Bette kicking Joan, Joan putting Bette in the hospital. (Bette had told Joan she had a bad back and asked Joan to help her out in the scene where Jane is pulling Blanche from bed, but Joan not only didn't help her, she put rocks in her pockets, so she'd be even heavier.) Damn. That's hardcore.



And their hatred for one another is what kept Joan from taking the role of Miriam (which went to Olivia de Havilland) in the excellent Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte, which is, can you see the pattern now, one of my favorite movies of all time. (Agnes Moorehead is brilliant here.)



I'm telling you, I mourn for what Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte could have been and might have been had things gone better between them during the filming of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?



In my heart, I do think that the source of their conflict was their similarity. Both of them unmoveable objects, unwilling to give an inch. That trait was, for both of them, their greatest strength and also their most tragic flaw.

---

I have no professional training. I already gave my best. I have no regrets at all.

[xita]

Oh god, it starts and ends with Greta Garbo with me. That woman is a goddess. I can honestly say that she's it. I think she's gorgeous, she has ambigiuous sexuality.







Oh and yes holley, I agree with everyone you said. Joan and Bette Davis are my other goddesses. I love All About Even, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane and Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte!

- - - - - - - - - - -
"No more twat. No more twat for me. Twat gets me into trouble!" - Crack Whore Jenny, The L Word

[Gatito Grande]

Heh: I wonder how many of the great "Celluloid Closet" moments get mentioned here? (Looking above at Garbo in Queen Christina). We've also had Johnny Guitar (I haven't seen the film, but doesn't it feature Mercedes McCambridge and Joan Crawford out-dyking each other? ) Audrey Hepburn: if you recall her in The Children's Hour (NB: writer Lillian Hellman *wanted* to change the cliche' ending in the '62 movie: she thought audiences were ready to let the lesbians live). Marlene Dietrich: Morocco!!! (I hope I look as good in my tux! )



GG If you haven't seen The Celluloid Closet, you really must: it's an eye-opener (and features so many of our fave screen legends!) Out

[mollyig]

I always loved Katharine Hepburn. She had such talent, and a style all her own.

---

"Love is just like breathing when it's true" Indigo Girls

[astrangerhere]

Mollygig- Katharine gets one of my votes too! Alcy - AUDREY. no need for more words there.



As to my favorites, perhaps it is because I am from her hometown, but I love Ava Gardner.



a.s.h.

[Hemiola]

As far as the male actors are concerned, for me it's very easy:Humphrey Bogart.

Now sadly having turned his name into a verb, the younger generation seems unable to appreciate how great an actor he was, even in films where his part was relatively small. Think of the early (I think it was 1932) "Three on a Match", where Bogart, as a sinister gangster, has this conversation with Ann Dvorak's 6-year-old son--

Boy: Are you gonna hurt my mama?

Bogart (with eeeeevil sarcasm): Nah, I ain't gonna hoit ya muddah.

One's mind immediately went to what horrible things this thug would do to her!

From there on, it was onward and upward, to his first real starring role in "Petrified Forest" (with Leslie Howard and Bette Davis), the "last gangster" in "High Sierra" (with Ida Lupino), Sam Spade in "The Maltese Falcon", and the immortal Rick in "Casablanca". He finally won a long-deserved Academy Award for "The African Queen" (with Katharine Hepburn). I belong to that generation for whom Humphrey Bogart will always embody the essence of cool toughness leavened by a sense of justice.



For female actors, it's much harder to choose. There were many who were wonderful to look at, but really weren't all that great as actresses. Likewise, there were some who had fabulous acting "chops", but weren't glamorous beauties. Is there one that combined both? I think the closest was the great Vivien Leigh. From her spectacular US film debut in "Gone With The Wind" all the way to her last film ("Ship Of Fools"), she wedded a tremendous personal commitment to any part she played with a famously "kittenish" beauty that could just melt you into a puddle.

My own favorite films of hers? Probably "Caesar and Cleopatra" and "Streetcar Named Desire".



To the above, I will add a separate category: Musical Stars

Male--for me, Fred Astaire remains at the pinnacle. He was, as one critic famously put it, "grace and class in motion". However, he was also a damn great singer!!!!!!!



Female--Arrrrgh, so many to choose from! So let's "sub-divide them":

a) Singer--it has to be Judy Garland, who was already a fully-formed vocal artist at the age of fourteen (!!!) .

b) Dancer--for sheer virtuosity, the great Eleanor Powell. She had the most "educated feet" of all the female hoofers.



Oh yes, and let's not forget Child Stars. There's really only one whose work still astonishes: Shirley Temple. Whatever you may think of her conservative politics, as a kid she was a fabulous singer, dancer (Bill "Bojangles" Robinson famously stated "I showed her the steps, but only God could make her move her feet like that!"), and actress (John Ford called her "One Take Temple" ).



Whatever failings the "studio system" may have had, I have to say that it turned out better films and discovered many more great stars/actors than we have today. Makes ya think....

Edited by: Hemiola at: 3/23/04 7:22 pm

[Kieli]

Ahh, old silver screen legends. *sigh* This just reminds how much they are missed. Cinema hasn't been the same in quite a long time....it's missing that certain something from the past that today's younger actors severely lack.



Let me try my hand at many stars that I miss:



The team of Myrna Loy & William Powell in The Thin Man series....I would stay up until 1am on Saturday nights to watch them and either Charlie Chan (Sidney Toler & Werner Oland were my favourite Chans) or Sherlock Holmes (IMHO only Sir Basil Rathbone has EVER been the Real Holmes for me), Peter Lorre, Sir Peter Ustinov, Sir Richard Burton, Sir John Gielgud, John Barrymore, Katherine Hepburn, Audrey Hepburn, Errol Flynn (I totally adored him in any swashbuckling role), Barbara Stanwyck, Lorne Greene, Dan Blocker, Michael Landon, Greta Garbo, Princess Grace Kelly, Lauren Bacall (all I can say is ! Betty Bacall was the BOMB!), Buster Keaton (the REAL Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon!). I could go on for centuries, I fear. My dad really only allowed us to watch old movies until we got to be teenagers so we watched a ton of old movies from the 30s up to the 50's and 60's.

Time flies by when the Devil drives.
It's not the pace of life that concerns me, it's the sudden stop at the end.

Edited by: Kieli  at: 3/23/04 7:54 am

[Cicca]

The first one who comes to mind is Audrey Hepburn. I just love her.



I also have to mention Gregory Peck and Gene Kelly. Delightful on screen and so handsome!

Is there a hyphen in anal-retentive?

[0 CaliSto 0]

xita

I love ur pic of Greta 'i vant to be alone' Garbo. an im kicking myself for not mentioning her in the first place.

As for Marilyn, i love her so much, my wall is covered with her. strangely enough though iv only sn 1 of her movies

[4WiccanLuv]

There are just so many....I should've mentioned Gary Cooper. He's the strong silent type and so darn good lookin'!



I loved Tyrone in "Blood and Sand." I especially liked the way they darkened his skin and had that shotty Spanish accent!

"Those are my principles. If you don't like them I have others." - Groucho Marx

[gspiggott]

Have you ever seen Morocco? Dietrich in a tux and Gary Cooper with a flower behind his ear. Yowza.

[Hemiola]

Hi Kieli!

I'm sure you mean Buster CRABBE, the blonde Adonis who so perfectly embodied Buck and Flash in the classic serials of the 1930s (which, of course, later went on to inspire a young film-maker named George Lucas ).



Buster KEATON was a member of "The Great Triumvirate" of Silent Comics: Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd .



gspiggott--ah yes, "Morocco", especially the part where MD plants a gigantic smooch on a female member of her audience during her song performance! I never cease to be amazed at what they got away with in that amazing 1929-1933 "Pre-Breen" period: the old "Hays" code was very much more tolerant!



Speaking of the Breen Office, I wonder how many Kittens have ever seen "International House", the all-star 1934 flick that was made specifically to protest against the strictures of Breen's censorship and flout its rules? In one of my favorite sequences, W.C. Fields arrives at a Chinese town and asks a crowd where he is. In very effeminate "falsetto" voices, they all answer "Woo-Hoo!" (which is the name of town). This exchange is repeated several times, until Fields looks down at the carnation in his lapel and says to the crowd "Don't let the posey fool ya!"

In another sequence, Fields offers a lift to a woman, who is reluctant to get into his car because of all the clutter on the front seat. Reluctantly, she gets in but immediately jumps up and asks Fields "What am I sitting on?" Fields reaches down to the seat, lifts up a cat(!) and says with a perfectly straight face "Well whaddya know, it's a pussy!"

In spite of this attempt at protest, the Breen Office ruled over motion picture content for 25 years (!!!), not losing its grip until Joseph Breen finally retired .

[Lukean]

Thanks for catching me on that Hem....I think my memory must be going....how could I forget?? Both Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon came on Channel 48 on Saturdays in Philly (or was it Channel 29? )....anyhoo, I loved 'em both and miss them. And Ming the Merciless really scared me! I need to find this WC Fields movie you speak of just to get a kick out of all the innuendo! Is there someplace where one could check out a summary or something?

"Due to budget cutbacks, the light at the end of the tunnel has temporarily been shut down. Sorry for any inconveniences this may cause you."
It's not the pace of life that concerns me, it's the sudden stop at the end...

[Hemiola]

Hi Lukean!

Ah yes, Ming the Merciless--he was portrayed by that wonderful character actor, Charles Middleton, whose long career had him doing serious projects with such directors as Cecil B. DeMille and James Whale, but also comedies with Laurel and Hardy!

I used to adore the campy costumes in the old Flash Gordon serials, which followed the comic strip so closely. Although the Republic company spent more money on the Buck Rogers/Flash Gordon serials than on any other project (they mostly made "B" westerns), it's a pity they didn't make them in color.



"International House"--well, they used to show it on the AMC cable channel before it morphed into its present incarnation as a commercial crapfest ; perhaps they will show it on TMC.

I don't think it is out on DVD, but I do believe it was released on commercial VHS. Some of the "specialty" houses which carry old VHS releases may still have a copy .

[Lukean]

Thanks for the info *thinks she really needs to have some ID switching thingie so that people can tell who she is occasionally*....this is Kieli, if you didn't know. Silly global account is giving me fits.



You know, I was thinking of other classic actors like Ray Milland, Arthur Lake, Penny Singleton, Sir David Niven (I totally adored him too ), the comedy duo Abbott and Costello, Alan Ladd, Rita Hayworth (wowsers! ), and who could forget Johnny Weismuller and Maureen O'Sullivan of the Tarzan series. I LOVED Tarzan as a kid! Dang what I wouldn't give for a tv station that showed all of this cool stuff again.

"Due to budget cutbacks, the light at the end of the tunnel has temporarily been shut down. Sorry for any inconveniences this may cause you."
It's not the pace of life that concerns me, it's the sudden stop at the end...

[emma peel]

I grew up watching NBC's Saturday Night at the Movies, where I discovered Susan Hayward. I used to have such a crush on her.

I also loved Robert Preston, and didn't have a clue he could sing until I saw The Music Man. Who woulda thunk. It's one of my favorite movies.

Ummm, aren't Lauren Bacall and Shirley Temple still alive? Their film careers might be "dead," but I think the two ladies are still with us, bless them both.

[0 CaliSto 0]

Cant forget Mae West, Rita Hayworth, Ava Gardner, And all the people mentioned in Madonnas vogue

[Hemiola]

You are of course correct, ep, in stating that Ms. Shirley Temple Black is indeed very much alive. I was, however, thinking in the terms you described, i.e., that she no longer makes movies and is therefore, in terms of the "Old Hollywood Studio System", dead.



Speaking of Rita Hayworth, I wonder how many people know that she was actually Mexican and, as Margarita Cansino (her real name ), was a super dancer! Also, the famous strawberry blonde hair was dyed (I think it was actually black). She is even credited under her own name in an early Charlie Chan movie ("Charlie Chan In Egypt"), billed under Stepin Fetchit!!



Kieli--speaking of Weissmuller and O'Sullivan, you should try and catch an extraordinary film, "Tarzan and His Mate" (1934). It contained a nude swimming scene, with a full-frontal (!!!) Maureen (Johnny got to keep his [very brief] loincloth on). Sadly, this scene was cut at the insistence of the Breen Office, and not seen again for nearly fifty (50) years .

Edited by: Hemiola at: 3/24/04 1:22 pm

[4WiccanLuv]

Hemiola, I knew about Rita, great trivia! Here's a pic of the "The Love Goddess" before the dye job. She also underwent electrolysis to raise her hairline a bit to keep her from looking Latin. She still looks pretty damn hot to me. I loved her in Gilda!

"Those are my principles. If you don't like them I have others." - Groucho Marx

Edited by: 4WiccanLuv  at: 3/24/04 3:30 pm

[Kieli]

Quote:

---

Speaking of Weissmuller and O'Sullivan, you should try and catch an extraordinary film, "Tarzan and His Mate" (1934). It contained a nude swimming scene, with a full-frontal (!!!) Maureen (Johnny got to keep his [very brief] loincloth on). Sadly, this scene was cut at the insistence of the Breen Office, and not seen again for nearly fifty (50) years :sad

---

Whoa nelly! You're a veritable fountain of movie trivia. I just know what I like to watch (and a few details here and there). But I SO want to get my hands on this Tarzan flick...there's gotta be a bootleg on Ebay somewheres

Time flies by when the Devil drives.
It's not the pace of life that concerns me, it's the sudden stop at the end.

[barnabasvamp]

Awesome picture of Rita Hayworth!



Thanks for sharing!



BV

It's the passion in a kiss that gives to it its sweetness; it is the affection in a kiss that sanctifies it.

[gspiggott]

To think the black dress from Gilda is owned by Demi Moore. Kind of says it all.