Here are famous people I admire are, yes, talented – but they are also the ones that I know next to nothing about. All I can really talk about is their work.
Gene Hackman
Dustin Hoffman
Meryl Streep
Gena Rowlands
Jeff Bridges
Lily Taylor
There are a million more examples. These people would never wear out their welcome with me. Basically because I don’t know enough about them – and I also don’t really care to know all their little details. I don’t need to.
Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall were married in a swirl of publicity which would probably even seem daunting to such people as Madonna or Demi Moore. It was a white-hot glare – she was the hottest new thing, he was a huge movie star – To Have and Have Not had just come out – and the two of them lived in the glow of that spotlight.
Bacall was only 20 years old. She kind of got off on it a little bit, reveling in her new-found celebrity, as the following photo will attest:
Bogart was less enthralled. Bogart said to one pushy photographer who kept asking for an invite to the wedding: “Why don’t you just take some pictures of us fucking? That’s what you want, right?”
Later – when the heat died down – Bogart apparently said to Lauren Bacall (she told us this story when she came and did a seminar at my school):
“Listen, baby – these tabloid newspapers – these photographers – the press – these people do not care about us. They could care less what actually happens to us. So you and I have to take very good care of our life. On our own. We can’t expect them to do it for us. We know our values – and we know who we are.”
They didn’t believe their own press. They cultivated their private life. They had outside interests. They went sailing. They stayed at home. They read out loud to each other. They were celebrities, but they weren’t a “celebrity couple”.
Oh yes. This is SUCH an important topic. SO IMPORTANT THAT I HAVE TO DO TWO POSTS ABOUT IT.
I’d add James Caan to your list. Or my list. Whatever. Anyway, I love his work, but next to nothing about the guy.
I don’t care for celebrities in general who are terribly open about their personal lives. It always leaves me with the sense that they’re not really interested in their respective arts, but rather the fame. People who become actors so they can be famous and not because they love movies and acting annoy me.
I’ve always thought another example of a classy exit, though not a film star, was Johnny Carson. Here’s a guy who was in everyone’s bedroom (so to speak) for 30 years, and it’s as if he dropped off the face of the earth, never to be seen again. And when he was one of the best known people in the country, did we ever really know anything about him, except that he liked tennis and had a house by the beach?
Wow. (re: the “these people do not care about us. They could care less what actually happens to us… We know our values – and we know who we are.” comment)
I knew Bogie was cool, but, wow. That’s awesome. I like the man even better now.
These two posts nail why so many modern “celebrities” turn me off – I really don’t want to know all of the details of who they sleep with, their colon health, what they put on their skin before they go to bed, bla bla bla. I’d rather there be some mystery, and that the person be famous for being *good at what they do* rather than being famous for being notorious or tell-all or scandalous.
I read this interview with Peter Krause of 6 Feet Under- and I really like his acting – and I couldn’t even get through it. It was so mushy, so open, so therapeutic … I winced for him.
Ick.
A lot of celebrities retreat eventually … especially the ones who have had their moment in the sun, and realize it for what it is – and realize the truth of what Bogart told Bacall long ago.
Russell Crowe comes to mind. Where the hell is he? He’s a father, he lives on a ranch in New Zealand, he’s probably making movies – but he’s out of the spotlight. I’m glad – I always liked his acting, and didn’t want to get bored with him.
You’re gonna make mistakes when you become really famous. Nobody’s perfect. Even Cary Grant. Cary Grant took LSD for a time in the 1950s, and made the mistake of mentioning it in an interview once – describing what he had gotten out of the experience … (can you imagine Grant taking LSD?) – and he was still answering questions about LSD when he was 80 years old.
It must be very disorienting. To have people always wanting to hear what you have to say, and always looking at you, and always thinking that you are so damn important!!
It takes great strength, I imagine, to not believe the hype. To realize that these interviewers “don’t care what really happens to us…” – and you might as well cultivate your inner life, and keep your eye on the ball.
very admirable – those who can do it.
Well, Carson made major press with his divorces and alimony suits. But he would just tell light jokes about it and move on, refusing to go into any further details.
I don’t know how I feel about this. As a weblogger, I’m very open about me and my life. So to criticize major celebrities for the same thing is just kind of weird. But then, I guess it’s a different thing, being a writer. No one follows you around with cameras or any of that bullshit, so it’s both more intimate and more private.
I’ve always admired Gene Hackman, who doesn’t wear his private life around. Neither do people like Kathleen Turner or Sigourney Weaver, not that I’ve noticed anyway, and I’ve always respected their work.
Folks I admire-
Bonnie Raitt
John Hammond
Keith Richards
Paul Newman
Ted Nugent
Stevie Wonder
Al Kooper
Dean -
I don’t think the stardom you experience as a blogger with a wide audience can hold a candle to what a huge celebrity like Harrison Ford or Julia Roberts or Johnny Carson may experience … The pressure to reveal, the pressure to tell-all … unrelenting.
Also: being a weblogger is different than being a performer. Weblogging, to some degree, depends on people being open about who they are, and willing to share their opinions freely. But being an actor (one that will have a long career, I mean) requires a bit of mystery. Especially if you want to be believable to audiences in a bunch of different kinds of roles.
You know who I also admire? Even though she’s a massive star and we know quite a bit about her? Julia Roberts. She seems to take her career seriously, and acting seriously – but she doesn’t seem to take all the rest of it too seriously.
Angelina Jolie, too. I like her attitude towards being a star.
Dave -
I admire Paul Newman too! I especially like the answer he gave once to a reporter who asked: “What’s the secret to your long marriage with Joanne Woodward?”
Newman answered, “Laughter and lust.”
Yum!
A heartfelt second on Bonnie Raitt and Keith Richards.
Off the top of my head, I would add:
Paul Westerberg
Bruce Springsteen
Kim Shattuck
John Fogerty
Paul Westerberg – yeah!!
I saw him open for Elvis Costello years ago … it was a fantastic show
I got to see The Replacements play live one time. It wasn’t a very good venue, the crowd wasn’t very large or enthusiastic, and the band did not seem at all happy to be there. But irrespective of all that, it was an experience I’ll treasure forever.
Have you heard his latest record, Come Feel Me Tremble? I think it’s fantastic, just filled with great songs. He also put out a DVD by the same title that has a lot of backstage and performance footage. The guy is just a bona-fide musical genius…
He is a genius. No, I don’t have his latest – but my brother (who is the reason I even know who the Replacements are!!) raves about it.