Classic Cinema Marathon #2

[Music] john wayne remains an american icon thanks to his roles in popular westerns and war movies but what do we really know about him from his early days to his heights of fame and later controversies this is the untold truth of john wayne wayne was born marion robert morrison in 1907 in iowa in 1914 he headed west with his family to california young wayne's closest companion was his little dog an airdale named duke the two were so inseparable that they became known as little duke and big duke and thus a lifelong nickname was born while attending glendale high school wayne excelled at football and theater at first he believed he was destined for a career on the gridiron he played so well that he received a scholarship to play for the university of southern california trojans in his leisure time he was a typical surfer dude at newport beach unfortunately his days on the waves and his budding football career ended in 1926 when he was injured in a body surfing accident this forced him to leave school and he began working for local movie studios wayne's first job in the film industry was at the fox film corporation where he worked as a prop man he shoved furniture and equipment for low wages but it was a living he was also able to serve as an extra in several films beginning in 1926. his first role was as an anonymous yale football player in brown of harvard he would go on to have 13 more uncredited roles before he finally received notice in 1929's words and music in which he was credited as duke morrison around this time he met director john ford with whom he formed a lifelong friendship but it was director ral walsh who finally gave wayne his first big break in 1930's the big trail in the film the actor plays breck coleman who leads covered wagons west on an overland trail wayne auditioned against 81 other actors before winning the role walsh believed that his actor needed a stage name so he suggested anthony wayne but fox studios boss winfield sheehan thought that sounded too italian so he suggested john wayne instead and the name stuck john wayne reportedly did not like horses in fact according to the book john wayne the life and legend his own son michael was taught to ride horses by stuntmen instead of his father this revelation might be a hard pill to swallow considering that the duke spent so much of his career atop a horse but multiple sources attest to this very fact as journalist gary wills put it in a pbs interview wayne hated horses never rode except on the set and never rode when he didn't have to but according to wayne's son patrick his father was actually a terrific horseman during the filming of 1971's big jake patrick watched as his dad stayed astride his horse even after it got spooked during a chase scene patrick also recalled the time when he himself was riding a horse for 1961's the comancheros and it wasn't going so well he explained i looked awful it looked like i didn't know what i was doing riding the horse my father came to me and said you're going to learn how to ride a horse and he made sure i learned there was a later scene when i looked very good so good that they reshot the earlier scene so that i looked as good then as i did later in the film on screen wayne's persona was that of the ruggedly handsome man's man but off camera he was reportedly somewhat reserved and even awkward around women yet he still managed to get married three times and have seven children he married his first wife josephine in 1933 and out of that union came four children the marriage ended in 1943 though possibly due to his affair with marlena dietrich his co-star in the films seven sinners the spoilers and pittsburgh most biographers blame dietrich for the affair which began shortly after she saw wayne for the first time and reportedly told her agent daddy get me that wayne and dietrich's affair lasted about three years after which wayne married his second wife esperanza their union was marred by jealousy and drunken fights as well as wayne's alleged affair with actress gail russell on the day that their divorce was finalized in 1954 wayne married actress pilar payet three more children were born before the couple split up in 1973. wayne never remarried after that although he did live his last years with the secretary pat stacy [Music] between 1940 and 1945 as world war ii raged on john wayne starred in seven war movies he had dutifully registered for service but he received a 3a deferment for family dependency as a father and sole provider for his family he wanted to make a few more movies before entering the service there's also little doubt that he wanted to keep his name fresh in hollywood he did expect to eventually go to war though but wayne never ended up serving during the duration of the conflict in 1942 congress revised the selective service act to defer all married men until further notice the fact that wayne avoided service reportedly annoyed his friend john ford so much that during the filming of they were expendable in 1945 he barked duke can't you manage a salute that at least looks like you've been in the service wayne was so angry that he reportedly stormed off the set for the only time in his career there's also evidence that the actor thought he could have been more useful on the big screen than overseas ford's grandson dan recalled wayne once telling him i felt it would be a waste of time to spend two years picking up cigarette butts i thought i could do more for the war effort by staying in hollywood despite all this there is also evidence that the actor attempted to find a way to serve including a letter of application to the office of strategic services contained in the national archives in 2015 this topic came up again when david james elliott played wayne in the film trumbo where did you serve again you're trying to say something no dukey wasn't in 1948 when wayne was 41 years old a look in the mirror told him what many middle-aged men dread he was progressively losing his hair from that point forward he wore a toupee in his films although he was occasionally seen in public without it he notably made one on-screen exception as he declined to wear his wig for 1957's the wings of eagles he was even quite open about wearing a rug when a reporter once asked him about his phony hair he quipped it's not phony it's real hair of course it's not mine but it's real as it turns out a celebrity's fake hair can end up being quite valuable in 2010 the toupee that wayne wore for 1967's eldorado ended up fetching 1 244 at auction in 2013 another one of his custom-made toupees was found that wig along with its canvas block sold for six thousand two hundred fifty dollars in 1954 wayne was in the utah desert shooting the conqueror in which he played genghis khan the shoot was taking place 100 miles from an atomic bomb testing site in nevada officials assured everyone that fallout couldn't possibly reach the production site although a geiger counter on the set crackled so loudly that wayne believed it was broken nobody knew it at the time but everyone on the set was exposed to radiation as the fallout was blown south and east people who were exposed in this way between 1951 and 1962 in utah arizona and nevada are now referred to as downwinders in 1964 wayne was diagnosed with cancer he lost a lung and some ribs to the disease he would eventually die from stomach cancer in 1979. his sons michael and patrick who were also on the set of the conqueror got cancer as well though they survived by 1981 91 of the 220 cast and crew members on the set of the conqueror had developed cancer and 46 of them had died including wayne lead actress susan hayward and director dick powell wayne was friends with many american presidents including dwight eisenhower john f kennedy lyndon johnson richard nixon gerald ford jimmy carter and ronald reagan he was especially supportive of nixon whom he rallied for in the 1960 presidential election but wayne was also a good sport when kennedy won the election that year he received a telegram from wayne expressing his congratulations from the loyal opposition and when kennedy was assassinated three years later wayne was as devastated as anyone else indeed wayne reportedly aimed to be fair-minded when it came to politics when his friend barry goldwater lost the 1964 election he again bound gracefully to the loss but when the chance came to vote for nixon again in 1968 he once more became a huge supporter the support was reciprocal as nixon appreciated that wayne had a way with the blue collar voters after nixon won the election the two remained good friends even when the president became embroiled in the infamous watergate scandal and subsequently resigned in 1974. he probably should have just stood up at the very beginning and said anybody that's done something wrong will go to jail he didn't do it soon enough in 1976 john wayne appeared on the big screen for the last time in the shootest which co-starred lauren mccall and ron howard the film was appropriately enough about an aging old west gunman who was dying from cancer after wayne's character jb brooks is diagnosed as terminal he chooses to meet his maker in a gunfight the john wayne heritage heralds it as being among his greatest performances most men regardless of cause or need aren't willing they blink an eye or draw a breath before they pull a trigger because wayne himself had battled cancer the general public assumed that he still had it during production of the shootist the actor was indeed clearly ailing during filming which was evidenced by his character grunting and groaning as he moved around in truth though wayne actually didn't have cancer during filming having kicked his illness back in 1969 he would later suffer a belt with stomach cancer in 1975 but it went into remission before the shooter was filmed during production he was also hospitalized with a bad case of the flu but he nevertheless showed no signs of slowing down he actually had another movie book that he was planning on appearing in called bojon it was intended to be a light comedy about the patriarch of a kentucky family during the 1920s unfortunately wayne's stomach cancer returned in january 1979 and he died on june 11th of that year in 2019 a 1971 playboy interview with wayne resurfaced in it the actor expressed some incendiary views such as i believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility i don't believe in giving authority in positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people wayne also voiced his beliefs that black people needed better education opportunities that the slavery of long ago wasn't his generation's fault and that taking american land from indigenous people was a matter of survival as he put it i don't feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from native americans if that's what you're asking our so-called stealing of this country from them was just a matter of survival there were great numbers of people who needed new land and the indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves i'm sad to see minorities make so much of themselves as a hyphenated american wayne also voiced his displeasure with socialism in the interview saying at one point you can't whine and valiate because somebody else got a good break and you didn't like these indians are we'll all be on a reservation soon if the socialists keep subsidizing groups like them with our tax money there shouldn't be so much whining in belly ache the interview prompted many responses including some people considering the possibility that john wayne airport in orange county california should be renamed clearly like many icons of the entertainment industry wayne had a controversial side that persists to this day for almost a hundred years the films of warner brothers have captivated audiences around the world behind the scenes however the studio has found itself at the heart of some of hollywood's most devastating scandals these are some of the very worst following the runaway success of marvel's shared cinematic universe warner brothers decided to create their own using some of the most popular superheroes from dc comics unfortunately the dc extended universe has failed to capture even a fraction of the mcu's wild popularity and the franchise's earliest movies were the most troubled of all one of the primary characters from the early run of dceu movies was the superhero cyborg first appearing in batman vs superman dawn of justice and later returning for justice league actor ray fisher has had much to say about his experience with the role especially during filming on that second movie on june 29th 2020 fisher sparked controversy when he accused justice league director josh whedon of acting abusively towards his colleagues during filming fischer tweeted joss whedon's onset treatment of the cast and crew of justice league was gross abusive unprofessional and completely unacceptable fischer also accused warner brothers executives john berg and jeff johns of enabling the director's problematic behavior warner media quickly announced that they would investigate the actor's claims but the scandal only grew as the studio accused fisher of being uncooperative during the investigation after which he provided evidence to the contrary fisher's claims were finally vindicated in february 2021 when a number of other actors including buffy the vampire slayer stars charisma carpenter and sarah michelle geller levied their own accusations against whedon the me too movement exposed a number of hollywood actors producers and directors for engaging in inappropriate and even criminal behavior against women in the industry one such figure was the chairman ceo of warner brothers kevin tsujihara tsujihara who was promoted to the head of the studio in 2013 was found to be having an extramarital affair with actress charlotte kirk and that's just a half of it the relationship between kirk and tsujihara allegedly began through a mutual colleague australian businessman james packer packer and kirk met in november 2012 when he was 45 and soon to be divorced and she was a 20 year old struggling actress the pair soon began a relationship packer then introduced kirk to tsujihara in september of the following year and text messages later showed that packer then coerced the actress into embracing tsujihara's sexual advances it was subsequently revealed that under pressure from kirk herself tsujihara had been promising the actress auditions and roles on a number of warner brothers projects the issue had first been investigated in 2017 but it wasn't until 2019 and the rise of me too that the dam finally gave away tsujihara resigned from his position in march of that year john barrymore was one of the first great american film stars sadly despite being one of warner brothers most enduring and bankable stars the actor suffered from alcoholism all his life an illness that would eventually destroy the pristine image he had established in hollywood nicknamed the great profile barrymore was a star of both stage and film his parents maurice and georgiana were stage actors while his siblings ethel and lionel barrymore both found stardom in hollywood unlike their brother ethel and lionel even won oscars during their careers but neither achieved quite the level of critical recognition that he did barrymore found his greatest success in the silent movie era and with the talkies that followed in the 1920s and 30s he had mastered the world of theater decades earlier however and it was during that time he famously took on the lead roles in shakespeare's hamlet and richard iii to be or not to be that is the question throughout both of those periods however barrymore's excessive drinking and outrageous behavior gradually destroyed both his reputation and his health toward the end of his life barrymore declared bankruptcy and was forced to turn to radio in an attempt to make a financial comeback fittingly his final film playmates had barrymore playing a washed-up shakespearean actor then during an appearance on a radio program on may 14 1942 barrymore announced his retirement from acting he died just two weeks later long before the me too movement hit the front pages in the late 2010s sexual abuse was more or less commonplace in hollywood combine a horde of inflated celebrity egos and nearly unlimited power with an awestruck fan base and actors desperate for work and a culture of harassment is almost bound to be the result that being said when warner brothers star errol flynn was put on trial for unlawful sex with a minor in 1943 the scandal quickly became front page news flynn had long been typecast as the dashing energetic hero of adventure cinema but behind the scenes he was a notorious drinker and womanizer flynn was arrested in 1942 after two women accused the actor of seducing them when they were just 17 years old in court flynn's team of lawyers were able to paint the two women in an unfavorable light besmirching their reputations by bringing up their previous affairs and abortions the jury took only 13 hours to acquit flynn despite avoiding jail time however flynn's reputation took a permanent hit and he never again reached the level of fame he had once enjoyed from the late 1930s through to the 1950s the house un-american activities committee held a number of hearings that became practically synonymous with the fear and paranoia of the red scare during world war ii the warners had become outspoken critics of the axis powers and even worked with the us government to produce patriotic anti-fascist content after the war ended and the soviet us rivalry came to the fore the studios and the government turned their guns against the left wing of the political spectrum less than two months following the end of world war ii striking workers at warner brothers fought non-strikers as the former group blocked the employee entrance resulting in a number of injuries the day became known as black friday and neither warner brothers nor the government would soon forget the event when jack warner testified at an h-u-a-c hearing in 1947 he accused a dozen individuals of being hardened communists however not only were many of the accused not communists but at least one the screenwriter howard koch was only named by warner as revenge for his involvement in the strike of 45. whatever happened to baby jane is one of hollywood's most iconic films due in part to the bitter rivalry between its two leads betty davis and joan crawford the feud between the two actresses began decades prior to the making of the 1962 film when davis first entered the movie industry crawford was already an established star with a glamorous hollywood marriage to actor douglas fairbanks junior to boot in 1933 davis film ex-lady was about to be announced by warner brothers as the first with her name above the title suddenly however crawford announced her divorce from fairbanks stealing the headlines and crippling the film's promotion two years later crawford married actor francia tone with whom davis had worked and fallen in love that same year by the time the two paired for baby jane they had spent decades trading jabs and spreading rumors inevitably the set itself became a battleground they spent nights complaining about each other to director robert aldrich openly spoke ill of one another on set and even physically hurt each other while filming then at the 1963 oscars crawford got the last laugh when davis lost the best actress awards and bancroft bancroft was absent that night so none other than crawford herself arranged to accept the award in her place she went to all the new york nominees and said if you can't get out there i'll accept your award and please do not vote for her when new hollywood took shape in the counter culture and film schools of the 1960s and 70s many of the regulations and taboos that were once placed on movies became irrelevant and among the most shocking controversial movies that followed was stanley kubrick's 1971 thriller clockwork orange though warner brothers had released plenty of controversial films before kubrick's film remains infamous for the backlash it received upon its initial release the movie follows the main character alex played by malcolm mcdowell a young teenage boy who with his gang of droogs inflicts violence upon random people in a future punk england in an interview with the guardian mcdowell later revealed that he had watched violent movies and concentration camp footage for months with kubrick in order to prepare for the role upon release british officials lobbied to have a clockwork orange cut from circulation for fear teens would mimic the violence of her trade following a handful of incidents of young people committing crimes and the film being blamed for those incidents kubrick and warner brothers withdrew the movie from release in 1974. a clockwork orange had also been banned in south africa and brazil and had to be cut down significantly to appease the censors in argentina in the end the british film authorities gave the movie the rarest and most severe classification an x-rating a great number of tragedies have befallen former child stars most often this comes down to a combination of an unstable home life a reliance on individuals who don't have the child's best interest at heart and the development of a number of unhealthy addictions and beliefs unfortunately one of hollywood's greatest actresses natalie wood experienced all this and more wood's abuse began in her own home by her overbearing mother maria girden who pushed the child into acting at the young age of five in one emotional episode gerdan tore the wings off a butterfly to make her daughter cry on cue then while filming the green promise in 1949 a ten-year-old wood suffered a broken wrist during a scene her mother forced her to hide the injury and her wrist never healed correctly wood hid the protruding bone with bracelets for the remainder of her life by the age of 14 natalie had appeared in over 20 films during her teen years in which she was signed with warner brothers wood was coerced into relationships with much older men such as frank sinatra and nicholas ray her director on rebel without a cause according to suzanne finstead's book natasha the biography of natalie wood wood was then assaulted by an unnamed movie star at the age of 16. wood's death at 43 years old remains one of hollywood's great mysteries as many still believe her husband actor robert wagner might have played a role in it of course warner brothers isn't just a meaningless name the warners harry albert sam and jack all built and ran the company that turned their name into an american institution at the same time however there were a number of skeletons in their closets none of the brothers were much alike in fact hollywood stories summarizes the four brothers as such the womanizing jack the conservative harry the quiet albert and the visionary sam despite their differences however the four were able to get along for a period until 1927 when sam warner whose contributions helped make the first ever talkie died of a brain tumor two days before its release the jazz singer was a hit and became a game changer in hollywood after sam's death however jack and the two surviving brothers spent the rest of their days feuding harry and jack's relationship was the most strained in the family and their clashing personalities led to a number of conflicts harry was quiet and conservative whereas jack was wild and flamboyant jack was known as a playboy while harry was married just once harry also refused to help the huac during its hearings while jack was more than happy to smear his enemies as communists their relationship finally came to an abrupt end when jack tricked albert and harry into selling their shares of the company just so jack could buy it all and become the head after that the brothers never spoke again charismatic actress and singer annette funicello was an incredible phenomenon in the 1950s and 1960s yet there are things her fans may not know about her this is the untold truth of annette bunichello annette bunicello was only 12 years old when she was offered a chance to be a part of disney's children's tv show the mickey mouse club in fact she was chosen by walt disney himself out of 200 kids at the audition born in utica new york bunacello moved with her family to california before she became part of the iconic show in 1955 annette was easy to like and appeal to all kinds of viewers with her charm and fun persona her former co-star frankie avalon who she worked with later in her career described a net well when he said she had a heart and a soul and a feeling about her that everybody just connected to male or female without being pretentious in any way it's undeniable that annette bunichello's image was largely connected to her role in the mickey mouse club but guess what her family wasn't particularly keen on the opportunity in the beginning in her autobiography a dream is a wish your heart makes my story annette revealed that her family wasn't familiar with the hype behind the mouseketeers as the kids on the show were called in fact her mom was confused and equated the show's title with the three musketeers for this reason annette's mom wondered why the producers of the mickey mouse club wanted a 12 year old on their show funicello mints no words when she stated that the goofy looking mickey mouse ears became a huge part of her history explaining i've said countless times i owe everything to those ears and i mean it she added that she really didn't know that those ears would be the reason for her to connect with countless kids in different parts of the world annette bunichello quickly became a crowd favorite during her time as a mousekateer her on-screen popularity also helped her bag her own series in 1958 titled annette it had a total of 19 episodes and funicello played the role of a charming orphan girl who moves to the city from the country reflecting on her show funicello wrote in her autobiography life wasn't easy for the show's lead character annette macleod and i think that was one of the reasons viewers responded so enthusiastically to the series she added that it may seem unbelievable but the show displayed immense depth and meaning she also stated that by the time a net rolled around she'd managed to strike a chord in the hearts of her fans and was getting a lot of fan mail approximately three thousand to six thousand letters a month annette would later confess no one was more surprised than i and i learned later some of the studio people who in the beginning were quite certain that another of the girl musketeers would be the show's star however by that time it was abundantly clear that annette was a huge fan favorite who had a loyal fan following in 1959 annette made her film debut with disney's the shaggy dog which was a commercial hit for the studio in her autobiography and that detailed how disney made the bold move of making the movie in black and white so that the film's supernatural aspects wouldn't scare the audience oh boy how'd you get in here maybe i get it here i live here she also wrote this about the film despite its far-fetched premise and a lukewarm critical response the shaggy dog became a very popular and commercially successful film paving the way for later fred mcmurray vehicles the actress added that she found it a lot of fun to be associated with her first feature film even though her part in it was by no means groundbreaking singer and songwriter paul anka was quite taken with annette punicello and he didn't exactly keep it a secret turns out she felt the same way about him writing as paul wrote it in his hit song about us puppy love just because we were 17 didn't mean that for us our love wasn't real however the two couldn't actually find time for each other as they were occupied with work when funicello did reveal how she felt anka simply asked her quote what script did you get that from and yet it is undeniable that the two had a history and absolutely courted each other when npr asked bunacello about it years later she explained that the pair once had a conversation about their relationship anka told her that it was a pity that everyone referred to their romance as puppy love and didn't understand how deeply the two felt for one another anka was then inspired to write the song that ended up becoming a popular hit anka remembered the actress after she passed away saying annette was a star from the time she was 12 years old and i met her shortly after in addition to her talent she was self-possessed determined had incredible integrity and was loved by everyone according to the new york times walt disney was approached by people from american international pictures to get annette bunichello to be a part of a beach film he believed it would essentially be good clean fun but did advise the young actress to avoid showing too much skin particularly her navel she agreed and respected disney's suggestion her first beach movie was beach party in 1963 in which she worked with frankie avalon the two would go on to make more beach movies together funicella revealed in a dream is a wish your heart makes my story that she caught flak for complying with disney's advice about not showing her navel on screen she wrote that while most colleagues understood where she was coming from a director or producer would inevitably ask her to put on something more revealing she remained adamant however and always shot back that her conservative clothing choices were hers and hers only ultimately funacello did enjoy working on the beach party films and mentioned that she actually got to make many friends through these projects man bonnet's really swinging i do believe annette ended up falling for her agent jack gillardy and married him in 1965. the pair met while working on the movie babes in toyland and ended up falling for each other gilardi was punacello's manager and agent for many years until they decided to get divorced in 1981. funacella reflected on falling in love with gelardi writing in her autobiography we had known each other as manager and client and as friends one evening i don't know what happened he looked at me i looked at him and suddenly we knew we were in love after that marriage ended the actress found love again when she met a racehorse trainer named glenn holt the couple were together until her death in 2013. in the late 1980s annette was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis an illness that would have a major impact on her life over the next 25 years the new york times revealed that funicello was optimistic and wouldn't get bogged down by her diagnosis starting a charity instead to help others zero in on a cure annette didn't reveal her illness until 1992 when she realized it was important to issue a public announcement around that time she was being forced to endure unkind speculations about the fact that she found it difficult to walk according to the guardian some people wondered whether she was an alcoholic annette's condition was rather severe and she eventually started using a wheelchair to get around her husband glenn later revealed that he'd assured her that he'd always help her with anything she needed annette bunacello was no victim though she studied her illness trying to learn as much as she could she wrote that no doctor in the world could predict whether a patient with multiple sclerosis would worsen in a few years moreover funicello was open with her kids about her illness making sure she read up on it so that she was equipped to alleviate her children's doubts and answer their questions in march 2011 annette and her family went through a scary experience when their california house caught fire the actress showed symptoms of smoke inhalation and had to be rushed to a hospital where she was immediately treated funicello was 68 at the time of the incident and it was believed that she holt and a nurse escaped from the burning house after it caught fire corliss foster a friend and neighbor believed that holt must have helped his wife get out before things escalated saying in an interview glenn must have gotten her out of the house and put her in the backyard thankfully no one suffered serious injuries and everyone was believed to be stable the blaze was rather intense when firefighting authorities reached the scene and began working to put out the fire according to today the fire began in the morning and it took firefighters around a half hour to extinguish the blaze completely unfortunately for funicello life got harder in her twilight years her illness worsened and her symptoms became more intense she needed full-time help to get by and it was difficult for her to manage her daily activities alone she was fed through a tube and had to be taken care of 24 7. bunacello and her husband were optimists however glenn holt always believed that he'd see his wife get better one day and also fought to get her access to experimental treatment options to reduce the severity of her symptoms working against the net however was the fact that her diagnosis came at a time when not much was known about her illness this made it harder to stop the disease from progressing as much as it did over the years videos taken in her later years show the actor struggling to move it is believed that her cognitive functions probably remained unaffected even as she fought to move and express herself dr rock heyman director of the pittsburgh institute for ms care and research at the university of pittsburgh medical center stated that he had witnessed many patients with the illness remain intellectually unaffected as dr heyman explained in an interview i have seen patients who are unable to move their arms or legs that are still intellectually active when annette bunicello passed away in april 2013 at the age of 70 her death was mourned by many across the world who remembered her for the unique person she was her devastated children released a statement which said we are so sorry to lose mother she is no longer suffering anymore and is now dancing in heaven we love and will miss her terribly disney's chairman bob iger also paid a tribute to the actress and said that she'll forever be a huge part of the disney family he added that bunacello will always be celebrated as one of disney's most talented stars one who managed to inspire a whole generation with her talent and unique personality iger called annette a beautiful person and added that she confronted her physical challenges with grace and dignity frankie avalon also remembered his former co-star and said that the country had lost one of its sweethearts avalon went on to say that he felt lucky to have been friends with the actress and to have worked with her on so many projects i mean i just pray for every day and i'm sure millions of people do the same thing in a moving statement avalon wrote annette will live on forever i will miss her and the world will miss her hollywood was determined to keep the image of its stars intact having a marketable image led some stars to fame and fortune but keeping up appearances demanded a lot from them let's look at the rules old hollywood stars had to follow as the roaring 20s kicked off and movie studios flocked to hollywood they released their talent scouts into the wild searching for fresh faces to turn into stars they would then contract these aspiring actors for years all of this was done to protect a major studio's economic interest these contracts meant an actor would only work with a single studio locking them down for years in the beginning it seemed that these stars were handsomely paid some stars even made as much as 5 000 a week but as an actor's popularity grew their salary didn't rise and that was all thanks to the contracts put in place it wasn't just actors who were placed under contract nobody was exempt you're under contract you're gonna stay that way anything you write is gonna be the property of capital pictures and capital pictures is not to produce anything you write even directors writers producers cinematographers art directors and technicians were asked to sign on a dotted line this practice made everything in the production stage that much easier even if it meant that some of the props and sets were a bit more inferior than they could have been what do judy garland marilyn monroe and natalie wood all have in common their legendary a-list names were all created by the studios that built them into the stars they remembered as today during the time of hollywood's golden age it was standard practice for an actor's name to be changed and their reasons were endless while gilda lead rita hayworth was viewed as an all-american bombshell her birth name was margarita casino her father was spanish while her mother was irish american forced to change her name to appear more anglo-sounding her transformation completely whitewashed her ethnicity joan crawford on the other hand was born lucille lussuer her name change came by way of an mgm studio executive who declared that her last name reminded him of a sewer crawford allegedly loathed her given stage name which reminded her of a crawfish but it wasn't just female screen stars who had their names changed men weren't excused from this practice either cary grant for example was actually archibald alexander leech and was given his new identity by paramount studios louis b mayer co-founder of metro goldwyn mayer studios once declared a star is made created carefully and cold-bloodedly built up from nothing sure enough that's precisely what hollywood was doing during its golden age the iconic producer noted that all he initially looked for in a future star was their face and if they could look good on camera in his opinion he could do the rest sure enough future a-listers had to be willing to change their appearance and sometimes their entire image along with changing her original hispanic last name rita hayworth also went through a rigorous physical change she was subject to years of electrolysis to change her hairline marilyn monroe is manufactured into the blonde bombshell she's forever remembered as born norma jean mortensen monroe actually had dark brown curls when she first began her climb to tinseltown's elite modeling agency had emmeline snively once told her look darling if you really intend to go places in this business you've got to bleach and straighten your hair because now your face is a little too round old hollywood was also a supporter of expensive plastic surgery which still wasn't common at the time and even as early as the 1920s nose jobs and facelifts were being performed since the stars of hollywood's golden age signed contracts with specific film studios this meant they had to remain loyal to their company and subsequently missed out on roles with competitors although actors were looked after it also made it difficult for a-listers to branch out and take different roles that being said on occasion some actors were allowed to be taken out on loan to other studios for specific flicks though the parent studio would always make sure the actors were a credit to their employer some stars succeeded with these loans elizabeth taylor was under contract with mgm until 1960 that they allowed her to pick different projects with other studios and these movies weren't the usual fares she made from metro goldwyn mayer either her other films touched on daring themes like pregnancy out of wedlock homosexuality and cannibalism a child is coming side by brick out of maggie the cat others such as olivia the haviland of gone with the wind fame didn't have the same luck daviland who signed with warner brothers in 1935 was sick of the one-dimensional roles she was repeatedly forced to play and began declining parts the studio thrust upon her the punishment daviland was essentially blacklisted from the industry with warner brothers even going so far as to tell other studios not to hire her being locked into long-term contracts with their studios actors had virtually no say when it came to whatever roles were assigned to them while many stars were unwilling to go against the system olivia de havilland boldly decided to rebel against warner brothers making a legendary change to the hollywood system in an interview javelin said what bothered me was playing one-dimensional parts and films those roles were intended simply to fill the routine function of the girl as such the a-lister began declining roles and found herself basically suspended from the studio without pay daviland didn't have an on-screen role for almost two years during the prime of her career yet de havilland was relentless and with the knowledge that her lawyer father gave her she took warner brothers to court and won the result was that havilland law a seven seven-year rule on contracts that ultimately helped destroy the old studio system although appearances meant practically everything in old hollywood that doesn't mean that just any pretty face could act studios were willing to dish out big bucks for acting classes for their aspiring a-listers shirley temple revealed a great deal in her book child star for instance while she was still a rising star in tinseltown in the early 30s fox executive winfield r sheehan gave her and her mother some blunt news due to the youngster's potential the studio demanded she take acting lessons even if they risked the expensive price tag to do so ava gardner was also asked to take classes after signing her initial contract with mgm when she did her first screen test with the studio an official allegedly declared that she couldn't act or talk but that she was still sensational along with her acting lessons the mogambo star was also asked to take vocal lessons to get rid of her southern accent vocal training was also given to lauren mccall and it paid off her low seductive voice became her signature as the star revealed in her memoir by myself director howard hawks was the one who instructed her to read out loud by herself and keep her voice in a lower register in hawks's incredibly sexist view there was nothing more grating than an excited woman speaking in a higher register it's no secret that old hollywood stars were usually type cast what bobby doyle do you really think so after all he's he's a dust actor the man barely knows how to talk it turns out that sometimes their entire image was carefully crafted too studio's publicity departments went to great lengths to create backstories for their future a-listers joan crawford had a very rough childhood yet mgm made sure to completely hide her past even telling the press that she came from an upper class family backstories and lies continued well into an actor's career when judy garland became pregnant mgm didn't want to ruin her innocent image so they ordered her to take more drugs after her weight gain all while her publicist dished to the tabloids that she ate like a truck driver if anything at least the actors were self-aware of the inevitable truth that they were typecast rita hayworth couldn't shake off her femme fatale image causing her to lament that every man i knew went to bed with gilda and woke up with me the golden age of hollywood churned out movies at a meteoric rate over 7 500 feature films were made by studios between 1930 and 1945. of course to produce that many features actors were pushed to the brink of exhaustion since there was no limit put in place on how much a star could work the solution that studios used to keep their a-listers working was simple feed them pills as 20th century fox dr lee siegel explained in goddess the secret lives of marilyn monroe it was the norm to use pills as a tool to keep stars working adding that by the early 50s everyone was using pills perhaps the most well-known example of this exploitation was judy garland the wizard of oz star only had one day off a week sometimes working 18-hour shifts filled with singing and dancing to keep her awake studios fed her amphetamine uppers while in the evening she was giving sleeping pills tragically when garland tried calling in sick or tried going to therapy or the hospital the filming delays came out of her paycheck at one point she owed mgm 100 000 at the age of 47 garland died of a drug overdose there's a reason why every female star from hollywood's golden age had a slim figure they weren't allowed to gain weight gaining weight was forbidden when a star signed their contracts fresh faces were closely examined by executives and then sometimes given a dietitian before a studio would begin heavily promoting their work studios weren't discreet with what they expected from their a-listers sometimes even acting downright cruel judy garland was nicknamed a fat little pig with pigtails by mgm executives the studio had louis b mayer demanding the actor quote consume only chicken soup black coffee and cigarettes along with pills swedish-born actor greta garbo was also hit with a blunt realization when she made it to hollywood in 1925 mayer allegedly told her that in america we don't like fat women along with dieting female actors also had to try and remain active marilyn monroe was keen on weightlifting speaking to pageant in 1952 the actor revealed i spent at least 10 minutes each morning working out with small weights while the movies made during hollywood's golden age were filled with glitz and glam and a-listers swooning for one another behind the scenes a fairy tale ending wasn't that easy to come by it turns out studios had a lot of say when it came to an actor's love life when boys town star mickey rooney went to mgm and declared he was going to marry ava gardner in 1952 studio had louis b mayer bluntly forbade it i think we're just pals who might be something more sometime in the future you gotta ask mr mayor i think it's just pals although rooney was eventually allowed a very private wedding others weren't as lucky according to scandals of classic hollywood there was a rumor that jean harlow couldn't marry william powell because mgm had written a clause into her contract that said she could never get married for gay actors it was even more challenging studios would arrange marriages between gay lesbian and bisexual actors to hide their actual sexual orientation before world war ii female fashion was drastically different in america while french designer coco chanel slowly started integrating menswear such as pants for women in the late 1920s things were still strict across the pond in fact in 1938 a woman in los angeles was sent to jail for five days for wearing trousers in a courtroom hollywood was no different a 1933 article published in movie classic magazine claimed that studios gave out official orders that their women's stars should not be photographed in male attire or quoted on the subject even marlena dietrich who came to tinseltown from germany wasn't exempt one story saw her getting turned away from the trendy brown derby restaurant in hollywood simply for wearing pants it was the philadelphia story star katherine hepburn that helped abolish hollywood's strict dress code the actor refused to comply and act as a cookie-cutter starlet and when rko's costume department stole her pants one day she walked around the studio in her underwear naturally hepburn got her pants back slowly paving the way for her peers with so many rules set in place by old hollywood studios to keep their stars in check one must wonder how on earth didn't they miss anything that happened behind closed doors ingeniously and callously the studios hired spies the spies could be anyone from waiters to janitors that compiled reports on various actors for the studio as detailed and get happy the life of judy garland garland's assistant betty asher was fooling her for years as garland herself once shared asher would report to mgm once a week detailing exactly who the actor would see her eating habits and if she was out too late in the evening garland reflected that i can remember crying for days after i found out what she was doing to me it wasn't just screen stars who had their lives painstakingly scrutinized movie directors were also watched closely while the film was in production to make sure the studio's best interests for the flick were going according to plan to do this filmmakers were spied on by production assistants line producers and script clerks [Music] the cast of mary poppins wasn't practically perfect in any way julie andrews swore like a sailor on set while dick van dyke struggled with alcoholism keep watching to learn the truth about their relationship julie andrews wasn't the celebrated tinseltown star and dame of the british empire she is today when she starred in mary poppins born in england in 1935 to a family of performers the actor found her first big break on stage in the latter half of the 1940s before traveling across the pond and snagging the role of eliza doolittle and the musical my fair lady in 1956 that earned her her first tony nomination in 1960 she snagged her second tony nomination for her lead role in the musical camelot but she still struggled to make the transition to hollywood as studio executives viewed her as a stage actress only as a result she was passed over for the lead in the film adaptation of my fair lady which instead went to audrey hepburn walt disney though believed in andrews and offered her the lead in mary poppins andrews declined at first as she was pregnant but disney offered to wait for her finding her the perfect partner in tv star dick van dyke because of hollywood attitudes when andrews began filming mary poppins in 1963 it was still her first film in 2008 andrews noted in her book home a memoir of my early years that she quickly learned how different acting in front of a camera was as opposed to on stage the first scene she shot was the jolly holiday song and dance sequence with her co-star dick van dyke is bert as andrews wrote the beginning of the scene was simple mary poppins you look beautiful do you really think so preparing for the scene though was anything but simple i was extremely nervous and fretted over how to say that one simple line in the end i simply said the words and hoped for the past van dyke at least immediately knew that his co-star was destined for greatness in 1974 he told dick cavett that he was sure she was going to be a star and nobody knew who she was and i thought at that time just you wait joining the cast of 1964's mary poppins must have been nerve-racking for newcomer julie andrews after all she was cast alongside dick van dyke who was already a tv favorite thanks to the dick van dyke show which launched in 1961. if that's not all the flick was a disney production with an intimidating budget of 4.4 million dollars as andrews recalled in her book home a memoir of my early years she first met van dyke during rehearsals for mary poppins when it came time to film the first scene together andrews revealed how anxious she was yet her budding friendship with van dyke didn't waver and one can only assume he most likely helped calm her nerves she wrote that he was always in high spirits saying we hit it off from day one while reflecting on that first scene the pair had together andrews wrote i performed mary poppins demure ladylike version of the step but dick flung his long legs up so high that i burst out laughing mary poppins was an instant success the flick took home five oscars was praised by reviewers and was a huge box office smash although julie andrews was a darling amongst critics not everyone responded positively to dick van dyke's performances bert van dyke an american born in missouri took on the role of the chimney sweeper bert and suddenly found himself having to do a cockney accent the verdict critics hated it according to the irish times it was later revealed that actor david tomlinson who played mr banks helped dick van dyke with his accent tomlinson who came from the more upper class henley on thames in england apparently wasn't the best choice as a tudor for van dyke andrews told the irish times that van dyke also asked her for help but she didn't think his bad accent really mattered he was very aware that he was stumbling about he was adorable so talented and charming anyway so who cares really andrews who stood by her friend in the years that followed always wanted to offer a praise when outlets touched upon van dyke's attempt at the accent as she told usa today in 2013 it doesn't seem to have harmed the film that much 50 years later when filming commenced for mary poppins dick van dyke and julie andrews were at two very different points in their careers as andrew's notes in her book home a memoir of my early years van dyke was an established star having been in movies and television as well as broadway andrews on the other hand was new to tinseltown though she had been singing professionally since she was a child according to her academy of achievement profile andrews took singing lessons when she was still a young girl and by the time she was eight she was taken to study with lillian styles allen a noted concert singer almost two decades before snagging the role of mary poppins andrews debuted on radio on the bbc and by the 50s she was a regular on the radio before moving to stage productions all of that singing experience came in very handy for the disney musical in fact andrews was such a talented pruner that van dijk said in his biography my lucky life in and out of show business a memoir that his co-star's voice actually quote scared me to death why because he wasn't sure he could keep up he said that quote recording with her was a challenge and added julie's voice could have been used to tune a piano she was pitch perfect and i never was it's no secret that some of hollywood's most iconic children's flicks were less than idyllic behind the scenes the wizard of oz set was famously problematic with director victor fleming even known to slap judy garland while nothing that heroin happened on the set of mary poppins its two leading stars were a far cry from being practically perfect in every way like the main character mary poppins karen dotrice who played youngster jane banks in the movie told the sun there was swearing julie andrews was smoking on set it was a very real 1960 set they were polite around minors to begin with but that soon ended while the concept of everyone's favorite cinematic nanny chain smoking may come as a surprise dick van dyke's antics while cameras weren't rolling weren't as happy-go-lucky as out of his character bert either according to the sun he was struggling with alcoholism the actor has been upfront with his once difficult battle telling the telegraph i was an alcoholic for about 25 years everybody had their martini everybody smoked incessantly i would go to work with terrible hangovers which if you're dancing is really hard i just couldn't talk to people and i found if i had a drink it loosened me up you know the barriers went down and i became very social thankfully he was able to get sober in 1972 and has stayed sober ever since anyone who's seen 2013 saving mr banks knows of the difficulties that walt disney went through to acquire the rights to pamela travers's series of mary poppins books to bring to the big screen dick van dyke told the telegraph it took walt disney 20 years to talk drivers into giving him the rights for the picture and then she fought him tooth and nail all the way through it it turns out that travers wasn't a fan of the jovial disney adaptation after she saw it either her usa today she hated the musical aspect of the flick and all the dancing but that's not all the author also wasn't too keen on julie andrews or dick van dyke van dyke told the telegraph she hated me she hated julie andrews she didn't think either one of us were right ultimately travers tried to have the last laugh in the entire mary poppins debacle according to tmz it's believed that she loathed the flick to the point that quote she put it in her will that no americans would ever be granted permission to work on a pop-ins project ever again however as andrews herself riley told usa today i'm sure she cried all the way to the bank at the time of its release critics loved watching dick van dyke and julie andrews and mary poppins together the new york times praised the flake seemingly unable to pick their favorite moment two scenes that featured both van dyke and andrews came up at the top of the list from their animated jolly holiday sequence to the rooftop dance sequence with all of bird's chimney sweet pals the two co-stars got along famously too and immediately after meeting they became friends in fact considering how perfect the paris on-screen chemistry was it's remarkable they didn't grace the silver screen together again save for one 1974 tv special that being said they came close to it with van dyke's 1968 project chitty chitty bang bang a movie he initially turned down as the actor revealed in his book my lucky life in and out of show business a memoir he thought that the rolled all written movie had quote too many holes and unanswered questions yet the flicks producer albert brockley worked hard to get andrews and van dyke on board together again especially after the success of mary poppins van dyke eventually signed on for chitty chitty bang bang but his former co-star didn't budge according to julie andrews and intimate biography she didn't want to do anything similar to her poppin's character and the role of truly scrumptious was cutting it a bit too close along with refusing another opportunity to work with dick van dyke for 1968's chitty chitty bang bang julie andrews also missed out on starring in 2018's mary poppins returns yet her reason behind declining that disney flick is much more endearing mary poppins return sees the bank's children all grown up with children of their own and getting a surprise visit from mary poppins herself this time played by emily blunt and fans got a surprise as well a guest appearance by dick van dyke besides playing bert in the original poppins flick van dyke also played antagonist mr dawes senior george banks's boss with layers of makeup applied to appear very elderly in the 2018 sequel van dyke took on the role of dawes's son and this time in his 90s he needed no help to recreate the same look according to entertainment weekly when the iconic actor heard a sequel was in production his first thought was quote can i be in it it turns out director rob marshall was such a fan of van dykes he needed no convincing as for andrews marshall also approached her to make an appearance in the film but her immediate answer was a resounding no as the director revealed that the movie's premiere by a variety she said this is emily's show and i want her to run with this i don't want to be on top of that in his book my lucky life in and out of show business and memoir van dyke called andrews a perfect partner in the movie praising her personality and talent he wrote she was a lady first and foremost but she also had a great whimsical sense of humor van dyke also praised how easy it was to work with andrews and claimed she never once complained and they remained close friends all through the decades in december 2013 for instance the two longtime pals had the red carpet reunion 50 years later during the premiere of saving mr banks and in 2021 at the 43rd annual kennedy center honors in washington dc then 95 year old dick van dyke was celebrated for his lifetime in the entertainment industry julie andrews at the age of 85 was the one who introduced her mary poppins co-star andrew said van dyke was just as magical as mary poppins she said dick seems to have found the secret to happiness he's an artist a one-man band a profound philosopher a high-stepping showman and spreader of charm good luck does rub off when he shakes hands with you and van dyke has fond memories of his time on the 1964 children's foot too he told today that same year that mary poppins is the movie he's quote most proud of as for any plans of quitting acting now that he's well into his 90s not a chance he said i don't think i'll ever retire unless they make me how did a dancer dismissed as having big hands big ears a weak chin and no acting ability go on to inspire jackie chan in the beatles and why did his more talented sister disappear from the spotlight keep watching to find out the truth of fred astaire fred austerlitz was born in 1899 and began his career as a child performing with his sister adele this was encouraged by their mother who fantasized about leaving omaha nebraska and building a better life according to the biography fred astaire the story started with adele who started taking dancing lessons as a child she was the main driver behind all the effort put into the kids upbringing fred just went along with it mimicking his sister after the siblings moved to new york with their mother to pursue their stage careers the only person they knew was a dance teacher who suggested they changed their name from australis to a stare their first appearance on broadway took place in the show over the top in 1917 and their stage careers continued well into the 1920s with musicals such as lady b good and funny face but they didn't really hit it big so they moved to london where they lived from 1928 to 1932 there they achieved success on the west end regularly performing for many important people including winston churchill the royal family and laura charles cavendish adele and fred's last performance took place in 1932 just before adele got married to cavendish and ended her career for good fred always regretted losing adele as a dance partner and he decided he would dance as a soloist from then on when the doors of hollywood opened to a wider set of talents including dancers and musicians in 1927 fred and adella stare were ready after achieving a fair amount of success on broadway and britain's west end they confidently did a screen test for a funny face movie but that didn't result in a triumph as they expected as clive barnes reported for dance magazine the producers did not like adele at all describing her as merely lively they found fred unsuitable as well famously stating he quote can't act can't sing balding can dance a little that account may be apocryphal what's a fact is that david o selznick the head of rko studio and later an executive for mgm saw potential in fred in 1933 following astaire's successful run in london selznick described him as quote one of the great artists of the day in a letter to rko assistance he did mention astaire's big ears and weak chin line but still thought that his charm came through even in the infamous screening test soon after mgm and astaire signed a three-week contract for one thousand five hundred dollars per week the work he did during those three weeks would impress enough to launch a legendary career even though he later told dick cavett that he ultimately agreed that he wasn't a great actor i don't think i'm much of an actor frankly fred astaire was a perfectionist always striving towards excellence for him it wasn't just important to nail the choreography and perfect the rhythm but to look good on camera as well according to fred astaire dance studios he insisted that film dance scenes must resemble a stage performance meaning the dancer was fully framed in the shot with as little interruptions from the camera as possible he wasn't keen on close-ups at all arguing for a wider angle which showed every part of the dancer's body quick transitions between shots and lots of cuts drove him crazy because they interfered with the fluidity of movement as anna kisselgoff from the new york times observes the films he made more closely resembled theater pieces than a regular movie which includes dance numbers it didn't really matter whether you saw him on stage or in a film the effect on the viewer was the same by this he invented a rare and completely new art form the film dance fred astaire's reaction to the idea of continuing to pair up with ginger rogers was very telling after his sister adele left the business he wrote to agent leland howard in 1934. what's all this talk about me being teamed with ginger rogers i will not have it leland i did not go into pictures to be teamed with her or anyone else and if that is the program in mind for me i will not stand for it according to fred astaire neither one of them wanted to succeed in a partnership astaire wanted a solo career and rogers wanted to be perceived more as an actress than a dancer and their personality sometimes clashed astaire was a perfectionist and took the concept of practice to a completely different level even to the point where rogers couldn't take on new projects since she spent so much time practicing dance numbers with a stare he interfered with her performance clothes losing his mind over feathers that got in his mouth or bell-shaped sleeves which hit his face during spins in turn she resented him for his massive success and felt she should deserve more praise for her work astaire always paid attention to his clothes but his style became even more notable during his days in london he started to follow fashion more closely aspiring to look like a member of the british upper class he often visited savile row and its tailoring studios his favorite was anderson and shepard which was well known among the members of the royal family as well lady alexandra metcalf told biographer sarah giles and fred astaire his friends talk that later in life astaire greatly admired the style of prince charles prince of wales and his love of waistcoats when the information got out that the prince of wales dressed himself at haws and curtis studio astaire was there in no time he also loves crisp shirts created by beal and inman according to the victoria and albert museum in london astaire often used his own suits and movies when he tried out the suits he always performed some dance steps to confirm that the suit was suitable for dancing and the tailoring stayed perfect even while moving around the suits had to be made in a special way to allow more flexibility fred astaire crossed paths with the beatles on several occasions throughout his life when the group was selecting the celebrities who would be portrayed on their legendary sergeant pepper's lonely hearts club band cover in 1967 they thought of dancing icon astaire the idea was to use paper cutouts of a crowd of famous people who would surround the band photographed by michael cooper astaire was reportedly excited to participate john lennon and fred astaire later met in summer of 1971 when lennon and yoko ono moved to new york neighbors at the famous saint regis hotel in manhattan astaire knocked on london's door and greeted the musician soon they were working on ono and lennon's autobiographical movie imagine with astaire agreeing to play a small part he played himself when paul mccartney published an album of his american classical songs he mentioned his admiration for fred astaire as mccartney told lawrence juver in the one track mind podcast he always wanted jackets as a stair head smooth and straight but more than his dressing style he loved to stare singing approach and he tried to imitate it when they recorded sgt pepper's lonely hearts club band although fred astaire was quite small and very slender his hands were unusually big as described in fred astaire his thinness was usually hidden under suits and jackets always on the verge of revealing how small scale to stare actually was but the hands that was another story compact palms with bulky fingers like the hands of a physical worker the disproportionately lengthy thumb didn't fit the rest of the hand and the overall look was drastically different from the elegant hands of ballet dancers he told fellow dancer leslie karen my hands are huge look at them in ballet you need to hold your hand so gracefully my hands are so big that i would look ridiculous to cover this imperfection he learned how to hide his hands in photo shoots as well as when dancing the latter was trickier since he used the whole body while dancing including his hands but he still managed to find a solution he shortened and narrowed the hand by bending his middle finger while covering the fourth finger with it which made his hands look smaller he did pay special attention to hand gestures specifically rehearsing even minor actions such as putting his hand in a pocket it's no secret that dance choreographies resemble the intricate pattern of martial arts techniques jackie chan the legend of on-screen kung fu fighting knew where to look for inspiration he told the new york post that fred astaire is one of his heroes along with charlie chaplin gene kelly and others the silent veterans amaze me with what they are willing to do in an era where special effects were unknown they really did all the stunts themselves kelly and astaire on the other hand impressed me with their timing and rhythm they influenced me a great deal in my action choreography especially in the use of impromptu on the set articles and objects according to metalfoss critics often correlate chance movie performances with the ones of the famous dancers and chan confirmed this on many occasions claiming he quote totally copied from gene kelly and fred astaire but it wasn't just choreography chan learned a great deal about framing and filming movement from astaire's dance films he is claimed to choreograph his fighting scenes with a scene of a stare dancing with a chair in his mind and he looks up to his impeccable timing when creating comic sequences when mikhail barishnikov presented the american film institute's life achievement award to astaire in 1981 he revealed the truth about how others perceive a stare it's no secret we hate him he gives us complexes because he's too perfect barishnikov wasn't the only dance icon who publicly praised the stare for his brilliance a stare inspired generations and generations of dancers margot fontaine adored the ease of astaire's dancing which seemed quote more natural than breathing and george balanchine explained how rare a talent like astaire is he is like bach who in his time had a great concentration of ability essence and knowledge astaire has that same concentration of genius there is so much of the dance in him that it has been distilled jerome robbins who included footage of astaire and rita hayworth in his ballet i'm old fashioned in 1983 also included astaire as one of his biggest influences even rudolf nurayev himself admired a stare performing a tap piece in homage to a stare in the muppet show and merce cunningham told new york magazine that it was astaire's movies which inspired him to first take dance lessons when cunningham presented a stare with the capezio award in 1987 he commended the unique character he had while dancing the sheer pleasure of his dancing a quality that makes us lose track of mental gymnastics it gives the mind a rest and the spirit a big boost still despite the accolades astaire expressed to dick cavett a complicated relationship with his own work why am i watching myself uh i don't know why you always wish you had done something better fred astaire was fit and active in later life as well never giving up on his love of movement he loved skateboarding a hobby he started when he was more than 70 years old and of course he never stopped dancing he got married for the second time as well after spending 26 years as a widower following the death of his first wife phyllis from cancer in 1954 he married robin smith a 35 year old professional jockey in 1980 she told wide world of sports racing was my number one love and finally it was displaced by fred astaire died seven years later with smith telling the los angeles times we'd had seven years of bliss it was fate absolutely i know god put us together at 88 astaire's life ended due to pneumonia which happened unexpectedly but didn't last long according to smith i think his life just ran its course it's devastating to see someone you love fade away but thank god he didn't suffer burial ceremonies took place in a private circle and his will remained secret from the public although smith did state he didn't wish to receive any additional acclaims posthumously she took over his matters after he died fighting against anyone who would want to unlawfully capitalize on a stairs name or body of creative work she said i'm just trying to protect my husband what he wanted what he didn't want i'll do everything i can to carry out his wishes i hope it doesn't make me look bad or seem like a power trip but if it does so be it the graduate has become one of the most important movies of the latter half of the 20th century featuring acclaimed performances from anne bancroft and dustin hoffman the movie not only had a huge impact on the film industry but also american culture here's the untold truth of the graduate benjamin played by dustin hoffman is supposed to be seen as a naive young man compared to anne bancroft's mature seductive housewife character mrs robinson the central taboo of the film is their affair and the age difference between the two but in reality the actors were only six years apart and bancroft was 35 playing a woman a decade older than herself and hoffman was 29 according to vanity fair gene hackman who was originally cast in the film as mr robinson was fired and replaced with someone older in order to really drive home the age difference between benjamin and mrs robinson however director mike nichols wasn't bothered by the real-life six-year age difference between the lead performers in his film he told vanity fair both actors seemed to be the ages their characters were that's acting hoffman admitted in the same article that he was a neophyte with the graduate being his first lead film role and that bancroft was an accomplished actress so he felt they had a unique and special relationship with one another hoffman said about bancroft you're either working with the people who are going for the same truth as you are or you're not she was she had a character the graduate would have been an entirely different film if the actors who nichols originally intended to work with had been cast into two lead roles many stars auditioned or were approached for the roles of benjamin and mrs robinson doris day could have played mrs robinson according to box nichols approached day but she turned it down noting that the part quote offended her sense of values robert redford who fit the physical description of benjamin in the eponymous novel the film was adapting screen tested for the part apparently during the session nichols questioned whether the very handsome redfird could convincingly play a loser who was capable of being rejected by women you're very nearly perfect it's a rotten thing to say by the mid 1960s ann bancroft had garnered a reputation as a serious film and stage actress who was known for playing acclaimed roles like her award-winning turn as blind helen keller tutor annie sullivan in the miracle worker many were concerned that the racy controversial role of mrs robinson and the graduate might ruin her career nichols told vanity fair everyone cautioned her to turn it down how can you go from the saintly annie sullivan to the medusa like mrs robinson too risky it's hard to imagine by today's standards that this type of role would legitimately concern an actress about her future career prospects then again the graduate was made just on the cusp of the beginnings of the sexual revolution and bancroft's husband mel brooks convinced her to do the film brooks reportedly liked the script and had worked with its screenwriter in the past she followed his gut instinct and in the end anne nabbed a best actress oscar nomination for her performance despite the accolades she received for the role bancroft admitted to being resentful of only becoming known as mrs robinson for the rest of her career he told the la times in 1997 i'm still trying to get away from it that's enough before such classic comedies as spaceballs and blazing saddles there was the producers mel brooks freshman film broke comedic boundaries satirized the nazis and was a wildly popular movie that eventually became a successful musical and won brooks an oscar for best original screenplay before the graduate hoffman had a few minor roles under his belt according to indy wire brooks approached hoffman to be in the producers and the young actor originally said yes to playing the fanatical hitler supporter franz liebkind however hoffman also asked brooks permission to audition for the graduate brooks agreed as he was aware of the script considering that his wife ann bancroft was already slated to star in it plus he didn't think hoffman stood a chance of getting the role brooke said i thought this was all too bizarre go you're a mutt the minute they see you on film they'll say we got the wrong guy he called me back two days later and said they want me this big break made hoffman instantly famous and propelled him down a path to becoming one of the most acclaimed dramatic actors of his generation based on a low-selling virtually unknown 1963 novel of the same name by charles webb the rights to the graduate weren't on hollywood's radar nichols was still a very green director at this point and actor turned writer buck henry had no screenwriting experience the film was also notoriously difficult to cast despite all the challenges the movie was acquired for a very low price and financed by embassy pictures the first screenings of the initial cut didn't impress executives either they especially didn't like nickel's choice for the leading man much to everyone's surprise however the obscure low-budget indie with an unknown star was a runaway hit it even included one of the greatest quotes in movie history mrs robinson you're trying to seduce me [Music] aren't you hollis albert a film critic at the time recalls the public's reaction to the movie in the guardian lines extended around the corner all the way down the block except that the people waiting for the next showing were not family groups but mostly young people in their teens and early twenties it was as though they all knew they were going to see something good something made for them dustin hoffman was the physical opposite of the book's lead character benjamin braddock who looked more like nichols first choice robert redford the character is described in the book and screenplay as tall and handsome other hugely popular actors such as steve mcqueen and warren beatty were also being considered not only was hoffman not the right physical type but he nearly blew his audition and even told nichols he didn't think he was right for the part when nichols decided to cast him it would shift the culture in hollywood screenwriter buck henry says in vanity fair a whole generation changed its idea of what guy should look like i think dustin's physical being brought a sort of social and visual change the infamous highly dramatic church scene of the graduate was inspired by harold lloyd's 1924 classic silent comedy girl shot the film is about a shy tailor's apprentice with a stutter who rushes to save the girl he loves from getting married to a bigamist nichols was inspired by the film's climactic race to rescue sequence while filming the graduate's wedding scene inside a united methodist church in california many bizarre complications arose apparently the heat was unbearable and there were so many people crowded together on the set that bancroft fainted at one point according to the endland valley daily bulletin often nearly passed out as well but the strangest moment came when hoffman's character is banging on the balcony glass to get elaine's attention who was about to get married below him he and the cast and crew nearly got thrown out of the church by the pastor donald woods hoffman says in an interview included in the 2015 dvd release in the middle of a take i hear screaming and it's the reverend and he's screaming stop stop everybody out that's it everybody out apparently the glass window hoffman had been banging on was precious and irreplaceable which is why hoffman taps on the window with his palms instead of banging with his fists in the final cut much like the 1960s shook up american sociopolitical culture the graduate was the very definition of a late 60s film controversial at times taboo breaking from convention and grappling with themes such as youth disillusionment and questioning societal norms politico points out that if the film had come out prior to 1967 it might have been dismissed as quote cultural slander the graduate came out the same year as the rebellious romantic paper film bonnie and clyde and the critically acclaimed guess who's coming to dinner but benjamin isn't exactly a counterculture hippie rebelling against society as one might expect from a youth-centric film of this time in fact he's a bit of a square but the events that unfold due to decisions he makes along the way conclude in a sort of symbolic character arc that pushes him to his breaking point as the final scene implies he makes a conscious decision to ignore society's rules and attempts to grasp at a life of free will as film historian mark harris states in smithsonian magazine's 50-year anniversary review before the graduate was released the studios believed quote everything should appeal to everyone after dissecting what made the film so successful executives came to the realization that almost half their paying audience was under 24. why does the graduate still resonate so strongly with movie audiences to this day it may be that its themes of questioning institutions including marriage higher education and capitalist model are all too applicable now inside higher ed makes the argument that the film is quote an emblem of youth alienation in post-war america after all one of the most memorable exchanges of dialogue is when a family friend of benjamin's parents gives him a simple word of advice that concerns his future just one word yes sir are you listening yes are you plastics it's a not so subtle allegory of the generational gap and the growing distaste for consumer culture and entering the adult world reviews in 1967 like one by new york times critic bosley krauther raised the film calling it one of the best serial comic social satires we've had from hollywood walking the line between tragic comedy and political satire may have put the film a bit ahead of its time seeming more novel to its audience than it would today but history repeats itself and the themes of the graduate certainly still hold significance in the 2020s nichols approached paul simon to write three original songs for the film however one track that wasn't meant for the film made the cut originally the first line to the famous mrs robinson tune was here's to you mrs roosevelt in a variety article nichols reminisces on the song's conception he said that simon told him it's a song about time's past about mrs eleanor roosevelt and joe dimaggio and stuff nichols replied to him quote it's now about mrs robinson not mrs roosevelt though the song became famously tied to the film only a small portion of the chorus of the song actually makes the cut of the movie which leads to speculation that the song wasn't even completed until after the film came out mrs robinson became one of the most famous movie songs in film history it was also a number one hit along with the soundtrack album which was released in 1968. due to the film's popularity the fairly obscure new york folk duo gained an entirely new audience the track also appeared on simon garfunkel's next studio album bookends and became one of their most successful and beloved songs a walking tour entitled the story of the graduate movie is given at uc berkeley's campus taking fans of the film through its many backdrops and locations around town stops on the tour include ben's boarding house an old victorian building on campus the famous moe's books where bin stocks elaine and the cafe mediterranean where he keeps an eye on the bookstore across the street other locations on the tour include the theta delta kai fraternity house and sprawl plaza the tour is guided by former berkeley historical society president steve bienichoff he spoke to the arizona republic about the tours and why they're so popular saying i think people are interested in seeing places from history even fictional history the 60s has a hold on the imagination berkeley did really capture the attention of the nation in that era the same can be said of the graduate as the film continues to reverberate through popular culture and capture the attention of viewers today as much as it did in 1967 sharon tate is better known for how she died than how she lived in 1969 she was one of five people killed by members of charles manson's family cult an event reimagined in the 2019 film once upon a time in hollywood so let's dig deeper into the little known truth about sharon tate tate's father paul was a colonel in the united states army so the family packed up every few years to move from army base to army base while growing up tate lived in six different cities and she blamed her shyness and inability to make friends on her family's identity lifestyle the family eventually settled in italy where sharon having gotten apart as an extra in the 1962 film hemingway's adventures of a young man was picked out of the crowd by the film's star richard beamer for a short time tate dated beamer and he encouraged her to pursue acting introducing her to his agent and helping her find roles but that wasn't the first time she was impressing people in public at the tender age of six months tate took top honors in the miss tiny tut of dallas competition her mother doris was the driving force behind the beauty competitions that sharon competed in in 1959 sharon won five different pageants in one year her beauty was recognized across the pond as well her italian schoolmates named her homecoming queen and italy's most beautiful american while perhaps most noteworthy was her winning turn as miss stars and stripes when she was in her late teens tate's first major movie role was a witch in the 1966 british occult horror film eye of the devil which tells the story of a young couple hoping to restore a vineyard to its former glory do you believe in magic to make eye of the devil more realistic the filmmakers hired as consultants alex and maxine sanders a wiccan high priest and his wife in her autobiography maxine claimed that tate was fascinated by wicca's neopagan rituals and became an inherent of sorts whether or not tate was really into wicca though it cannot be denied that 1960s america was obsessed with the occult and tate was at the forefront thanks to her movie roles tate's relationship with her eventual husband polish filmmaker roman polanski got off to a fittingly strange start they first met over an uncomfortable dinner with a producer after which polanski invited tate to his apartment having left her alone for several minutes he reappeared wearing a frankenstein's monster mask tate let out a scream which convinced polanski that he should cast her as the lead in his new horror comedy the fearless vampire killers meeting polanski and falling in love with him turned out to be a mixed blessing for tate who was nine years younger than her very powerful husband and was often intimidated and controlled by him she came from a conventional family and wanted at least the semblance of a traditional marriage polanski on the other hand wanted the freedom to pursue other women and rumors abounded about his infidelities in the biography sharon tate a life tate was quoted as having said we have a good arrangement roman lies to me and i pretend to believe him tate's sister deborah has insisted that sharon's character in the 1967 beach romp don't make waves inspired the creation of malibu barbie but tell the company behind the classic toy has never confirmed the rumor but tate's character plaid in a beige bikini for the majority of the film was named malibu don't make waves manages to touch on nearly every trope of mid-century california peach bomb cinema bodybuilders spiritual gurus and bikinis are everywhere there's even a mudslide that leads to each character ending up with the right guy or girl in spite of all the attention don't make waves brought tate reportedly despised the film but the cheesy script couldn't blunt her undeniable appeal she begins the film saving a drowning tony curtis with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation later she takes a short but memorable turn on the trampoline it may be lightweight material but it's still an enjoyable part of her legacy tate's violent death went unsolved for several weeks and during that time her family lived in limbo they were traumatized not only by the loss of a loved one but also the sheer brutality of her killing and the police's seeming inability to solve the crime paul tate used his background in military intelligence to try to close his daughter's case himself even going so far is to dress up as a hippie to hunt down the perpetrators sharon's mother doris was perhaps the most changed of all of her family members she went on to become a leading voice in the victims rights movement she founded the coalition on victims equal rights and advocated for the use of victim impact statements and sentencing hearings for several years after sharon's death doris was a reckless struggling with grief and depression then she got word that leslie van hounten a manson family member and convicted killer was hard at work trying to amass the signatures needed to be granted parole so doris launched her own campaign to make sure that van halton remained in prison in 1992 president george h.w bush honored doris and her work as a victims rights advocate as part of his thousand points of light initiative the adams family have delighted with their wholesomely macabre humor for over 80 years and of course all great families are bound to have some skeletons in their closets these are the facts about america's favorite freaky family born in westfield new jersey in 1912 charles adams had a childhood worthy of his namesake creation as detailed in the biography charles adams a cartoonist's life he claimed his earliest memory was seeing a man get run over by a car nicknamed chile by his friends and eight-year-old charles adams and some neighborhood kids once broke into a crumbling victorian house that was under renovation in a bit of morbid vandalism adams drew skeletons all over the walls later adams and his chums were dragged into court to answer for their crimes the cartoonist would later base the adam's family's home and parked on the old house that got him in trouble is this where the addams family lives yeah according to friend walker mckinney adams had an interest in the quote aberrations of life that manifested in his off-kilter's sense of humor when a consignment of soft-shell crabs was delivered alive for a birthday dinner adams cheerfully suggested well we'll stab them however when the hostess arrived at the more humane alternative of gassing the crustaceans in the oven the artist reportedly deadpanned what a pity as adams became famous for his work in the new yorker his reputation as an eccentric grew he enjoyed picnicking in cemeteries and visiting snake farms adams also reveled in telling reporters about the gifts he received from fans such as a gilded skull a human thigh bone and a frozen beef heart in a box by 1942 charles adams had earned a reputation as a skilled artist with a wicked wit thanks to his new yorker cartoons yet his life was about to change forever adams was drafted to serve in world war ii and around the same time he fell in love with a young woman who had more than a passing resemblance to one of his creations as detailed by biographer linda h davis barbra jean day was a slender pale-skinned beauty with black hair a dead ringer for adam's witch woman character who had later become morticia day was known for her sweet nature and willingness to do anything on a dare she and adams married in 1943 but their union ended eight years later when adams refused to adopt a child heartbroken day left atoms for another man adam's second wife barbara barb also had a striking resemblance to morticia a practicing lawyer with a fiery temper barb was prone to fits of rage during which she would destroy adams's possessions and clothing on occasion she would become physically abusive burning the cartoonists with lit cigarettes and striking him over the head with a stiletto heel although their marriage lasted only two years the consequences haunted adams for the rest of his life barb convinced adams to sign away the rights to much of his work and as documented by the new york times wound up in control of the adams family tv and movie franchises as reported by the los angeles times in 1963 television producer david levy was on fifth avenue in new york with a friend when he spotted a display of charles adams books in a store window taken with a cover of homebodies which featured a portrait of the entire atom's clan on the cover levy exclaimed there's a hit series levy tracked adams down and pitched the artist his idea for a situation comedy based on the far out family featured in his cartoons adams fleshed out the characters with personalities and names and levy went about casting the series after some legal wrangling with adam's ex-wife barbara barb the adams family finally premiered on september 18 1964. a ratings hit the adams family touched a nerve with 60s viewers and opened up a new audience to the world of charles adams although adams enjoyed the show he was somewhat disappointed that tv had blunted his character's sharper edges in the creator's mind the adams family had been transformed into quote almost a typical suburban family he also said the tv version of his adam's family characters were not half as evil as my original characters new yorker editor william shawn was much less impressed with the adams family's leap to the small screen not wanting the prestigious publication to be associated with tv characters sean banned the adams family cartoons from the new yorker the adam's brood finally returned to the magazine's pages in 1987 upon sean's retirement on september 24 1964 just six days after the adams family's abc premiere another creepy family moved into primetime tv on rival network nbc the monsters produced by tv power duo bob mosher and joe connolly domesticated universal's classic movie monsters and brought them into a family sitcom setting while the adams is reveled in their weirdness the monsters were more or less portrayed as a typical american tv family in the mode of leave it to bieber her father knows best that the monsters were literal monsters was incidental to the show's generally broad slapstick comedy the addams family however tended to take a more sophisticated approach in its humor peppering the laughs with sly sexual innuendo and a generally darker tone although both the adams family and the monsters ended in 1966 dedicated fans continued to debate which was the better show two shows featuring macabre families premiering at virtually the same time was no coincidence as documented by horror historian david j skull and monster show both the adams family and the munsters were part of a wave of renewed interest in horror that began in the late 1950s with the release of universal studios classic horror films on tv the monster boom that would culminate with the adams family and the monsters would also usher in such cultural touchstones as famous monsters of filmland magazine aurora movie monster models and bobby boris pickett's hit song the monster mash with the cancellation of the addams family in 1966 the altogether ookie adventures of tv's spookiest family seemed to be over for good yet the adams's would return in animated form thanks to everyone's favorite saturday morning mystery solving gang the new scooby-doo movies premiered in 1972 is a follow-up to 1969's wildly successful scooby-doo where are you in addition to their usual hijinks scoob shaggy velma daphne and fred took on mysteries that brought them together with a variety of celebrities and guest stars ranging from sunny and share to batman in the series his third episode mystery inc helps morticia and gomez locate a kidnapped wednesday original cast members john astin carolyn jones jackie coogan and ted cassidy returned to voice their roles now i know why this house looks so familiar it belongs to the adams family this animated incarnation of the adams is returned in 1973 minus aston and jones with their own saturday morning cartoon simply titled the addams family the show ran for 16 episodes and featured the family traversing america in a mobile replica of their spooky mansion as documented in jeff lenberg's encyclopedia of animated cartoons the hit 1991 big screen adaptation of the addams family spawned yet another animated show in 1992 this version found the adams's coping with their weird neighbors in idyllic happydale heights and featured original cast member john astin as the voice of gomez in 2019 the family returned with an all-new cg animated film with oscar isaac and charlize theron as gomez and morticia in 1977 most of the original cast of the adams family reunited for the nbc halloween special halloween with the new adams family john astin carolyn jones jackie coogan ted cassidy ken weatherwax and lisa laurie all reprise their roles from the 1964 series jane rose best known for her role as cloris leachman's mother-in-law on the mary tyler moore show spin-off phyllis would fill in for an alien blossom rock as grandmama the plot of the film centers on a group of crooks out to steal the adam's fortune during the family's annual mast halloween celebration to complicate matters gomez's brother pancho played by henry darrow has returned and may have romantic intentions toward martisha gomez with the help of fester and lurge foils the dastardly plot and the brothers patch up their frayed relationship just in time for the family to sing halloween carols halloween with the new adams family is definitely a product of its time shot on videotape the film lacks a gloomy gothic atmosphere of the 60s tv show and the nostalgia of seeing the original cast back together as its main charm two of the original members of the addams family cast died shortly after the 1977 halloween special blossom rock who had suffered a debilitating stroke shortly after the adams family ended died on january 14 1978 to the age of 82. ted cassidy died the following year at age 46 from complications following surgery to remove a tumor from his heart on august 3rd 1983 carolyn jones just 50 years old died of colon cancer jackie coogan died of a heart attack in march 1984. a heart attack would also kill 59 year old ken weatherwax in 2014. with the 2019 death of veteran actor felix scilla the man under cousin it's bowler hat john aston and lisa loring are the last surviving members of the original the adams family cast baltimore-born aston now in his 90s remains active with occasional tv and voice over work currently aston teaches acting at johns hopkins university where he serves as theater program director and homewood professor of the arts as detailed by people laureen who played little wednesday adams went on to originate the role of qriket montgomery on the soap as the world turns following a failed marriage to adult film star paul ciderman lauren descended into drug abuse she beat addiction in the 1990s and is now a popular guest at fan conventions and autograph shows the 1991 film the adams family was a huge box office success that brought charles adams cartoons to life for a new generation yet the production proved nearly as torturous as a knight in fester's dungeon as detailed in director barry sonifeld's book call your mother memoirs of an erotic filmmaker producer scott rudin turned to sanifeld as a last resort to get the film made after tim burton and terry gilliam passed on the project sonnefeld was the right fit for the job but he had to surmount a terrible script with the help of writer paul rudnick sonifeld made countless revisions which continued into filming as detailed in a 1991 entertainment weekly article the film faced another potential setback when debt riddled orion pitchers sold the project off to paramount last minute budget cuts threatened to stop the production sonifeld subsisting on a diet of cappuccinos and little sleep collapsed under the stress of production yet he wasn't the only one to feel the strain in her 2014 biography watch me a memoir morticia actress angelica houston recalls her time on the set as quote long and arduous laced into an impossibly tight corset houston found that she couldn't sit down and had to be transported in the prone position in the back of a station wagon from location to location in the 80 plus years since the first adams family cartoon appeared in the new yorker charles adams macabre creation has become an iconic piece of the american pop culture landscape despite trailing the munsters and the ratings during its 60s tv incarnation the addams family has built a legacy that has outshined the rival franchise to date the adams family has spawned four feature films a halloween special a 1998 revival series that outlasted the original by one episode two animated series a hit broadway musical and a wildly popular pinball machine the creepiest kookiest family of all time continues to thrive into the 21st century after passing on the opportunity to direct the 1991 film tim burton is finally getting his shot at the long-running franchise as reported by deadline the beetlejuice director is helming an adams family spin-off titled wednesday which is set to launch on netflix in 2022 the oscar-nominated actor omar sharif spent the remaining years of his life immersing himself in a popular card game so what game was it and how else did the legendary actor spend his final days award-winning actor omar sharif was an acclaimed international movie star his leading roles in two hit films in the 1960s both epics by director david lean catapulted him into super stardom lawrence of arabia earned him an oscar nomination and a golden globe win for best supporting actor in 1963 while dr zhivago earned sharif a best actor golden globe in 1966 sharif was easily recognized by his dashing good looks and gap-tooth smile and he worked steadily in the movies from his 1953 film debut in egypt where he was born onward he notably appeared opposite barbra streisand in her first film funny girl and then with julie andrews in the spy thriller the tamarind seed by the mid-1970s his acting career dwindled as he focused on the card game bridge sharif was so successful at the game that he was ranked among the world's best players sadly in early 2015 his agent confirmed that sharif had been diagnosed with alzheimer's disease the actor died july 10 of that year at the age of 83 from a heart attack sharif's condition was first revealed by his son tariq al-sharif in 2015 to the spanish newspaper el mundo his son told the newspaper it's difficult to determine what stage it's at it's obvious he'll never improve and it will get worse tarek said that his father had begun showing signs of dementia three years prior while suffering from the degenerative disease omar sharif apparently still lived a comfortable life close to his son only moving to a hospital at the very end of his life the actor stayed in a luxury hotel in a resort town in egypt and kept to a daily routine of sitting on his terrace during the day and listening to live music at the hotel bar at night but any deviation from this routine such as going to a restaurant in town left sharif insecure his son tarek told el mundo he still knows he's a famous actor the loss of memory effects above all specific things details like when he was in a specific place or when he acted within a specific film tarek also said that his father sometimes believed that approaching fans were people he knew and had forgotten about a common early symptom of alzheimer's is sudden aggression or anger which might explain sharif's behavior in 2011 when he impulsively slapped a fan who had asked for a photo with the actor sharif had been noted for his testiness in decades prior as well he faced a misdemeanor and was forced to take an anger management class in 2007 for punching a parking ballet and also reportedly got into a fight at a paris casino in 2003 for nbc news sharif's strong will persisted even as he fought the disease he refused to believe he was sick according to his son and didn't do exercises prescribed by his doctors to prolong his life in his final days when he was moved to one of egypt's top hospitals sharif refused to eat and was put on a drip before his sickness and death sharif had a long and interesting life even as his acting career faded sharif played in international bridge tournaments ended the 1964 and 1968 olympics in the world bridge federation he wrote books and released videos and video games on bridge he even published a syndicated column on the game sharif was such an aggressive gambler according to nbc news that he once won 1 million dollars at an italian casino but also lost a villa at a card game in the 1970s as sharif got older his film roles tapered off and when he did accept roles he would later describe them as quote rubbish look i stopped making movies because for the last 25 years i've been making a lot of rubbish he declined parts in the 1990s explaining that he had lost his quote self-respect and dignity but he did accept the film in 2003 a french drama titled moscow ibrahim in which he played a muslim shopkeeper in paris who adopts a jewish boy his performance earned him the cesar award the french equivalent of the academy award and also earned sharif some of his best reviews in decades according to the bbc christopher plummer was an academy award-winning actor with a long and storied career but while he was best known for playing captain bon trap and the sound of music there was much more to the canadian porn star this is the untold truth of christopher plummer christopher plummer's grand stage presence might give the impression that he was from the sort of family that got dressed up for dinner and had entire rooms at their home dedicated to entertaining and he absolutely was according to the washington post plummer's family was established by john abbott a lawyer and canadian prime minister who was given a knighthood in 1892 plummer was born just a few decades later on december 13 1929 and was always frank about the advantages he had as a child he credited his love of theater to the many evenings his family would spend reading aloud to one another since his love of theater was deep plummer was initially dismissive of film acting writing in his memoir i harbored the old-fashioned stage actor's snobism toward movie making furthermore plumber's upbringing was the sort that made him consider a career as a classical pianist first he would later tell vanity fair that he thought acting was very similar to playing classical music since quote you make your own symphony out of words christopher plummer once described his family as belonging to the quote fading social aristocracy but his early life wasn't entirely consumed with playing tennis and learning the piano even though both were part of it plummer's parents split not long after he was born and his father had nothing to do with him until he was a teenager in fact plummer never even met his father until he was 17 when his father showed up at a play he was in plummer later recalled that he and his father would meet a few more times throughout his life but the actor also admitted to never having any kind of relationship with his dad plummer also remembered that while his teachers called him gifted he had somewhat of a rebellious side recall in his wild early years plummer wrote in his memoir how often is a mere teenager tank to the gills on cheap rye whiskey and molson chasers that i stagger home in the blinding cold to say that christopher plummer hated the sound of music is putting it very very lightly according to the new york times he wasn't even fond of referring to the film by the proper name and instead called it the sound of mucus in an interview with the irish times plummer explained why he load the film he's best remembered for because it was so awful and sentimental and gooey he had to work terribly hard to try and infuse some minuscule bit of humor into it how did he cope with it plumber told vanity pair that he was only on set for a surprising 11 days but filled all of his downtime drinking and eating all the pastries he could find plummer recalled i got so fat when i got to shooting director robert wise said my god you look like orson welles we had to redo the costume he didn't just casually drink during his downtime either plumber later admitted that during the famous music festival scene he was completely drunk his dislike for the movie stayed with him for a long time in an interview with collider plumber revealed that it irked him to no end when someone wanted to only talk about the sound of music with him plumber told the outlet i don't understand it you want to say excuse me haven't you seen other films as well in 2018 christopher plummer spoke with the guardian about his new film boundaries and predictably the conversation turned to the sound of music and it was wonderful to be in a great big hollywood musical he said that by that point he'd found peace with it and noted that the only reason he agreed to take the job in the first place was because he'd been working on a singing voice and wanted the opportunity to sing in a film it didn't happen though because that's not him singing like no i never frequently sing really what might you want a tony for singing yes i don't know why because it's a sort of voice that's like a crocodile in heat when npr interviewed him in 2012 and asked if he occasionally broken a song plummer responded with quote of course not he went on to explain that the entrances and exits from the songs were him but the majority of it was not the reason was fairly simple julie andrews was a phenomenal singer and plumber was not so he didn't want to try and compete with her obvious talents everyone can agree that there's no shame in that so the filmmakers dubbed most of his singing when plummer spoke to the daily mail in 2015 he had this to say about women oh i adore women they're not nearly as emotional as men in a funny way men are silly romantic creatures whereas women when they have the responsibility of running things make marvelous leaders plummer found his marvelous match on his third try at the time of the daily mail interview he and his third wife had been married for 45 years his first two marriages had lasted just a few years each but he said that he had no doubts qualms or hesitations when it came to the third time he had met elaine taylor just three years after the sound of music and said that at that point he knew that he was lonely and thus needed someone in his life it's one of those stories that's great on the surface but hints at a much bigger problem christopher plummer told the daily mail that in the 1950s he and fellow actor jason robarts were drinking in new york city when they got the attention of a cop instead of keeping it down they promised to buy the cop a drink but on one condition the cop's horse also had to join him the cop agreed and shortly after the horse was brought into the bar and jason bought everybody a triple tequila's and gave the horse one in interviews plummer said those days were long past him and was candid about his struggles with alcohol when he met his third wife elaine he said i thought i was devastatingly attractive when i was drunk but elaine soon dissuaded me of that notion plummer admitted that he was usually angry when he was drinking and credited his wife with giving him a reason to stop when he accepted his oscar for best supporting actor in 2012 plumbers spoke about how elaine's insistence that he stopped drinking saved his life telling the audience i was really going downhill thank god for that as far as i'm concerned christopher plummer's admiration for his daughter amanda is clear in describing his daughter to the guardian plumber had this to say she has that inner madness and fire that she lets fly where she unleashes that power from i don't know but it's quite natural to her and rather frightening however that's not to say plummer and his daughter always had a closer easy relationship in fact plummer was very much absent throughout much of his daughter's life kind of like his own dad amanda plummer was the product of his first marriage to tammy grimes and she was raised mostly by her mother in the u.s while her father remained largely in europe in an interview with the daily mail plummer was honest about his absentee fatherism telling the outlet i was a lousy husband and an even worse father still amanda plummer went on to follow in her father's footsteps and she's best known for her roles on pulp fiction and hunger games fortunately for both her and her father they did make up for lost time by 2015 christopher plummer was able to describe them as having quote a nice relationship when bethesda announced the release of the video game the elder scrolls 5 skyrim they had no idea what a juggernaut they were going to have according to digital trends it's impossible to say just how many copies have been sold but in 2021 it was still sitting comfortably at number 16 in digital trends best-selling games of all time when the voice cast was announced way back in 2011 christopher plummer headlined as the voice of greybeard's ungear if it seems like a huge leap from the stage to voicing characters in video games it absolutely is which is why collider felt compelled to ask plummer whether or not he himself was a gamer plumber had this short response no that is something that is totally foreign to me these days it's often not enough to watch and enjoy a film many want to pull back the curtain and find out how it all comes together that extends to actors too and learning all about the weird ways they get into character when collider asks plumber about how he prepared for roles on the stage and on film he quickly made it clear that he wasn't going to talk about it after saying that it was essentially none of their business he explained that the world of movie making had pretty much no mystery left to it and that sort of made him sad he continued you don't want the magician to show his tricks or how he did them to you so i do think that is a very private thing that we actors should protect ourselves from he did say that getting ready for roles got easier as time went by and he got more and more experience in other words whatever he did it totally worked for him and everyone should really just sit back and enjoy the show in 2017 it was announced that director ridley scott had cut kevin spacey from a major role in all the money in the world amid accusations of sexual misconduct spacey had already done days of work on the film and they needed someone to not just step in but also prep for reshoots scott headed to new york to catch christopher plummer just before he headed to florida on vacation and according to the guardian it all happened with shocking speed plummer signed on just a few weeks before the film was set to premiere he only had about two days to get to england and learn his lines from start to finish the whole thing was just a few weeks and according to plummer his theater background provided some seriously valuable experience in learning his lines on the fly he told the hollywood reporter that he refused an offer to watch the footage with spacey and just sort of jumped in with both feet plummer added that while he had met the real-life version of his character j paul getty at parties a few times in the 60s and 70s most of what you see on screen was still quote imagination of what the man must have been when christopher plummer agreed to appear in all the money in the world he wasn't the only actor needed on set co-stars michelle williams and mark wahlberg also had to return for reshoots according to the hollywood reporter plummer had nothing but accolades for both of them he was a quote enormous fan of william's work and lauded wahlberg as being quote so good he called both actors delightful to work with and that's incredibly high praise because plummer isn't head over heels for this next generation of actors after being lauded for the on-screen chemistry he had with helen mirren in the last station he told boston.com that he basically got along with everyone he worked with because if he didn't respect them he wasn't going to work with them and as far as the 20-something actors he was dealing with in 2010 well plumber had this to say they are a problematic bunch these young actors are not trained enough they jump into television and want to be stars without doing any work since jane mansfield's death in a horrible car accident she has become the focus of ghoulish obsession was she actually decapitated and how did the church of satan fit in keep watching to find out born vera jane palmer on april 19 1933 jane mansfield wanted to become a hollywood star from a very young age inspired by the success of her childhood hero shirley temple according to jane mansfield a bio bibliography her parents were supportive enrolling young jane in voice dance and violin lessons while also allowing her to play the violin in their driveway for neighbors and those on the sidewalk not just a performer however mansfield also displayed an interest in linguistics eventually becoming fluent in five languages but her youthful aspirations were temporarily derailed at the age of 16 when she met 20-year-old paul mansfield and subsequently became pregnant a few mere months before she graduated high school she married paul and the couple then welcomed their daughter jane marie after a stint taking drama classes at the southern methodist university and the university of texas jane convinced her husband to move the family to los angeles in 1954 so she could pursue her dream of stardom a year later she got her big break as a playboy playmate of the month but it came at a cost paul filed for divorce after realizing quote he would always be second choice when it came to jane's quest for fame while some may say that kim kardashian or even paris hilton pioneered the modern wave of reality stars who were famous for being famous one could argue that it was jane mansfield who started the movement herself according to the hollywood reporter quote if it weren't for mansfield then there would likely be no kardashians today the blonde star made her big screen hollywood debut in 1955 appearing in four films including female jungle the roles were small so according to biography she knew she had to get the media's attention in a different way in january of 1955 mansfield was invited to an event for howard hughes's underwater while sporting a red bathing suit that didn't leave much to the imagination and surrounded by photographers mansfield jumped into the pool and quote had the genius to permit her bathing suit to split open she became a sensation with the press in part because unlike her contemporary marilyn monroe mansfield welcomed the paparazzi with open arms but her studio fox didn't think all publicity was good publicity so they loaned her out to other studios where she had to appear in even worse films for her part though mansfield always made a distinction between the publicity and the work i think a person to exist as a star is one thing and a person to exist as an actress is another jane mansfield built an image of a dumb blonde but it was a careful construction as she was actually highly intelligent in fact according to jane mansfield biography her iq was believed to have been 163 yet she stuck to her public persona that brought in legions of fans even when challenged directly during an appearance on the tonight show starring johnny carson for instance the host boldly declared in front of his guest quote nobody with an iq of 160 can be that stupid yet mansfield remained composed pretending she didn't understand what he meant occasionally she would let things slip such as an eloquent bbc4 interview where she explained what sex appeal meant to her comes only from inside it is nothing that's manufactured manufactured it has nothing to do with measurements or lipstick color but mostly she stuck to the role she felt she could be successful in she revealed to bbc4 that when auditioning for milton lewis the head of casting at paramount studios she performed a soliloquy from joan of arc but he told her she was quote wasting her obvious talents meaning her looks it was lewis who would help mold her image into the voluptuous icon she is remembered as today jane mansfield will forever be remembered for her now legendary photo standing next to sophia loren who is giving what appears to be the most judgmental side eye in existence aimed at the sultry blonde's cleavage as the story goes loren was invited to a dinner at romanov's restaurant in beverly hills she wrote in her memoirs mansfield came right for my table she knew everyone was watching i'm staring at her nipples because i'm afraid they are about to come onto my plate in my face you can see the fear i'm so frightened that everything in her dress is going to blow boom and spill all over the table according to vanity fair the spectacle was allegedly responsible for loren's disdain of hollywood yet as the years went on loren wished the moment would stay in the past particularly after mansfield's untimely death in 1967. she told entertainment weekly that whenever she's asked to sign an autograph for the photo she refuses quote out of respect for jane mansfield for her own part mansfield always maintained that she never enjoyed such showy publicity as she told cbc in the early 60s as far as actually enjoying it i don't think anyone actually enjoys it there's a reason why the golden age of hollywood was known for being consistently wholesome and glamorous it simply had to be in the mid-1930s a set of guidelines called the haze code ruled over tinseltown film studios not allowing any on-screen nudity this code reigned supreme until 1968 yet some actors still pushed the boundaries by the time the early 60s came along of course overseas foreign stars were already bearing all such as french icon brigitte bardo's buff debut in 1956's and god created woman which put her on the international map in america though it was mansfield who appeared in the first modern nude scene for a hollywood release going topless in 1963's promises promises according to vulture the blonde's career was heading towards a standstill her studio growing impatient that her last box office success was in 1957 with will's success spoil rock hunter going back to the basics of what made her a breakout star originally mansfield did what she did best a publicity stunt but it backfired promises promises was a critical failure leading only to more offers to do skin flicks and it was also a nerve-wracking experience for mansfield herself who according to here they are jane mansfield allegedly drank quote a magnum of champagne so she could get the courage to bear it all on camera jane mansfield made a career out of mimicking the blonde sex symbol stereotype put forward by fellow a-listers such as marilyn monroe this similarity didn't go unnoticed by monroe who even wanted to sue her counterpart for copying her so much as lawrence j quirk author of the kennedys in hollywood recalled in a conversation he once had with monroe she snapped all she does is imitate me but her imitations are an insult to her as well as to myself but did monroe have another reason to hate mansfield according to quirk mansfield envied monroe for her affair with john f kennedy in the mid-1950s and by the time the next decade rolled around she was determined to steal the spotlight yet again with the help of jfk's brother-in-law peter lawford mansfield embarked on her own affair with kennedy and when lawfur warned her to perhaps be a bit more discreet the actors shot back everyone in hollywood and washington knows about it anyway and i like it that way and i'll bet marilyn's pissed is all get out interestingly enough after marilyn monroe's death in 1962 and the subsequent conspiracy theories that the kennedys were involved somehow mansfield grew increasingly paranoid that she would meet the same fate according to the kennedys in hollywood she told her friend jerry asher quote maybe i'll be next jane mansfield understood that to make it in hollywood she had to craft a totally manufactured version of herself to stand out in the sea of wannabe a-listers according to biography she quote made pink her trademark color and even went as far as to ensure that she would be seen in her pink car decked out in pink clothing however her biggest commitment to her bubblegum lifestyle was her house dubbed the pink palace in 1958 the newly married mansfield and mickey hargitay bought a mansion on sunset boulevard which consisted of 25 rooms and 11 bathrooms that its new owners then repainted in pink mansfield also ensured that the outside would fully represent her as well making a stone wall that encompassed the compound also in her trademark color she also decorated her house with cupid motifs throughout saying all my life i've dreamed of a place full of cupids and angels and hearts perhaps the most elaborate add-on of the pink palace was the swimming pool which hargitay built himself into a heart shape installing on the bottom a gold mosaic which read i love you janie by the time the late 1960s rolled around in america the youth of the country were rebelling against the political and religious conservatism of the 1950s and hollywood took notice as well including jane mansfield who reportedly realized she needed an image makeover mansfield 66-67 director p david eversole explained to interview that the blonde's larger-than-life persona wasn't popular anymore and so she yet again embarked on a quest for even more widespread publicity cue the church of satan founder anton levay according to sf gate levay actually rejected the concept of any religion in a theological sense yet his blend of quote pagan hedonism and huxterism was enough to make him a household name in the late 60s mansfield and levay's paths crossed in 1966 after an encounter at the san francisco film festival where she ended up visiting his home as he showed off his various occult knickknacks from there mansfield and levay were photographed together multiple times according to history collection he performed a satanic ritual in his home with mansfield in attendance and he even visited her in her pink palace taking photos by her unique heart-shaped pool although mansfield denied ever being a satanist interview knows that she openly declared levi a genius jane mansfield died on june 29 1967 in a car accident on route 90 on her way to new orleans from biloxi mississippi mansfield was in the car with three of her children as well as her companion samuel s brody and a driver while her kids survived all three adults died instantly when the vehicle hit a truck after mansfield's death made headlines an urban legend began circulating that she was decapitated in the tragedy but this wasn't true jim roberts a mortician at a new orleans funeral home told the new york times her head was attached as much as mine is people always figured wrong about jane about the way she lived and the way she died even in death mansfield couldn't escape the predatory public her ex-husband mickey hargitay was hounded by the press and the car she died in has become a ghoulish tourist attraction jane mansfield was mother of five children and one of her kids has successfully followed in her mother's footsteps when it comes to having an a-list hollywood career marishka hargitay daughter of mansfield and mickey hargitay is synonymous with her law and order special victims unit character olivia benson whom she's played since 1999. unlike her mother marishka has primarily stuck to the small screen yet her face is instantly recognizable having survived the car accident that took her mother's life marishka has said she had a quote relatively normal childhood yet as she told glamour in 2021 the actor has spent her life dealing with the subsequent trauma i've spent 54 years sort of trying to figure out what happened and why and what am i supposed to do with it she told james lipton on inside the actor's studio that she takes comfort in religion i believe that there are no accidents and i believe that god has a plan and i have a very deep belief in god nevertheless marishka credits her mother for instilling positive values that she's taken with her into adulthood from being a mother to her professional career hargitay told closer she was an inspiration she had this appetite for life gary cooper will always be remembered as the ultimate movie cowboy although his presence on the silver screen is pretty much legendary there's still a lot you might not know about this icon of golden age cinema this is the untold truth of gary cooper he might have played the rough and tough all-american cowboy in his films but gary cooper's parents actually came from england they immigrated to the united states and eventually bought a massive ranch in montana born frank james cooper in helena montana it was on his parents vast ranch that he learned how to ride horses hunt and fish the perfect training for his future career although he and his brother were born and raised in montana cooper's parents thought that the boys would benefit from having an english education so they sent their sons abroad for their schooling the cooper brothers later returned home and enrolled in american schools around 1912. due to his origins in his early education cooper actually spoke with an english accent for much of his childhood cooper originally dreamed of working in the visual arts and he showed some promising talent in sketching and watercolor painting eventually however cooper found that he could earn more money working in los angeles as a stuntman and screen extra he later landed an agent named nan collins who helped him find some real work and it was she who suggested that cooper change his first name from frank to gary this would have seemed like an unusual move since gary wasn't really used as a given name at the time but it certainly worked for cooper thanks to his new name and new agent cooper started landing some proper roles with his big break coming in the form of a leading part in the 1926 silent film the winning of barbara worth cooper subsequently signed a long-term contract with paramount clara beau was undoubtedly the biggest it girl of the silent film age era so her opinion held a considerable amount of sway in hollywood after beau acted alongside gary cooper in the 1927 film children of divorce she was absolutely smitten both with his acting and his sex appeal beau insisted that cooper should be cast in her 1927 movie wings although he only played a small role it's been widely rumored that the two were lovers off the screen as well as on wings was a smash success and became the very first oscar winner for best picture unfortunately beau's career didn't survive the transition from silent films to talkies although she may have been a talented performer on the screen her harsh brooklyn accent is usually cited as the cause of her downfall cooper however went on to have a long and prosperous film career of course clara beau wasn't the last of gary cooper's lovers a noted ladies man cooper's list of lovers was an extensive one including a number of actresses and co-stars such as marlene dietrich carol lombard ingrid bergman and grace kelly cooper eventually married the socialite veronica bath with whom he had a daughter maria but marriage didn't put a damper on his affairs in fact cooper's womanizing ways were no secret as the director howard hawkins once said if i ever saw him with a good looking girl and he was kind of dragging his feet over the ground and being very shy and looking down i'd say oh oh the snake's gonna strike again one of cooper's most notable lovers was the mexican actress lupe velez but the two had a particularly turbulent affair not only did cooper's mother and velez despise each other but velez also once stabbed cooper with a kitchen knife during an argument another time she tried to shoot cooper while he was boarding a train impressively that relationship somehow still lasted three whole years in his later years cooper had a lengthy affair with his fountainhead co-star patricia neal who was 25 years his junior they won't destroy me dominique i'll wait for you i love you i'm saying it now for all the years we'll have to wait although cooper legally separated from his wife for a while and nearly married neal in the end he returned to bath clark gable was a swoon-worthy choice for the role of rhett butler and gone with the win but gary cooper could just as easily have been cast in the role in fact david o selznick approached cooper personally about taking the role of rhett butler and it's not hard to see why unfortunately for selznick cooper had no interest whatsoever in the role or the movie he was convinced that gone with the win would bomb and wanted no involvement in the picture cooper did however give his wholehearted approval for the casting of gable in the role allegedly saying gone with the wind is going to be the biggest flop in hollywood history i'm glad it'll be clark gable who's falling flat on his nose not me frankly my hair i don't give a damn gone with the win would go on to win eight academy awards one of gary cooper's most famous roles was in the 1942 film pride of the yankees in which he played terminally ill baseball player lou gehrig when cooper was first offered the part he was hesitant to accept he didn't know anything about baseball and had no interest in the sport he was also already 40 three years older than garrick was when he passed away it wasn't until garrick's widow eleanor expressed her desire for cooper to play her husband that he decided to accept the role cooper went into this role with absolutely no knowledge of baseball and learned pretty much everything from scratch to that end cooper went into rigorous training with the former all-star lefty o'dull unfortunately cooper's efforts with baseball were hardly impressive o'doul aims some fairly harsh criticism at cooper once telling the actor you throw a ball like an old woman tossing a hot biscuit cooper eventually improved his game enough to look just about authentic but brooklyn dodgers star babe herman was nonetheless brought in to be cooper's movie double the film turned out to be a hit and putting aside his less than stellar baseball skills cooper nailed the part of garrick in a letter to eleanor garrick the writer paul gallico made particular note of cooper's performance saying lou seems to have become more gary cooper than lou gehrig both gary cooper and ernest hemingway were famous for being the ultra masculine rough and tumble icons of their respective art forms so it makes sense that they would become very close friends before they even met gary cooper had starred in the 1932 movie adaptation of ernest hemingway's novel a farewell to arms and hemingway was impressed by his performance however they wouldn't officially meet each other until 1940. oddly enough the men bonded which may have seemed surprising at the time considering cooper and hemingway were polar opposites in many ways hemingway was loud rambunctious loved his drink and occasionally enjoyed a good fight cooper however was solemn taciturn a moderate drinker and shied away from conflict while hemingway was a voracious reader and novelist cooper barely picked up a book unless it was a movie script but the two were great outdoorsmen and enjoyed hunting and fishing together when for whom the bell tolls was to be made into a movie in 1943 hemingway insisted that cooper be cast in the lead role sadly the two friends also declined together cooper physically and hemingway mentally in 1961 less than two months after cooper died of cancer hemingway took his own life if you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts please call the national suicide prevention lifeline at [Music] was 1-800-273-8255 opposed to communism and helped co-found the motion picture alliance for the preservation of american ideals a right-wing organization dedicated to keeping any trace of communism or fascism out of film and cooper was perfectly happy to turn down a script if he thought it was too left-wing for his taste despite his conservative leanings however cooper stepped up to support his friend and high noon screenwriter carl foreman who was accused of communism and called before the house un-american activities committee foreman had indeed been a member of the communist party in 1938 but had quit in 1943. cooper had great respect for foreman's talents as a screenwriter and fully believed that he was no longer a communist cooper was even willing to testify on foreman's behalf despite the fact that his lawyer advised against it likely fearing that cooper could find himself blacklisted although foreman had long since ceased being a party member he was still subpoenaed and asked to give up other names in the party which he adamantly refused to do ultimately foreman was blacklisted by hollywood and eventually immigrated to england but cooper continued to fight for foreman eventually securing him an on-screen credit for high noon and a number of other films although gary cooper's wife and daughter were both catholic the actor himself was episcopalian that changed however after cooper suffered a number of setbacks and personal troubles his affair with patricia neal was putting pressure on his family and her pregnancy and subsequent abortion hardly helped things on top of that the actor was also suffering from a number of ulcers in the end the strain was becoming too much cooper ended his relationship with neil and returned to his family they took a european trip together which coincided with a publicity tour for his latest film high noon one of their stops was at the vatican for a private audience with the pope and it was here that cooper's interest in catholicism began it wasn't an automatic conversion and cooper still had lapse in his fidelity nonetheless cooper wanted to make more of an effort in his marriage he began attending catholic mass with his wife and daughter reasoning that a little religion wouldn't do him any hurt and later decided to officially convert to catholicism cooper was formally admitted into the catholic church in 1959 gary cooper is best known for playing the noble hero character and he liked it that way whenever a screenwriter was concocting a new character for cooper cooper would urge the writer to make sure that his character got to be the hero the actor always said he preferred playing characters that exemplified a man's best qualities hence his attraction to westerns which cooper felt emphasized these traits particularly well don't try to be a hero you don't have to be a hero not for me i'm not trying to be a hero if you think i like this you're crazy in those movies there was always a clear-cut good guy and bad guys and the good guy always won in that respect the films were very black and white and cooper loved them when asked in 1959 why he did so many western movies cooper responded i like westerns because the good ones are real you feel real when you make them we are brought close to the pioneer people by seeing the western picture and realized that our country was and is full of people who believe in america cooper's daughter maria cooper janus likewise recalled her father's love of playing the hero in his movie saying he always said he wanted to make films that showed the best a man could be cooper's physical health began to decline significantly in 1960 he had long suffered from ulcers but now he was afflicted by cancer in 1960 cooper had a prostate operation and five weeks later he had a cancerous part of his colon removed he did his best to conceal the severity of his illness from others but people were starting to notice cooper's prolonged public absences and it was obvious that something was very wrong as much as cooper and his family hoped the surgeries would help the cancer soon spread to his lungs and bones the pain was intense and cooper needed powerful drugs for relief cooper died in 1961 at the age of 60 with his wife daughter doctor and family priest by his side one month before his death cooper received an honorary oscar at the 1961 academy awards cooper was unable to attend due to his illness so his friend jimmy stewart accepted the award on his behalf as stewart accepted his friend's award he lost his composure and became teary-eyed saying we're very very proud of you coop all of us are tremendously proud check out one of our newest videos right here plus even more grunge videos about your favorite stuff are coming soon subscribe to our youtube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one [Music] you

Channel: Grunge

Views: 730,894

Keywords: grunge, classic movies, john wayne, addams family, fred astaire

Id: _6eg4Yd6C0g

Length: 134min 2sec (8042 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 27 2022