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Post by pacinoyes on May 26, 2019 14:45:41 GMT
While he isn't even in my Top 30 and his film resume isn't that impressive, I still want to throw a name out there for discussion, Bryan Cranston. He's a great name and has been mentioned but he could also be mentioned in odd ways now too - he's astonishing this year on Broadway in Network - and while I don't think he'll win, if he does, that's a huge deal. He's had some nice strides in films and an Oscar nod, and of course his series work is an all-timer (and other good TV series work too)..........going forward his series work is going to matter more than TV movie work I think as more movie stars leak into both types. He has 2/3rds of the Triple Crown........
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Post by pacinoyes on May 27, 2019 9:49:02 GMT
Yesterday we covered the fascinating, bittersweet friendship of Arthur Miller and Elia Kazan (see above in this thread). Well if you watch the documentary links (long but great) you'll know the two men reconciled and did one more work together - After The Fall, starring a landmark figure and a Tony winner for this piece, creator of a classic female film performance (Wanda), and Kazan's wife, Barbara Loden. Loden died in her late 40s of cancer but there is no telling what she might have done and she's a good example of NON-Triple Crown winner and how their impact can outlast awards. Her Wanda performance is often cited as an all-timer - much less all her other achievements in that film for writing, financing, directing. Her career was one of "what if" - what if she didn't have her part in The Swimmer cut and replaced and what if she had lived? The Tony award gets her into this discussion and her link with Wanda and Miller/Kazan to a broader kind of history too. Tommen_Saperstein , Mattsby , @tyler who iirc from some old threads either enjoyed or had Wanda on their "to see" lists...........Loden with Miller and Kazan and GOAT acting contender in this thread and co-star Jason Robards backstage at After The Fall:
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on May 27, 2019 17:38:15 GMT
pacinoyes that's a sweet picture. I haven't seen Wanda yet so I only know Loden from Splendor in the Grass. She's lovely in that movie and I don't know why her performance was so underrated at the time (and that goes doubly for Audrey Christie). A shame she didn't do more work in film.
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Post by pacinoyes on May 28, 2019 11:09:22 GMT
Oscar Wilde — 'The critic has to educate the public; the artist has to educate the critic.'
A person and a topic that's fascinating - the critic's "darling". This is of course BS, if the critics like you THAT much you're doing something wrong most likely - if you ever hear anyone say "____________ is the most respected actor/actress by the critical community" that should set your BS detector off right away. Our person today is this in contradictory ways - pro and con - a critics darling and very precisely not simultaneously for the same work ..........2 time Tony winner and Oscar winner for a great stage to screen transfer - and all in the space of a few years! - Sandy DennisDennis was roundly praised and just as often mocked for an almost parodic naturalism, a genuinely idiosyncratic acting style that almost made you think other actresses were either mere "line readers" or that if you were less kind that she wasn't being controlled enough by her directors who let her run amok. Regardless, she was memorable in some things you wouldn't first think of - including some broad comedy and horror and Altman films too. Dennis died in her 50s but she left behind a quirky and odd filmography on stage and screen - not much TV but she was drifting towards guest starring episodic TV at the end with her declining health. She emerged precisely in the transformation of the great modern American actress era - Woodward/Fonda/Wood/Laurie/Remick/Page......and yet she's so unconventional, I can't quite think of an attribute she has that evokes any of them.
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Post by therealcomicman117 on May 28, 2019 14:46:11 GMT
Sandy Dennis is certainly someone interesting to talk about. She came from the stage, she wasn't considered a conventionally attractive female arguably, nor she did try to be one, but yet she became to a force with reckon when it came to big screen. From her debut in her small role in Splendor in The Grass after being discovered by Elia Kazan, to her Oscar winning performance as one of a younger more carefree couple in Who's Afraid to Virginia Woolf, to more mainstream comedic fare like The Out of Towners, she always did stand out for me in very a positive way, especially with her unique style of acting, a lot of which involved "stammering".
Some of my favorites with her that I've seen include Up The Down Staircase, a really powerful teacher drama, where she gives a really touching and moving performance as a woman who struggles in an inner-city with a group of rowdy kids, and God Told Me To, a rather precedent film made by the recently sadly departed Larry Cohen, involving the concept of religion gone wrong, where she plays strong support as the wife of the religious maniac main character.
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Post by Mattsby on May 28, 2019 23:46:29 GMT
I luv Sandy Dennis, might make my Top 25 fav actresses.
Back-to-back Tony wins in '63 & '64, an Oscar two years later - before turning 30! Devoted member of the Actor's Studio....
Her signature lingual ripple, or something like that, incited a lot of mockery for sure - Kael especially has her infamous postnasal drip quote and often used her as a punching bag, though wasn't above praising her at times ("a blissful performance" for Nasty Habits). Her "mannerism" is always brought up, mostly in a negative way, which I think is underbidding her talent - the way she'd push, saddle, or challenge that known quality in her portrayals. I always find her work poetic or interesting, and I dunno another actress capable of being so deeply sensitive.
She can play foggy and nervy in a way that's almost sweet in a gullible way like Woolf, or channel that tone into a more dangerous fugue unfolding like Come Back to the Five & Dime, or take air-brained to unexpectedly SNL-esque hilarity like Nasty Habits where she's the MVP - and that's btwn acting titans Glenda Jackson and Geraldine Page! Where that one is goofy, The Out of Towners a toned down everywoman "commercial" role she's nonetheless hilarious. She can add a lower-gravity sinister quality like That Cold Day in the Park, or repressed and envious like The Fox. Maybe her best, from '69, Thank You All Very Much (also called A Touch of Love) - a patient and well made character study - completely on her shoulders, a beautiful, rounded performance.
Last one - I could talk about them all - Spielberg's TV Movie, Something Evil. Sort of a rural pre-Poltergeist, it's hemmed in with an eye-roll ending but Sandy is quite good - there's a warmth to her in the early scenes that you don't see much of in her other movies, and the way she patterns the emotional slipping, the isolation taking her out of comfort, is effective. ABC sprinted to air (shot and released in under 3 months) ; someone remastered and added like 15m to Duel after its initial airing -- why not for this?
Last personal detail I find fascinating - when she lived with Eric Roberts (!) for four or five years btwn 1980-85 (20 year age difference). She wanted to meet him after seeing his (underrated!) perf in the 1980 TV Movie Paul's Case. Eric Roberts btw would be a curious discussion of where/how did it go wrong.....
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Post by pacinoyes on May 29, 2019 11:43:32 GMT
I will definitely take Mattsby 's suggestion for today and take a look at the haywire career of Eric Roberts - a guy subject to a total BS revisionist history now when we look back at actors of the 80s and also referring to Paul's Case - that is a also subject to revisionism. Paul's Case the film is a sensitive version of the story - with a game and risky and partially successful Roberts - is about a gay man never explicitly identified iirc as gay in either the story or film. The story itself is fascinating especially the written story, it's fascinating that it was done on TV that early too, more people should know about the written piece, and since they don't know it, they miss it when they'd find much to connect within it. Roberts was a guy - like Matthew Modine but with maybe even better work in the 80s - and unlike Mickey Rourke (imo) he actually did the work that Rourke (mostly) feigned at doing then .............and that Penn actually did and defined and codified better than Roberts and Rourke and Modine imo. Still he's memorably fine in King Of The Gypsies (his debut!), excellent in Raggedy Man, great in Star 80 (where he is nodworthy, at times almost Travis Bickle level AND pre-dates Penn's great Assassination of Richard Nixon work which cops some of it in the delusional aspects), funny and stretching in The Coca Cola Man Kid (edit!), and quite searing in Runaway Train (nodded and deserved it)............ and the Broadway replacement (and lauded) for a guy covered here already - John Malkovich - in Burn This. That's not to mention the co-starring role in the botched Pope Of Greenwich Village opposite Rourke which has some fans as well. A few years after that run he was seen as a limited guy who's acting revealed those limitations - watch King of the Gypsies now and you'll say "oh I'm surprised" - but in its time you looked at it without the tint of knowing him as we do now - as a sort of slumming TV guy/Julia's estranged brother. By no means was he "kicked out of the industry" or anything like that, but he rather sort of did it to himself by acting like a nobody rather than a guy who worked with Fosse and had an Oscar nod. Stop his career a bit after Runaway Train and the world looked like blue skies ahead..........after that.......not so much. Still I always look back fondly at that early stuff of his, wish he did more stage and if he was more major in one or the other it would have helped his TV work too.
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Post by Deleted on May 29, 2019 16:25:06 GMT
I will definitely take Mattsby 's suggestion for today and take a look at the haywire career of Eric Roberts - a guy subject to a total BS revisionist history now when we look back at actors of the 80s and also referring to Paul's Case - that is a also subject to revisionism. Paul's Case the film is a sensitive version of the story - with a game and risky and partially successful Roberts - is about a gay man never explicitly identified iirc as gay in either the story or film. The story itself is fascinating especially the written story, it's fascinating that it was done on TV that early too, more people should know about the written piece, and since they don't know it, they miss it when they'd find much to connect within it. Roberts was a guy - like Matthew Modine but with maybe even better work in the 80s - and unlike Mickey Rourke (imo) he actually did the work that Rourke (mostly) feigned at doing then .............and that Penn actually did and defined and codified better than Roberts and Rourke and Modine imo. Still he's memorably fine in King Of The Gypsies (his debut!), excellent in Raggedy Man, great in Star 80 (where he is nodworthy, at times almost Travis Bickle level AND pre-dates Penn's great Assassination of Richard Nixon work which cops some of it in the delusional aspects), funny and stretching in The Coca Cola Man, and quite searing in Runaway Train (nodded and deserved it)............ and the Broadway replacement (and lauded) for a guy covered here already - John Malkovich - in Burn This. That's not to mention the co-starring role in the botched Pope Of Greenwich Village opposite Rourke which has some fans as well. A few years after that run he was seen as a limited guy who's acting revealed those limitations - watch King of the Gypsies now and you'll say "oh I'm surprised" - but in its time you looked at it without the tint of knowing him as we do now - as a sort of slumming TV guy/Julia's estranged brother. By no means was he "kicked out of the industry" or anything like that, but he rather sort of did it to himself by acting like a nobody rather than a guy who worked with Fosse and had an Oscar nod. Stop his career a bit after Runaway Train and the world looked like blue skies ahead..........after that.......not so much. Still I always look back fondly at that early stuff of his, wish he did more stage and if he was more major in one or the other it would have helped his TV work too. I saw Star 80 over the weekend - I was really impressed with him in that. He's definitely a case of an actor's messy personal life overshadowing their talent.
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Post by Mattsby on May 30, 2019 1:29:12 GMT
I love his 1980-85 period - I'd go so far as to say in that space, on screen, he was one of the most interesting American actors. Paul's Case - a heartbreaking, internal performance, kinda poetic (there's that word again). I mean the whole second half is him overjoyed yet sort of losing his mind at the same time, like the scene where he's luxuriously dining alone and it crushes him, that's tricky what he has to do. The movie itself which may still be on Prime for anyone interested - it starts off a little rough, but it gets better, its aesthetic is impressive at times with the soft visuals, costumes, etc... and the bleak ending is a gut-punch. Raggedy Man - I've said before it's a rare case where I wish the movie just remained a nice love story - he has great, warm chemistry with Spacek and his perf suggests he could've had a different "traditional" career as a charming romantic leading man. Star 80, his best - cocky, complex, pathetic, insane, and the way he buzzes (a good word to describe a lot of his work) it's so impressive and sly how he carries the ambitious halfway charm of his character and barbecues it into something more aloof, inward, and very dangerous. Pope of Greenwich Village - well, I haven't read the book and it's been a while, but I do like his tantrum of a perf - "a walking spaz attack" by Roberts' own assertion. Coca-Cola Kid he’s the best thing about it, sort of a pre-McConaughey perf meaning he sounds and acts similarly to him I thought. Runaway Train he’s great.... Theater that decade - 1980 costarred for four months off-Broadway in Mass Appeal, June ’81 was in a car accident (coma for a few days) right before Broadway previews, during which he bowed out - at the time said to be bc he 'wasn’t healed yet' but Roberts later said he clashed with the director and that the publicist spin actually hurt his career when the offers abruptly stopped coming in. 1983 he spends the summer in Connecticut performing Glass Menagerie (!) - the NYT gave it a mixed-positive review. 1988 a favorable turn in Burn This on Broadway and he got a Theatre World Award. After that, no more theater? Now…. What would his career look like if he wasn’t disrupting it, even while peaking, early on… Though, his career was mismanaged by his agents too, and the people close to him didn’t/wouldn’t help. King of the Gypsies - a highly hyped movie at the time, he was all over the posters with that tagline “It’s ALMOST his time.” I don’t like the movie but his debut perf is solid for sure and he wears a killer coat-scarf combo right before the climactic scene, just sayin..…. anyway at that time his agents turn down a lucrative three-picture deal with Paramount - did they look at what Paramount did for Travolta with Saturday Night Fever/Grease and say “Nah?” - dummies! I can see Roberts in some Travolta roles btw. So then… against his agents wishes, Roberts does Paul’s Case and off-Broadway. For what it’s worth, pretty badass. The later head-scratching mockery of surplus zero-potential projects, who knows.... Roberts said he met Woody Allen for a role but showed up to the meeting on drugs so he was “dismissed” - also said he’s read for QT 4-5 times. Another question - is it too late for him? Even working with Nolan and especially the PTA which is the only impressive work from him in forever - I freakin love his one scene… “Go away little hippy.” Yet his career choices didn't change… Where’s the want for a little comeback? He should not be on Celebrity Island with Bear Grylls crying and embarrassing himself! But wait........ does that count for TV??
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Post by therealcomicman117 on May 30, 2019 3:10:48 GMT
Eric Roberts is an interesting case for me. I grew up long after his "hay-day", when he was more of a B movie actor, who had eventually became a bit of a parody of himself.
Early on he was a great example of an actor who had a lot of promise, and could have even had a career as good as his sister Julia. King of The Gypsy is really good, The Coca-Cola Kid is actually a lot better then I expected, he's great in Runaway Train alongside Voight, people like to make fun of his overreacting in The Pope of Greenwich Village, but I actually think he's solid in it alongside Rourke. Heck I'm a fan of The Best of The Best. He's also an excellent monster in Star 80, and then somewhere along the way it all went downhill for him. I'm not sure if it was a bunch of bad career choices, drugs, or just a case of what I believe to be "I gotta pay the bill" mentality. It didn't seem so bad in the 90s when he was doing a lot of B movies and supporting roles in more mainstream films (It's My Party is an underrated film where he's actually quite compelling as a man on his last ropes), but then the 2000s pop up, and aside from small supporting roles now and again, in films like The Dark Knight, suddenly Eric Roberts is trying to out John Carradine for the most credits on IMDb that isn't a porn star, or something. Twenty movies a year, maybe one of them that I've actually seen or even heard of, and the rest scream "will work for pennies!" Heck he recorded his dialogue for A Talking Cat on a plane. I honestly don't know if the man even sleeps. It's insane!
Anytime I glance over Eric Roberts's filmography, it's a treasure trove of hilarious thirty-plus "in development", wait these can't be real titles? Roberts made a lot of good flicks early on in his career, but like a lot of actors of his generation, as the decade went on it became less about quality, and more about just whatever he could do for work. I'm sure he just appreciates the work and pay, but out of all of the actors I've ever encountered, he might be among the most fascinating for me. I actually think he can still give a solid performance, when he isn't phoning it, but that's maybe 1 / 20+ films he does a year, if that, and it's usually in something that actually gets a wider theatrical release.
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Post by Mattsby on May 31, 2019 4:18:50 GMT
Inspired by some previous mentions as well as my recent watch of Die! Die! My Darling! Tennessee Williams said: "I have always been more or less guarded or diffident in my relations with actresses: that is, with the exceptions of Laurette Taylor, who wouldn't tolerate diffidence in a playwright, and the great and dazzling and sometimes wrathful Tallulah Bankhead, whom I think it is appropriate to mention in the same breath with Laurette." Tallulah is/was a cult icon of sorts, having lived her life so boldly, brashly, outrageously. She was always reliable for a back-pocket barb or a hilarious one liner - like "I'm as pure as the driven slush." She'd play to the gallery... and her bacchanal, bawdy antics are peerless. But her "style" was also dangerous and career-wrecking... Her stage career was up and down but mainly highly regarded, influential, diverse - across NY, London, wherever else. The Little Foxes in '39 seemed to be universally acclaimed. Critics awards across plays, and later in '61 she was Tony nominated. I'm particularly interested by Skin of Our Teeth from '42 which Thornton Wilder won a Pulitzer for - costarred Tallulah, Fredric March, n Monty Clift, directed by Elia Kazan. She was also dir'd by Lee Strasberg, Tony Richardson, etc. She performed plays by Odets, Cocteau, Noel Coward, Shakespeare, and Tennessee Williams........who it's said wrote the role of Blanche DuBois for Tallulah which she turned down. She eventually played the part in a '56 revival - initially blundersome, Tennessee recounted in the NYT that after having a serious talk together, she delivered a beautiful and wrenching perf. And that is sort of a microcosm of her tragic potential... Her movie career started off lucklessly, with Paramount failing to find her a breakthru project. No movies after '32 - though she was in consideration for Gone with the Wind - until '44 with Lifeboat, her clearest best onscreen work. I really love her first moment - casually taking a picture of the guy nearly drowning before helping him. A lot of roles she originated went straight to Bette Davis, or else she simply couldn't get jobs over the likes of Bette, Vivien Leigh, Joan Crawford, Marlene Dietrich, etc. Maybe could've went the way of Agnes Moorehead in strong supporting parts... Die! Die! My Darling! is an okay Hammer, reminded me of The Collector and Spider Baby but not as good. Tallulah - without having acted in a movie for 20 years - pretty seamlessly embodies her ironically pious obsessive-creep. Despite being known for her camp quality, she is mostly surprisingly emotional and low-register. That is, mostly. Her last onscreen perf she played a villain on Batman (1967 eps) and gets a few great campy lines like "You may be caped and you may be dynamic......but to me you are a cracking bore!" Anybody see her other, earlier work??
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Post by pacinoyes on May 31, 2019 10:33:13 GMT
I have sort of a strange intersection with her work. I love Lifeboat and a local TV station when I was a little (opinionated) pacinoyes used to show it constantly - that was my first Hitch along with Rope (same channel, same weird let's show Hitchcock's experiments! channel) and I was obsessed with her name - so theatrical! Later I came across her in Die Die My Darling and Batman but even then it was in little odd ways - for example the Misfits song Die Die My Darling I knew well before I knew the film and when I found out it was a movie I was like "What.......?".......then there is a joke from the Simpsons TV show where Mr. Burns says something like "Why, Tallulah Bankhead could do more with one raised eye-brow than the actresses today!" that I always liked and sometimes reference even now ....... So again, she's sort of transcended acting there too and has become her own reference point in a way. I've seen her early 30s work and like Tarnished Lady in particular. I think @waterloobridge might be a fan of that pre-Code stuff in general iirc and may have seen some of her early work as well.
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Post by pacinoyes on Jun 7, 2019 15:13:36 GMT
Today's actor is one who gave a landmark TV performance, has a lead Best Actor win and routinely went from being called "the best working American actor" to being something of a laughingstock (at times). Like George C. Scott covered on the first page, he descended and diminished but Scott still did great work outside of film and is an American GOAT contender........... Rod Steiger, not so much. He scored a coast to coast TV coup in 1953 - maybe the first ever really - in the original Marty. He then priced himself out of the film version giving Ernest Borgnine the Oscar winning role. He then remounted/launched his career - memorable in On the Waterfront and several supporting roles he uncorked a spectacular 64-68 run which included The Pawnbroker, In The Heat Of The Night, Dr. Zhivago, No Way To Treat A Lady and The Sergeant - his work is all over the map in this time - heavy drama, comedy, character roles, showy roles. Rod Steiger hit a brick wall after '68 and not all that work stands up at all looking back (in that way he's like a reverse 60s Brando) but some of it does - some is great even now - and he's an example of a guy who could have branched out into theater and (better) TV when film ran cold for him.
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Post by stephen on Jun 7, 2019 15:28:08 GMT
I wanna give props to an actor who, at his peak, went toe-to-toe with DDL and came out on top. An actor who Day-Lewis worshipped and who Steven Spielberg once called "the greatest actor in the world."
That's right. It's time to talk about the late, great Pete Postlethwaite.
Considered one of the consummate "hey, it's that guy!" actors in his prime, Postlethwaite was one of those classically trained talents who wound up enjoying a deceptively strong film career largely built off of his striking appearance. His stage work was strong, with raves for Shakespeare and Pinter plays alike. But Distant Voices, Still Lives really shot him up in prominence, and afterwards, he was a routinely spotted character actor.
He distinguishes himself among the other bald lumpy Brits in Alien 3, he was my personal MVP of The Usual Suspects (I still fancy the idea that he is actually Keyser Soze, and that Verbal Kint is his cutout--a true double-bluff ruse), he had great scene-stealing supporting bits in Dragonheart and Romeo + Juliet. Brassed Off is a great turn from him, and he is the only redeemable aspect of The Lost World, which by rights should've been two hours of him stalking a T-rex. Then you've got him in In the Name of the Father in a true all-timer of a performance, and in his final year, he gave us a mournfully true-to-life turn in Inception and a vitally vicious performance in The Town (where you can see the ravages cancer had on his body, but it didn't affect his energy).
In terms of his TV work, he was one of the all-time great sleazy baddies in the Sharpe series. Seriously, if you haven't seen him as Obadiah Hakeswill, you are missing a real treat. Guy absolutely relished that role and makes you wish he'd lived long enough to be on Game of Thrones (Randyll Tarly?). I also found him great fun against a fellow Peter (Ustinov, who I may discuss here another day, for he certainly deserves it) in "The Walrus and the Carpenter" segment of TV's Alice in Wonderland.
Postlethwaite's distinct appearance guaranteed him oodles of character work, but I think he had a deceptively powerful screen presence that should've afforded him more opportunity as a lead. I think if he had come ten or fifteen years later, he very well could've done so, in much the way Mark Rylance is doing now.
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Post by pacinoyes on Jun 7, 2019 16:17:04 GMT
I quite like Postlethwaite and have seen some of his TV stuff too (The Sins with Frank Finlay, excellent). I have a theory that DDL whether he admits it or not (most of the time, not) and maybe Rylance as well (?) was a big star taken by his predecessors who were not big stars. To me he based his filmography and selectivity on Scofield (it's not an exact match but close enough), and his dedication to Postlethwaite and other more quirky things he has to odd, relatively unknown actors (in the US) like Alec McCowen.
It's hard to explain but I almost liken it to a music group that sort of wants to be the greatest and biggest group in the world but doesn't in their mind necessarily take influence from the Beatles say. DDL is in the line of great British thespians - Olivier, Finney, etc. but I think if you were to tell him he reminds you of Scofield, Postlethwaite and McCowen he'd dig it especially.
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Post by TerryMontana on Jun 7, 2019 17:00:46 GMT
He was great in Rat!!!! Kidding. Maybe his lifetime performance in the Name of the Father, imo.
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Post by therealcomicman117 on Jun 8, 2019 5:50:14 GMT
In regards to Rod Steiger. I always found his career interesting, because he been accused of being a ham, but when he started out he gave some legitimately excellent performances, like In The Heat of The Night, or The Pawnbroker where he plays a convincing holocaust survivor who learns too late, that sometimes you can't "go back".
It seems like his unconventional looks, and the fact that he was not a traditional leading man started to hurt him more, because as his career progressed, the hamminess really started to take shape and was more apparent in things like The Illustrated Man, or The Amityville Horror. By the end of his career he basically had fallen squarely into B movies, and occasional supporting roles in bigger pictures, never really recovered fully, despite a strong start. Although I'm sure he appreciated the work later on, he really didn't go out on the best note possible.
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Post by pacinoyes on Jun 8, 2019 12:03:14 GMT
Yesterday's post was Rod Steiger but today there is a flipside of the coin to him - someone who DIDN'T stay a slave to film, a female from his era too - the great, and she is great, Piper Laurie - who literally at the height of her fame walked away from Hollywood at her peak. Who does that? Henry Fonda for a small break (5 years), Clift for 4 years, but literally walk away - well you are getting into Garbo territory. For 15 years after The Hustler until Carrie - she did no Hollywood films at all. She did theater, won an Emmy, 3 times nominated for an Oscar, did Twin Peaks for the fans of that cult and she was peaking in the Golden age of American actress - the "post-starlet, post-sex symbol" era of Page/Woodward/Remick/Fonda/Wood.......and in The Hustler she gave a performance that is what in her career she must have felt like as a character - "perverted, twisted, crippled". She's a pivotal figure in a way, that role specifically but also much of her work (including memorably playing with gender) is a feminist touchstone that no one ever discusses - almost every single actress after in a way from Gena Rowlands to Nicole Kidman owes something to her unique individualism across the three mediums.
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Post by therealcomicman117 on Jun 9, 2019 17:28:55 GMT
Piper Laurie is an interesting actress to follow in terms of career trajectory, so to say. I haven't seen a lot of her earlier films when she was a semi-contract player, who often played "leading ladies", among actors like Rock Hudson, and Tony Curtis (the one film I did see, it seemed like she was just there be to a "pretty face", so to say), but I did follow some of her later work, if only because those films are better known, and more reliably available.
Aside from some TV work, she basically disappeared from films, after one of her biggest titles, The Hustler (and that was after four years with no film credit too), which also earned her first Oscar nomination. She returned fifteen years later as the horrifying mother of the titular character of Carrie, with another deserving Oscar nomination. Since then I've seen her in strong support in Children of a Lesser God, funny in Other People's Money, in support in Wrestling Ernest Hemingway, and a small role in The Crossing Guard. I also like that she's still acting, most recently she played the grandmother in White Boy Rick.
She's a very good actress, who no doubt preferred the stage as a breeding ground to hone her skills. I can admire that.
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Post by pacinoyes on Jun 10, 2019 10:00:37 GMT
Well with that Tony Awards in the book I want to focus on the two big acting winners Bryan Cranston and Elaine MayCranston is just a fascinating case discussed a lot here - I don't think anyone posted about Network (or saw it?) but it was one of 2 shows I saw this season and he was genuinely stupendous in a very so-so play (reviewed in the theater thread). What's interesting about it is that it's basically a 2nd role he's created on stage. The Tony's might have turned into BS awards (they are now imo) but they do not often reward that. He carried that show on his back much like Garfield last year. A great film role is screaming for him now in his 60s after 2 BA Tony's in 5 years - I know he has an Oscar nod and some fine film work but that now stands out a bit more - if he could get a great film role in his 60s AND with this late career emergence.........well he's in some rare company already. May I didn't see but we could say so much on her work outside of acting and across the mediums - when she appeared on film she was memorable (In The Spirit a personal fave), legendary comic TV appearances with Mike Nichols, an important writer and director too. You lose track of what she's done and for how long. Sometimes that acting award comes and you say "Oh yeah, Elaine May, what a career!"
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Post by stephen on Jun 10, 2019 12:37:38 GMT
Cranston really is making a late-career run that cannot be underestimated. He's shown an uncanny mastery of both comedy and drama in equal measure. He has two iconic TV characters to his credit that are about as wildly divergent as you can get (Hal and Walter White). He's got a second Tony to prove that his first win wasn't just Breaking Bad afterglow. The only thing that really hinders him (as we've discussed elsewhere) is his lack of major film roles. Which I will grant you is a hindrance, because he doesn't have the benefit that guys like DDL, Washington, Pacino et al. had, which was they made it big when they were young and we got to essentially watch them "grow up" over time, whereas we didn't get that with Cranston. In fact, one could make the argument that Cranston is something of a Mark Rylance-type: made it really big in one branch, conquered it a couple of times, and when people finally woke up to his greatness, started moving him to other avenues to capitalize on it.
I think now we're going to have to ask ourselves: who's going to complete their Triple Crown first? Rylance or Cranston?
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Post by mhynson27 on Jun 10, 2019 13:04:01 GMT
Cranston really is making a late-career run that cannot be underestimated. He's shown an uncanny mastery of both comedy and drama in equal measure. He has two iconic TV characters to his credit that are about as wildly divergent as you can get (Hal and Walter White). He's got a second Tony to prove that his first win wasn't just Breaking Bad afterglow. The only thing that really hinders him (as we've discussed elsewhere) is his lack of major film roles. Which I will grant you is a hindrance, because he doesn't have the benefit that guys like DDL, Washington, Pacino et al. had, which was they made it big when they were young and we got to essentially watch them "grow up" over time, whereas we didn't get that with Cranston. In fact, one could make the argument that Cranston is something of a Mark Rylance-type: made it really big in one branch, conquered it a couple of times, and when people finally woke up to his greatness, started moving him to other avenues to capitalize on it. I think now we're going to have to ask ourselves: who's going to complete their Triple Crown first? Rylance or Cranston?I feel like Cranston will because he seems to be working more than Rylance.
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Post by pupdurcs on Jun 10, 2019 19:52:02 GMT
Cranston really is making a late-career run that cannot be underestimated. He's shown an uncanny mastery of both comedy and drama in equal measure. He has two iconic TV characters to his credit that are about as wildly divergent as you can get (Hal and Walter White). He's got a second Tony to prove that his first win wasn't just Breaking Bad afterglow. The only thing that really hinders him (as we've discussed elsewhere) is his lack of major film roles. Which I will grant you is a hindrance, because he doesn't have the benefit that guys like DDL, Washington, Pacino et al. had, which was they made it big when they were young and we got to essentially watch them "grow up" over time, whereas we didn't get that with Cranston. In fact, one could make the argument that Cranston is something of a Mark Rylance-type: made it really big in one branch, conquered it a couple of times, and when people finally woke up to his greatness, started moving him to other avenues to capitalize on it. I think now we're going to have to ask ourselves: who's going to complete their Triple Crown first? Rylance or Cranston? You pretty much covered it regarding Cranston, though the Rylance comparison is a bit generous. I used to think he was a nailed on Oscar winner following Breaking Bad and his first Tony, but the state of his film career has made me reasses that. A second Tony is impressive, but I don't think it really changes that (I don't neccesarily see Oscars in the future of 6 time Tony winner Audra MacDonald or 3 Time Tony winner Nathan Lane either). I think film has cooled on him somewhat, and the urgency to give him an Oscar is gone. I feel like Cranston had a window to be a bigger player in movies, and the industry really wanted him to happen (that gift of a nomination for Trumbo, a film few truly loved, shows that). He's been given film showcases, but things like Last Flag Flying, Wakefield, The Infiltrator and The Upside (aside from reaffirming Kevin Hart films can make money) didnt really help his cause. Other than failed awardsbait, his film choices (Why Him?, Power Rangers etc) aren't helping him either. Rylance was much more picky and leaned into his prestige as arguably the most acclaimed stage and Shakespearian actor working when his film opportunities came, and didn't blow his window like Cranston did . Supporting roles in Spielberg and Nolan movies right out the gate when his shot at movies came, and got the Oscar. Cranston really wanted to be a leading man on film, and that's mostly backfired on him. Rylance could easily have lost his heat in film as well. Cranston is back on TV playing a Judge in a show called Your Honor, so more Emmy glory probably beckons. It'll be tough for Cranston to regain that film heat/goodwill he once had. It may not come round again. He could win an Oscar one day (maybe in a supporting role), but it's no longer the fait accompli
it once seemed to be. I can see him never winning an Oscar at this point. Cranston's acting style is fairly broad (some have unfairly called it hammy) that's suited to stage and larger than life characters like Walter White, but may prevent him from being considered for more nuanced or s subtle film roles (like Rylance's Bridge Of Spies role) If Rylance is actively looking for an Acting Emmy, he is probably far more likely to get it than Cranston is an Oscar, as there are more ways to win an Emmy than an Oscar. Though I'm not certain he actually cares about getting an Emmy or see's it as a goal to chase.
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Post by MsMovieStar on Jun 10, 2019 19:56:33 GMT
Oh honeys, I don't know if she's been mentioned already but I'd like to give a shout out to Julie Harris who won five Tonys and eleven nominations, three Emmys, a Grammy Award, and was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She should have been given an Oscar for The Haunting (1963) which is probably her most famous movie, but it wasn't recognized at the time and gained cult status much later. She also starred in East of Eden, I am Camera as the first prototype of Sally Bowles, pre Liza Minelli's Cabaret; she even played Orphelia to Richard Burton's Hamlet. Most importantly, anyone who has played a character who cuts off her nipples with garden shears, deserves our admiration & respect.
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Post by stephen on Jun 10, 2019 20:05:53 GMT
You pretty much covered it regarding Cranston, though the Rylance comparison is a bit generous. I used to think he was a nailed on Oscar winner following Breaking Bad and his first Tony, but the state of his film career has made me reasses that. A second Tony is impressive, but I don't think it really changes that (I don't neccesarily see Oscars in the future of 6 time Tony winner Audra MacDonald or 3 Time Tony winner Nathan Lane either). I think film has cooled on him somewhat, and the urgency to give him an Oscar is gone. I feel like Cranston had a window to be a bigger player in movies, and the industry really wanted him to happen (that gift of a nomination for Trumbo, a film few truly loved, shows that). He's been given film showcases, but things like Last Flag Flying, Wakefield, The Infiltrator and The Upside (aside from reaffirming Kevin Hart films can make money) didnt really help his cause. Other than failed awardsbait, his film choices (Why Him?, Power Rangers etc) aren't helping him either. Rylance was much more picky and leaned into his prestige as arguably the most acclaimed stage and Shakespearian actor working when his film opportunities came, and didn't blow his window like Cranston did . Supporting roles in Spielberg and Nolan movies right out the gate when his shot at movies came, and got the Oscar. Cranston really wanted to be a leading man on film, and that's mostly backfired on him. Rylance could easily have lost his heat in film as well. Cranston is back on TV playing a Judge in a show called Your Honor, so more Emmy glory probably beckons. It'll be tough for Cranston to regain that film heat/goodwill he once had. It may not come round again. He could win an Oscar one day (maybe in a supporting role), but it's no longer the fait accompli
it once seemed to be. I can see him never winning an Oscar at this point. Cranston's acting style is fairly broad (some have unfairly called it hammy) that's suited to stage and larger than life characters like Walter White, but may prevent him from being considered for more nuanced or s subtle film roles (like Rylance's Bridge Of Spies role) If Rylance is actively looking for an Acting Emmy, he is probably far more likely to get it than Cranston is an Oscar, as there are more ways to win an Emmy than an Oscar. Though I'm not certain he actually cares about getting an Emmy or see's it as a goal to chase. It's true that he doesn't quite have the heat he did post- Breaking Bad, and I still think he was second in 2015 behind DiCaprio (insomuch as anyone was second in a race that was called months ahead of time). And it is indeed notable that his post- Trumbo films haven't had the juice one thinks they would, though I should point out that even though those projects are rather weak, he's still very strong in them (especially Last Flag Flying, which I think is a fine film). I agree that Rylance's selectivity definitely helps, as he's tapping into that Day-Lewis formula of making every film an "event." Of course, it helps if you've got Spielberg wanting to make all his movies with you for the rest of his career. Maybe Spielberg feels he missed his chance with Postlethwaite and doesn't want to repeat that mistake with The Standing Man. I think Rylance probably will win an Emmy first, if only because I think when the third Hilary Mantel book comes out and they adapt it, they're going to want to make up the Wolf Hall snub and reward Rylance then. You make good observations on Cranston's brand of acting, but I wonder if they'll transition Network from the stage to the screen the way they did All the Way. It's a classic film, true, but it also feels like the sort of story they'd want to retell in today's era. Howard Beale feels like a role that could match Vito Corleone's status of getting two wins for the same part, if they can iron out the issues the stage production had. I would love to see Cranston's take on the character properly.
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