Jimmy Stewart. ‘Jimmy’ Stewart: Unlikely Hollywood star enjoyed decades-long career in a variety of genres The personification of all-American aw-shucksiness – of the sort you find only in bad movies…
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Melvyn Douglas. Melvyn Douglas: From suave leading man to Hollywood’s top female stars to first-rate dramatic actor Unlike Tyrone Power, Errol Flynn, or Gary Cooper, Melvyn Douglas couldn’t exactly be…
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Rebecca 1940: Joan Fontaine as the “successor” and Judith Anderson as the creepy lesbian housekeeper, madly in love with her deceased mistress. ‘Rebecca’ 1940: Alfred Hitchcock Best Picture Oscar winner…
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Norma Shearer movies: Hollywood’s early ‘liberated woman’ remembered. A top movie star of the 1920s and 1930s, Norma Shearer was known as the ‘Queen of MGM.’ Norma Shearer movies: Early…
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Eleanor Parker. Eleanor Parker dead at 91: ‘The Sound of Music’ actress, three-time Best Actress Oscar nominee Eleanor Parker, one of the best and most beautiful actresses of the studio…
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Irene Dunne. Irene Dunne movies: Five-time Best Actress Academy Award nominee starred in now-forgotten originals of well-remembered remakes For over a decade a couple of dozen Irene Dunne movies have…
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Hattie McDaniel. Hattie McDaniel: First black performer to win an Academy Award One of the best and, despite nearly 100 film appearances, most poorly utilized actresses of the studio era…
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Deborah Raffin: Movie & TV actress + Dove audio-book entrepreneur dead at 59 Deborah Raffin, film and television actress, and Dove Books on Tape co-founder, at age 59 on Nov.…
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‘Dog Day Afternoon’ Oscar-winning screenwriter Frank Pierson has died Former Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president Frank Pierson, among whose screenwriting credits are Dog Day Afternoon, A Star…
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Joan Blondell, Dick Powell, Dames Joan Blondell has always been a favorite of mine, much like fellow wisecracking 1930s Warner Bros. players Aline MacMahon and Glenda Farrell. The fact that…
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James Stewart remains one of the most beloved film actors in Hollywood history. Well, at least in the United States, where Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life and Mr. Smith…
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Claudette Colbert Paramount star Those who remember Claudette Colbert, Turner Classic Movies’ “Summer Under the Stars” featured player today, will likely picture a woman raising her skirt so as to…
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Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable in It Happened One Night. Mostly a Paramount star, Claudette Colbert hasn’t been a frequent presence on Turner Classic Movies – that is, apart from…
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I mentioned dignified, gentlemanly, and usually a little dull Walter Pidgeon the other day, wishing he had been cast as Jane Powell’s grandfather in A Date with Judy (1948) so…
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Lloyd Bridges, Robert Stack, Airplane! Robert Stack is one of those actors I know but at the same time I don’t. I’ve watched many of his movies, but despite his…
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Olivia de Havilland. Olivia de Havilland is the subject of an interview published in the London Evening Standard about a week ago. The piece is a must-read. Discussed are de…
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The first Hollywood actor to lampoon Hitler? A few years ago, in the San Diego Jewish Journal Lynn Rapaport discussed the first Hollywood comedian to play Adolf Hitler on film.…
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Hollywood Home Movies: Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart (top); Esther Williams (bottom). Rarely seen home movies from the personal collections of Alfred Hitchcock, Esther Williams (above), Steve McQueen, Lauren Bacall…
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If remembered at all, the name Franchot Tone usually comes up only when someone lists Joan Crawford’s series of husbands. Never mind the fact that Franchot Tone appeared in about…
Robert Redford in The Great Gatsby movie version directed by Jack Clayton and co-starring Mia Farrow, Bruce Dern, and Karen Black. Robert Redford: The Great Gatsby 1974 misfire & box…
Gay Movie Scenes: Paul America in Andy Warhol’s My Hustler. Controversial Gay Movie Scenes at LACMA: Andy Warhol & Gus Van Sant + Jean Genet Whether or not you find…
Joan Crawford, Robert Montgomery, and Clark Gable in Forsaking All Others. Joan Crawford is Turner Classic Movies’ next “Summer Under the Stars” star. On Monday, Aug. 22, TCM will be…
Friendly Persuasion with Dorothy McGuire, Gary Cooper, and Anthony Perkins. William Wyler’s rural-19th-century-set, coming-of-age family drama Friendly Persuasion (1956) has several elements in common with Clarence Brown’s rural-19th-century-set, period coming-of-age…
What better way to start the New Year than by remembering the long-ago past? No, not war and assorted catastrophes, but beauty and romance. The clip above features a montage…