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Post by Prime etc. on Jul 11, 2021 1:44:47 GMT
I wanted to make a thread about actors who either refused or just never did more common genre work like fantasy or sci-fi.
I don't want to include Bogey in this since he did make one horror film and even James Cagney did a Shakespeare fantasy film--but it seems to me there are some performers who avoided fantasy like the plague.
Did Katherine Hepburn do any?
Some actors I can't think of in any films until the 70s--i..e Trevor Howard--he did CRAZE, a very sleazy low-budget horror film-and then he did SUPERMAN.
Burt Lancaster-did he do any fantasy or sci-fi before THE ISLAND OF DR MOREAU?
Gregory Peck did MOBY DICK-which I guess counts --sort of--but then it wasn't until the 70s that I was aware he did sci-fi or horror---THE OMEN and THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL. I don't know about Richard Burton prior to THE MEDUSA TOUCH and EXORCIST 2.
William Holden--before THE OMEN 2 did he do anything like that?
I suppose we can make exceptions if they were starting out--and then avoided it for decades until the pay check demanded they take them.
Alec Guinness--did he do any fantasy or horror films before STAR WARS?
It was remarked that Charlton Heston did a number of sci-fi films starting in the late 60s---he had 2 Planet of the Apes and the Omega Man and Soylent Green and later THE AWAKENING and IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS among others.
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Post by petrolino on Jul 11, 2021 3:01:04 GMT
Well, the culture perpetuates it and always has. Do Shakespeare or die from a thousand acid-laced cuts. Razzies there you come./
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Post by phantomparticle on Jul 11, 2021 3:24:05 GMT
Walter Pidgeon comes to mind as one of the first major Hollywood stars to crack the science fiction/horror ceiling when MGM snared him for Forbidden Planet.
Joseph Cotton and George Sanders got mired in the terrible From the Earth to the Moon two years later (and both looked thoroughly ashamed of the whole thing). Sanders redeemed himself in Village of the Damned.
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Post by lune7000 on Jul 11, 2021 6:34:34 GMT
It should be noted that sci-fi, fantasy and horror were generally seen as cheap exploitive material during the 30's through the early 60's. Budgets were low and the target audience was mainly kids and teens who were seen as having little taste. Universal and independent studios were the producers of many of these movies and FX were more critical than star power to bring in an audience. Because money was spent of FX, or because budgets were so low, most big name stars were simply too expensive to contract. In short, the genres you are referring to were low status vehicles of Hollywood (except King Kong of course). It could hurt an actor's reputation to appear in one of these movies unless you were already associated with the genre like Vincent Price or Boris Karloff.
Psycho, The Birds, Rosemary's Baby, Planet of the Apes, etc. got the ball rolling in the 60's for more respect and 2001/Jaws/Star Wars in the 70's changed the ballgame to make sci fi/fantasy/horror the big ticket item.
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Post by timshelboy on Jul 11, 2021 7:42:00 GMT
Agree the public acceptability of horror/scifi/fantasy genres appears to have changed. superhero franchises are now what actors (well agents anyway) aspire to.. back in the day they were cheap serials to keep Buster Crabbe employed. Difficult to believe now but I don't think THE INNOCENTS was that much liked by critics in 1961 and Deborah Kerr criticised for "demeaning" herself by appearing in a "horror" film!  Today I suspect many buffs would regard the movie as a genre (ghost story... not really "horror" although there are terrifying scenes) peak and Kerr's performance one of her best. Nowadays our most respected actresses - say Julianne - can go from THE HUNGER GAMES to Altman and from Liam Neeson geriactioners to Todd Haynes arthouse and from JURASSIC PARK to Cronenberg- with aplomb. Myrna Loy (who'd played FU MANCHU's daughter in 1932 on the way up) refused to play "those crazy old bags" she was offered on the way down 30/35 years later - as most ageing female stars were offered at the time - following the success of BABY JANE. |
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Post by timshelboy on Jul 11, 2021 8:09:08 GMT
LANCASTER - suspect you could make a case for CASTLE KEEP being "fantasy" GUINESS THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT has sci - fi elements but suspect anyone who has seen it recalls a comedy PECK - MAROONED is sci fi according to imdb although from long ago memory it is a (tedious) naturalistic drama - no GREEN SLIME (a much better movie from same time ) on offer - there was sci but no fi...... As for Hepburn the Bob Hope "comedy" was probably the depths of her slumming it....
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Post by mattgarth on Jul 11, 2021 11:25:06 GMT
Gary Cooper passed on working with Hitchcock in FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT in 1940 -- proclaiming:
"I don't do thrillers."
He admitted later to regretting the decision.
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Post by Doghouse6 on Jul 11, 2021 12:35:07 GMT
Gary Cooper passed on working with Hitchcock in FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT in 1940 -- proclaiming: "I don't do thrillers." He admitted later to regretting the decision. As it turned out, his final film was just such a thriller, The Naked Edge, in which wife Deborah Kerr comes to suspect him of having murdered a business partner, a crime for which another man was convicted on the strength of his court testimony. Although something of a Suspicion retread, it's really quite effective and keeps you guessing all the way. The film he did immediately before, The Wreck Of the Mary Deare, part mystery, part courtroom drama and part adventure/thriller in its own way, was originally supposed to have been directed by Hitchcock himself for a one-picture deal with MGM. He and screenwriter Ernest Lehman couldn't crack it to their satisfaction, and instead cooked up a little substitute called North By Northwest.
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Post by lune7000 on Jul 11, 2021 17:38:05 GMT
FWIW- film itself faced a respectability problem when it first developed. Silent movies were at first targeted to the masses and many of the Nickelodeon subjects were of women undressing. The Great Train Robbery was seen as trash for the masses and "good" people went to the theatre instead of the movies. The middle classes were not successfully recruited until the 1920's and movie theatres were remodeled to resemble respectable stage theaters.
The 1950's Drive-In where many sci-fi/horror films were shown was viewed as a primitive teen hang out for necking while the screens showed "screamers". No wonder many actors steered clear. But this still goes on today- would Tom Cruise ever star in a straight up porno film? Probably not.
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Post by lune7000 on Jul 11, 2021 17:44:42 GMT
I don't think THE INNOCENTS was that much liked by critics in 1961 and Deborah Kerr criticised for "demeaning" herself by appearing in a "horror" film! Today I suspect many buffs would regard the movie as a genre (ghost story... not really "horror" although there are terrifying scenes) peak and Kerr's performance one of her best. There aren't many "respectable" roles for older women in film other than mother or grandmother. Bette Davis once said that if a person isn't acting they are not an actor- so she took a lot of roles as a psycho, victim, or villain because that is what is mostly available to older women. This is also true of older men but to a much lesser degree.
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Post by timshelboy on Jul 11, 2021 18:30:16 GMT
I don't think THE INNOCENTS was that much liked by critics in 1961 and Deborah Kerr criticised for "demeaning" herself by appearing in a "horror" film! Today I suspect many buffs would regard the movie as a genre (ghost story... not really "horror" although there are terrifying scenes) peak and Kerr's performance one of her best. There aren't many "respectable" roles for older women in film other than mother or grandmother. Bette Davis once said that if a person isn't acting they are not an actor- so she took a lot of roles as a psycho, victim, or villain because that is what is mostly available to older women. This is also true of older men but to a much lesser degree. Bette may not have been a genre snob but she was a billing snob - she refused roles because they were not star parts or give her star billing. Kerr was just 40 when she made THE INNOENTS and still had almost another decade or so of screen stardom for us, although IGUANA and the neglected THE ARRANGEMENT aside, not too many good movies.
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Post by Prime etc. on Jul 11, 2021 18:53:27 GMT
Yeah I left out Bette Davis because she did do fantasy etc into the 1960s and the 70s. The opposite is the genre-fan actor. They aren't big names but Russell Johnson and Richard Anderson said they loved doing genre work. Science fiction etc. Sarah Douglas was another who was asked if she regretted doing "non-serious" films and she said she liked doing movies where an invisible dinosaur is off screen etc. And there was an interesting remark by John Sayles when he was doing a commentary on a John Saxon movie--he mentioned how difficult it is for a performer to speak to someone who is not there--and show emotion and reaction--never mind a monster--but just acting to a blank screen. And even some you might not expect like Hal Holbrook loved talking about the Fog, Creepshow etc and the other genre films he did. I wouldn't consider Laurence Olivier a genre snob--he did Shakespeare etc--also I heard that when he met Fay Wray he wanted to know all about how they made Kong. I don't think there can be many genre snobs who did Shakespeare regularly. Then again, Richard Todd hated ASYLUM and Douglas Wilmer dismissed all his genre films from what I have heard. It's just that there are some performers who seem to never have done something that wasn't serious or a straight comedy. I think Bogart did the best he could in the Return of Dr. X--I didn't get the impression he felt he was slumming. He wasn't Karloff or Lugosi but he did make it interesting--he knew what he needed to do with the part. Actually, from what I read, Charlton Heston was not a genre snob--he and Orson Welles discussed adapting the book I AM LEGEND when making TOUCH OF EVIL. Obviously Orson Welles was never a genre snob ever--he did War of the Worlds and Dracula etc. And Gregory Peck also did radio SUSPENSE programs--I don't think he was a snob--MOBY DICK is kind of fantasy--St. Elmo's Fire. I think it's interesting that once you get to the 70s--then most of them did some kind of fantasy or genre film. Not Hepburn? Audrey Hepburn did. Dirk Bogarde?
Oh and I heard James Mason loved making Salem's Lot. Even his wife wanted to be in it.
Another one that surprised me was George Peppard. I assumed he regarded Battle Beyond the Stars as slumming but the producer said he loved making it and even helped with the set construction (because his father was a contractor).
Kirk Douglas did Odysseus in the 50s (after 20 000 Leagues) so it wasn't such a big deal that he went into THE FURY and SATURN 3 and THE FINAL COUNTDOWN.
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Post by phantomparticle on Jul 11, 2021 21:29:58 GMT
There is s story that Bogart cornered director Vincent Sherman one day and complained: What do I have to do to get off this stinking picture?"
I don't know if it was genre snobbery or he knew he was in a turkey.
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Post by jervistetch on Jul 11, 2021 22:26:15 GMT
I don’t think Robert Mitchum ever did one although some people may consider Preacher Harry Powell and Max Cady to be monsters.
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Post by Prime etc. on Jul 11, 2021 23:23:50 GMT
Clint Eastwood never revisited his Creature From the Black Lagoon or Tarantula type of roles.
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Post by Dramatic Look Gopher on Jul 12, 2021 3:20:50 GMT
Clint Eastwood never revisited his Creature From the Black Lagoon or Tarantula type of roles. Yeah the closest thing to horror Clint did after those movies was Play Misty For Me.
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Post by Prime etc. on Jul 25, 2021 3:15:03 GMT
I assume Leigh Taylor-Young (or her agent) was a genre snob at first because the only "sci-fi" movie she made was Soylent Green and some obscurity from 1989 that isn't really sci-fi either. She had a string of drama and comedy duds up until Soylent Green and then came back in 1976 to do a McCloud! And more recently appeared in the soap opera Passions which had a witch in it.
She's listed as appearing as a Cenobite in Hellraiser: Inferno but I will assume that's someone else with a similar name and also a cameo in a voodoo movie. Strange career trajectory.
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Today I suspect many buffs would regard the movie as a genre (ghost story... not really "horror" although there are terrifying scenes) peak and Kerr's performance one of her best. Nowadays our most respected actresses - say Julianne - can go from THE HUNGER GAMES to Altman and from Liam Neeson geriactioners to Todd Haynes arthouse and from JURASSIC PARK to Cronenberg- with aplomb.
