“James Dean was the ultimate teenage rebel, the definitive neurotic boy outsider. His career was over almost before it had begun. He spent less than two years in Hollywood, and when he died in 1955 (at the age of twenty-four) only one of his three movies had been seen by the public. His image … seems richly symbolic of the culture of 1950s America: youthful, anxious and angry, insolent yet innocent, a Narcissus in denim, forever young. Andy Warhol described Dean’s image as “the damaged but beautiful soul of our time.” His movies show him coping with the perennial teenage problems of coming to terms with sexuality, establishing a working relationship with parents and trying to find a place in the world, all against a background of a vague and generalised air of discontent with the family, authority and the status quo. More than any other actor, Dean distilled the essence of youthful non-belonging – in the same sense as Holden Caulfield meant it – for teenagers in the West. His life was as alienated as that of the characters in his movies. His appeal was not so much to a sex as to an age group. What he offered was a rallying-point against the adult world of corruption and disenchantment.”
/ From the book Rebel Males: Clift, Brando and Dean (1991) by Graham McCann /
Born 95 years ago today: cinema’s quintessential doomed bongo drum-playing 1950s bad boy and personification of teenage angst, James Byron Dean (8 February 1931 – 30 September 1955) – one of the most lusciously photogenic actors of all time. Pictured: Dean during production of his final film Giant (1956).
Evangeline Lilly: “There is a genuine gravitas to Jonathan that he brings to his role. I don’t know if he would call himself method but he definitely arrives on set fully embodying the character. And emanating an energy out into the space that very much sort of claims the space and says I’m here. Because Kang is the conqueror of space and time, you could actually feel Jonathan doing that in our space and time.”
Kevin Feige: “In the comics Kang is almost an infinite number of different personas. You need an actor to be able to pull that off. Payton Reed recommended Jonathan Majors.”
Dios, jamás me había reído tan fuerte y tanto en hace mucho tiempo, definitivamente así son las mamás/familias latinas... Grande Pedro Pascal, otra razón para amarlo
Btw, a pesar de que el vídeo dice "Hispanic mom", hay varios países en Latinoamérica que no hablan español, como Brasil, pero, las madres ahí también son así, so...
Momentos en donde al actor se le olvidó que estaba actuando pt1
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God, I've never laughed so hard and so hard in a long time, that's definitely what Latino moms/families are like... Great Pedro Pascal, another reason to love him
Btw, even though the video says "Hispanic mom", there are several countries in Latin America that don't speak Spanish, like Brazil, but the mothers there are also like that, so...
Moments where the actor forgot he was acting pt1
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Deus, eu nunca ri tanto e tanto em muito tempo, definitivamente é assim que as mães/famílias latinas são... Grande Pedro Pascal, mais um motivo para amá-lo
Aliás, apesar do vídeo dizer "mãe hispânica", tem vários países da América Latina que não falam espanhol, como o Brasil, mas as mães de lá também são assim, então...
Momentos en donde al actor se le olvidó que estaba actuando pt1
Shelley Winters: An Extraordinary Actress By Susan King
When Shelley Winters died at 85 in 2006, much was made of the fact that the two-time Oscar-winner went from a va-va-va voom sex symbol to a matronly character actress. In fact, the Los Angeles Times obit stated she was a “blond bombshell of the 1940s who evolved into a character actress best remembered for her roles as victims, shrew and matrons.”
But truth be told, Winters was always a character actress. However, when she began in the acting in Hollywood in the 1940s, the studio system typecast actresses and actors on appearance. In fact, she once noted she often played the “the bad blonde bimbo usually going up against the sweet brunette.” In fact, before she got her big movie break as a tart waitress who is murdered by Ronald Colman in A DOUBLE LIFE (’47), she was playing the comedic character part of Ado Annie on Broadway in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma!. And speaking of A DOUBLE LIFE, Winters brought a depth to the character that other ingenues of the era wouldn’t have had the ability to play.
“She was a serious actress,” said Diane Baker, who made her film debut opposite Winters in George Stevens’ acclaimed THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK (’59) for which Winters received her first supporting actress Oscar as Mrs. Van Daan. And it was her role as the zaftig middle-age Van Daan that was her watershed film – the movie in which she segued from glam roles and moved into the forefront of the character actresses. “I believe Shelley exemplified what it was to be a Method actress,” Baker added.
Winters initially had to work hard to convince Hollywood she was a serious actress. Oscar-nominated Sally Kirkland, who knew and worked with Winters from 1962-2006, recalled the lengths she went to convince director George Stevens that she was more than a sex symbol in order to play the dowdy pregnant Alice Tripp, who is murdered by her boyfriend (Montgomery Clift) in A PLACE IN THE SUN (’51).
“When George Stevens made an appointment to meet her at the Hollywood Athletic Club, she made her hair brown. She’s flattened her chest, got a dowdy coat. She sits there for an hour because he doesn’t recognize her. Winters went to these ‘extremes’ because she’s smart enough to know she can not be a blonde bombshell. He agrees to test her and then hires her. She gets her Oscar nomination for Best Actress. Of course, that relationship with Monty Clift was profound to her.”
She also excelled in the gothic thriller THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (’55), the only film directed by Oscar-winning actor Charles Laughton. “I don’t know whether this is a well-known fact, but she felt Charles Laughton really taught her acting,” said Kirkland.” In fact, before she made NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, Winters had taken a Shakespeare acting class with the British actor. “He took her under his wing,” noted Kirkland. “During my entire time with her from 1962 until she died, she would talk about Charles Laughton. From her point of view, he was her mentor.”
Winters also respected Lee Strasberg, with whom she studied at the Actors Studio in New York and later became a well-respected teacher there. “She loved Lee Strasberg,” said Kirkland. “I loved Lee Strasberg. I studied with him from ’64 on.” (Winters got Kirkland into the Actors Studios.) But Kirkland noted that Strasberg was “a very hard man to have a relationship with. He was very closed off in the sense of communications other than when he was critiquing. I think Charles Laughton had a really personal relationship with her. She had him on such a pedestal. She said he taught her more than anybody.”
After THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, Winters left Hollywood for the Actors Studio and soon was appearing on Broadway in A Hatful of Rain with Ben Gazzara and Anthony Franciosa, who would become her third husband. Winters played the pregnant wife of a Korean vet struggling with heroin addiction.
“I was a teenager and saw it on Broadway,” said Kirkland. “It just blew my mind. I said, ‘I have to do that. I have to do what Shelley’s doing.’ Unbelievable impact on me.” Winters also impacted Baker. “While we were on DIARY, if something happened, she didn’t stop the scene,” Baker explained. “One time, something happened to the chair when she was in a scene. The chair went down the stairs. She didn’t say cut or stop acting. She went down the stairs to bring the chair back up and kept going.” Baker recalled that Winters wasn’t “Hollywood” in any way. She had a table at the Silver Spoon on Santa Monica Blvd. Just a normal simple little lunch table where she sat and had people visiting. She used to have her little group of people who were friends who would chat and talk.”
Stevens treated Winters with sensitivity and understanding, Baker noted. “He went along with her creative needs. I think that’s why he brought her onto DIARY, because she was the combination of nerves, humor and at the same time tragedy. She would pull it off.’
“I think she was just a mensch,” added Baker. She was more than a mensch to Kirkland. “I studied with her. I was her assistant. I taught her all her lines in LOLITA (‘62), A PATCH OF BLUE (’65), THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (‘72). I basically did everything she needed help with. She always wanted a young actress, kind of a protégé; I always wanted a stage mom. My mom was fashion editor for Life at the time and didn’t have time to be a typical mom.“
When Kirkland was working with Winters as the actress preparing for A PATCH OF BLUE, for which Winters won her second Oscar for playing the harridan bigoted mother of a young blind woman, she gave Kirkland a gold friendship ring. “It said, ‘To Sally from Shelley. I love you.’”
Winters had to gain nearly 40 pounds for her final Oscar-nominated role in THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE for her sweet performance as a former competitive swimmer. She never was able to lose the weight. Though the quality of her films was a mixed bag until her death, Winters still gave some great performances especially in Pau Mazursky’s NEXT STOP, GREENWICH VILLAGE (‘76), in which she plays the ultimate Jewish mother.
“Paul Mazursky was her friend,” said Kirkland. “Paul was an actor/director/writer at the Actors Studio. He would come over to the house when I was there, and he would talk about the project.” Kirkland said Winters would use music to get her into character and emotional scenes. “She loved opera,” Kirkland noted. “She would put on something like La Traviata and that would always make her cry. Paul, brilliant that he is, kept it in the movie, kept her Method acting exercise in the movie. So, when you see NEXT STOP GREENWICH VILLAGE and you hear opera, you’ll know that was one of the secrets of Shelley Winters’ acting was always to have opera playing.”
