Happy to add these names to the listing of stars still with us.
Gina Lollobrigida…………….Debra Paget
Jimmy Lydon
Barbara Rush……Sophia Loren.
Ann Blyth………Vera Miles.
Nancy Olson……….Jane Powell
Terry Moore……….Sidney Poitier
Barbara Rush
Sophia Loren
Ann Blyth
Vera Miles
Nancy Olson
Jane Powell
Terry Moore
Sidney Poitier
Vienna's Classic Hollywood
Really nice to be reminded that these people are still around. Sophia Loren is still working too as far as I’m aware, or was until quite recently anyway.
It is a nice reminder as you say. Sophia made a film recently with her son.
Brigitte Bardot (1934) – 8 days younger than Sophia.
How nice to learn that Barbara Rush and Jane Powell are still around! The former starred in the Chicago company of “Forty Carats”, the second pro production I ever saw as a stagestruck kid (first was Betty Garrett in “Plaza Suite” also at the Blackstone Theatre, in ’69 the year before), I’ll never forget that she seemed to literally be looking directly at me, in about the 8th row, and held her gaze as her eyes welled up in a crying scene! Geez, am I THAT depressing? I later thought!
Lucky you, seeing Barbara on stage.(also Betty Garrett.)
Thanks Vienna. The visual memory of both, will always be with me. In “Plaza Suite”, directed as in NYC, by Mike Nichols, I think Betty Garrett wore padding under her costume for the first of the three one-act plays. I say this because a few years ago I saw a photo from that production and was surprised to see how slim she was, as we remember her from tv and films. Makes perfect sense as the second and third plays involve women younger and then somewhat older, so it helped contrast the characters (if memory serves!). I played the second play (as the film producer) thirteen years later in N.J.: three different casts as it’s usually done, but not in the Nichols productions. Forrest Tucker starred in the Chicago company with Garrett but was ill and we saw his excellent understudy, Grant Sullivan. – Greg
Oh to have seen these stars on tour or in stock productions. Forty Carats was a popular vehicle for mature ladies. Among those who played it were Ginger Rogers, Julie Harris, June Allyson and Joan Fontaine. When the Broadway production was faltering Zsa Zsa Gabor was brought in and scored a great hit with audiences keeping the play running for another year.
How interesting, I didn’t know Rogers had played it; of course Julie created the role which won her a Tony. I had the great pleasure of knowing her many years later, such a fine person and actress. Saw her do “Belle of Amherst” at Princeton in ’01 and thought her much better than the original run, or at least as I saw it after she came to London with it in I think ’76, at the Phoenix Theatre there.
Yes at 64 Ginger was pushing it to play a 40 year old. Forgot to add Lana Turner who did it in 1972 making her stage debut. She received surprisingly good notices.
Also had no idea Turner did it, and not surprised to hear about the notices. She seems to have been one of those stars people “loved to hate” in terms of her acting, who nevertheless could be very effective and managed to remain a star.
Two more I don’t think have been mentioned and definitely Golden Age, though child performers: Margaret O’Brien and Dean Stockwell.
Also Claude Jarman Jr. and Darryl Hickman.
Thanks indeed for these four names.
I’m glad also they’re mentioned, Stockwell is such a fine actor and so underrated. He at least has had an adult career however, unlike O’Brien who like Freddie Bartholomew was such a good child actor. Saw her last night in “Music for Millions”, not a great flick but she was excellent alongside June Allyson and Marsha Hunt, another star I’ve always liked and am glad you mention. She’s now 103 I believe!
Also Robert Blake!
Margaret O’Brien and Dean Stockwell went on to extensive appearances on television.
Such good child performers. I’d like to see Our Vines Have Tender Grapes again.
Yes, I meant in movies and should have said so, in differentiating her from Stockwell who continued a film career, if rarely in roles as good as “Sons and Lovers” and “Long Day’s Journey Into Night”.
The one I remember him in is Compulsion.
Vienna, yesterday I viewed TARZAN AND THE SHE-DEVIL(filmed 1952, released 1953), a movie I hadn’t seen in many years. Of the three main actresses, two are still with us and one passed away in 2020. Monique van Vooren(1927-2020) portrayed Lyra the She-Devil, Joyce Mackenzie(1929-) was Jane, and Mara Corday(1930-) was the Locopo woman who led the other women of the tribe to summon Tarzan(Lex Barker) for help.
I think Joyce Mackenzie made a good Jane and she had a lot to do in this movie. She showed a lot of spunk and a wholesome sensuality that was rather nice to observe. She left the acting profession, went to college and became an English teacher. Mara Corday had a small, but effective part. She later married actor Richard Long.
Thanks, Walter. More performers still with us.
Your mention of “Compulsion” prompted me to read about the Leopold-Loeb case it’s based on, that Clarence Darrow (played by Welles) eloquently defended: The Crime of the Century.
I discovered that the case is clearly still used as an excuse for continued homophobia and anti-Semitism.
“Rope” was also loosely based on the case, if perhaps less grisly than the real murder.
Thanks for your further comments. A memorable real life case – Dean Stockwell and Bradford Dillman did very well in the film.
Thanks Vienna. Reading about Darrow is almost an “acting lesson” in itself, which is not to discount his remarkable intellect used so passionately as a force for good. Photos of him convey someone even more dramatic than the many actors who have played him!
Vienna, actress/director/producer/writer Lee Grant(1925) is still with us. On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the TV premiere of RANSOM FOR A DEAD MAN(3/1/71) she tweeted, “Well this is hard to believe!” I think Lee Grant was really good as Lt. Columbo’s(Peter Falk) very formidable advisory.
Lee Grant has received numerous awards besides her two Oscar’s and she was first nominated for an Oscar for her role as a shoplifter in DETECTIVE STORY(1951).
I offered her name in the first “Still With Us” thread.
Her film career was mainly in the 1960s and beyond .
Bob, you sure did. Also, I’m glad you named Brigitte Bardot, because here in the USA she was number 7 at the movie box office in 1958 and 17 in 1959.
I would add another name who is a huge star and is still with us and very active. Pat Boone(1934). Boone was number 3 at the movie box office in 1957.
A good actress. Very few films appearances in the 1950s. I read she was blacklisted.
Vienna, yes, Lee Grant was on a partial black list, because she did continue to work, a lot of roles weren’t offered to her because her husband screenwriter/playwrite/novelist Arnold Manoff was a communist and also, in December, 1951 she gave an impassioned eulogy at the memorial service for actor J. Edward Bromberg, who she had worked with on stage in the play “All You Need is One Good Break,” which was written by her future husband Arnold Manoff. Bromberg’s early death of a heart attack, she implied, was caused by the stress of being called before the House Un-American Activities Committee(HUAC). Her name later appeared in the publication Red Channels, and as a result, for the next ten years, she was partially blacklisted and her work in television and movies, as a result, was limited.
Another example of that terrible period.
Yes; and of course Marsha Hunt whom you mentioned, lost her film career altogether – despite not being nearly as “implicated” as Grant. She was only allowed to work onstage for all those ensuing years, and is now 103.
Correction: I think Hunt did get some tv work by the late ’60s, though was still barred from most of that work even then.
I love how Marsha has made appearances in recent years at TCM events.
Me Jo, Marsha Hunt didn’t lose her film career altogether and she continued to work despite being on a partial black list and listed in “Red Channels.” Was her career limited because of this? Yes, I’m sure it was. but she continued to work in movies and TV throughout the 1950’s. Her credits are listed here.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0402554/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
Thanks, I saw a long interview with her where she definitely gave the impression that movies were over for her after the blacklist, and that the listing in “Red Channels” was in any case quite inaccurate. It’s nice to know that in addition to her remarkable resurgence as composer, producer, philanthropist and of course stage actress, she still did some films. I missed most of the recent TCM documentary about her and look forward to seeing it in full. Greg