Jimmy Stewart ~ Best Actor Nominee 1950

James Stewart is arguably the most loved actor ever to have appeared on screen. Certainly, he is the last of the great men who captured audience hearts in the throes of the Depression and became, in the words of Andrew Sarris, “the most complete actor-personality in the American cinema.”

Stewart’s origins read like clichés; he was born in 1908 in Indiana, Pennsylvania, the son of the local hardware store owner (his Oscar has permanently resided in the store, which has been in the family for generations). While studying architecture at Princeton (his father’s alma mater), he met Joshua Logan, who convinced him to begin acting. Billy O’Grady, MGM’s chief talent scout, saw his performance in a line of female impersonators and remembered him as “the only one who didn’t ham it up.” Bitten at last by the drama bug, Stewart moved with Logan to summer stock work with the University Players in Falmouth, MA, joining Henry Fonda and Margaret Sullavan.

That summer a production had a pre-Broadway tryout at Falmouth and Stewart, as a chaffeur, had two lines: “Mrs. Mainwaring’s car is waiting” and, after being delayed, “Mrs. Mainwaring’s going to be sore as hell.” It tore down the house and was noticed and written up by a visiting New York critic. Stewart and Fonda moved to New York, where Hedda Hopper recommended Jimmy for a screen test, resulting in a longterm MGM contract.

At age 33, he enlisted as private and rose to colonel in the Air Force, leading one thousand plane strikes against Germany; Stewart won the Air Medal and the Distinguished Flying Cross.
After the war, Stewart contributed what is undoubtedly his best-known performance, in Frank Capra’s IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946). He would later deliver a speech before Congress protesting the film’s colorization.

He returned to Broadway to replace Frank Fay in the whimsical Harvey and, before filming the 1950 movie version, made the first two westerns of his career, both of which were hugely popular. But his role in Harvey gave him his 4th Best Actor Nomination.

Stewart also turned in a heart-tugging performance as a clown in De Mille’s THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH (1952).
In 1952, Stewart’s agent Leland Hayward successfully negotiated an agreement with Universal for Stewart to work on a percentage basis — a first for the sound era. Every star in the business stampeded to do the same, something which Stewart felt signified the last hurrah for the studio system. He looked back on his “factory years” with clear nostalgia and gratitude.

The next phase of Stewart’s career saw some of his most complex roles, for directors such as Hitchcock, Preminger (ANATOMY OF A MURDER, 1959 earned him a best actor award from the New York Critics — his second — and the Venice Film Festival), Ford, Aldrich and Anthony Mann. His famous gawky, stammering mannerisms took on an extra interest for being filtered through toughness, cynicism and world-weariness. Though there were occasional flops, he undoubtedly proved his ability to transcend bad material.

Stewart married his wife Gloria in 1949 and had four children. In 1970, he revived Harvey on Broadway with Helen Hayes and did occasional TV work, notably “The Jimmy Stewart Show” (1971-72) and 1983’s powerful TV-movie RIGHT OF WAY, with Bette Davis. In 1990 he was honored by the Film Society of Lincoln Center for lifetime achievement.

1950 Best Picture Nominee ~ Sunset Boulevard

Billy Wilder’s noir-comic classic about death and decay in Hollywood remains as pungent as ever in its power to provoke shock, laughter, and gasps of astonishment. Joe Gillis (William Holden), a broke and cynical young screenwriter, is attempting to ditch a pair of repo men late one afternoon when he pulls off L.A.’s storied Sunset Boulevard and into the driveway of a seedy mansion belonging to Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), a forgotten silent movie luminary whose brilliant acting career withered with the coming of talkies. The demented old movie queen lives in the past, assisted by her devoted (but intimidating) butler, Max (played by Erich von Stroheim, the legendary director of Greed and Swanson’s own lost epic, Queen Kelly). Norma dreams of making a comeback in a remake of Salome to be directed by her old colleague Cecil B. DeMille (as himself), and Joe becomes her literary and romantic gigolo. Sunset Blvd. is one of those great movies that has become a part of popular culture

Anne Baxter ~ Best Actress Nominee 1950

Fiction played itself out in the 1950 Best Actress race, both Anne Baxter and Bette Davis were nominated for their roles in All About Eve. Anne in the title role of Eve Harrington, Bette Davis as the aging Margo Channing. Baxter was the scheming and manipulative protege of Bette Davis’ Channing and they both went on to be nominated for the prestigous actress award in the film. However unlike the film, neither Bette or Anne walked away with an acting Oscar.

Baxter’s portrayal as the first quiet and naive Eve Harrington takes everyone by suprise when she soon takes over Margo’s life. First as an assistant, and then as a stand-in and then her role, and her husband. This would become the role Anne Baxter would be best known for. Well, that and her role in the Ten Commandments.

Eleanor Parker ~ Best Actress Nominee 1950

A film about a women’s prison, Oscar worthy? The film was interesting to say the least. It has become a cult-classic. Angens Moorehead as the warden and Eleanor Parker as the good girl gone bad. Eleanor would go on to win an Academy Award nomination for her role as Marie Allen, in what was to become the best women prison movie ever!

Parker would also garner two more Oscar nominations, but to date has never received a golden boy.

Thelma Ritter ~ 1950 Supporting Actress Nominee

One of the screens greatest character actresses, Thelma Ritter was always the bridesmaid but never the bride. Ritter’s first movie role was in Miracle on 34th Street (1947). The 45-year-old made a memorable impression in a brief uncredited part, as a frustrated mother unable to find the toy that Kris Kringle has promised to her son. Her second role, in writer-director Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s A Letter to Three Wives (1949), also left a mark, although Ritter was again not listed in the credits.

Irascible, persnickety, hard-boiled, outspoken, cynical and wisecracking…all terms used to describe the type roles that Thelma Ritter played. Her small frame was no deterrent as her personality and gravelly-voiced, nasal twang became her best assets in her acting career. She spent her entire career stealing both scenes and entire films from glamorous, big-name stars. She stole them, however, not through attention-getting ticks. Instead, she was simply so real, and so convincing that it was impossible to meet her on screen, and then forget her.

Mankiewicz kept Ritter in mind, and cast her in his All About Eve the following year. An Oscar nomination led to popularity, a second Oscar nomination for Mitchell Leisen’s’ classic comedy The Mating Season (1951) starring Gene Tierney and Miriam Hopkins, followed. Ritter enjoyed steady film work for the next dozen years. She also appeared in many of the episodic drama TV series of the 1950s, such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, General Electric Theater, and The United States Steel Hour.

Throughout her career, Ritter was nominated for an Academy Award six times but never received one. She co-hosted the Oscar ceremony in 1954, trading wisecracks with Bob Hope.

The diminutive, gravel-voiced Ritter gained great acclaim as a premiere character actress, known for her comic timing and sassy one-liners. She was most typically cast as the sardonic, seen-it-all housekeeper who saw through her boss’s vanity and frequently told them so. But she was also fiercely protective, and neither trusted nor tolerated fools or con men. Ritter would trade on this irascible screen persona for the rest of her life.

Jeff Chandler ~ 1950 Supporting Actor Nominee

In the 1950s, Chandler became a star in western and action movies. His first important role was in Sword In The Desert (1948), as an Israeli freedom fighter.

He would be nominated for an Academy Award for his role as Cochise in Broken Arrow (1950), the first of three screen appearances as the legendary Apache chief, followed by The Battle Of Apache Pass (1952) and Taza, Son Of Cochise (1954).

During the latter part of the decade, Chandler turned into a top leading man. His sex appeal, curiously heightened by his prematurely gray hair and tanned features, would put him into drama and costume movies. Some of his pictures in this period include Away All Boats, Toy Tiger, Drango, The Tattered Dress, Man In The Shadow, Foxfire, A Stranger In My Arms, and Thunder In The Sun.

His leading ladies would include June Allyson, Joan Crawford, Rhonda Fleming, Susan Hayward (a friend from Brooklyn), Maureen O’Hara, Jane Russell and Esther Williams.

Shortly after completing his role in Merrill’s Marauders (1962), Chandler entered a Culver City hospital and had surgery for a spinal disc herniation on May 13, 1961. There were severe complications, an artery was damaged and Chandler hemorrhaged. In a seven and a half hour emergency operation over and above the original surgery, he was given an enormous amount of blood, 55 pints. Another operation followed, date unknown, where he received an additional 20 pints of blood. An average adult has about 11 pints of blood, so his entire blood volume was replaced several times over! Chandler fought hard to live, but expired June 17, 1961. His death was deemed malpractice and resulted in a large lawsuit and settlement for his children. Tony Curtis and Gerald Mohr were pallbearers at Chandler’s funeral.

William Holden ~ Best Actor Nominee 1950

Making his first film in 1939, William Holden soon became a name in Hollywood, but 1950 proved to be Holden’s watershed year: He starred in two career landmarks, BORN YESTERDAY as Judy Holliday’s culture tutor cum lover, and Billy Wilder’s SUNSET BLVD., as Norma Desmond’s hack screenwriter boyfriend. With the latter portrayal, came the Oscar nomination and Holden’s screen persona began to move into the darker areas that were further explored in later roles like that of the pessimistic POW suspected of being a Nazi informer, in Wilder’s STALAG 17 (1953), a role which finally saw Holden take home the Oscar.

Wilder seemed to have a unique understanding of the sleaze potential hiding behind the actor’s All-American persona. Holden went on to become a leading box-office star between 1954-58 and reigned as the top-grosser in 1956. Notable roles of this period included playing an ambitious company man in EXECUTIVE SUITE, a ne’er-do-well playboy in Wilder’s SABRINA (both 1954), and the drifter who breaks Kim Novak’s heart in PICNIC (1955).

King Solomons Mines ~ Best Picture Nominee 1950

Stewart Granger plays the infamous Allan Quartermaine, who leads the beautiful Deborah Kerr into the African jungle to find her lost husband. Along the way they find animals and fight the jungle and they also find each other and fall in love. Adapted from the H. Rider Haggard novel, this film gave the audiences a look into the jungles of Africa and by doing so won an Academy Award for Cinematography, Color and Best Film Editing.

Granger was likable and believable as the adventurer Quartermaine. His dashing good looks and physique was perfect for the part. However, Deborah Kerr never really pulled of the part. The filming of this movie was what made it stand out, and of course in the 1950’s adventure films seem to lure audiences much more than they did previously. Overall a good picture, but certainly there were better pictures that should have made the list in 1950 besides this one.

Gloria Swanson ~ Best Actress Nominee 1950

Always a bridesmaid but never a bride, the former silent film star and lover of Joseph P. Kennedy, received her third and final Oscar nomination in 1950 in a role which many say was not a role at all, but just being herself in the Academy Award nominated film, Sunset Boulevard. Despite receiving a third Oscar nomination for the performance of a lifetime — as Norma Desmond Gloria walked away empty-handed.

A huge star in silent films, with over 60 silent film roles Gloria could never gain the same type of response in the “talkies”. Even though she never won the elusive Oscar, Gloria would be forever remembered as great Norma Desmond, and her line…Mr. DeMille I’m ready for my close-up.

Louis Calhern ~ Best Actor Nominee 1950

Even though Louis Calhern is better known for his roles in Notorious, Annie Get Your Gun, where he played a singing Buffalo Bill, then the double-crossing lawyer and sugar-daddy to Marilyn Monroe in The Asphalt Jungle and High Society, Louis garnered his only Oscar nomination with his portrayal of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in THE MAGNIFICENT YANKEE.

One of the great character actors on contract in the 1950’s with MGM, Louis Calhern was an imposing figure; tall, with a kindly face framed with a mane of white hair, a distinguished looking white mustache, with a velvety smooth voice, and a very debonair air about him. His aristocratic looks worked well for him on stage and in films. He was a standard in silent films in the 20’s and transitioned into talking pictures. In the early 30s he was primarily in demand as a character actor in Hollywood, but he continued to play leading roles on the stage. For a time, Calhern battled alcoholism and lost several important stage and screen assignments because of his personal problems, but by the late 1940s, Calhern had gone cold turkey and completely cleaned up his act. As he aged, his kindly face and cultured voice helped him to work steadily in the 50s in character roles. He could play a leading man or a villain and both convincingly.