Category Archives: Actors

Brooksie Remembers

Posted on September 7, 2010 by sheila

Phyllis Brooks and Cary Grant, 1938 (photo from the personal collection of Phyllis Brooks) Katharine Hepburn recalled: Cary was linked with many women in those days. He knew all the girls and introduced many of them to Howard Hughes, whom … Continue reading →

Posted in Actors | Tagged , | 14 Comments

The Phrase “Wild Horses Couldn’t Drag Me Away” Comes To Mind

Posted on August 23, 2010 by sheila

… when I think of NOT attending the following event. Are you kidding? I am so there. It makes me think of my friend Guy, who passed away far too young on May 12th of this year, after a long … Continue reading →

Posted in Actors, Theatre | Tagged | 7 Comments

Happy Birthday, Maureen O’Hara

Posted on August 17, 2010 by sheila

Maureen O’Hara was one of those “old” movie stars whom I grew up knowing about because of the yearly showing of Miracle on 34th Street on television, as well as my absolute obsession with Parent Trap. I wanted to be … Continue reading →

Posted in Actors, On This Day | Tagged , , , , | 11 Comments

Chronological Jack: The Little Shop of Horrors (1960); Dir. Roger Corman

Posted on August 13, 2010 by sheila

In the same year as The Wild Ride, Nicholson appeared as the masochist in the dentist’s office in Roger Corman’s cult classic Little Shop of Horrors. Filmed in only two days (I look at this thing and think: Two days? … Continue reading →

Posted in Actors, Movies | Tagged | 9 Comments

Chronological Jack: The Wild Ride (1960); Dir. Harvey Berman

Posted on August 11, 2010 by sheila

The Wild Ride brings out the “Get off my lawn, you crazy kids” side of my personality, which mainly comes when I am bored by adolescent angst. Every generation thinks they invented it, and every generation is wrong. The rebellion … Continue reading →

Posted in Actors, Movies | Tagged | 6 Comments

R.I.P., Patricia Neal

Posted on August 9, 2010 by sheila

Actress Patricia Neal has died. Life is unfair. That’s one of the things I got from Patricia Neal’s autobiography,published in 1988. Neal’s life was full of unfair events (as I suppose all of us experience from time to time). But … Continue reading →

Posted in Actors, RIP | Tagged | 18 Comments

Chronological Jack: Cry Baby Killer (1958); Dir. Justus Addis

Posted on August 6, 2010 by sheila

In the late 1950s, producer and director Roger Corman took an acting class. From what I gather, since he was working with actors all the time, he wanted to get a better understanding of their process and how they work. … Continue reading →

Posted in Actors, Movies | Tagged | 11 Comments

Happy Birthday, Robert Mitchum

Posted on August 6, 2010 by sheila

One of the most frightening scenes in cinema. A duet. A standoff. Whistler’s Mother with a shotgun vs. The Man Out There In the Dark. A recognition of the worthiness of the foe. From both sides. Neither one will back … Continue reading →

Posted in Actors, On This Day | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Marilyn Monroe: “I could actually feel my lack of talent, as if it were cheap clothes I was wearing inside. But, my God, how I wanted to learn, to change, to improve!”

Posted on August 5, 2010 by sheila

On August 5, 1962, Marilyn Monroe was found dead in her house, at the age of 36. Objectified while alive, Marilyn Monroe has become the ultimate object in death. The image has become the reality … the multitudinous icons and … Continue reading →

Posted in Actors, On This Day | Tagged | 13 Comments

Chronological Jack: Too Soon to Love (1960); Dir. Richard Rush

Posted on August 4, 2010 by sheila

This is what happens when you let your teenage daughter go to the drive-in movies on a school night. Even if she is a good girl (and boy oh boy is this girl good), she will end up consorting with … Continue reading →

Posted in Actors, Movies | Tagged | 16 Comments

Chronological Jack: The Terror (1963); Dir. Roger Corman

Posted on July 30, 2010 by sheila

One random sunny day along the coast of ….. France, Lieutenant Andre Duvalier (Jack Nicholson), separated from his regiment in Napoleon’s army, encounters a beautiful woman, who leads him on a mysterious chase through a forest, across a field, up … Continue reading →

Posted in Actors, Movies | Tagged , | 40 Comments

The Acting In Inception: Tom Hardy

Posted on July 27, 2010 by sheila

“Whatever character you play, remember they are always doing something. They are not just talking. They are alive; going through a drama in which they will go through some sort of dramatic human experience. Keywords: Alive and Experience. It is … Continue reading →

Posted in Actors | 41 Comments

The Acting In Inception: Ellen Page

Posted on July 27, 2010 by sheila

Ellen Page plays Ariadne in Inception, a young architectural student brought into the project to be an architect of dreams. This is the definition of a thankless role. Her job is to ask questions of Cobb, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, … Continue reading →

Posted in Actors | 40 Comments

The Acting In Inception: Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Posted on July 26, 2010 by sheila

(500) Days of Summer was one of my favorite films last year, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt was one of the reasons why. I wasn’t a 3rd Rock From the Sun fan, so I had no preconceived notions of him going in, … Continue reading →

Posted in Actors | 25 Comments

The Acting In Inception: Leonardo DiCaprio

Posted on July 26, 2010 by sheila

While his performance here could be transferred, almost without an edit, into the recent Shutter Island (it’s unfortunate timing, basically), his work continues to surprise and fascinate me. I’ve been a fan for a long time, but back in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Actors | Tagged | 21 Comments

Mary Astor Mary Astor

Posted on July 26, 2010 by sheila

The Siren has a really interesting interview up with Marylyn Roh about her mother, Mary Astor. And here’s a part 2, of sorts. The anecdotes about John Barrymore (there are several) were very moving to me: his seriousness about acting, … Continue reading →

Posted in Actors | 2 Comments

“People ask me why I became an actor, and the truth is that once you get cut from the baseball team you need another angle to get women to pay attention.”

Posted on July 21, 2010 by sheila

Great interview with Emmy-nominated cousin Mike in the Boston Globe. I particularly like two things: 1. Ryan Murphy, producer and co-creator of Glee, who also wrote a part for Mike in the upcoming Eat, Pray, Love, saying: “I will always … Continue reading →

Posted in Actors | Tagged , | 2 Comments

That Glowing Glass Of Milk

Posted on July 21, 2010 by sheila

Richard Schickel: What is significant about Suspicion is that, for the first time, one really feels the dangerousness of a charm as seductive as [Cary] Grant’s. It was perhaps hinted at in Sylvia Scarlett, but the world of that film … Continue reading →

Posted in Actors, Movies | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Yankee Doodle Boy

Posted on July 17, 2010 by sheila

It’s James Cagney’s birthday today (thanks for the reminder, Kim), which I didn’t realize yesterday when I wrote the post about Cagney’s death scenes, so in honor of his birthday today, here is a clip I love from 1955′s The … Continue reading →

Posted in Actors, On This Day | Tagged | 4 Comments

“The Animal Died In A Slow and Amazed Way.”

Posted on July 16, 2010 by sheila

Peter Bogdanovich, in his essay on James Cagney in Who the Hell’s in It: Conversations with Hollywood’s Legendary Actors, writes: One of the guests asked [Cagney] how he had developed his habit of physically drawn-out death scenes, probably the best … Continue reading →

Posted in Actors | Tagged , , | 3 Comments