Mary Astor

American leading lady who’s real name was Lucille Langehanke, the beautiful daughter of first generation German immigrants. Because of a beauty contest she entered, one of many, she was noticed by a movie mogul and she was signed up at a studio at the age of 14. In 1924, her movie career took off, after landing a plum part in Beau Brummell, a film with the star, John Barrymore.
In the late twnenties, she was one of the few actresses who transitioned into “Talkies” very smoothly, becasue of her voice and strong screen presence. Mary Astor’s golden era as an actress was during the 1930’s. In later years Astor did many character roles. Mary’s film career was prolific, with 123 motion pictures to her name.

Mary Astor won her Supporting Oscar for playing the girl who had a baby by Bette Davis’ husband in THE GREAT LIE.

Hitchcock Comes to America

Rebecca is an ageless, timeless adult movie about a woman who marries a widower but fears she lives in the shadow of her predecessor. This was Hitchcock’s first American feature, and it garnered the Best Picture statuette at the 1941 Academy Awards. In today’s films, most twists and surprises are ridiculous or just gratuitous, so it’s sobering to look back on this film where every revelation not only shocks, but makes organic sense with the story line. Laurence Olivier is dashing and weak, fierce and cowed. Joan Fontaine is strong yet submissive, defiant yet accommodating. The rest of the cast is top-notch and includes George Sanders, Dame Judith Anderson, Gladys Cooper, Nigel Bruce, Reginald Denny, C. Aubrey Smith, Leonard Carey and Leo G. Carroll. There isn’t a false moment or misstep.

Henry Fonda’s Mother

Born Patti Woodward in Palmyra, MO, Jane Darwell was the daughter of a railroad president who claimed to be a direct descendant of Andrew Jackson. She made her debut in 1906. She began appearing in films in 1913 and for the next 50 years played some 200 character roles, often in kind, motherly roles. Won an Academy Award for her portrayal of Ma Joad in THE GRAPES OF WRATH (1940).

She once said, “I’ve played Henry Fonda’s mother so often that, whenever we run into each other, I call him ’son’ and he calls me ‘Ma’, just to save time.”

Dancing Kitty?

Ginger Rogers made her performing debut as a dancer at the age of 14 and became a regular on the vaudeville circuit after winning a statewide Charleston contest in Texas. She achieved her breakthrough in 1929-30 when she was prominently cast in the Broadway musicals, Top Speed and Girl Crazy, and began landing feature film roles at Paramount’s East Coast studios in Astoria during the run of the latter. Rogers moved to Hollywood in 1931, at first continuing to play the cooey, funny flappers seen in her debut feature, YOUNG MAN OF MANHATTAN (1930), in which her line, “Cigarette me, big boy!,” became a popular catchphrase nationally.

Not classically trained but an experienced show dancer, Rogers expanded her range in tap and ballroom styles with remarkable quickness and accomplishment during the series of films with Astaire. She would remain his finest partner because she best fulfilled the dual requirements of being a trained actress and a willing dance pupil. Most of Astaire’s partners simply basked in his glow; as dance critic Arlene Croce wrote, “Rogers could even shed her own light.” More confident and gifted than most of his later partners and less awed by his formidable abilities than any of the others, Rogers alone helped create a light yet substantial and sexy romantic tension with Astaire both on and off the dance floor which still resonates today.

Rogers subsequently expanded her range, earning an Oscar for her poignant dramatic work in KITTY FOYLE

Three Time Supporting Oscar

Probably one, if not the best well known and most sucessful charecter actors in film history, Walter Brennan would win his third of three Academy Awards in 1940 for his role as tempestuous Judge Roy Bean. Brennan affected a neck dislocation for his part in The Westerner. The real life Bean, also known as “The Hanging Judge,” was himself hanged and cut down, leaving him with this particular neck ailment.

It was Brennan’s third win in only a five year old category!

He would go on to win yet another nomination in the coming years and continued his work that would span six decades in film, TV and theater.

Best Actor 1940 ~ Jimmy Stewart

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.

In 1940, he gave his Oscar winning Performance in The Philadelphia Story, an intelligent, sophisticated, classic romantic comedy-farce (part screwball) of love and marriage, human growth and class distinctions. He was Macauley Connor – a tabloid reporter for ‘Spy’ Magazine. It was thought to be a consolation prize for his loss a year earlier for his performance in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). Stewart’s win deprived Henry Fonda a much-deserved Best Actor Award for his work in The Grapes of Wrath (1940).

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.

Actress Predictions

2007 could very well be year Angelina Jolie becomes a two time Oscar winner. Her role in A Mighty Heart is tremendous, and if it can stand the test of time, as Oscar nominations are a long way off she can win this thing. But looks who else is out there, Julia Roberts, this generations leading lady, in a powerful role and a powerful film, Charlie Wilson’s War. She could also become a two time winner. And right behind her is Nicole Kidman, another actress that could become a two timer if she can pull this role off in Margot at The Wedding. My favorite is Julie Christie, also a previous Oscar winner way back in 1965. Today’s audiences probably don’t even realize she has been around that long. It would be great to see her make a comeback reminiscent of Katherine Hepburn’s win in 1967 and again in 1981. Then there is Halle Berry. Not one of my favorite actresses, but this role in We Lost the Fire is getting a lot of talk right now, and she too could win a second Oscar. So it is very likely that whoever takes the boy home this year, it will be a second bookend for them.

Actor Predictions

Last year from the beginning, Forest Whitaker was the man to beat. For 2005, again Phillip Seymour Hoffman was the winner the minute the film “Capote” was put in the can. This year we don’t have a front runner…yet. We have some excellent choices and contenders but for my mid-year predictions I see these five guys in the running…

Joaquin Phoenix: The Academy must like him, he has been there twice before. He gives stellar performances in almost every film he is in, and Reservation Road is no exception. This could be the year of the Phoenix.

Denzel Washington: One of the best actors to ever grace the screen, whether he is white or black, it don’t matter, this man is by far one of the most talented men in Hollywood. He is a previous winner (twice, a supporting actor win for Glory and of course his win for Training Day as Best actor)He plays a gangster in his most recent film, and it’s a true story of a true man, the Academy loves those kind of performances. (Jamie Foxx as Ray–Hoffman as Capote–Phoenix as Johnny Cash…)

Daniel Day-Lewis: An Oscar favorite and previous winner, yet we have not heard too much about him since his win way back in 1989 in My Left Foot. But he is highly respected by the industry, this could another golden boy for him.

John Cusack: Has been one of my favorite film stars since he and I were kids. He has been overlooked and under-rated. I would love to see him take the gold.

Johnny Depp: Always a bridesmaid, never a bride. If he sings as good as he acts, who knows he may be the man to beat this year.

Halfway There

This year not one film stands out as a true front-runner, but it’s still way too early. But for my mid-year Predictions for Best Film are…

SWEENY TODDRight now Sweeny Todd is taking a back seat to Hairspray, but that is because Hairspray has just been released. Sweeny Todd will reign as the musical to beat this year. Will it win? Probably not, but it will be in the running.

ATONEMENT
This film has Oscar written all over it. I say this is the film to beat this year. It may even take the top five major awards. The only thing in my opinion that could knock it off as the front runner would be, There Will Be Blood.

Charlie Wilson’s War was toasted as the film to beat this year, but much like last years nominated films Letters From Iwo Jima and Dreamgirls, the hype is not going to hold out. This film may soon even drop from the list of top five contenders.

Reservation Road is much like last years Little Children. A great film, with a great cast and performances, but not really AMPAS material. The last time a film like this won was Coming Home.

There Will Be Blood is pure Oscar contention, adapted from a great book, set in the early 20th century oil-drilling world and Daniel Day Lewis at the helm, this could be a winner.

Mr. Chips

Some say that the 1939 Best Actor Oscar was the biggest let down in Oscar history. Clark Gable who played the infamous role of Rhett Butler in Gone With the Wind was a sure winner. GWTW had won almost every other Oscar that it had been nominated for, but when the envelope was opened and the winner was announced it was Robert Donat in Goodbye, Mr. Chips that walked away with the award, not Clark Gable.

Born in Withington, Manchester, England. The son of a Polish immigrant and a British mother, he began taking elocution lessons at 11 to overcome a stutter and developed an exceptionally fine and versatile voice that was to make him a leading actor of British stage and films. He made his stage debut at 16 and played a variety of Shakespearean and classical roles in repertory and with touring companies before appearing in his London debut in 1930. Tall, handsome, and romantically dashing, he was soon noticed by film producers. After turning down a Hollywood offer by Irving Thalberg, he accepted a contract with Alexander Korda and became internationally famous as the romantic lead in THE PRIVATE LIFE OF HENRY VIII (1933). He was rushed to Hollywood to star in THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO (1934) but didn’t like the town or the prospect of becoming a conventional movie star. Returning to England, he established himself as a highly respected and popular actor of both stage and screen.

He won an Academy Award for his performance in GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS (1939), in which he aged on the screen from 25 to 83. Some say it is one of the finest acting portrayals on film. However, Robert Donat never lived up to his potential due to constant illnesses with asthma. He died at the age of 53 in 1958.