Juanita Moore, Susan Kohner, Paul Weitz Photos
The 50th anniversary screening of Douglas Sirk’s classic weepie Imitation of Life, starring Lana Turner, Sandra Dee, John Gavin, and Oscar nominees Juanita Moore and Susan Kohner (above), was presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Friday, August 21, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. The event was hosted by film critic Stephen Faber.
In Imitation of Life, white Susan Kohner plays black Juanita Moore’s daughter (hey, it’s Hollywood). In real life, however, Kohner doesn’t have a black mom. Her mother is Lupita Tovar, 98, known as "Mexico’s Sweetheart" back in the early 1930s and the star of the Spanish-language version of Dracula. Her father was producer Paul Kohner, among whose credits [...]
by Deborah Arthur | August 25, 2009
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Tags: Imitation of Life, Juanita Moore, Paul Weitz, Photos, Stephen Faber, Susan Kohner
Lana Turner in IMITATION OF LIFE Screening
Karen Dicker, Juanita Moore, Terry Burnham, and Lana Turner in Imitation of Life
Douglas Sirk’s classic melodrama Imitation of Life, starring Lana Turner, will have its 50th anniversary celebrated with a screening of a recently struck print at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills on Friday, August 21, at 7:30 p.m.
Hosted by film critic Stephen Farber, the Imitation of Life screening will feature an onstage discussion with Oscar-nominated (supporting) actresses Susan Kohner and Juanita Moore, conducted by Kohner’s sons, filmmakers Paul and Chris Weitz. The print, which is part of the Academy Film Archive collection, was made from the Universal Pictures restoration.
Sandra Dee, Lana Turner
Douglas Sirk’s reputation has gained some belated recognition in [...]
by Andre Soares | July 30, 2009
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Tags: Classic Movies, Douglas Sirk, Imitation of Life, John Gavin, Juanita Moore, Lana Turner, Los Angeles Screenings, Melodrama, Oscar 1959, Russell Metty, Sandra Dee, Susan Kohner, Three-Star Movies, Three-Star Oscar Movies
Best Films – 1934
Norma Shearer in The Barretts of Wimpole Street
FILM
The Barretts of Wimpole Street
d: Sidney Franklin; scr: Ernest Vajda, Claudine West, Donald Ogden Stewart
The Count of Monte Cristo
d: Rowland V. Lee; scr: Philip Dunne, Dan Totheroh, Rowland V. Lee
The Gay Divorcee
d: Mark Sandrich; scr: George Marion Jr., Dorothy Yost, Edward Kaufman
Hide-out
d: W. S. Van Dyke; scr: Albert Hackett, Frances Goodrich
The Merry Widow
d: Ernst Lubitsch; scr: Samson Raphaelson, Ernest Vajda
Fredric March, Evelyn Venable in Death Takes a Holiday
CHECK THESE OUT
Broadway Bill
d: Frank Capra; scr: Robert Riskin
Death Takes a Holiday
d: Mitchell Leisen; scr: Maxwell Anderson, Gladys Lehman
Gold
d: Karl Hartl; scr: Rolf E. Vanloo
Here Comes the Navy
d: Lloyd Bacon; scr: Earl Baldwin, Ben Markson
Maskerade / Masquerade in Vienna
d: Willi Forst; scr: [...]
by Andre Soares | April 3, 2009
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Tags: Albert Hackett, Alice White, Anna May Wong, Anton Walbrook, Best Films, Broadway Bill, Buster Crabbe, Charles Laughton, Classic Movies, Claudette Colbert, Constance Bennett, Easy to Love, Ernest Vajda, Ernst Lubitsch, Etienne Girardot, Fay Wray, Four Frightened People, Frances Goodrich, Frank Capra, Franz Planer, Genevieve Tobin, Ginger Rogers, Gold, Heinz Ruhman, Helen Lowell, Here Comes the Navy, Hide-out, Imitation of Life, James Cagney, Jean Arthur, Jeanette MacDonald, Karl Hartl, Lloyd Bacon, Louise Beavers, Marian Nixon, Mark Sandrich, Mary Astor, Mary Boland, Norma Shearer, Peter Lorre, Philip Dunne, Ramon Novarro, Ray June, Robert Montgomery, Rowland V. Lee, Samson Raphaelson, Sidney Franklin, The Affairs of Cellini, The Barretts of Wimpole Street, The Cat and the Fiddle, The Count of Monte Cristo, The Gay Divorcee, The Merry Widow, The Most Precious Thing in Life, Viva Villa!, W. S. Van Dyke, Wallace Beery, We're Rich Again
Sandra Dee
Sandra Dee, Lana Turner in Imitation of Life
Actress Sandra Dee died today of complications from kidney disease at the Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center in the Los Angeles suburb of Thousand Oaks. She was 63.
Born Alexandra Zuck on April 23, 1942 (several sources have 1944), in Bayonne, New Jersey, Dee started modeling while in grade school. By the age of 12, she had become a successful Conover model.
After appearing in TV shows and commercials, the pretty, full-faced Dee Dee was discovered by Universal producer Ross Hunter. Hunter had reportedly been looking for a newcomer after balking at paying Warner Bros. $200,000 to borrow Natalie Wood for the role of Lana Turner’s willful daughter in Imitation of Life (1959). [...]
by Andre Soares | February 20, 2005
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Tags: Beyond the Sea, Bobby Darin, Classic Movies, Gidget, Imitation of Life, Kevin Spacey, Lana Turner, Ross Hunter, Sandra Dee
