Know Your Character Actors
The other night I watched a movie called The Bad and the Beautiful. Made in 1952, it starred Kirk Douglas, Lana Turner, Walter Pigeon and Dick Powell. At the time, it was considered the ultimate Hollywood insider’s picture. I won’t bother describe the plot to you; I will say, however, that it was corny as hell, sometimes bad, sometimes beautiful, but very entertaining for me to watch.
I watch a fair amount old movies on the Turner Classic Movie channel — to the point where I’m really beginning to spot the B-list character actors, those invaluable second bananas the movie industry relies so heavily upon. I consider them the baseball equivalent of the long man out of the bullpen who can be used as a spot starter — nothing flashy, not a star by any means, but your team would be in bad shape without him. Anyway, I recognized the guy who played Gaucho, the Latin lover-type movie star in the The Bad and the Beautiful, as the same actor who played an alternately jovial and feisty shrimp fisherman in the James Stewart movie Thunder Bay. It seems I can’t watch an old movie anymore without picking out actors like that.
A while ago I reread David Copperfield. While reading it, the mental image I had of David’s eccentric yet lovable aunt, Miss Betsey Trotwood, was the above character actress, Edna May Oliver, who appeared in roughly a gazillion movies from the silent film era on up to the early forties. As she got older, she seemed to specialize in the comedic spinster or matron roles. With her horse face and exaggerated hauteur, you couldn’t help loving her. I saw her in the Olivier version of Pride and Prejudice playing the role of Lady Catherine de Bourgh (in a surprisingly sympathetic treatment of the character) and thought, next to Greer Garson, she was the best thing in the picture. So I thought she would be perfect for the role of David Copperfield’s aunt. And guess what? On a whim yesterday I decided to look up her filmography and you’d never believe what character she once played: Aunt Betsey Trotwood in David Copperfield! Can I call ’em or what?
posted by mr. schprock at 9:52 AM
7 Comments:
I love old movies, but don't know that one. I'll have to add it to Netflix. Heck of a cast.
I've been noticing B-TV actors lately with my Babylon 5 watching. I recognise them from MacGyver, Stargate SG-1 (which I just started watching), The Pretender, The Profiler, etc. It is fascinating that they can't break out of that mold when they're obviously versatile actors.
She looks like the lady that played the witch (and the bicycle-riding meanie) in The Wizard of Oz.
"It is fascinating that they can't break out of that mold when they're obviously versatile actors."
Evidently they don't have that certain "something" I guess.
"She looks like the lady that played the witch (and the bicycle-riding meanie) in The Wizard of Oz."
Yeah, that's Margaret Hamilton, another great character actress.
I thought for a moment what Trina did, but I realized I was wrong after a little scrutiny. Walter Brennan was a great character actor, never the star, ever the sidekick; never young, always old--even when he was young.
That is true, although once he sort of starred opposite Gary Cooper in a movie where he played Judge Roy Bean.
Could that "certain" something be excessive good looks?
Studies show excessive good looks can be very helpful.
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