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Post by TerryMontana on Sept 2, 2019 5:25:37 GMT
I'm sure we'll be able to get some good comparisons with some royalty ones but in the meantime and to add some females to this thread there is Jackie Kennedy portrayed most famously in an Oscar nodded turn by Natalie PortmanEven though there's nothing to rival that she has been essayed a lot in performances that kind of got ripped - Katie Holmes, Jeanne Tripplehorn briefly in Grey Gardens. Her closest rival - Blair Brown doesn't look like Kennedy at all yet was surprisingly good in a TV version from the 80s. Natalie Portman as the first lady: There is also Minka Kelly in the Butler but iirc just for one scene, so...
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Post by pacinoyes on Sept 2, 2019 10:22:10 GMT
Michelle Williams. Theresa Russell. Mira Sorvino. - These 3 actresses represent 3 sides of an acting spectrum - the first is a great talent - best American under 40 (?), I think so - who takes lots of risks and as of now has 0 big awards for it (lots of nominations in everything though).......the second took lots of risks but has less discernible talent or craft........and the third was likable with little risk or talent revealing themselves but she won an Oscar. The reason I mention them is all 3 played Marilyn Monroe - to varying degrees of success - or arguably no success at all in a certain way. None really look like or convey her sex appeal though Williams is pretty great at "evoking" her - as the character of Marilyn it works - she was Oscar nodded, deservedly so .....and yet she's still not Marilyn really. Theresa Russell in Insignificance has some moments - and gets closer to the sex appeal at least but that might be hers rather than Marilyn's and Sorvino gets even less out of it in all ways imo in Norma Jean & Marilyn an HBO film where the role is wrongly split with Ashley Judd (as "Norma Jean").
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Post by TerryMontana on Sept 2, 2019 11:26:36 GMT
Williams was the best by far imo.
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Post by pacinoyes on Sept 3, 2019 10:47:29 GMT
Jesse James - has been portrayed by many actors and maybe has never been portrayed accurately - Robert Duvall, Tyrone Power, Colin Farrell, Sam Shepard, Brad Pitt have all played him and grappled with the myth and the fact. Pitt maybe is closest to one aspect and Duvall closest to behavioral aspects. A landmark figure that maybe has never been portrayed right but has been memorably.
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Post by Longtallsally on Sept 3, 2019 20:48:31 GMT
Margaret ThatcherMeryl Streep in The Iron LadyAndrea Riseborough in The Long Walk to Finchley
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Post by pacinoyes on Sept 3, 2019 22:28:49 GMT
3 Best Actor winners that all played Meyer Lansky - Ben Kingsley (Bugsy), Richard Dreyfus (Lansky) and Dustin Hoffman (The Lost City). Kingsley definitely wins this one although the Dreyfus one has a couple great scenes (a Mamet script) and the Hoffman performance fails to make much of a mark. So the British guy with slight Jewish background portrayed the most famous Jewish mafioso the best of all. He would do that a lot in his career too - Schindler's List and playing Simon Wiesenthal for HBO among other work.
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Post by TerryMontana on Sept 4, 2019 5:23:05 GMT
Anatol Yusef in Boardwalk Empire was also a great portrayal!
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Post by Longtallsally on Sept 5, 2019 14:32:53 GMT
Golda MeirLynn Cohen in Munich (2005)Ingrid Bergman in A Woman Called Golda (1982)
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Post by Longtallsally on Sept 5, 2019 14:45:01 GMT
Frida KahloSalma Hayek in Frida (2002)Claudia Ferri in Viva la Frida!
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Post by TerryMontana on Sept 5, 2019 15:37:18 GMT
Although I liked Hayek in Frida, I never thought she really looked like her...
Ferri looks much more like her (haven't seen the movie).
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Post by pacinoyes on Sept 10, 2019 13:52:55 GMT
We've discussed Hoffa already but not in detail and it's VERY fun to look at for real life people. Nicholson to me looked and sounded more like Hoffa but the performance was shaky (better, in earlier scenes), Robert Blake looked and sounded less like him but was definitive. But both stories we're very different - Nicholson's mostly cut out Bobby Kennedy (Kevin Anderson, who is good).......Blake's movie was structured completely around Kennedy (and let down by an inferior Cotter Smith imo). A picture of each below, and to be honest Barry Pepper (in an Emmy winning turn) and Martin Sheen probably played Bobby Kennedy the best so far.
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Post by stephen on Sept 10, 2019 19:21:20 GMT
Abraham Lincoln.
Until Tricky Dick, no American leader has engendered more cinematic exploration than our sixteenth President. Honest Abe has been portrayed in films going all the way back to the silent days, and some of our finest actors have tackled the Railsplitter with career-defining turns.
The first notable leading performance of Lincoln came from none other than Walter Huston in 1930's Abraham Lincoln, directed by D.W. Griffith (who had previously portrayed Lincoln in Birth of a Nation). I think Huston is very good in the role, but the film itself really is dated even by Griffith's standards. Still worth a watch for Huston, but he's really undercut by his film.
Henry Fonda, perennial cinematic good guy, took on the role in 1939's Young Mr. Lincoln. I'm actually not all that big on this movie, but I rate it as one of Fonda's finer turns.
The following year, Raymond Massey took on the role in Abe Lincoln in Illinois, and I consider this to be the definitive cinematic Lincoln until 2012. Massey would play the role again in cameo form in How the West Was Won.
Throughout the years, other accomplished actors took on the part: Hal Holbrook, Sam Waterston, Lance Henriksen, Gregory Peck. They all brought gravitas and weight to the role, and all were well-served by it.
And there's the obvious elephant in the room: Daniel Day-Lewis, who eschewed the typical thunderous voice and larger-than-life voluminosity of earlier Lincolns to portray the man in a much more relatable, approachable vein: as the reedy-voiced backwoods lawyer devastated by loss and melancholy, who is barely holding himself together for the good of the nation that desperately needs him.
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Post by pacinoyes on Oct 11, 2019 10:09:38 GMT
Nicole Kidman (Bombshell) and Naomi Watts (TV's The Loudest Voice) - great real life friends and subjects of great debate on this board anyway both starred as Gretchen Carlson - the Kidman portrayal is forthcoming soon. I'll see if I can find another real life person linked by real life actors so close/associated.....
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Post by hugobolso on Oct 11, 2019 15:29:44 GMT
Jean Harlow was played twoice in w biopic in 1965 Yves Saint Laurent had 2 biopics in 2014. Pierre Ninney (Yves Saint Laurent) took the Cesar as best actor over the favourite Gaspard Ulliel (YSL) for the same role. 2 years later Linney was the favourite for Frantz (directed by Ozon) but was defeated by Ulliel Just la find du munde (directed by Xavier Nolan). Linney was so favourite, that Ulliel wasn't present at the Ceremony.- Probably the less thinked rivality between actors.- Linney the young moliere thatre actor vs Ulliel the former teenage idol from films. The final battle hasn't ended.-
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Post by pacinoyes on Jan 10, 2020 17:55:39 GMT
A really fun article comparing Nicholson's Hoffa and Pacino's - the only character, along with Vito Corleone that 2 of the GOATs share. The two actors diverge markedly in their portrayals. Nicholson immersed himself in the character, taking pains to physically transform himself into the union chief, via nose putty, eyebrow lifts and other makeup tricks........Though he’s played several real historical figures in recent years (Roy Cohn, Jack Kevorkian, Phil Spector, Joe Paterno), Pacino's steered clear of outright impersonation. “You have to find the fictionalization of it in some way,” he explained to The New York Times. “You have to find the drama and the character. Because otherwise, do a documentary on someone.” www.nytimes.com/2020/01/10/movies/hoffa-pacino-nicholson.html
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Post by Mattsby on Jul 18, 2020 18:19:48 GMT
An interesting batch of actors have played LBJ - Rip Torn, Tom Wilkinson, Liev Schrieber, Woody Harrelson, Randy Quaid (Emmy nom, GG win), Michael Gambon (Emmy nom, his sole GG nom), Bryan Cranston (Tony winning part, Emmy/GG nom). Some are just smaller parts but pretty good like John Carroll Lynch in Jackie. Anyone have a particular favorite or is it clearly Cranston? I haven't seen most of these but I liked Sir Gambon in Path of War.
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Post by stephen on Jul 18, 2020 18:44:23 GMT
An interesting batch of actors have played LBJ - Rip Torn, Tom Wilkinson, Liev Schrieber, Woody Harrelson, Randy Quaid (Emmy nom, GG win), Michael Gambon (Emmy nom, his sole GG nom), Bryan Cranston (Tony winning part, Emmy/GG nom). Some are just smaller parts but pretty good like John Carroll Lynch in Jackie. Anyone have a particular favorite or is it clearly Cranston? I haven't seen most of these but I liked Sir Gambon in Path of War. Yeah, Cranston is pretty much my choice of the definitive cinematic LBJ. He's the only one who I felt covered all the bases with Johnson.
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Post by pacinoyes on Sept 19, 2021 19:08:49 GMT
Playing Jerry Falwell - Richard Paul - The People Vs. Larry Flynt / Vincent D'Onofrio - The Eyes of Tammy Faye I mentioned in my review that Vincent D'Onofrio an actor - I love a lot - was disappointing and miscast - just physically first of all - as Falwell ........ Richard Paul a TV actor mostly not only is physically right - he captured Falwell's smug condescension too ........clearly he was better for me.
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