Marlene Dietrich

 I mean this in the nicest way... she was a piece of work.  Frankly, very few have crafted their image more carefully than Dietrich.  She didn't coincidentally say or do much of anything.  It was all part of her grand design.  Believe it or not, she was a little bit shy, sometimes withdrawn, occasionally easily hurt.  She could also be hurtful, forthright, maddening, haughty, tough, controlling and unsurprisingly frank about who she was and who she wasn't.  Kind, thoughtful, savvy, glittering.

From the 1950s: Scaramouche

1952 Adventure

From MGM

Directed by George Sidney

Starring

Stewart Granger

Eleanor Parker

Janet Leigh

Mel Ferrer

Henry Wilcoxon

Nina Foch

Richard Anderson

Robert Coote

Lewis Stone

From the 1940s... Tin Pan Alley

1940 Musical

From 20th Century Fox

Directed by Walter Lang

Starring

Alice Faye

Betty Grable

Jack Oakie

John Payne

Allen Jenkins

John Loder

The Nicholas Brothers

Elisha Cook Jr.

Billy Gilbert

Cliff Robertson

When he won his Oscar he commented that he had never even been invited to the ceremonies before because he was never considered important enough.  He never forgot that.. and for good reason.

From the 1950s: Miss Sadie Thompson

1953 Drama

From Columbia Pictures

Directed by Curtis Bernhardt

Starring

Rita Hayworth

José Ferrer

Aldo Ray

Russell Collins

Harry Bellaver

Wilton Graff

Peggy Converse

Charles Bronson

Henry Slate

Rudy Bond

RIP Arlene Dahl

Arlene Dahl has died.  She was 96.  The world is a little less beautiful.

From the 1950s: The Proud Rebel

1958 Western 

From Buena Vista

Directed by Michael Curtiz

Starring

Alan Ladd

Olivia de Havilland

Dean Jagger

David Ladd

Cecil Kellaway

Harry Dean Stanton

Tom Pittman

James Westerfield 

Henry Hull

John Carradine

Mary Wickes

From the 1950s: Hondo

1953 Western
From Warner Bros

Directed by John Farrow

Starring

John Wayne

Geraldine Page

Ward Bond

Lee Aaker

Michael Pate

Rodolfo Acosta

James Arness

Leo Gordon

Tom Irish

Paul Fix

Frank McGrath

From the 1950s: The Happy Years

1950 Comedy

From MGM

Directed by William Wellman

Starring

Dean Stockwell

Darryl Hickman

Scotty Beckett

Leon Ames

Margalo Gilmore

Leo G. Carroll

Donn Gift

Peter Thompson 

Elinor Donahue

From the 1950s: Treasure Island

1950 Adventure

From Disney

Directed by Byron Haskin

Starring

Bobby Driscoll

Robert Newton

Basil Sydney

Walter Fitzgerald

Denis O'Dea

Ralph Truman

Geoffrey Keen

Geoffrey Wilkinson

John Laurie

Finlay Currie

From the 1940s: The Yearling

1946 Family Drama

From MGM

Directed by Clarence Brown

Starring

Gregory Peck

Jane Wyman

Claude Jarman Jr.

Chill Wills

Forrest Tucker

Clem Bevans

Margaret Wycherly

Henry Travers

Donn Gift

Jeff York

June Lockhart

From the 1930s: Captains Courageous

1937 Drama

From MGM

Directed by Victor Fleming

Starring

Freddie Bartholomew

Spencer Tracy

Lionel Barrymore

Melvyn Douglas

Mickey Rooney

Charley Grapewin

John Carradine

Sam McDaniel

From the 1950s: Three Secrets

1950 Drama

From Warner Bros 

Directed by Robert Wise

Starring

Eleanor Parker

Patricia Neal

Ruth Roman

Frank Lovejoy

Leif Erickson

Larry Keating

Katherine Warren

Edmon Ryan

Ted de Corsia

Two British Movies "At the Top"

Here is a chance to look into a top fifties' film and its six-years' later sequel in one posting, something I have not done before.  Laurence Harvey plays the same character, Joe Lampton, in both Room at the Top (1959) and Life at the Top (1965).  Room is one of two Harvey performances (the other being The Manchurian Candidate) that stand out as the best screen work he ever did.

The Directors: Walter Lang

In the forties, 20th Century Fox might have been best known for its musical output (and maybe a little film noir), thanks in part to two people.  One was Betty Grable who was the most popular movie star of the decade.  That is due to the fact that she starred in most of the Fox musicals.  Secondly, there is Walter Lang, the director of six of Grable's 40's flicks and the studio's primary director of all its musicals.

From the 1950s: There's No Business Like Show Business

1954 Musical

From 20th Century Fox

Directed by Walter Lang

Starring

Ethel Merman

Donald O'Connor

Marilyn Monroe

Dan Dailey

Mitzi Gaynor

Johnnie Ray

Richard Eastham

Hugh O'Brian

RIP Tommy Kirk

It was just a few months ago that I thought of Tommy Kirk and I looked him up online to check out his age, see if I could find out where he lived, what he's been up to and to see if he was alive.  I was surprised to learn he'd make some movies in these later years.  I hadn't thought he'd done anything since the sixties.  I noticed there was no date of death but wondered if there was perhaps some mishap in reporting his death.  That wouldn't have surprised me.

John Drew Barrymore

 He was born into an acclaimed acting family in Beverly Hills in 1932.  His father was the famed stage and film actor John (The Great Profile) Barrymore and his mother silent screen star Dolores Costello.  His father's siblings were Academy Award-winning actors Lionel and Ethel.  His grandfather was silent film star Maurice Costello and his aunt 1920s star Helene Costello.  His older half-sister was the troubled, alcoholic actress Diana Barrymore.  He was also the usually-estranged father of actress Drew Barrymore.

From the 1950s: Born to Be Bad

1950 Drama

From RKO

Directed by Nicholas Ray

Starring

Joan Fontaine

Robert Ryan

Zachary Scott

Joan Leslie

Mel Ferrer

Harold Vermilyea

Virginia Farmer

Working Together Again

When the old studio system was thriving, particularly during the Golden Age, it was common practice to put contract players together in movies over and over again.  After all, if a coupling seemed to work in one film, why not do another and another?  Arguably this happened at Warner Brothers more than any other studio.  We're not talking about teams (Martin and Lewis) or those who played the same characters over and over (Powell and Loy in The Thin Man).  But at Warners it seemed as though the same five people worked together frequently.  Let's see who they are...

Donald O'Connor

Perhaps I am mistaken but I suspect Donald O'Connor's career didn't quite pan out the way he would have wanted.  I thought he was a immensely talented dancer (with singing and comedy to help make him a triple threat).  He commanded our attention in a handful of musicals.  Wouldn't he have wanted more than that?  It was pretty much the same if your last name was Nelson, Dailey, Kidd, Fosse, Van, Brascia, Rall and a few others if you were male movie dancers.  Surely they all wished they'd attained the fame and glory that Kelly and Astaire did.

From the 1950s: The Naked Jungle

1954 Drama
From Paramount Pictures

Directed by Byron Haskin

Starring

Eleanor Parker

Charlton Heston

William Conrad

Abraham Sofaer

Visiting Film Noir: Naked Alibi

1954 Film Noir

From Universal-International

Directed by Jerry Hopper

Starring

Sterling Hayden

Gloria Grahame

Gene Barry

Marcia Henderson

Billy Chapin

Chuck Connors

Casey Adams

Movie Biographies: The Barretts of Wimpole Street

1957 Biography

From MGM

Directed by Sidney Franklin

Starring

Jennifer Jones

John Gielgud

Bill Travers

Virginia McKenna

Jean Anderson

Susan Stephen 

Vernon Gray

Maxine Audley

From the 1970s: Islands in the Stream

1977 Drama 

From Paramount Pictures

Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner

Starring

George C. Scott

David Hemmings

Gilbert Roland

Julius Harris

Susan Tyrell

Hart Bochner

Michael-James Wixted

Brad Savage

Richard Evans

Claire Bloom

From the 1950s: Picnic

1955 Romance Drama

From Columbia Pictures

Directed by Joshua Logan

Starring

William Holden

Kim Novak

Rosalind Russell

Betty Field

Susan Strasberg

Cliff Robertson

Arthur O'Connell

Verna Felton

Nick Adams

Reta Shaw

Elizabeth Wilson

The Directors: Henry Koster

I have seen most of Henry Koster's movies.  He made no westerns or film noirs but he did a number of lesser musicals and more importantly he worked with many people whose films usually found me sitting in the audience... Jimmy Stewart, Betty Grable, Jean Simmons, Richard Burton, among them.  Most of his career was spent at 20th Century Fox as a second-tier director.

Visiting Film Noir: While the City Sleeps

1956 Film Noir

From RKO

Directed by Fritz Lang

Starring

Dana Andrews

Rhonda Fleming

Ida Lupino

George Sanders

Howard Duff

Thomas Mitchell

Vincent Price

Sally Forrest

James Craig

John Barrymore Jr.

From the 1940s: My Darling Clementine

1946 Western

From 20th Century Fox

Directed by John Ford

Starring

Henry Fonda

Linda Darnell

Victor Mature

Cathy Downs

Walter Brennan

Tim Holt

Ward Bond

Alan Mowbray

John Ireland

Grant Withers

Jane Darwell

Roy Roberts

The Directors: Robert Siodmak

A number of great directors fled Germany in the thirties to work in America, among them Fritz Lang, Ernst Lubitsch, Billy Wilder, Douglas Sirk and Joseph von Sternberg.   Less known to the general public is today's honoree, Robert Siodmak (pronounced see-odd-mack), although he was well-known to fans of film noir since most of his American work falls into that category.

Guilty Pleasures: Rancho Notorious

1952 Western

From RKO

Directed by Fritz Lang

Starring

Marlene Dietrich

Arthur Kennedy

Mel Ferrer

William Frawley

George Reeves

Lloyd Gough

Jack Elam

Frank Ferguson

John Kellogg

Rodd Redwing

Don Murray

This man will be 92 years old at the end of this month and he's still working!  How impressive.  His first four films are some of his best and he continued to do rather high profile ones through the mid-60s.  And then what happened?  Something did because the quality of the work offered to him diminished.   I think the answer is as old as Hollywood and we'll discuss.

From the 1950s: The Last Time I Saw Paris

1954 Romance Drama
From Metro Goldwyn Mayer
Directed by Richard Brooks

Starring

Elizabeth Taylor

Van Johnson

Walter Pidgeon

Donna Reed

Eva Gabor

George Dolenz

Kurt Kasznar

Roger Moore

Sandra Descher

Celia Lovsky

From the 1940s: The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer

1947 Comedy

From RKO

Directed by Irving Reis

Starring

Cary Grant

Myrna Loy

Shirley Temple

Rudy Vallee

Ray Collins

Harry Davenport

Johnny Sands

Veda Ann Borg

Don Beddoe

Lillian Randolph

Rhonda Fleming

I always had a special fascination for this actress.   I was drawn to Hollywood's great beauties and I confess I had a real yen for redheads.  She more than filled the bill and was quite popular with the public.  She was an actress who appealed to both men and women.  I thought she seemed like she was having a good time.  She always said her story in show biz was the Cinderella story. 

From the 1950s: Anatomy of a Murder

1959 Drama

From Columbia Pictures

Directed by Otto Preminger

Starring

James Stewart

Lee Remick

Ben Gazzara

George C. Scott

Eve Arden

Arthur O'Connell

Kathryn Grant

Brooks West

Murray Hamilton

Joseph N. Welch

Visiting Film Noir: The Blue Gardenia

1953 Film Noir
From Warner Bros

Directed by Fritz Lang

Starring

Anne Baxter

Richard Conte

Ann Sothern

Raymond Burr

Jeff Donnell

Richard Erdman

George Reeves

Ruth Storey

Nat 'King' Cole

Gene Nelson

Why did he not become the huge dancing star that Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly became?  After all he had the smooth sophistication that Astaire had and the athleticism of Kelly.  And in my opinion he could sing better than either of them although I would not argue the point (and he was occasionally dubbed).  I have some thoughts on this and we'll get to them.

From the 1950s: Bend of the River

1952 Western
From Universal-International
Directed by Anthony Mann

Starring

James Stewart

Arthur Kennedy

Julie Adams

Rock Hudson

Jay C. Flippen

Lori Nelson

Harry Morgan

Chubby Johnson

Frances Bavier

Howard Petrie

Jack Lambert

Royal Dano

Stepin Fetchit

From the 1960s: Paint Your Wagon

1969 Musical Comedy

From Paramount Pictures

Directed by Joshua Logan

Starring

Lee Marvin

Clint Eastwood

Jean Seberg

Harve Presnell

Ray Walston

The Directors: Jacques Tourneur

I guess I owe my love of film noir to this little known French director.  I didn't see any of his movies for quite a number of years but once I saw his most famous film and fell crazy in love with it, I have never forgotten who this man was.  He never made another film as good as this noir but I saw many of them (some because he was the director) and enjoyed them all.

From the 1960s: Viva Maria!

1965 Adventure Comedy

From MGM

Directed by Louis Malle

Starring

Brigitte Bardot

Jeanne Moreau

George Hamilton

Claudio Brook

Paulette Dubost

Carlos Lopez Moctezuma 

Polly Bergen

While she had a six-decade career few could deny that it was one of the most unusual.  She began her entertainment career as a singer and then became a staple on TV game shows.  She took up movie acting in 1951 and dabbled in it for the rest of her life.  She became a name in the cosmetic business, wrote three books on beauty, and launched lines in jewelry and shoe brands.  A whirling dervish if there ever was one. She liked to push herself. She wanted to know her limits and what she was made of.

REMAKES: House of Strangers and Broken Lance

The story of a powerful, tyrannical father and his four sons is given a stormy look in two 20th Century Fox films.  The first is a black and white, noirish drama that takes place in 1932 Manhattan, focusing on the banking industry.  The remake is a colorful western that centers on a wealthy, dysfunctional ranching family set in 1880s Arizona.  Both have starry casts that made each film very popular.

From the 1950s: Female on the Beach

1955 Drama
From Universal-International
Directed by Joseph Pevney

Starring

Joan Crawford

Jeff Chandler

Jan Sterling

Charles Drake

Cecil Kellaway

Judith Evelyn

Natalie Schaefer

From the 1940s: Shadow of a Doubt

1943 Drama 

From Universal Pictures

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Starring

Teresa Wright

Joseph Cotten

Macdonald Carey

Henry Travers

Patricia Collinge

Hume Cronyn

Wallace Ford

Ethel Barrymore

Being born in 1879, I can promise you she's the oldest actor I have ever written about although I may top it one day if I write a piece on brother Lionel.  She came from an acting dynasty and became the First Lady of the American Stage and a premier American character actress in films.  In her quiet way she was a commanding presence.

From the 1940s: White Heat

1949 Crime Drama

From Warner Bros

Directed by Raoul Walsh

Starring

James Cagney

Virginia Mayo

Edmond O'Brien

Margaret Wycherly

Steve Cochran

John Archer

Wally Cassell

Fred Clark

Confidential

We know I loved my movie magazines when I was a kid.  Actually I was crazy about them until the day I got my driver's license and then I couldn't be bothered with such childish foolishness.  I bought some with my meager allowance but most were hand-me-downs from my mother, aunt, grandmother and neighbors.  I loved the photos and that small-town, Midwestern kid in me lapped up the stories which my father said, over the top of the sports pages of the newspaper, was pure bs.

From the 1950s: The Story of Three Loves

1953 Romance Fantasy Drama

From Metro Goldwyn Mayer

Directed by Gottfried Reinhardt

and Vincente Minnelli

Stars below

Ben Gazzara

Part of his seduction, I suspect, was his grand passion for most everything and everyone crossing his path.  It was in his bones, his heritage, it was a deep commitment from within but it didn't stay cerebral.  He loved words.  He had a great need to express himself and it's no surprise that he became an actor.  When I watched him on the screen, I was transfixed by that passionate nature... his squinty eyes, his pursed lips, the frightening quiet and his explosive outbursts.  He always commanded my attention.

Guilty Pleasures: The Fan

1981 Thriller

From Paramount Pictures

Directed by Ed Bianchi

Starring 

Lauren Bacall

James Garner

Maureen Stapleton

Michael Biehn

Hector Elizondo

Anna Maria Horsford

Kurt Johnson

Cyd Charisse

Here is one of the movies most famous dancers, the leggy and elegant Texas girl with the unusual and largely unforgettable name.  She was probably my second favorite of her contemporary female dancers but perhaps none of them were this kind of refined.  For the price of my ticket, Cyd Charisse was the deluxe model.

From the 1950s: The Good Die Young

1954 Crime Drama

From Romulus Films

Directed by Lewis Gilbert

Starring

Laurence Harvey

Gloria Grahame

Richard Basehart

Joan Collins

John Ireland

Stanley Baker

Rene Ray

Robert Morley

Freda Jackson 

Lee Patterson

Maria Montez

She couldn't act, she couldn't sing, she couldn't dance but she was determined and desperate for stardom.  According to the flamboyant Emory in The Boys in the Band, Maria Montez was a good woman.  And apparently she was, too, and an utterly likable one.  Had she learned her craft better, been at a major studio and lived longer, who's to say what might have been in the cards for the Latin American beauty?

From the 1960s: The Unforgiven

1960 Western

From United Artists

Directed by John Huston

Starring

Burt Lancaster

Audrey Hepburn

Audie Murphy

Lillian Gish

Charles Bickford

John Saxon

Joseph Wiseman

Albert Salmi

Doug McClure

June Walker 

Kipp Hamilton

Carlos Rivas

Guilty Pleasures: Lust in the Dust

1984 Comedy Western

From New World

Directed by Paul Bartel

Starring

Tab Hunter

Divine

Lainie Kazan

Geoffrey Lewis

Henry Silva

Cesar Romero

Nedra Volz

Courtney Gains

Gina Gallego

Woody Strode

From the 1940s: Duel in the Sun

1946 Western

From Selznick International

Directed by King Vidor

Starring

Jennifer Jones

Gregory Peck

Joseph Cotten

Lionel Barrymore

Lillian Gish

Herbert Marshall

Walter Huston

Charles Bickford

Harry Carey

Butterfly McQueen

Joan Tetzel

Scott McKay

Tilly Losch

Sidney Blackmer

James Stewart

He was an actor about whom I would say... I feel like a Jimmy Stewart movie.  I wonder if one is playing.  I didn't talk like that all the time about other actors although there are a few.  At the heart of it all is that I could count on Jimmy to deliver the goods... always.  His body of work is really astonishing.  He was quite an actor and quite a movie star.  We tend perhaps to think it's either/or but he had a healthy appetite for both.

Movie Biographies: To Walk with Lions

1999 Movie Biography

From 20th Century Fox

Directed by Carl Schultz

Starring

Richard Harris

John Michie

Kerry Fox

Ian Bannen

Hugh Quarshie

Honor Blackman

Geraldine Chaplin

From the 1950s: Vera Cruz

1954 Western

From United Artists

Directed by Robert Aldrich

Starring

Gary Cooper

Burt Lancaster

Denise Darcel

Cesar Romero

Sarita Montiel

George Macready

Ernest Borgnine

Charles Bronson

Henry Brandon

Jack Elam

Morris Ankrum

Guilty Pleasures: The Sun Also Rises

1957 Drama 

From 20th Century Fox

Directed by Henry King

Starring

Tyrone Power

Ava Gardner

Mel Ferrer

Errol Flynn

Eddie Albert

Gregory Ratoff

Robert Evans

Juliette Gréco

Vera-Ellen

Without a doubt she is best-remembered as the dancing sensation of 1954's most popular film, White Christmas, and should one forget that, it will be on again next December and all the Decembers afterwards to remind you.  Watching this woman dance, most especially in this film, thrills me.

From the 1950s: Creature from the Black Lagoon

1954 Sci-Fi Drama

From Universal-International

Directed by Jack Arnold

Starring

Richard Carlson

Julie Adams

Richard Denning

Antonio Moreno

Whit Bissell

Nestor Paiva

Ricou Browning

Ben Chapman

Mel Ferrer

It's kind of sad when a Hollywood actor-producer-writer-director's greatest claim to fame is the superstar actress he was married to.  He was the one with more fame when they met but neither of them was prepared for her blinding success.  He took over her career and her life.  She liked the protection, security and devotion.  But as he  protects her from the bad guys, who protects her from him?

From the 1950s: This Could Be the Night

1957 Comedy

From MGM

Directed by Robert Wise

Starring

Jean Simmons

Paul Douglas

Anthony Franciosa

Julie Wilson

Joan Blondell

Neile Adams

Rafael Campos

William Joyce

J. Carrol Naish

Tom Helmore

Teresa Wright

To this day the lady is the only movie performer to receive  Oscar nominations for her first three films.  Additionally, she is only one of 12 to receive Oscar nominations in two categories in the same year.  Both records are astonishing especially for an actress who wasn't keen on making movies in the first place and practically had to be dragged into them from the Broadway stage.

Movie Biographies: The Great Caruso

1951 Musical Biography

From Metro Goldwyn Mayer

Directed by Richard Thorpe

Starring

Mario Lanza

Ann Blyth

Dorothy Kirsten

Jarmila Novotna

Richard Hageman

Carl Benton Reid

Eduard Franz

Ludwig Donath

James Cagney

He was perhaps more versatile than his peers, especially those he worked with at Warner Bros.  One cannot deny his versatility in observing he could handle drama, light comedy and he could sing and dance.  Imagine him doing one of his dazzling routines on the stage and then jumping off, picking up his machine gun, spraying the audience, grabbing his moll and they foxtrot out the door.  Now that's versatility.

Visiting Film Noir: Nightmare Alley

1947 Film Noir

From 20th Century Fox

Directed by Edmund Goulding

Starring

Tyrone Power

Joan Blondell

Coleen Gray

Helen Walker

Mike Mazurki

Ian Keith

Taylor Holmes

The Indestructable Terry Moore

The perennial starlet is how I saw her.  She made a couple of big, important films but was not the lead in them and she made a lot of inconsequential films.  She was the sexpot at 20th Century Fox who misused her.  I found her to be more talented than I suspect they did.  Her personal life garnered far more attention than her career and she seemed to spend far more time in newspaper columns and movie magazines than she did on the screen.

From the 1950s: The Quiet Man

1952 Romance Comedy Drama

From Republic Pictures

Directed by John Ford

Starring

John Wayne

Maureen O'Hara

Barry Fitzgerald

Victor McLaglen

Ward Bond

Mildred Natwick

Francis Ford

Arthur Shields

Sean McClory

From the 1950s: The Furies

1950 Western

From Paramount

Directed by Anthony Mann

Starring

Barbara Stanwyck

Walter Huston

Wendell Corey

Judith Anderson

Gilbert Roland

Thomas Gomez

Albert Dekker

John Bromfield

Beulah Bondi

From the 1960s: Pretty Poison

1968 Crime Drama

From 20th Century Fox

Directed by Noel Black

Starring

Anthony Perkins

Tuesday Weld

Beverly Garland

John Randolph

Dick O'Neill

Clarice Blackburn

Debra Paget

When I heard in the early 60s that this beautiful, talented and versatile actress was going to quit acting, I was disappointed.  Of course, I hoped she didn't mean it but history proves that she did.  I liked quite a few of her films which were largely B efforts.  I never understood why, with only a couple of exceptions, she didn't appear in big films.  Other less talented actresses worked far longer than she did and in better films.

From the 1940s: The Man Who Came to Dinner

1942 Comedy

From Warner Bros

Directed by William Keighley

Starring

Bette Davis

Ann Sheridan

Monty Woolley

Richard Travis

Jimmy Durante

Billie Burke

Grant Mitchell

Reginald Gardiner

Mary Wickes

Elizabeth Fraser

Russell Arms

George Barbier

Ruth Vivian

Visiting Film Noir: The Window

1949 Film Noir

Directed by Ted Tetzlaff

From RKO Radio Pictures

Starring

Bobby Driscoll

Barbara Hale

Arthur Kennedy

Ruth Roman

Paul Stewart

From the 1950s: She's Back on Broadway

1953 Musical Drama

From Warner Bros.

Directed by Gordon Douglas

Starring

Virginia Mayo

Steve Cochran

Gene Nelson

Frank Lovejoy

Patrice Wymore

Paul Picerni

Larry Keating

Virginia Mayo

She completely bewitched me when I was a kid and first getting adjusted to sitting in darkened movie theaters.  Perhaps it started because she had a blonde attractiveness that reminded me of some women in my family.  Then it seemed like she was in every movie I was seeing... musicals, noirs, westerns, adventure films.  She had a spunk onscreen that attracted me.  She once said I was more talented than Hollywood gave me credit for.  I think she was right. 

A Glittering Cast: Harper

1966 Drama

From Warner Bros

Directed by Jack Smight

Starring

Paul Newman

Lauren Bacall

Julie Harris

Arthur Hill

Janet Leigh

Pamela Tiffin

Robert Wagner

Robert Webber

Shelley Winters

Strother Martin

Roy Jenson

Harold Gould

Henry Fonda

When I was a kid and coming into my own as a regular and frequent moviegoer and fan, I concluded that for male actors, there were three who were legends.  Two were BFFs and the third was a robust work friend who often made movies with the other two.  They were John Wayne, James Stewart and the senior member of the trio, Henry Fonda.