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(Brad Pitt, Gran Canaria, 2016)
Justamente este fin de semana estaba pensando dejar de lado las flores y los paisajes durante un tiempo para hacer retratos a algún/a modelo caritativo/a. Mira tu por por donde me encuentro con este pive tan fotogénico en el puerto... Un rato divertido ;)
Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit., no. 2779. Photo: Minerva Films.
Erno Crisa (1914-1968), was a handsome Italian actor, who appeared in a long series of films during the 1950s and 1960s.
Erno Crisa was born Ernesto Crisà in 1914 in Biserta, Tunisia, into a family of Sicilian emigrants. Fascinated by the world of show business, after emigrating to France he attended Preobajenska's courses in ballet and modern and classical choreography, later managing to work in some Parisian theatre productions. He made his debut in French cinema in 1945 in the film Le mystère Saint-Val, with Fernandel. Returning to Italy, he was recruited by Wanda Osiris' company, where he worked as a ballet soloist in Garinei and Giovannini's revue 'Al Grand Hotel' in the 1948-1949 season.
In 1950 Erno Crisa was noticed by director Luigi Zampa, who asked him to play a role in the film Cuori senza frontiere (Hearts without Borders), starring Raf Vallone and Gina Lollobrigida. This was the beginning of a long series of films that he would make until the end of the 1960s. Memorable titles of the fifties in which he had leads were e.g. Gelosia (Pietro Germi, 1953), Violenza sul lago (Leonardo Cortese, 1954), La figlia di Mata Hari (Renzo Merusi, Carmine Gallone, 1954), L'Amant de Lady Chatterley (Marc Allégret, 1955), and I mafiosi (Roberto Mauri, 1959). In addition, Crisa had supporting parts in modern dramas, period pieces, and musicarellos. In the early 1960s, Crisa acted in several historical or mythological films with musclemen like Ed Fury, Gordon Mitchell, and Mark Forest, one episode of the Angelique series, but also Plein soleil (René Clement, 1960) with Alain Delon, His last films were Spaghetti Westerns. Crisa died suddenly in Rome in 1968 at the age of 54. He is buried in the cemetery of Casalpusterlengo, near Lodi, next to his wife Giuseppina Ferri.
Sources: Wikipedia (Italian) and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
French postcard.
Good-looking Corsican singer and film actor Tino Rossi (1906 or 1907-1983) was one of the great romantic idols of his time. The quintessential ‘Latin lover’ sold over 300 million records and appeared in more than 25 film musicals.
Constantino Rossi was born as the third of eight children in a Corsican family in Ajaccio, France. He was gifted with an operatic voice. As a teenager, he played guitar and sang at a variety of small venues in his hometown before going on to perform in Marseilles and at resort clubs along the French Riviera. Though a failed marriage detoured him and his career briefly, eventually, in 1929, a promoter saw Rossi performing and signed him to a short tour circuit. Although that and the two songs he recorded with Parlophone, 'O Ciuciarella' and 'Ninni Nanni', didn't bring him immediate success, in 1933 Columbia offered him the deal he wanted. In 1934 Rossi represented Corsica in La Parade de France, where he was met with much acclaim, but his fame didn't truly commence until he began starring in film musicals, including Naples au Baiser de Feu/The Kiss of Fire (Augusto Genina, 1937). His romantic ballads had women swooning and his art songs by Jules Massenet, Reynaldo Hahn, and other composers helped draw sold-out audiences wherever he performed. Rossi's success was greatly aided by songwriter Vincent Scotto, who wrote his first hits and collaborated with him for many years. Prior to World War II, Rossi was a major box office attraction in the French-speaking world but expanded his audience to America with a 1938 visit followed up by wartime tours across the USA and Canada.
A ‘Latin Lover’ persona made Tino Rossi a true film star. He began his film career in Les nuits moscovites/Moscow Nights (Alexis Granowsky, 1934) starring Annabella, but his first real success came with Marinella (Pierre Caron, 1936). It was followed by Lumières de Paris/Lights of Paris (Richard Pottier, 1938), Fiévres/Fever (Jean Delannoy, 1942), and Le Soleil a toujours raison/The Sun Has Always a Reason (Pierre Billon, 1943). All his films were musicals and capitalised on his success as a singer. During the occupation of France by Nazi Germany Rossi's film career reached its peak, notably with Mon amour est près de toi/My Love Is For You (Richard Pottier, 1943) and L'île d'amour/The Isle of Love (Maurice Cram, 1944). At the Liberation, the French authorities reproached him for associating with the French Gestapo, but most importantly for actively supporting collaborationist causes such as the LVF (Légion des Volontaires Français) who sent French volunteers to work in German factories. He was arrested in October 1944 and spent three weeks in Fresnes prison near Paris. Following a trial in 1945, his sentence was relatively light. Rossi received a retrospective and largely symbolic work suspension. He subsequently appeared only sporadically in films, concentrating on his singing career. His post-war films include Sérénade aux nuages/Song of the Clouds (André Cayatte, 1946), Destins (Richard Pottier, 1946) which contained his most popular song, 'Petit Papa Noël', Le Gardian (Jean de Marguenat, 1946), Marlène (Pierre de Hérain, 1949), and Si Versailles m'était conté/Affairs in Versailles (Sacha Guitry, 1954). In 1947 he married Lilia Vetti, a young dancer and actress he had met while making Le Chant de l'exilé/The Song of the Exile (André Hugon, 1943). They would have a son, Laurent, in a marriage that lasted for a lifetime. In 1955 he starred in the operetta 'Méditerranée', and in the following years, he continued performing around France and the world. His career also evolved into the television era, appearing in a number of popular variety shows. In 1982, President François Mitterrand named Tino Rossi a Commander of the Legion of Honor for his contribution to France and its culture. That same year the 75-year-old Rossi gave his last public performance at the Casino de Paris, a show that popular demand turned into a three-month stint. Tino Rossi died of pancreatic cancer in 1983 in his home in the Parisian suburbs.
Sources: Marisa Brown (AllMusic), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Aspiring actor and model. I've been stepping out of my comfort zone and doing more photo shoots lately. Watch out for Matthew, I believe he has it in him to do well in the business. Learn more about him here
City Park
New Orleans, Louisiana
Actor Drew Barrymore is directing her first movie, Whip It, a movie about a young woman (Ellen Page, Juno) who joins a roller derby team. Barrymore has been in the business since childhood, but you know that already, notably appearing in E.T., tons of other hits and recently the HBO movie Grey Gardens. Photographed in Dallas, Texas at the Quarter Bar, Thursday, September 17, 2009. Copyright Fort Worth Star-Telegram / Paul Moseley. May not be downloaded or reproduced for any reason. Check a great newspaper out at www.star-telegram.com/
Vintage postcard.
Steve McQueen (1930-1980) was the ultra-cool Hollywood star of the 1960s and is still an icon of our popular culture. In the 1960s, he was the highest-paid actor of his generation, with an average salary of $5 million. With only 27 films, his film career was rather short.
Terence Steve McQueen was born in Beech Grove, a suburb of Indianapolis, in 1930. His childhood was spent on his uncle's farm in Missouri, as his father left home when he was only six months old. His mother followed suit shortly afterwards. As a teenager, he moved to Los Angeles, where he joined a gang. When he was arrested after an attempted robbery, he ended up in a reform school, the Chino Reform School. He spent a year and a half there and was set straight again. Years later, he set up a fund for that school and even left it $200,000. In 1947, he joined the Navy, where he clashed several times with his superiors. Three years later, however, he was given an honourable discharge for heroic conduct. This was followed by a series of 12 trades and 13 accidents: construction sites, oil fields, a lumberjack in Canada and even a courier in New York. McQueen enrolled in a few well-known acting schools and his drive earned him a scholarship from the famous Actors Studio. Long enamoured of cars and motorcycles, McQueen began to earn money by competing in weekend motorcycle races at Long Island City Raceway. He purchased the first two of many motorcycles, a Harley-Davidson and a Triumph. He soon became an excellent racer, winning about $100 each weekend (equivalent to $1,000 in 2022). In 1955, he made his Broadway debut in the play 'A Hatful of Rain', starring Ben Gazzara. In late 1955 at the age of 25, McQueen left New York and headed for Los Angeles. He moved into a house on Vestal Avenue in the Echo Park area and sought acting jobs in Hollywood.
Steve McQueen's first breakout role came on television. When McQueen appeared in a two-part Westinghouse Studio One television presentation entitled The Defenders, Hollywood manager Hilly Elkins took note of him. McQueen's first film role was a bit part in Somebody Up There Likes Me (Robert Wise, 1956), starring Paul Newman. He appeared on Dale Robertson's NBC Western series Tales of Wells Fargo as Bill Longley. McQueen next filmed a pilot episode for what became the series titled Wanted: Dead or Alive, which aired on CBS in September 1958. This became his breakout role. He would later cross over into comparable status on the big screen, making him the first TV star to do so. His first lead role in the cinema was in the low-budget Sci-Fi film The Blob (Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr., 1958), but his breakthrough was as Vin, alongside Yul Brynner, in the Western The Magnificent Seven (John Sturges, 1960). McQueen's focused portrayal of the taciturn second lead catapulted his career and led to his withdrawal from Wanted: Dead or Alive. Steve McQueen delivered another crowd-pleaser, the war film The Great Escape (John Sturges, 1963) with James Garner. This film established McQueen's box-office clout and secured his status as a superstar. McQueen earned his only Academy Award nomination in 1966 for his role as an engine-room sailor in The Sand Pebbles (Robert Wise, 1966), in which he starred opposite Candice Bergen and Richard Attenborough. Riding a wave of popularity, he starred in such hits as The Cincinnati Kid (Norman Jewison, 1965) opposite Ann-Margret, the provocative crime drama The Thomas Crown Affair (Norman Jewison, 1968) with Faye Dunaway, and the mega-hit Bullitt (Peter Yates, 1968), which co-starred Jacqueline Bisset, Robert Vaughn, and Don Gordon and won an Oscar for Best Film Editing (Frank P. Keller). Bullitt is famous for its car chase scene through the streets of San Francisco, which is regarded as one of the most influential in film history.
Steve McQueen teamed up with maverick Hollywood director Sam Peckinpah for the modern Western Junior Bonner (1972), and The Getaway (1972) with Ali McGraw. His last great hits were Papillon (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1973) with Dustin Hoffman and the 'disaster' movie The Towering Inferno (John Guillermin, Irwin Allen, 1974) with Faye Dunaway and Paul Newman. On a personal level, Steve McQueen was as he usually was on the big screen: virile, petulant, slightly paranoid, tormented. He was obsessed with speed and regularly performed very well in national and international motor races. He was also a good marksman and a lover of oriental martial arts. He had a black belt 9th dan in Taekwondo. Together with James Coburn, he was one of the pallbearers of Bruce Lee's coffin. His last two films were loosely based on true stories: Tom Horn (William Wiard, 1980), a Western about a former Army scout-turned-professional gunman who worked for the big cattle ranchers hunting down rustlers, and was later hanged for murder in the shooting death of a sheepherder, and The Hunter (Buzz Kulik, 1980), an action thriller about a modern-day bounty hunter. In December 1979, he was diagnosed with lung cancer, caused by asbestos. But he kept this a secret until a month before his death. In January 1980, he suffered a heart attack shortly after marrying his third wife. At the end of 1980, he died of a heart attack in Mexico, less than a day after a successful operation to remove tumours from his right lung. Steve McQueen was only 50 years old. He was married to Neile Adams from 1956 to 1972, with whom he had two children. His second wife was Ali MacGraw from 1973 to 1978 and his last wife was Barbara Minty from 16 January 1980 until his death on 7 November of that year.
Sources Wikipedia (Dutch and English) and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
American postcard by Fotofolio, N.Y., N.Y, no. RE17. Photo: Marcia Resnick, 1981.
John Belushi (1949-1982) was an American actor and comedian. Belushi was a member of the original cast of the sketch programme Saturday Night Live and later appeared in successful comedies such as Animal House and The Blues Brothers. He died at the age of 33 from the effects of an accidental overdose. He was the brother of actor James "Jim" Belushi.
John Belushi was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1949, to Agnes Demetri (Samaras) and Adam Anastos Belushi, a restaurant owner. His father was an Albanian immigrant, from Qytezë, and his mother was also of Albanian descent. He grew up in Wheaton, where the family moved when he was six. Though a young hellion in grade school, John became the perfect all-American boy during his high school years where he was co-captain of the Wheaton Central High School football team and was elected homecoming king his senior year. He also developed an interest in acting and appeared in the high school variety show. Encouraged by his drama teacher, John decided to put aside his plans to become a football coach to pursue a career in acting. After graduation in 1967, John performed in summer stock in rural Indiana in a variety of roles from Cardinal Wolsey in 'Anne of a Thousand Days' to a comic detective in 'Ten Little Indians'. In the fall of his freshman year at the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater, John changed his image into a bad-boy appearance by growing his hair long and began to have problems with discipline and the structure of attending classes. In 1965, Belushi formed a band, the Ravens, together with four fellow high school students (Dick Blasucci, Michael Blasucci, Tony Pavilonis, and Phil Special). They recorded one single, 'Listen to Me Now/Jolly Green Giant'. Belushi played drums and sang vocals. The record was not successful, and the band broke up when he dropped out of Wisconsin. John spent the next two years at the College of DuPage, a junior college a few miles from his parents' Wheaton home, where his father began persuading him to become a partner in his restaurant, but John still preferred acting. He also attended the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater for a year, which inspired the famous Animal House scene of D-Day driving a motorcycle up the stairs. Belushi started his own comedy troupe in Chicago, the West Compass Trio (named after the improvisational cabaret revue Compass Players active from 1955 to 1958 in Chicago), with Tino Insana and Steve Beshekas. Their success piqued the interest of Bernard Sahlins, the founder of The Second City improvised comedy enterprise, who went to see them performing in 1971 and asked Belushi to join the cast. At Second City he performed in various on-stage comic performances with others, who included Harold Ramis and Joe Flaherty. John loved his life at Second City where he performed six nights a week, perfecting the physical "gonzo" style of comedy he later made famous. A year later, John and his live-in girlfriend from his high school years, Judith Belushi-Pisano, moved to New York because John had joined the cast of 'Lemmings', a parody of Woodstock and a production of the humorous magazine National Lampoon. Besides Belushi, the young comedians Chevy Chase and Christopher Guest were also part of the cast. The off-Broadway rock musical revue was originally booked for a six-week run but played to full crowds for nearly 10 months.
In 1973, John Belushi moved to New York with his girlfriend Judy Jacklin. In that year, National Lampoon also began broadcasting the comedy radio show The National Lampoon Radio Hour. Belushi made regular appearances on the radio show, along with Chevy Chase, Gilda Radner, Bill Murray and his brother Brian. Jacklin, who also became producer of the programme, married Belushi in 1976. During a trip to Toronto to check out the local Second City cast in 1974, he met Dan Aykroyd. In 1975, Chase and writer Michael O'Donoghue recommended Belushi to Lorne Michaels as a potential member for a television show Michaels was about to produce for NBC called NBC's Saturday Night, later Saturday Night Live (SNL). Michaels was initially undecided, as he was not sure if Belushi's physical humour would fit with what he was envisioning, but he changed his mind after giving Belushi an audition. Many employees of The National Lampoon Radio Hour moved to Saturday Night Live. Belushi, Radner, Chase, Dan Aykroyd, George Coe and others made up the cast of the sketch programme's first season. The ground-breaking TV variety series made Belushi a star. His unpredictable, aggressively physical style of humour flowered on SNL. Two years later, Bill Murray also made his SNL debut. Over his four-year tenure at SNL, Belushi became one of the programme's best-loved comedians, thanks in part to his character Futaba, a samurai. With Aykroyd, Belushi created Jake and Elwood, the Blues Brothers. Originally intended to warm up the studio audience before broadcasts of SNL, the Blues Brothers were eventually featured as musical guests. In 1978, while still working on Saturday Night Live (1975), John appeared in the films Old Boyfriends (Joan Tewkesbury, 1978) and Goin' South (1978) which starred and were directed by Jack Nicholson. Director John Landis cast him in National Lampoon's Animal House (John Landis, 1978) as the notorious, beer-swilling "Bluto" and he stole the movie which portrays college fraternity shenanigans at a small college set in the year 1962. Upon its initial release, Animal House received generally mixed reviews from critics, but Time magazine and Roger Ebert proclaimed it one of the year's best movies. Filmed for $2.8 million, it is one of the most profitable movies of all time, garnering an estimated gross of more than $141 million. In 1979, John Belushi along with fellow SNL regular Dan Aykroyd quit the series to pursue movie projects. They appeared together in Steven Spielberg's financially unsuccessful comic war film 1941 (1979) and the next year, in the massive hit The Blues Brothers (John Landis, 1980).
Around this time, John Belushi's drug use began escalating. Cocaine, which was ubiquitous in show-business circles in the 1970s, became his drug of choice. After he first experimented with cocaine in the mid-1970s, John almost immediately became addicted to it. His frequent cocaine sniffing binges became a source of friction between him and Judy, whom he married in 1976. John's love for blues and soul music inspired the "Blues Brothers". He and Aykroyd first appeared as Joliet Jake and Elwood Blues, a pair of white soul men dressed in black suits, skinny ties, fedora hats and Rayban sunglasses, as a warm-up act before the telecasts of Saturday Night Live (1975). Building on the success of their acts and the release of their album "A Briefcase Full of Blues", John and Dan Aykroyd starred in the movie, which gave John a chance to act with his favourite musical heroes including Ray Charles, James Brown and Aretha Franklin. It became his best-known film. Using some of his money, John Belushi bought his father a ranch outside San Diego for him to live. John helped set up some of his Chicago friends with their own businesses and even financially helped his younger brother, Jim Belushi, who followed his older brother's path to both Second City and Saturday Night Live (1975). In 1981, John appeared in the film Continental Divide (Michael Apted, 1981), playing a hard-nosed Chicago newspaperman who finds romance in Colorado with eagle expert Blair Brown. That same year, John and Dan Aykroyd appeared again in the movie Neighbors (John G. Avildsen, 1981), which gave them a chance to reverse roles, with John playing a straight-arrow family man whose life is turned upside down when a wild family man (Aykroyd) moves in next door. However, neither film could repeat the success of The Blues Brothers. In 1982, John checked into a bungalow at the Chateau Marmont, a popular celebrity hotel in Los Angeles. John's drug use had been steadily increasing for over a year now, which alarmed his wife and friends, but he continued to promise Judy that he would quit someday. On 5 March 19872, John Belushi was found dead of a drugs overdose in his hotel room. He was 33. The local coroner gave the cause of death as a lethal injection of cocaine and heroin. Several years later, John's drug dealing/drug user companion during his final weeks, Cathy Evelyn Smith, was tried and sentenced to three years in prison for supplying John with the drugs. Close friend James Taylor sang "That Lonesome Road" at a memorial service at Martha's Vineyard cemetery where John was buried. Colleague and friend Dan Aykroyd wrote the screenplays for Ghostbusters and Spies Like Us. In both films, he had foreseen a role for Belushi. The role in Ghostbusters was eventually played by Bill Murray, and in Spies Like Us by Chevy Chase. Belushi was posthumously honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2004.
Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch and English) and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
The Walk of the Brave is a place thanks to which present and future generations of Ukrainians will remember those brave people who have stood with Ukraine from the very beginning.
Next to the names of many world leaders who helped Ukraine during the war, there is a name plaque of Sean Penn.
Sean Penn visited Ukraine on the first day of the Russian invasion to document the events in our country and tell the world the truth about Russian aggression. Such support for Ukraine and its people is extremely valuable.
British postcard by Art Photo, no. 62.
American singer and actor Dick Powell (1904-1963) was also a film producer, film director, and studio head. Though he came to stardom as a juvenile lead in the Warner backstage musicals, Powell showed versatility and successfully transformed into a hardboiled leading man in Film Noirs. He was the first actor to portray the private detective Philip Marlowe on screen.
Richard Ewing Powell was born in Mountain View, the seat of Stone County in northern Arkansas. Powell was the son of Ewing Powell and Sallie Rowena Thompson. He was one of three brothers. His brothers were Luther and Howard Powell, who ended up as vice president of the Illinois Central Railroad. The family moved to Little Rock in 1914, where Powell sang in church choirs and with local orchestras and started his own band. Powell attended the former Little Rock College before he started his entertainment career as a singer and banjo player with the Royal Peacock Band. He then got a gig with the Charlie Davis band and toured with them throughout the mid-west, appearing at dance halls and picture theatres. In 1925, he married Mildred Maund, a model, but she found being married to an entertainer, not to her liking. After a final trip to Cuba together, Mildred moved to Hemphill, Texas, and the couple divorced in 1932. He recorded a number of records with Davis and on his own, for the Vocalion label in the late 1920s. Powell moved to Pittsburgh, where he found great local success as the Master of Ceremonies at the Enright Theater and the Stanley Theater. In April 1930, Warner Bros. bought Brunswick Records, which at that time owned Vocalion. Warner Bros. was sufficiently impressed by Dick Powell's singing and stage presence to offer him a film contract in 1932. He made his film debut as a singing bandleader in Blessed Event (Roy Del Ruth, 1932) with Lee Tracy and Mary Brian. He was borrowed by Fox to support Will Rogers in Too Busy to Work (John G. Blystone, 1932). He was a boyish crooner, the sort of role he specialised in for the next few years. Back at Warners, he supported George Arliss in The King's Vacation (John G. Adolfi, 1933). Then he was the love interest for Ruby Keeler in 42nd Street (Lloyd Bacon, 1933), which was a massive hit. Warner let him repeat the role in Gold Diggers of 1933 (Mervyn LeRoy, 1933), which was another big success. Looking rather younger than his actual years, Powell soon found himself typecast as clean-cut singing juveniles. Another hit was Footlight Parade (Lloyd Bacon, 1933), with Keeler, Joan Blondell, and James Cagney. Powell was upped to star for College Coach (William A. Wellman, 1933), then went back to more ensemble pieces including 42nd Street (Lloyd Bacon, 1933), Convention City (Archie Mayo, 1933), and Dames (Ray Enright, Busby Berkeley, 1934). He was top-billed in Gold Diggers of 1935 (Busby Berkeley, 1935), with Joan Blondell. He supported Marion Davies in Page Miss Glory (Mervyn LeRoy, 1935), made for Cosmopolitan Pictures, a production company financed by Davies' lover William Randolph Hearst who released through Warners. Warners gave Dick Powell a change of pace, casting him as Lysander in A Midsummer Night's Dream (William Dieterle, Max Reinhardt, 1935). He did two films with Blondell, Stage Struck (Busby Berkeley, 1936) and Gold Diggers of 1937 (Lloyd Bacon, 1937). Then 20th Century Fox borrowed him for On the Avenue (Roy Del Ruth, 1937) with Madeleine Carroll. Back at Warners, he appeared in Hard to Get (Ray Enright, 1938) with Olivia de Havilland, and Naughty but Nice (Ray Enright, 1939), starring Ann Sheridan. Fed up with the repetitive nature of his roles, Powell left Warner Bros and went to work for Paramount.
At Paramount, Dick Powell and his then-wife, Joan Blondell were in another musical, I Want a Divorce (Ralph Murphy, 1940). Then Powell got a chance to appear in a non-musical and starred opposite Ellen Drew in the sparkling Preston Sturges comedy Christmas in July (1940). I.S. Mowis at IMDb cites Powell saying: "I knew I wasn't the greatest singer in the world and I saw no reason why an actor should restrict himself to any one particular phase of the business". Universal borrowed him to support Abbott and Costello in In the Navy (Arthur Lubin, 1941), one of the most popular films of 1941. He was in a fantasy comedy directed by René Clair, It Happened Tomorrow (1944) then went over to MGM to appear opposite Lucille Ball in Meet the People (Charles Reisner, 1944), which was a box office flop. During this period, Powell starred in the musical program Campana Serenade, which was broadcast on NBC radio (1942–1943) and CBS radio (1943–1944). I.S. Mowis at IMDb: "Few actors ever managed a complete image transition as thoroughly as did Dick Powell: in his case, from the boyish, wavy-haired crooner in musicals to rugged crime fighters in films noir." By 1944, Powell felt he was too old to play romantic leading men anymore. Still dissatisfied with lightweight roles, Powell lobbied hard to get the lead in Double Indemnity. He lost out to Fred MacMurray, another Hollywood nice guy. MacMurray's success, however, fueled Powell's resolve to pursue projects with greater range. Instead, he was slotted into more of the same fare, refused to comply and was suspended. Powell tried his luck at RKO and at last, managed to secure a lucrative role: that of hard-boiled private eye Philip Marlowe in Raymond Chandler's Murder, My Sweet (Edward Dmytryk, 1944). He was the first actor to play Marlowe – by name – in motion pictures. Hollywood had previously adapted some Marlowe novels, but with the lead character changed. Later, Powell was the first actor to play Marlowe on radio, in 1944 and 1945, and on television, in an episode of Climax! (1954). Murder My Sweet was a big hit. Bosley Crowther in the New York Times: " ...and while he may lack the steely coldness and cynicism of a Humphrey Bogart, Mr. Powell need not offer any apologies. He has definitely stepped out of the song-and-dance, pretty-boy league with this performance". Powell had successfully reinvented himself as a dramatic actor. His career changed dramatically: he was cast in a series of Films Noirs. On the radio, Powell played detective Richard Rogue in the series Rogue's Gallery beginning in 1945. On-screen, Dmytryk, and Powell reteamed to make the film Cornered (Edward Dmytryk, 1945), a gripping, post-World War II thriller that helped define the Film Noir style. For Columbia, he played a detective in Johnny O'Clock (Robert Rossen, 1947) and made To the Ends of the Earth (Robert Stevenson, 1948) with Signe Hasso. In 1948, he stepped out of the brutish type when he starred in Pitfall (André De Toth, 1948), a Film Noir in which a bored insurance company worker falls for an innocent but dangerous woman, played by Lizabeth Scott. He broadened his range appearing in a Western, Station West (Sidney Lanfield, 1948), and a French Foreign Legion tale, Rogues' Regiment (Robert Florey, 1949) with Marta Toren. He was a Mountie in Mrs. Mike (Louis King, 1950). From 1949 to 1953, Powell played the lead role in the NBC radio theater production Richard Diamond, Private Detective. His character in the 30-minute weekly was a likable private detective with a quick wit. Many episodes were written by Blake Edwards and many ended with Detective Diamond having an excuse to sing a little song to his date.
Dick Powell took a break from tough-guy roles in The Reformer and the Redhead (Melvin Frank, Norman Panama, 1950), opposite his new wife June Allyson. Then it was back to tougher movies: Cry Danger (Robert Parrish, 1951), as an ex-con; and The Tall Target (Anthony Mann, 1951), as a detective who tries to prevent the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. He returned to comedy with You Never Can Tell (Lou Breslow, 1951). He had a good role as best-selling novelist James Lee Bartlow in the popular melodrama, The Bad and the Beautiful (Vincente Minnelli, 1952). His final film performance was in a romantic comedy Susan Slept Here (1954) for director Frank Tashlin. Even when he appeared in lighter fare such as Susan Slept Here (Frank Tashlin, 1954), he never sang in his later roles. It was his final onscreen appearance in a feature film and included a dance number with co-star Debbie Reynolds. By this stage, Powell had turned director. His feature debut was Split Second (1953) with Stephen McNally and Alexis Smith. He followed it with The Conqueror (1956), coproduced by Howard Hughes starring John Wayne as Genghis Khan. The exterior scenes were filmed in St. George, Utah, downwind of U.S. above-ground atomic tests. The cast and crew totaled 220, and of that number, 91 had developed some form of cancer by 1981, and 46 had died of cancer by then, including Powell and Wayne. He directed Allyson opposite Jack Lemmon in You Can't Run Away from It (1956). Powell then made two war films at Fox with Robert Mitchum, The Enemy Below (1957) and The Hunters (1958). In the 1950s, Powell was one of the founders of Four Star Television, along with Charles Boyer, David Niven, and Ida Lupino. He appeared in and supervised several shows for that company. Powell played the role of Willie Dante in episodes of Four Star Playhouse, and guest-starred in numerous Four Star programs. Shortly before his death, Powell sang on camera for the final time in a guest-star appearance on Four Star's Ensign O'Toole, singing 'The Song of the Marines', which he first sang in his film The Singing Marine (Ray Enright, 1937). He hosted and occasionally starred in his Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater on CBS from 1956–1961, and his final anthology series, The Dick Powell Show on NBC from 1961 through 1963; after his death, the series continued through the end of its second season (as The Dick Powell Theater), with guest hosts. He married three times: Mildred Evelyn Maund (1925-1932), Joan Blondell (1936-1944) and June Allyson ( 1945, until his death in 1963). He adopted Joan Blondell's son from a previous marriage, Norman Powell, who later became a television producer; the couple also had one child together, Ellen Powell. He had two children with Allyson, Pamela (adopted) and Richard 'Dick' Powell, Jr. Powell's ranch-style house was used for exterior filming on the ABC TV series, Hart to Hart. Powell was a friend of Hart to Hart actor Robert Wagner and producer Aaron Spelling. In 1962, Powell acknowledged rumors that he was undergoing treatment for cancer. The disease was originally diagnosed as an allergy, with Powell first experiencing symptoms while traveling East to promote his program. Upon his return to California, Powell's personal physician conducted tests and found malignant tumors on his neck and chest. Powell died at the age of 58 in 1963. His body was cremated and his remains were interred in the Columbarium of Honor at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. In The Day of the Locust (1975), Powell was portrayed by his son Dick Powell Jr.
Sources: I.S. Mowis (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
French postcard in the Collection Cinéma by Editions Malibran, Paris / Nancy, no. CF 54. Photo: Cyril Stanborough. Gérard Philipe in Monsieur Ripois / Knave of Hearts (René Clément, 1954).
The legendary idol of the French cinema Gérard Philipe (1922–1959) was adored for his good looks, but he was also a very talented actor. He played roles as diverse as Faust and Modigliani, and France's preeminent directors sought him out for his versatility and professionalism.
Gérard Philipe (sometimes written as Philippe) was born Gérard Philip in Cannes, France, in 1922. In 1940, Gérard left school, and his parents wanted him to become a lawyer. His mother noticed that he was only interested in acting, but his father was against the idea. Gérard's father, a successful businessman, was a right-wing extremist and collaborated with the Nazis. After the war, he was forced into exile in Spain to escape a death sentence. Gérard himself was, his whole life, a staunch social liberal, politically wise. Actor Claude Dauphin introduced the young Philipe in 1942 to the stage. One of his first parts was as the angel in 'Sodome et Gomorrhe' by Jean Giraudoux in 1943. Director Marc Allégret decided that he showed some promise and gave him a small part in his film Les petites du quai aux fleurs / The Girls From the Quai aux Fleurs (Marc Allégret, 1944) starring Odette Joyeux. With the support of his admirer Jean Cocteau, he entered the Paris Conservatory, where, under the tutelage of Georges Le Roy, he discovered his passion for live theatre. In 1945, he received rave reviews for his performance in the stage production of Albert Camus’ 'Caligula'. This success further opened the doors to the cinema. His first leading role in Le pays sans étoiles / Land Without Stars (Georges Lacombe, 1946), opposite Jany Holt, received so many favourable reviews that he became a star.
In 1947, Gérard Philipe exploded upon the European film scene in Le diable au corps / Devil in the Flesh (Claude Autant-Lara, 1947), playing Francois Jaubert, a callow youth in love with much older and very married Micheline Presle. Superstardom followed almost immediately: female filmgoers doted upon Philippe's sensitive, handsome features and strapping physique, while men identified with his soulfulness and introspection. Next, he would take on prominent roles in such classic films as Une si jolie petite plage / Such a Pretty Little Beach (Yves Allégret, 1949), and La beauté du diable / Beauty and the Devil (René Clair, 1950) as Faust. He was an international success as the tongue-in-cheek titular swashbuckler Fanfan la Tulipe / Fan-Fan the Tulip (Christian-Jaque, 1952), one of the most popular historical-adventure films made in France. At French Films, James Travers reviews: "Not only is the film impeccably made, with lavish production values, stunning cinematography and impressively choreographed fight scenes, but it has a timeless quality which will no doubt ensure it will remain a popular classic for years to come. Philipe excels in this film in what is regarded by many as his finest film role, the indefatigable womaniser and agile swordsman Fanfan la Tulipe. Philipe is simply brilliant in the role, tackling the numerous swordfights and Henri Jeanson’s sparkling dialogue with equal relish." He appeared with such great stars of the European cinema as Italian beauty Gina Lollobrigida in Les belles de nuit / Beauties of the Night (René Clair, 1952), with Michèle Morgan in both Les orgueilleux / The Proud Ones (Yves Allégret, 1953) and Les grandes manœuvres / The Grand Maneuver (René Clair, 1955). In 1956, Philipe starred in and directed a filmization of the old folk tale Till Eulenspiegel, Les Aventures de Till L'Espiègle / Bold Adventure (Gérard Philipe, Joris Ivens, 1956). The French-East-German coproduction was not a success. He simultaneously pursued his stage career, with a keen involvement in the Théatre National de Paris, which would endure up until his death. Whilst working at the TNP, Philipe, a strong believer in egalitarianism, would draw the same salary as junior actors. He would also become president of the French actors' union, actively promoting the rights of actors.
Gérard Philipe continued his string of film successes throughout the 1950s. Among these films were the Fyodor Dostoevsky adaptation Le joueur / The Gambler (Claude Autant-Lara, 1958) with Liselotte Pulver, and Les liaisons dangereuses / Dangerous Liaisons (Roger Vadim, 1959) opposite Jeanne Moreau. In 1959, doctors told Philippe that he had liver cancer. On 25 November that year, while working on Luis Buñuel's Le Fievre Monte a El Pao / Fever Mounts at El Pao (Luis Buñuel, 1959), he died at the peak of his popularity. He was just 36 years old. The news provoked an immediate and intense outpouring of grief. His early death elevated him to a near-legendary status in France. Since 1951, Philipe has been married to actress and writer Nicole Fourcade, with whom he had two children: writer and actor Anne-Marie Philipe (1954) and Olivier Philipe (1957). Nicole adopted the pseudonym Anne Philipe and wrote two books about her husband, 'Souvenirs' (1960) and 'Le Temps d'un soupir' (1963, No Longer Than a Sigh). In 1961, Gérard's portrait appeared on a French commemorative postage stamp. There is a film festival named in his honour as well as several theatres, schools and colleges in various parts of France. He was also very popular in Germany, and a Berlin theatre has been named after him.
Sources: James Travers (Le Film Guide), AllMovie, Films de France, Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Sophie Bouchard as Belle and Craig Bruneski as the Beast in Ignite Theatre"s production of Beauty and the Beast at the Chilliwack Cultural Centre. BC CA
Dutch postcard. Photo: J. Arthur Rank Film / Ufa/Film-Foto.
British actor Tony Wright (1925-1986) was a popular leading man during the 1950s and nicknamed 'Britain's Mr. Beefcake'. He was a Rank Organisation contract player for some years and played the role of London-based private detective Slim Callaghan in three French films.
Paul Anthony 'Tony' Wright was born in London, in 1925. He was the son of French-born British actor and screenwriter Hugh E. Wright. Tony got his start working in South African repertory theatre. In 1952, he made his screen debut in a BBC TV play, This Happy Breed (1952), based on a play by Noël Coward. In the cinema, he played a sexy, dangerous type in The Flanagan Boy (Reginald Le Borg, 1953) lured by Hollywood 'Bad Blonde' Barbara Payton to do her dirty work. The film made the hunky blond actor a beefcake pin-up of the 1950s. In France, he had success in the title role of the crime film À toi de jouer... Callaghan!!!/Amazing Mr. Callaghan (Willy Rozier, 1955), based on a novel by Peter Cheney. It was soon followed by Plus de whisky pour Callaghan!/No more whisky for Callaghan! (Willy Rozier, 1955) with Magali Vendeuil.
Tony Wright was contracted by the Rank Organisation and appeared in the Franke Howerd comedy Jumping for Joy (
John Paddy Carstairs, 1956) and a series of mediocre crime films. He married actress Janet Munro in 1957, though the couple was divorced in 1959. He returned as Callaghan in the French film Callaghan remet ça/Callaghan does it again (Willy Rozier, 1961) opposite Geneviève Kervine. In 1962, he married Shirley Clark, the daughter of writer Lesley Storm. During the 1960s he worked mostly for television and guest-starred in such popular series as The Avengers (1968) and The Saint. (1962-1968). Later he only played small roles in such B films as Clinic Exclusive (Doon Chaffey, 1971) and The Creeping Flesh (Freddie Francis, 1973) starring Christopher Lee. His final screen appearance was a bit role in the TV series Don't Wait Up (1983). Tony Wright passed away in 1986 in Wandsworth, London, in the aftermath of falling. He was 60. Wright was cremated at Putney Vale Crematorium.
Sources: Wikipedia and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
1 available.
Artist?
Printed on the back-
"Harry Potter E A Pedra Filosofal."
‘Harry Potter and the Philosophers' Stone, was the original UK. title.
It was changed to "Sorcerer's Stone."
Thanks to Missive Maven's info.
Actress and fight coordinator Katie Warner
Sword by Rogue Steel
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