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"Nuclear apocalypse - who do you need? Actors are probably not top of the list. What can I do for you? I can pretend to be somebody who can grow you some nice crops."
Christian Bale
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* Best seen in larger size on black (click image above)
Spanish postcard by Marte. Sent by mail in 1957.
Handsome American actor Rock Hudson (1925–1985) was a popular Hollywood star in the 1950s and 1960s. He was teamed up in romantic comedies with Doris Day, but he also starred in dramatic roles in Magnificent Obsession (1954) and Giant (1956). In later years, he starred on TV in the mystery series McMillan & Wife (1971-1977) and the soap opera Dynasty (1984-1985). Hudson, secretly gay, became in 1985 the first major celebrity who died from an AIDS-related illness.
Rock Hudson was born Roy Harold Scherer, Jr. in 1925 in Winnetka, Illinois at Sarah A. Jarman Memorial Hospital. He was the only child of Katherine (née Wood), a homemaker and later telephone operator, and Roy Harold Scherer Sr., an auto mechanic. During the Great Depression, Hudson's father lost his job and abandoned the family. Hudson's parents divorced when he was four years old. Several years later, in 1932, his mother married Wallace Fitzgerald, a former Marine Corps officer whom he despised. Fitzgerald adopted his stepson without his consent, whose legal name then became Roy Fitzgerald. That marriage eventually ended in a bitter divorce and produced no children. Hudson attended New Trier High School in Winnetka. He sang in the school glee club, and later was remembered as a shy boy who delivered newspapers, ran errands, and worked as a golf caddy. At some point during his teenage years, he worked as an usher in a cinema and developed an interest in acting. He tried out for a number of school plays, but failed to win any roles because he could not remember his lines, a problem that continued to occur through his early acting career. He graduated from high school in 1943, and the following year enlisted in the United States Navy, during World War II. After training at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station, he departed San Francisco aboard the troop transport SS Lew Wallace, with orders to report to Aviation Repair and Overhaul Unit 2, then located on Samar, Philippines, as an aircraft mechanic. In 1946, he returned to San Francisco aboard an aircraft carrier, and was discharged the same year. Hudson then moved to Los Angeles to live with his biological father, who had remarried, and to pursue an acting career. Initially he worked at odd jobs, including as a truck driver. He applied to the University of Southern California's dramatics program, but was rejected due to poor grades. After he sent talent scout Henry Willson a picture of himself in 1947, Willson took him on as a client, let him cap his teeth and changed the young actor's name to Rock Hudson, combining the Rock of Gibraltar and the Hudson River. Later in his life Hudson admitted that he hated the name. Rock Hudson made his acting debut at Warner Bros. with an uncredited part as a pilot in the World War II aviation war film Fighter Squadron (Raoul Walsh, 1948), starring Edmond O'Brien and Robert Stack. According to Wikipedia, Hudson was under personal contract to director Raoul Walsh, who rode him unmercifully, saying "You big dumb bastard, don’t just get in the center of the camera and stay there like a tree, move!" It took 38 takes to get a good version of Hudson's one line, "You’ve got to get a bigger blackboard." Hudson was signed to a long-term contract by Universal Studios. There he was further coached in acting, singing, dancing, fencing, and horseback riding. He began to be featured in film magazines where, being photogenic, he was promoted. His first film at Universal was the Film Noir Undertow (William Castle, 1949), starring Scott Brady. It gave him his first screen credit. Several small parts followed. He played an American Indian in the Western Winchester '73 (Anthony Mann, 1950), starring James Stewart and Shelley Winters, an Arab in the action-adventure The Desert Hawk (Fred de Cordova, 1950) with Yvonne De Carlo, and supported the Nelson family in the comedy Here Come the Nelsons (Fred de Cordova, 1951). Hudson was billed third in the Film Noir The Fat Man (William Castle, 1951), but back down the cast list for the romantic war drama Bright Victory (Mark Robson, 1951). Reportedly, he had a good part as a boxer in Iron Man (Joseph Pevney, 1951), starring Jeff Chandler, and as a gambler in the great Western Bend of the River (Anthony Mann, 1952), starring James Stewart.
Rock Hudson was promoted to leading man for the adventure film Scarlet Angel (Sidney Salkow, 1952), opposite Yvonne De Carlo, who had starred in his earlier films The Desert Hawk (Fred de Cordova, 1950) and Tomahawk (George Sherman, 1951). He then co-starred with Piper Laurie in the comedy Has Anybody Seen My Gal? (1952), directed by Douglas Sirk. In the Western Horizons West (Budd Boetticher, 1952), Hudson supported Robert Ryan, but he was the star again for another pair of Westerns, The Lawless Breed (Raoul Walsh, 1953) and Seminole (Budd Boetticher, 1953). In 1953 he also appeared in a Camel commercial which showed him on the set of Seminole. He and Yvonne De Carlo were borrowed by RKO for Sea Devils (Raoul Walsh, 1953), an adventure set during the Napoleonic Wars. Back at Universal he played Harun al-Rashid in the 'Eastern' The Golden Blade (Nathan Juran, 1953). There was the 3-D Technicolor Western Gun Fury (Raoul Walsh, 1953), with Donna Reed, and the adventure film Back to God's Country (Joseph Pevney, 1953) with Steve Cochran. Hudson had the title role in Taza, Son of Cochise (Douglas Sirk, 1954), produced by Ross Hunter. Hudson was by now firmly established as a leading man in B adventure films. What turned him into a star was Magnificent Obsession (Douglas Sirk, 1954), co-starring Jane Wyman and produced by Ross Hunter. The film received positive reviews, with Modern Screen Magazine citing Hudson as the most popular actor of the year. Magnificent Obsession made over $5 million at the box office. For millions of female filmgoers, Hudson with his towering, sculpted frame, his deep, sensuous voice and thick black hair, was the ideal leading man. Hudson went back to adventure films with Bengal Brigade (Laslo Benedek, 1954), set during the Indian Mutiny, and Captain Lightfoot (Douglas Sirk, 1955), produced by Hunter. In 1954, exhibitors voted Hudson the 17th most popular star in the country. Hunter used him again in two melodramas, One Desire (Jerry Hopper, 1955) with Anne Baxter, and All That Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk, 1955), which reunited him with Jane Wyman. Never Say Goodbye (Jerry Hopper, 1956) with Cornell Borchers, and loosely based on the play 'Come Prima Meglio Di Prima' by Luigi Pirandello was more drama. While his career developed, Hudson and his agent Henry Willson kept the actor's personal life out of the headlines. In 1955, Confidential magazine threatened to publish an exposé about Hudson's secret homosexuality. Willson stalled this by disclosing information about two of his other clients. Willson provided information about Rory Calhoun's years in prison and the arrest of Tab Hunter at a gay party in 1950. Soon after the Confidential incident, Hudson married Willson's secretary Phyllis Gates. Gates filed for divorce after three years in April 1958, citing mental cruelty. Hudson did not contest the divorce and Gates received alimony of $250 a week for 10 years. Gates never remarried. Rock Hudson's popularity soared with George Stevens' Western drama Giant (1956). The film is an epic portrayal of a powerful Texas ranching family challenged by changing times and the coming of big oil. Stevens gave Hudson a choice between Elizabeth Taylor and Grace Kelly to play his leading lady, Leslie. Hudson chose Taylor. Bosley Crowther of the New York Times wrote that "George Stevens takes three hours and seventeen minutes to put his story across. That's a heap of time to go on about Texas, but Mr. Stevens has made a heap of film. (...) Giant, for all its complexity, is a strong contender for the year's top-film award." Hudson and his co-star James Dean were both nominated for Oscars in the Best Actor category. Another hit was the melodrama Written on the Wind (Douglas Sirk, 1957), co-starring Lauren Bacall, Robert Stack and Dorothy Malone, and produced by Albert Zugsmith. Sirk also directed Hudson in the war film Battle Hymn (Douglas Sirk, 1957), produced by Ross Hunter. Hudson played Colonel Dean E. Hess, a real-life United States Air Force fighter pilot in the Korean War. These films propelled Hudson to be voted the most popular actor in American cinemas in 1957. Hudson was borrowed by MGM to appear in Richard Brooks' Something of Value (1957), a box office disappointment. So too was his next film, a remake of A Farewell to Arms (Charles Vidor, 1957). A Farewell to Arms received negative reviews, failed at the box office and became the last production by David O. Selznick. Hudson was reunited with the producer, director and two stars of Written on the Wind in The Tarnished Angels (Douglas Sirk, 1958), at Universal. He then made the adventure film Twilight for the Gods (Joseph Pevney, 1958) and the melodrama This Earth Is Mine (Henry King, 1959) with Jean Simmons.
Ross Hunter teamed Rock Hudson with Doris Day in the bedroom comedy, Pillow Talk (Michael Gordon, 1959), which was a massive hit. Hudson was voted the most popular star in the country for 1959, and would be the second most popular for the next three years. Less popular was a Western, The Last Sunset (Robert Aldrich, 1961), co-starring Kirk Douglas. Hudson then made two hugely popular comedies: Come September (Robert Mulligan, 1961) with Gina Lollobrigida, and Lover Come Back (Delbert Mann, 1961) again with Doris Day. He made two dramas: The Spiral Road (Robert Mulligan, 1962) was a medical adventure story, and A Gathering of Eagles (Delbert Mann, 1963), a military story. Hudson was still voted the third most popular star in 1963. He went back to comedy for Man's Favorite Sport? (Howard Hawks, 1964), and more popularly, Send Me No Flowers (Norman Jewison, 1964), this third and final film with Doris Day. Along with Cary Grant, Hudson was regarded as one of the best-dressed male stars in Hollywood, and made the 'Top 10 Stars of the Year' list a record-setting eight times from 1957–1964. His next film, Strange Bedfellows (Melvin Frank, 1965), with Gina Lollobrigida, was a box office disappointment. So too was A Very Special Favor (Michael Gordon, 1965) with Leslie Caron, despite having the same writer and director as Pillow Talk. That year he was voted the 11th most popular star in the country, and he would never beat that rank again. Hudson tried a thriller, Blindfold (Philip Dunne, 1966). He worked outside his usual range on the Science-Fiction thriller Seconds (1966), directed by John Frankenheimer. The film flopped but it later gained cult status, and Hudson's performance is often regarded as one of his best. He also tried his hand in the action genre with the World War Two film Tobruk (Arthur Hiller, 1967). After the Italian comedy Ruba al prossimo tuo/A Fine Pair (Francesco Maselli, 1968) with Claudia Cardinale he starred in the action thriller Ice Station Zebra (John Sturges, 1968) at MGM, a role which he had actively sought and remained his personal favourite. The Cold War era suspense and espionage film was a hit but struggled to recoup its escalating production costs. Rock Hudson dabbled in Westerns, appearing opposite John Wayne in The Undefeated (Andrew V. McLaglen, 1969). He grew a moustache and sideburns for his role in The Undefeated. Afterwards he decided to retain that look throughout the 1970s. He co-starred opposite Julie Andrews in the musical, Darling Lili (Blake Edwards, 1970). Edwards suffered continual interference from Paramount executives while making Darling Lili, and it was eventually edited by the studio largely without his input. Edwards later claimed Darling Lili was budgeted at $11.5 million but ended up costing $16 million. He said half the cost was due to second unit filming in Ireland and he had pleaded with Paramount not to shoot in Europe due to the weather, but the studio insisted. The film was reasonably popular but it became notorious for its huge costs. During the 1970s and 1980s, Rock Hudson starred in a number of TV movies and series. His most successful television series was McMillan & Wife opposite Susan Saint James, which ran from 1971 to 1977. Hudson played police commissioner Stewart 'Mac' McMillan, with Saint James as his wife Sally, and their on-screen chemistry helped to make the show a hit. During the series' run Hudson appeared in Showdown (George Seaton, 1973), a Western with Dean Martin, and the horror-Science Fiction film Embryo (Ralph Nelson, 1976). Hudson took a risk and surprised many by making a successful foray into live theatre late in his career, the most acclaimed of his efforts being 'I Do! I Do!' in 1974. In 1977 he toured 13 cities as King Arthur in the musical 'Camelot'. After McMillan & Wife ended, Hudson made a disaster film for New World Pictures, Avalanche (Corey Allen, 1978) with Robert Forster and Mia Farrow, and two miniseries, Wheels (Jerry London, 1978) based on the novel by Arthur Hailey, and The Martian Chronicles (Michael Anderson, 1980), based on Ray Bradbury's novel. He was also one of several faded stars in the enjoyable British mystery film The Mirror Crack'd (1980), based on Agatha Christie's Miss Marple novel 'The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side' (1962).
In the early 1980s, following years of heavy drinking and smoking, Rock Hudson began having health problems which resulted in a heart attack in November 1981. Emergency quintuple heart bypass surgery sidelined Hudson and his new TV show The Devlin Connection for a year, and the show was cancelled in December 1982 soon after it had first aired. Hudson recovered from the heart surgery but continued to smoke. He nevertheless continued to work with appearances in several TV movies such as World War III (David Greene, Boris Sagal, 1982). He was in ill health while filming the action-drama film The Ambassador (J. Lee Thompson, 1984 ) in Israel during the winter months from late 1983 to early 1984. He reportedly did not get along with his co-star Robert Mitchum, who had a serious drinking problem and often clashed off camera with Hudson and other cast and crew members. From December 1984 to April 1985, Hudson appeared in a recurring role on the ABC prime time soap opera Dynasty as Daniel Reece, a wealthy horse breeder and a potential love interest for Krystle Carrington (Linda Evans), as well as the biological father of the character Sammy Jo Carrington (Heather Locklear). While Hudson had long been known to have difficulty memorising lines, which resulted in his use of cue cards, it was his speech itself that began to visibly deteriorate on Dynasty. He was originally slated to appear for the duration of the show's second half of its fifth season; however, because of his progressing ill health, his character was abruptly written out of the show and died off screen. Unknown to the public, Hudson was diagnosed with HIV in June 1984, just three years after the emergence of the first cluster of symptomatic patients in the U.S., and only one year after the initial identification by scientists of the HIV virus that causes AIDS. Over the next several months, Hudson kept his illness a secret and continued to work while, at the same time, travelling to France and other countries seeking a cure – or at least treatment to slow the progress of the disease. On 16 July 1985, Hudson joined his old friend Doris Day for a Hollywood press conference announcing the launch of her new TV cable show Doris Day's Best Friends in which Hudson was videotaped visiting Day's ranch in Carmel, California, a few days earlier. He appeared gaunt and his speech was nearly incoherent; during the segment, Hudson did very little speaking, with most of it consisting of Day and Hudson walking around as Day's recording of 'My Buddy' played in the background, with Hudson noting he had quickly tired out. His appearance was enough of a shock that the reunion was broadcast repeatedly over national news shows that night and for days to come. Media outlets speculated on Hudson's health. Two days later, Hudson travelled to Paris, France, for another round of treatment. After Hudson collapsed in his room at the Ritz Hotel in Paris on 21 July, his publicist, Dale Olson, released a statement claiming that Hudson had inoperable liver cancer. Olson denied reports that Hudson had AIDS, but, four days later, Hudson's French publicist Yanou Collart confirmed that Hudson did in fact have AIDS. He was among the first mainstream celebrities to have been diagnosed with the disease. In October 1985, Rock Hudson died in his sleep from AIDS-related complications at his home in Beverly Hills at age 59, less than seven weeks before what would have been his 60th birthday. Hudson requested that no funeral be held. His body was cremated hours after his death and his ashes were scattered in the channel between Wilmington and Santa Catalina Island. The disclosure of Hudson's AIDS diagnosis provoked widespread public discussion of his homosexual identity. In Logical Family: A Memoir, gay author Armistead Maupin, who was a friend of Hudson's, writes he was the first person to confirm to the press that Hudson was gay in 1985, effectively outing him. Maupin explains that he said it to Randy Shilts of the San Francisco Chronicle, and that he was annoyed that producer Ross Hunter, who was gay himself, denied it. In August 1985 People published a story that discussed his disease in the context of his sexuality. The largely sympathetic article featured comments from famous show business colleagues such as Angie Dickinson, Robert Stack, and Mamie Van Doren, who claimed they knew about Hudson's homosexuality and expressed their support for him. At that time, People had a circulation of more than 2.8 million, and, as a result of this and other stories, Hudson's homosexuality became fully public. Hudson's revelation had an immediate impact on the visibility of AIDS, and on the funding of medical research related to the disease. Rock Hudson had given AIDS a face. After his death his long-time lover Marc Christian successfully sued his estate, again calling attention to the homosexuality Rock had hidden from most throughout his career.
Sources: Ed Stephan (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Meyerhold's Petersburg tour. Episode in Alexander Block museum. An actor Eugene Anisimov and the figure of pagliaccio/Meyerhold.
My Burning Heart - Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi
My heart is burning with love
All can see this flame
My heart is pulsing with passion
like waves on an ocean.
My friends have become strangers
and I’m surrounded by enemies.
But I’m free as the wind
no longer hurt by those who reproach me.
I’m at home wherever I am
And in the room of lovers
I can see with closed eyes
the beauty that dances.
Behind the veils
intoxicated with love
I too dance the rhythm
of this moving world.
I have lost my senses
in my world of lovers.
===================
Strobist info:
SB-900 @subject top @ Soft Box Umbrella @ zoomed at 105mm.
Actor:
Anastasia Potapov ( Cruel Summer, The Evil Within )
There are reasons why only a professional should attempt an exorcism. It sometimes is not safe and they come after you, thru those you know.
Note: These photos are tools we use to explore different characters and emotions. No one was harmed...much.
French postcard by Studio Erving, Paris, no. 696. Photo: Lucasfilm Ltd. Harrison Ford in Star Wars - Episode IV - A New Hope (George Lucas, 1977).
American film actor Harrison Ford (1942) specialises in roles of cynical, world-weary heroes in popular film series. He played Han Solo in the Star Wars franchise, archaeologist Indiana Jones in a series of four adventure films, Rick Deckard in the Science Fiction films Blade Runner (1982) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017), and secret agent Jack Ryan in the spy thrillers Patriot Games (1992) and Clear and Present Danger (1994). These film roles have made him one of the most successful stars in Hollywood. In all, his films have grossed about $5.4 billion in the United States and $9.3 billion worldwide.
Harrison Ford was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1942. His parents were former radio actress Dorothy (née Nidelman) and advertising executive and former actor John William "Christopher" Ford. Harrison graduated in 1960 from Maine East High School in Park Ridge, Illinois. His voice was the first student voice broadcast on his high school's new radio station, WMTH, and he was its first sportscaster during his senior year. He attended Ripon College in Ripon, Wisconsin, where he was a philosophy major and did some acting. After dropping out of college, he first wanted to work as a DJ in radio and left for California to work at a large national radio station. He was unable to find work and, in order to make a living, he accepted a job as a carpenter. Another part-time job was auditioning, where he had to read out lines that the opposing actor would say to an actor auditioning for a particular role. Harrison did this so well that he was advised to take up acting. He was also briefly a roadie for the rock group The Doors. From 1964, Ford regularly played bit roles in films. He was finally credited as "Harrison J. Ford" in the Western A Time for Killing (Phil Karlson, 1967), starring Glenn Ford, George Hamilton, and Inger Stevens. The "J" did not stand for anything since he has no middle name but was added to avoid confusion with a silent film actor named Harrison Ford, who appeared in more than 80 films between 1915 and 1932 and died in 1957. French filmmaker Jacques Demy chose Ford for the lead role of his first American film, Model Shop (1969), but the head of Columbia Pictures thought Ford had "no future" in the film business and told Demy to hire a more experienced actor. The part eventually went to Gary Lockwood. He had an uncredited, non-speaking role in Michelangelo Antonioni's film Zabriskie Point (1970) as an arrested student protester. His first major role was in the coming-of-age comedy American Graffiti (George Lucas, 1973). Ford became friends with the directors George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola, and he made a number of films with them. In 1974, he acted in The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974) starring Gene Hackman, and played an army officer named "G. Lucas" in Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979, co-produced by George Lucas. Ford made his breakthrough as Han Solo in Lucas's epic space opera Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope (George Lucas, 1977). Star Wars became one of the most successful and groundbreaking films of all time and brought Ford, and his co-stars Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher, widespread recognition. He reprised the role in four sequels over the course of the next 42 years: Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner, 1980), Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (Richard Marquand, 1983), Star Wars: Episode VII: The Force Awakens (J. J. Abrams, 2015), and Star Wars: Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (J.J. Abrams, 2019).
Harrison Ford also worked with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg on the successful Indiana Jones adventure series playing the heroic, globe-trotting archaeologist Indiana Jones. The series started with the action-adventure film Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Spielberg, 1981). Like Star Wars, the film was massively successful and became the highest-grossing film of the year. Ford went on to reprise the role throughout the rest of the decade in the prequel Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Steven Spielberg, 1984), and the sequel Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Steven Spielberg, 1989), which co-starred Sean Connery as Indy's father, Henry Jones Sr. and River Phoenix as young Indiana. In between the successful film series, Ford also played very daring roles in more artistic films. He played the role of a lonely depressed detective in the Sci-Fi film Blade Runner, (Ridley Scott, 1981) opposite Rutger Hauer. While not initially a success, Blade Runner went on to become a cult classic and one of Ford's most highly regarded films. Ford received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor for the crime drama Witness (Peter Weir, 1985) with Kelly McGillis, and also starred for Weir as a house-father in the survival drama The Mosquito Coast (Peter Weir, 1986) with River Phoenix as his son. In 1988, he played a desperate man searching for his kidnapped wife in Roman Polanski's Frantic. For his role as a wrongly accused prisoner Dr. Richard Kimble in the action thriller The Fugitive (Andrew Davis, 1993), also starring Tommy Lee Jones, Ford received some of the best reviews of his career. He became the second of five actors to portray Jack Ryan in two films of the film series based on the literary character created by Tom Clancy: the spy thrillers Patriot Games (Phillip Noyce, 1992) and Clear and Present Danger (Phillip Noyce, 1994). He then played the American president in the blockbuster Air Force One (Wolfgang Petersen, 1997) opposite Gary Oldman. Later his success waned somewhat and his films Random Hearts (Sydney Pollack, 1999) and Six Days Seven Nights (Ivan Reitman, 1998) both disappointed at the box office. However, he did play a few special roles, such as an assassin in the supernatural horror-thriller What Lies Beneath (Robert Zemeckis, 2000) opposite Michele Pfeiffer, and a Russian submarine captain in K-19: The Widowmaker (Kathryn Bigelow, 2002) with Liam Neeson. In 2008, he reprised his role as Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Steven Spielberg, 2008) with Cate Blanchett. The film received generally positive reviews and was the second highest-grossing film worldwide in 2008. Later Ford accepted more supporting roles, such as in the sports film 42 (Brian Helgeland, 2013) about baseball player Jackie Robinson (Chadwick Boseman), the first black athlete to play in Major League Baseball. Ford reprised the role of Han Solo in the long-awaited Star Wars sequel Star Wars: The Force Awakens (J.J. Abrams, 2015), which became massively successful like its predecessors. He also reprised his role as Rick Deckard in Blade Runner 2049 (Denis Villeneuve, 2017), co-starring Ryan Gosling. Harrison Ford has been married three times and has four biological children and one adopted child. From 1964 to 1979, Ford was married to Mary Marquardt, a marriage that produced two children. From 1983 to 2003, he was married to Melissa Mathison, from which marriage two more children were born. In 2010, he married actress Calista Flockhart, famous for her role in the TV series Ally McBeal. He owns a ranch in Jackson Hole (Wyoming). Besides being an actor, Ford is also an experienced pilot. Ford survived three plane crashes of planes he piloted himself. The most recent accident occurred in 2015 when he suffered an engine failure with a Ryan PT-22 Recruit and made an emergency landing on a golf course. Among other injuries, Ford sustained a broken pelvis and ankle from this latest accident. In 2003, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch and English), and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
An actor at Kentucky's Perryville Battlefield State Historical Park
"You think slavery is right and ought to be extended; while we think it is wrong and ought to be restricted. That I suppose is the rub."
[Letter to Alexander Stephens by Abraham Lincoln, Dec 22, 1860]
"Now we are told in advance the Government shall be broken up unless we surrender to those we [Republicans] have beaten, before we take the offices. In this they [Southern secessionist states] are either attempting to play upon us or they are in dead earnest. Either way, if we surrender, it is the end of us and of the [U.S.] Government. They will repeat the experiment upon us ad libitum. A year will not pass till we shall have to take Cuba as a condition upon which they will stay in the Union."
[President-elect Lincoln in January, 1861 about the vast majority of states being taken hostage by a minority of southern states.]
My photography teacher taught me that a lot of pictures become more interesting when a person/actor is present.
That was missing here :-)
HSS!
Fragment of the spectacle «Mom in the East»
Date: March 22, 2020
Arthur Mafenbayer - Russian actor of theater and cinema.
Actor Theater Che
__________________
«In our time, there are heroes in any literary work, including modern ones. And they can't find it, probably because they don't look for it well?.. It's the same with the theater. In our, let's say, past productions, the hero was a Russian revolutionary.»
© Arthur Moffenbeier (actor of theater and cinema)
Author : @Kiri Karma
Comiccon Brussels 2023 - Spring - WCL - Divers
Photos diverses prisent avant et apres le show.
Various photos taken before and after the show.
( Comic con brussels is your celebration of geek culture in the heart of europe!
You will find us at the beautiful Tour & Taxis site near the Brussels North train station. At Comic Con Brussels you will find Dealers, Artists, Actors, ... It's a Con that brings together all the things you love:
Comics, cosplay, gaming, films, manga, collectibles, anime, tv series, clothing, toys, gadgets and lots more!!! )
WESTWOOD, CA - NOVEMBER 17: Actor Peter Facinelli arrives at the film premiere of Summit Entertainment's "Twilight" held at the Mann Village and Bruin Theaters on November 17, 2008 in Westwood, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
Actor
Learn more about Bryan here
www.imdb.com/name/nm6882080/?ref_=nmmd_md_nm
Rivertown
Kenner, Louisiana
Vintage card. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (M.G.M.).
Gene Kelly (1912-1996) was an American actor, dancer, singer, filmmaker, and choreographer. He was known for his energetic and athletic dancing style, his good looks, and the likable characters that he played on screen. He starred in, choreographed, or co-directed some of the most well-regarded musical films of the 1940s and 1950s until they fell out of fashion in the late 1950s. Kelly is best known today for his performances in films such as Anchors Aweigh (1945), On the Town (1949), which was his directorial debut, An American in Paris (1951), Singin' in the Rain (1952), Brigadoon (1954), and It's Always Fair Weather (1955).
Eugene Curran Kelly was born in 1912 in the East Liberty neighborhood of Pittsburgh. He was the third son of James Patrick Joseph Kelly, a phonograph salesman, and his wife, Harriet Catherine Curran. By the time he decided to dance, he was an accomplished sportsman and able to defend himself. He attended St. Raphael Elementary School in the Morningside neighborhood of Pittsburgh and graduated from Peabody High School at age 16. He entered Pennsylvania State College as a journalism major, but after the 1929 crash, he left school and found work in order to help his family financially. He created dance routines with his younger brother Fred to earn prize money in local talent contests. They also performed in local nightclubs. In 1931, Kelly enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh to study economics. His family opened a dance studio in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh. In 1932, they renamed it the Gene Kelly Studio of the Dance and opened a second location in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in 1933. Kelly served as a teacher at the studio during his undergraduate and law-student years at Pitt. Kelly eventually decided to pursue a career as a dance teacher and full-time entertainer, so he dropped out of law school after two months. In 1937, having successfully managed and developed the family's dance-school business, he finally did move to New York City in search of work as a choreographer. His first Broadway assignment, in 1938, was as a dancer in Cole Porter's 'Leave It to Me!' Kelly's first big breakthrough was in the Pulitzer Prize-winning 'The Time of Your Life' (1939), in which, for the first time on Broadway, he danced to his own choreography. In 1940, he got the lead role in Rodgers and Hart's 'Pal Joey', choreographed by Robert Alton. This role propelled him to stardom. Offers from Hollywood began to arrive.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was the largest and most powerful studio in Hollywood when Gene Kelly arrived in town in 1941. There he made his film debut with Judy Garland in For Me and My Gal (Busby Berkeley, 1942). The film was a production of the Arthur Freed unit at MGM and it was one of the big hits of the year. The talent pool at MGM was especially large during World War II, when Hollywood was a refuge for many musicians and others in the performing arts of Europe who were forced to flee the Nazis. Kelly's film debut was followed by Cole Porter's Du Barry Was a Lady (Roy Del Ruth, 1943) with Lucille Ball, the morale booster Thousands Cheer (George Sidney, 1943), Cover Girl (Charles Vidor, 1944) opposite Rita Harworth, and Anchors Aweigh (George Sidney, 1945) with Frank Sinatra. MGM gave him a free hand to devise a range of dance routines for the latter, including his duets with Sinatra and the celebrated animated dance with Jerry Mouse—the animation for which was supervised by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Anchors Aweigh became one of the most successful films of 1945 and Kelly was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. In Ziegfeld Follies (1946), Kelly collaborated with Fred Astaire, for whom he had the greatest admiration, in 'The Babbitt and the Bromide' challenge dance routine. He co-starred with Judy Garland in The Pirate (1948) which gave full rein to Kelly's athleticism. It features Kelly's work with the Nicholas Brothers—the leading black dancers of their day—in a virtuoso dance routine. Now regarded as a classic, the film was ahead of its time but flopped at the box office. Kelly made his debut as a director with On the Town (1949), for Arthur Freed. Stanley Donen, brought to Hollywood by Kelly to be his assistant choreographer, received co-director credit for On the Town. A breakthrough in the musical film genre, it has been described as "the most inventive and effervescent musical thus far produced in Hollywood."
Two musicals secured Gene Kelly's reputation as a major figure in the American musical film. First, he directed and starred in An American in Paris (1951) with Leslie Caron. The highlight of the film is the seventeen-minute ballet sequence set to the title song written by George Gershwin and choreographed by Kelly. The sequence cost a half-million dollars (U.S.) to make in 1951 dollars. Kelly's many innovations transformed the Hollywood musical, and he is credited with almost single-handedly making the ballet form commercially acceptable to film audiences. In 1952, he received an Academy Honorary Award for his career achievements, the same year An American in Paris won six Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Probably the most admired of all film musicals is his next film, Singin' in the Rain (1952). As co-director, lead star, and choreographer, Kelly was the central driving force and unforgettable is Kelly's celebrated and much-imitated solo dance routine to the title song. Kelly continued his string of classic Hollywood musicals with Brigadoon (1954) with Cyd Charisse, and It's Always Fair Weather (1955), co-directed with Donen. The latter was a musical satire on television and advertising and includes his roller-skate dance routine to I Like Myself, and a dance trio with Michael Kidd and Dan Dailey that Kelly used to experiment with the widescreen possibilities of Cinemascope. Next followed Kelly's last musical film for MGM, Les Girls (1957), in which he partnered a trio of leading ladies, Mitzi Gaynor, Kay Kendall, and Taina Elg. It, too, sold few movie tickets. Dale O'Connor at IMDb: "Kelly was in the same league as Fred Astaire, but instead of a top hat and tails Kelly wore work clothes that went with his masculine, athletic dance style." He finally made for MGM The Happy Road (1957), set in his beloved France, his first foray in a new role as producer-director-actor. After leaving MGM, Kelly returned to stage work.
After musicals got out of fashion, Gene Kelly starred in two films outside the musical genre: Inherit the Wind (Stanley Kramer, 1960) with Spencer Tracey and Fredric March, and What a Way to Go! (1964). In 1967, he appeared in French musical comedy Les Demoiselles de Rochefort/The Young Girls of Rochefort (Jacques Demy, 1967) opposite Catherine Deneuve. It was a box-office success in France and nominated for Academy Awards for Best Music and Score of a Musical Picture. Kelly directed films without a collaborator, including the bedroom-farce comedy A Guide for the Married Man (1967) starring Walter Matthau, and the musical Hello, Dolly! (1969) starring Barbra Streisand and Matthau. The latter was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. He appeared as one of many special narrators in the surprise hit That's Entertainment! (Jack Haley Jr., 1974). The compilation film was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to celebrate the studio's 50th anniversary. The film turned the spotlight on MGM's legacy of musical films from the 1920s through the 1950s. Kelly subsequently directed and co-starred with his friend Fred Astaire in the sequel That's Entertainment, Part II (Gene Kelly, 1976). It was a measure of his powers of persuasion that he managed to coax the 77-year-old Astaire—who had insisted that his contract rule out any dancing, having long since retired—into performing a series of song-and-dance duets, evoking a powerful nostalgia for the glory days of the American musical film. It was later followed by That's Dancing! (Jack Haley Jr., 1985), and That's Entertainment, Part III (Bud Friedgen, Michael J. Sheridan, 1994). Kelly received lifetime achievement awards in the Kennedy Center Honors (1982) and from the Screen Actors Guild and American Film Institute. In 1999, the American Film Institute also ranked him as the 15th greatest male screen legend of Classic Hollywood Cinema. Gene Kelly passed away in 1996 at the age of 83 in Beverly Hills, California, U.S. His final film project was the animated film Cats Don't Dance, not released until 1997, on which Kelly acted as an uncredited choreographic consultant. It was dedicated to his memory. Gene Kelly was married three times: yo actress Betsy Blair (1941-1957), Jeanne Coyne (1960- her death in 1973) , and Patricia Ward (1990- his death in 1996).
Sources: Dale O'Connor (IMDb), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
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