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Were there any other Asian leading ladies before 1960? Just asking. We are familiar with Asian players of both sexes in Hollywood from the Twenties onward: Sessue Hayakawa and his hedonistic actress/wife Tsuru Aoki. Less notable is Keye Luke, who played Charlie Chan’s No. 1 son (Chan himself was played by a bevy of non-Asians notably Warner […]
The great body of work left by Paul Newman will cement his place in Hollywood history of the second half of the 20th century. He made so many terrific features and worked with so many of Hollywood’s finest directors that it’s hard — nay, impossible? — to definitively say which one is his best. But […]
There they are. Is further identification necessary? The movie is 1957’s Hellcats of the Navy, a World War II submarine drama from Columbia Pictures, and is the only movie that Nancy Davis ever made costarring her more famous husband. The marriage, by the way, was five years old at the filming. Our Nancy Davis Quiz […]
Last week we wrote about Helen Hayes, who for much of her working life was known as the First Lady of the American Theater. On Jan. 20, 1981, nearly 30 years after she married Ronald Reagan, the former Nancy Davis became — literally — America’s First Lady. Lost in the mists of time is the […]
Anyone who’s followed this blog knows we are great fans of Van Johnson. MGM signed him in the early 1940s and molded a career for him which included drama and comedy and an occasional musical. But they rarely took advantage of his excellent dancing abilities. Van, after all, had been a chorus boy on Broadway. […]
In our never ending search for first class working actors and actresses, we have come upon perhaps the most hardworking of them all — Mary Gordon. To say that the Scottish-born actress (nee Mary Gilmour in Glasgow in 1882) was in almost everything is a bit of an exaggeration, of course. But, boy, did she work […]
Great stars of both screen and stage. and… They never starred together but they share a unique trait. Both won TWO Oscars and TWO Tony Awards. And they are the only two actors (so far) who’ve accomplished that feat. March won best actor Oscar for….. 1931’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and for…. 1946’s The […]
We thought we might stump you with some of our questions about one of the most admired character actors of the 40s through the 60s. There’s our man, Walter Slezak, assisting Tallulah Bankhead in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1944 thriller Lifeboat. The role of a ex-U-Boat captain who methodically takes charge of a desperate group of American […]
He had a most varied career. The Austrian born actor (Vienna in 1902), Walter Slezak played an extraordinary range of characters over an extraordinarily long career — comprising nearly 100 movie and tv credits over more than a half century. He was adept a comedy (see below). Yes, that’s Red Skelton waving the pistol. And […]
The story goes that the first time Virginia O’Brien performed live she was so frightened she froze, managed to get out the words but with no emotion. The audience loved it. It became her trademark. Her father happened to be a very influential Captain on the Los Angeles police force. (An uncle was the postmaster.) […]