|
Post by marshamae on Nov 24, 2017 19:19:17 GMT
I'm looking here for performers for whom you have an unaccountable fondness. No laundry lists please, but give your reasons .
not looking for actors you think are most talented , versatile or gorgeous.
|
|
|
Post by marshamae on Nov 24, 2017 19:25:10 GMT
Maybe if I start with one of mine, you' ll see what I'm shooting for
Maximillian SCHELL- I will always watch anything he's in even if it's only a character bit. I like his looks, though , in true Non Hollywood fashion he allowed his age to take over in a natural way. He's versatile but that's not what draws me to him. It's a certain kind of thoughtfulness and intelligence that is apparent whether he is in front of or behind the camera. He didn't have the biggest career, and he didn't always hit it out of the park. But I always want to see him.
|
|
|
Post by mattgarth on Nov 24, 2017 19:33:38 GMT
Glenn Ford -- an everyman who was usually gentle until pushed too far. Was comfortable in Noirs, Westerns, Service Comedies, Women's Weepies, Heavy Drama (if only he could sing and dance)
|
|
|
Post by marshamae on Nov 24, 2017 21:33:23 GMT
A real every man was Ford, not like Fonda who photographed as beautifully as Marilyn Monroe and who never seemed ordinary. I adore Fonda, and Grapes of Wrath is one of the most beautiful moving films ever made, as beautiful as if DW Griffith shot it. But Glen Ford Really is an ordinary guy.
|
|
|
Post by mikef6 on Nov 24, 2017 22:08:34 GMT
There are any number of classic era supporting players who got typed but made a good living and got a lot of work from it…but, if given half a chance, could prove themselves great actors. Some of those I like to watch carefully for glimmers of that talent in even their most “typed” roles, but he usually gave directors what they wanted from him.
One of those is an actor I have come close to adding to the “schmucks/losers” thread. He is Whit Bissell, an actor who has appeared in every genre of film. But even when playing the occasional lead, he loses. He is the mad scientist in both the Teenage Werewolf and Teenage Frankenstein films (both 1957) but gets ripped up by his creations in both movies.
But check him out as a slimy U.S. Senator (is that redundant?) in “Seven Days In May” (1964) or as one of the townspeople who mistakenly accuse Dana Andrews of murder in “Three Hours To Kill” (1954). He can be very good and very effective.
I know there have been other threads on favorite supporting players, but I hope this meets your criteria as well. Bissell is an actor I always like to see.
|
|
|
Post by Doghouse6 on Nov 24, 2017 23:12:53 GMT
I hope five doesn't constitute a "laundry list."
George Arliss, Ann Harding, Edward Arnold, Anton Walbrook and Oskar Werner are all players who'll attract me to any film just for their presence, radiating a magnetic combination of charm, intelligence, grace and layered complexity that come through in everything from the grandest gesture to the tiniest nuance whether in sympathetic or villainous roles, making each endlessly interesting to watch, and from whose commanding authority it's difficult to divert one's attention no matter what else is taking place onscreen.
|
|
|
Post by marshamae on Nov 24, 2017 23:20:40 GMT
Ann Harding is definitely on my list. It might be because of her beautiful long braids.
But I also love the gentle way she slipped from ingenue lead to motherly figure.
Edward Arnold I love because as a very portly guy he could easily have been typed. But he was edgy, he could do physical comedy, and he was a fabulous villain.
Oskar Werner is on my list because he was in three favorite films where he played very enigmatic characters; Jules Et Jim, Ship of Fools and The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. He was so fascinating that I will watch anything he's in.
|
|
|
Post by politicidal on Nov 24, 2017 23:23:40 GMT
Richard Widmark
Susan Hayward
George Sanders
Yvonne De Carlo
Robert Douglas
|
|
|
Post by marshamae on Nov 24, 2017 23:27:27 GMT
Politicidal, tell us a little about why you like each of these actors.
|
|
|
Post by petrolino on Nov 25, 2017 3:33:28 GMT
Melvyn Douglas - Well, I figure Robert Williams had it, Ben Lyon could turn it on, and Clark Gable definitely had it; that incorrigible, irascible charm that defines a {relatively} crimeless rogue who's in over his head. Sure, he spanked people like Fay Wray and Ellen Drew, yet Douglas could adopt this somewhat effete manner that proved disarming. Well, you did ask for an explanation. Melvyn Douglas with Margaret Sullavan & Joan Crawford :
Lisa Pelikan - Not sure what it is I like so much about her. She was married to Bruce Davison for many years, who's a very fine actor. She has instinct as a performer, and this mix of tomboy frivolity and fierce intelligence I appreciate in performers from Janet Gaynor to Anne Baxter, Jodie Foster to Samantha Mathis. She's friends with theatre star Amy Wright, a very fine actress indeed. Casey Siemaszko - A real natural on screen, Burt Reynolds said he had it all goin' on and Burt's the man. He's fluent in Polish, brother to the amazing Nina Siemaszko, and an eternal servant to the Polish community of Chicago, Illinois. Great man, great character actor.
|
|
|
Post by teleadm on Nov 25, 2017 17:01:15 GMT
Burt Lancaster, That's how a man wears a hat! Stylish and intense
Walter Matthau, if he plays a good guy or bad guy, i like how he spreads cynistic commentaries.
Jack Lemmon, comedy or drama, always great
Bette Davis, especially when she got a little older, and a wicked acid tongue.
Sidney James, no matter what the situation, he always could put in a funny comment, even in dramas.
Ian Carmichael, always enjoyed seeing him, as a young man playing rich nitwits, and later playing Lord Peter Wimsey
Glynis Johns, always liked her in comedies, dramas, adventures movies, she was such a great counterpart to Danny Kaye in The Court Jester, keeping things in balance.
Dean Martin, once he left the duo, he was great in a few dramas, and always relaxed in comedies and musicals.
Stanley Holloway, played more than Doolittle, always looking on the brightside.
James Robertson Justice, the bearded Scotchman, usually playing men of power, always with a little glimmer in his eye no matter how much he shouted in the Doctor film series.
Sure all I've listed above has made a dud or two along the way...
|
|
|
Post by outrider127 on Nov 25, 2017 17:57:30 GMT
Tons--Vin Diesel, Roy Scheider, Lemmon and Matthau, Kirk Douglas, Burt lancaster, errol Flynn, Tyrone Power, Ronald Colman, Greer Garson,Cary Grant, James Stewart, Chris Pratt, Montgomery Clift, Spencer tracy, Charlton heston,Harrison Ford,robert Ryan, Clark Gable,
|
|
|
Post by them1ghtyhumph on Nov 25, 2017 21:20:50 GMT
Alicia Witt Amy Adams Emmy Rossum
|
|
|
Post by Primemovermithrax Pejorative on Nov 25, 2017 21:46:21 GMT
Well just to qualify the list. I have favorite actors like Peter Cushing/Christopher Lee/Vincent Price/Humphrey Bogart/Edward G Robinson. Generally actors who I can watch in anything, as good or bad characters.
Then there are the character actors who I always like in a movie--Roddy McDowall, Freddie Jones, etc..
The ones that may fit the requirements best:
Nick Adams -- how many actors have worked with Boris Karloff and Godzilla?
Bradford Dillman -- dependable 70s actor
Claude Akins -- likewise, whether a cop or a gorilla
Beverly Garland -- energetic, scene stealer--the MAD ROOM comes to mind
Pamela Franklin --one of the most intense child actresses (especially THE THIRD SECRET) who never had much of an adult career
|
|
|
Post by kijii on Nov 25, 2017 22:30:40 GMT
I am starting to re-discover Jean Peters.
As a boy, I never thought much about her except as Peter Marshall's wife in A Man Called Peter (1955).
But, the other night, I saw The Broken Lance (1953) for the first time, and again found her as a natural woman who Robert Wagner's character might fall in love with. ...then--(thinking), I remember seeing her as Rossano Brazzi's girlfriend in Three Coins in the Fountain (1954)..again totally natural, as one of a group of the girls in Rome.
---then--when looking her up on the IMDb, I find her to be in Pickup on South Street (1953).
But wait, she played a Mexican in Viva Zapata!(1952) So, both Elia Kazan and John Steinbeck (who wrote this work for scratch), choose HER as Marlon Brando's main squeeze?
Her voice sort of had a special different quality to it..not totally femenin..but natural. She seems to have been another asset to 20th Century Fox's contract players.... Like Jeanne Crain, she seemed to be more of trooper than a star.
|
|
|
Post by Doghouse6 on Nov 26, 2017 3:17:24 GMT
Another I'm always delighted to see: Dabbs Greer. If the name rings no bells, the face will: A more-than-reliable and truly all-purpose character actor, Greer could credibly play everything from ministers to petty thieves or savvy, no-nonsense cops to befuddled bureaucrats, and was equally adept in both dramatic and comedic roles, infusing a quality of humanity into each, whether a major supporting one or a one-line gas station attendant, and displaying expert timing as comic foil to the likes of Red Skelton, Gracie Allen and Dick Van Dyke that enhanced the laughs even when called upon to function only as straight man. Greer unfailingly brought a little something extra to every appearance in a career on large and small screens spanning over a half-century, making himself an indispensable part of both film and television landscapes. Whenever he appeared, any evaluations of performance went by the wayside, as they were always right on the money. He reportedly had his own version of the "no small parts, only small actors" axiom: "Every character actor, in their own little sphere, is the lead;" a philosophy that may account for the dependable skill and success of his accomplishments.
|
|
|
Post by twothousandonemark on Nov 26, 2017 7:48:41 GMT
Robert Mitchum James Stewart
|
|
|
Post by mikef6 on Nov 26, 2017 15:15:58 GMT
Another I'm always delighted to see: Dabbs Greer. If the name rings no bells, the face will: A more-than-reliable and truly all-purpose character actor, Greer could credibly play everything from ministers to petty thieves or savvy, no-nonsense cops to befuddled bureaucrats, and was equally adept in both dramatic and comedic roles, infusing a quality of humanity into each, whether a major supporting one or a one-line gas station attendant, and displaying expert timing as comic foil to the likes of Red Skelton, Gracie Allen and Dick Van Dyke that enhanced the laughs even when called upon to function only as straight man. Greer unfailingly brought a little something extra to every appearance in a career on large and small screens spanning over a half-century, making himself an indispensable part of both film and television landscapes. Whenever he appeared, any evaluations of performance went by the wayside, as they were always right on the money. He reportedly had his own version of the "no small parts, only small actors" axiom: "Every character actor, in their own little sphere, is the lead;" a philosophy that may account for the dependable skill and success of his accomplishments. Love Dabbs Greer, a really good actor. He is perfect as the old Tom Hanks (take a look at his face - he could be!) in The Green Mile. Greer is a nominee for my personal movie award (the Asta, named for my black cat) as Best Supporting Actor for that role.
|
|
|
Post by petrolino on Nov 26, 2017 17:00:03 GMT
And by the way, it's interesting that you mentioned Samantha Mathis, whose mother, Bibi Besch, is another actress I simply like to see - because of her strength, her acting intelligence and unpredictability, her subtle but inviting sensuality. Sadly, she left us too soon. Here's a picture of her with a young Samantha:
That's a beautiful picture spiderwort. Samantha Mathis lost her boyfriend, River Phoenix, when she was 23, and her mother Bibi Besch passed away when she was 26. One of her close friends through this difficult time was Sandra Bullock.
|
|
spiderwort
Junior Member
@spiderwort
Posts: 2,099
Likes: 9,420
|
Post by spiderwort on Dec 30, 2019 3:22:34 GMT
That's a beautiful picture spiderwort. Samantha Mathis lost her boyfriend, River Phoenix, when she was 23, and her mother Bibi Besch passed away when she was 26. One of her close friends through this difficult time was Sandra Bullock.
Petrolino, I was taking a look at some old posts when I came across this one, which, in the meantime, I have learned something new about, much to my surprise: Samantha's mom, Bibi Besch was the daughter of Gusti Huber, a prominent Austrian actress who married Bibi's father, an American army officer and later newspaperman, Joseph Besch. She moved to America with him and did a lot of work on Broadway, including playing Edith Frank in "The Diary of Anne Frank", a role she then reprised in the film. Wish I had known this back in the day when I worked with Bibi and Samantha. I can see their resemblance to her immediately.
Samantha Mathis
|
|