Still More Character Actors

It's been awhile since we've done a posting on character actors and I think it's high time we correct that.  How about another trip down memory lane to connect those oh-so-familiar faces with names and a bit of bio?  The three gentlemen in the center ring today, Edgar Buchanan, Elisha Cook Jr. and John McIntire, I first came across in westerns.  All worked plenty in other genres but all filled a saddle in many a film.  They worked a great deal.    Buchanan was in 90 films, Cook was in 98 films and McIntire did 63.  On top of this was a very great deal of television, including TV movies.  Two of them were regulars in one or more TV series.  Let's get to know them a little better:

He Said, She Said

I started this posting some time ago.  I have been collecting quotes from the famous and about the famous.  They can be funny, bitchy, sad, mean-spirited and enlightening.  Regardless, I think it's time to wrap it up and send off to you. 

The Directors: Douglas Sirk

It was only appropriate that I latch on to director Douglas Sirk because his biggest films came in the 1950s, the decade that my romance with movies began.  I saw all of  his films from that decade, not necessarily because I rushed out to see them but because Mama wanted to see them and if she wanted to see a movie, we packed up and headed out.

The Sound of Music: Favorite Movie #4

1965 Musical
From 20th Century Fox
Directed by Robert Wise

Starring
Julie Andrews
Christopher Plummer
Eleanor Parker
Richard Haydn
Peggy Wood
Charmian Carr
Nicholas Hammond
Heather Menzies
Duane Chase
Angela Cartwright
Debbie Turner
Kym Karath
Ben Wright
Daniel Truhitte

Jane Russell

She was never the girl nextdoor type, no siree.  It is no accident that her most famous photograph has her lounging seductively on a stack of hay, peasant blouse down over one shoulder, gun in hand, pout on face and breasts prominent enough to make a red-blooded boy forget about the gun, the pout and the hay.

Oscar Nominations

I wasn't going to do a posting on the Oscar nominations but then I watched them being announced and got all caught up in the excitement.  Or maybe it was because Chris Hemsworth was reading them.  As is the case with every Oscar year, there were predictable nominees and also some surprises.  I cannot do every category here but let's hit some highlights.

REVIEW: Inside Llewyn Davis

Directed by Ethan and Joel Coen
2013 Musical Drama
1 hour 44 minutes
From CBS Films

Starring
Oscar Isaac
Carey Mulligan
John Goodman
Justin Timberlake
Garrett Hedlund
Ethan Phillips
Robin Bartlett

REVIEW: Lone Survivor

Directed by Peter Berg
2013 War Drama
2 hours 1 minute
From Universal Pictures

Starring
Mark Wahlberg
Taylor Kitsch
Emile Hirsch
Ben Foster
Eric Bana
Yousuf Azami
Ali Suliman

REVIEW: August: Osage County

Directed by John Wells
2013 Drama
2 hours 1 minute
From The Weinstein Company

Starring
Meryl Streep
Julia Roberts
Ewan McGregor
Chris Cooper
Julianne Nicholson
Margo Martindale
Juliette Lewis
Benedict Cumberbatch
Abigail Breslin
Dermot Mulroney
Misty Upham
Sam Shepard

RIP Juanita Moore

Most unfortunately this dear lady will be unknown to most people unless one is very familiar with the 1959 Imitation of Life.  In that case, you know exactly who she is.  Although she worked for a decade before the film and would work many years afterwards, she never again gathered such praise and fame as she did playing Annie Johnson in Imitation of Life.  Moore died on New Year's Day in  Los Angeles, where she lived most of her life.  She was 99.

The Hunk

Victor Mature was called all kinds of names and The Hunk was simply one of them.  A few others were lush Lothario, Technicolor Tarzan, overripe Romeo, the loafer, glamour boy.  I'm sure there were more.  His distinctive, often-brooding Mediterranean good looks generally found him in films that were pure escapism.  No one would accuse him of being a great actor and that would include him.