The Shooting Gallery: The 100 Best (Most Fortunate?) Actors: Now Disc. Orson Welles

I'm a huge fan of Chaplin. Here's one reason why:

200 takes.

Charlie Chaplin in the Lion's Den

 

Chaplin's sentimentality occasionally clunks, but when he's hot, he's really hot. City Lights is still my favorite though The Gold Rush, Modern Times, The Great Dictator all have moments of genius, often a lot of moments.

 

Sean Connery

Leading Player

(1930- ) Born August 25, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland

"One of the few movie "superstars" truly worthy of the designation, actor Sean Connery was born to a middle-class Scottish family in the first year of the worldwide Depression... Still a megastar in the 1990s, Sean Connery commanded one of moviedom's highest salaries ? not so much for his own ego-massaging as for the good of his native Scotland, to which he continued to donate a sizable chunk of his earnings." - Excerpt from Allmovie biography
Key Films From Russia with Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Marnie (1964), The Hill (1965), The Man Who Would Be King (1975) Key Directors Terence Young, Sidney Lumet, Irvin Kershner Links Amazon IMDB

? Appears in 2 of the 1,000 Greatest Films

Not much of an actor, but a terrific, relaxed presence. And yar boo sucks to Scottish Nationalism while I'm at it.

 

Like a lot of great actors (Cary Grant, Clint Eastwood, etc.) he doesn't have range really. But he has charisma to burn. Always has; still does.

 

I never realised it for years, but the 1st film I saw him in was Darby O'Gill and the Little People. I only discovered this as an adult looking through his credits on IMDb.

 

Like a lot of great actors (Cary Grant, Clint Eastwood, etc.) he doesn't have range really. But he has charisma to burn. Always has; still does.

That's absolutely correct. The Hill is an excellent Connery movie. (and really, it's much more than that label..)But in the film, Connery basically plays James Bond in a uniform. It is the difference between range and charisma..

And Connery has always been all over the map in his roles, even as he keeps his persona. Either he just has fun with his roles, or at least has no problem taking jobs just for the paycheck.

He was a Sheriff in "High Noon in outer space" Outland. He was a strange alien space savage in Zardoz. There was a retelling of the Arthurian legends where Connery played the famous Green Knight, shirtless and in make-up, I might add..

Connery also had a cameo in the star-studded The Longest Day, which was one time he went against type and played a lanky, almost bumbling machine gunner... But I think that the Longest Day was released before James Bond, so he didn't have that persona to uphold.

 

Gary Cooper

Leading Player

(1901-1961) Born May 7, Helena, Montana, USA

"American actor Gary Cooper was born on the Montana ranch of his wealthy father, and educated in a prestigious school in England ? a dichotomy that may explain how the adult Cooper was able to combine the ruggedness of the frontiersman with the poise of a cultured gentleman. Injured in an auto accident while attending Wesleyan College, he convalesced on his dad's ranch, perfecting the riding skills that would see him through many a future Western film." - Excerpt from Allmovie biography

Key Films Morocco (1930), Peter Ibbetson (1935), The Fountainhead (1949), High Noon (1952), Man of the West (1958) Key Directors Cecil B. DeMille, Henry Hathaway, Howard Hawks Links Amazon IMDB

? Appears in 6 of the 1,000 Greatest Films

TCM has been a real opportunity to see 'Golden Age' actors, and Cooper is one of them. Throughout most of his career, he worked for Sam Goldwyn, which meant Cooper's opportunity to work with first rate directors was more limited. When he does work for a good director, they are often having a bad film day. That's one problem. The other, which gets progressively more irritating, is miscasting. Cooper was born in 1901. In "Morocco" he's about 30, and so handsome that his peculiar non-acting isn't noticeable. For some reason, he aged quickly, so that by the 40's, he is in his 40's, looks older, and is still playing male leads aged 25 or so. At first he looks 10 years older than his role, then 20, then 30. This culminates in "Man of the West" (1958) wherein Lee J. Cobb, who is ten years younger by the clock, plays his father figure.

Leaving aside the question of age miscasting, very little range. I've liked him in "Sgt. York" and I suppose he's good in "High Noon" though I don't like the film itself. In certain movies, I keep wishing for other actors--James Stewart in "Ball of Fire" and Cary Grant in "Love in the Afternoon". His voice is also uncertain at times. He was so wooden, and said his lines so badly in "The General Died at Dawn", that I lasted hardly 20 minutes, and it was a film I wanted to see.

He is still an icon, I guess, and hasn't faded to complete obscurity like, say, Robert Montgomery.

 

He is wooden, or can be. He is very good in a certain kind of role, like in High Noon, where the social awkwardness of the character and the taciturn longsuffering is part of the character. Also in Sgt. York, where he is required to play a character that is not complex by any definition of the word. I think Meet John Doe is probably his best movie, but it would probably have been even better with someone like Stewart in the lead, unlike High Noon which would have worked, I think, for no one but Cooper.

The studio often tried to stretch him into different roles, most of which were sort of disastrous. Love In the Afternoon you mention; I'd throw in A Farewell to Arms in which he seems entirely at sea.

Ball of Fire, I might disagree with you on. Like Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, it's a role that requires a social misfit; as in High Noon, Cooper nails it.

 

He single-handedly ruined "Love in the Afternoon", which was infuriating because the movie had some real pluses--namely Hepburn and Chevalier, who had more chemistry as father/daughter than Cooper did with her; and a very good script & direction by Wilder. (Apparently Chevalier told Hepburn on the set that he wished he had a daughter like her, and some of that comes out in his unusually sympathetic performance). I agree "Ball of Fire" is probably not a good example; he's pretty fair in it, though Stewart would have been better. In Sgt. York, he encounters a good director (Hawks) and the film is well-directed. But he's 40 or so, and York is supposed to be young; it skews the film a bit. At least in "High Noon" his age is addressed directly.

Saw a Curtiz film called "Bright Leaf"; he's playing a guy in his 20's and he's 50. And he's just not right, and the whole movie suffers.

 

Joseph Cotten

Leading Player

(1905-1994) Born May 15, Petersburg, Virginia, USA

"A firmly established romantic lead by the early '40s, Cotten occasionally stepped outside his established screen image to play murderers (Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt [1943]) and surly drunkards (Under Capricorn [1949]). A longtime contractee of David O. Selznick, Cotten won a Venice Film Festival award for his performance in Selznick's Portrait of Jennie (1948)." - Excerpt from Allmovie biography

Key Films Citizen Kane (1941), The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), Shadow of a Doubt (1943), Portrait of Jennie (1948), The Third Man (1949) Key Directors Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Richard Fleischer Links Amazon IMDB

? Appears in 10 of the 1,000 Greatest Films


Already 36 by the time he hit Hollywood in "Citizen Kane", this probably made full stardom difficult. But very, very good; could play villains ("Shadow of a Doubt") and nice guys ("The Third Man", "Gaslight") with equal facility. Worked with a lot of talented people.

 

I like Cotten quite a bit. Very solid performer. Kinda hard to believe that he never netted a single Oscar nom.

In particular, of his less well known films, I liked his work in Lydia.

 

You see him in a campfest like The Abominable Dr. Phibes and he's taking the movie entirely seriously. And you just think: yup, that's a pro right there.

And he was. He generally impresses me more playing villains; he's fantastic in Shadow of a Doubt. But there are always pleasures in watching him work, even in a misfire like The Magnificent Ambersons. Best performance: The Third Man, in which he has about the most difficult role imaginable and makes it work.

 

Oh, yes, Holly Martins is a very difficult role, and possibly was designed for a younger actor. But you don't notice that, because Cotten is subtle and just plain good at a role a lot of actors would not be capable of doing. He's matched by Trevor Howard. Yet all anyone remembers is Welles' grandstanding. *Sigh*

 

Donald Crisp

Leading Character Player

(1880-1974) Born July 27, Aberfeldy, Perthshire, Scotland

"An Oscar-winning character actor whose career spanned three generations, from the 1910s to the 1960s, Crisp was also unique as a director and, before that, an assistant and colleague to such figures as D.W. Griffith... With the advent of sound, Crisp moved into acting entirely, and across the 1930s and '40s he essayed a wide range of roles, most memorably as the taciturn but loving father in John Ford's How Green Was My Valley (1941)." - Excerpt from Allmovie biography

Key Films Broken Blossoms (1919), Wuthering Heights (1939), How Green Was My Valley (1941), National Velvet (1944), The Man from Laramie (1955) Key Directors John Ford, D.W. Griffith, Michael Curtiz Links Amazon IMDB
? Appears in 4 of the 1,000 Greatest Films

"The Man from Laramie" is the best performance of his I've seen. I thought he was miscast in "How Green Was My Valley"

 

Tom Cruise

Leading Player

(1962- ) Born July 3, Syracuse, New York, USA

"An actor whose name has become synonymous with all-American testosterone-driven entertainment, Tom Cruise spent the 1980s as one of Hollywood's brightest-shining golden boys. With black hair, blue eyes, and unabashed cockiness, Cruise rode high on such hits as Top Gun and Rain Man. Although his popularity dimmed slightly in the early '90s, he was able to bounce back with a string of hits that re-established him as both an action hero and a talented actor." - Excerpt from Allmovie biography

Key Films Risky Business (1983), Jerry Maguire (1996), Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Magnolia (1999), Minority Report (2002) Key Directors Steven Spielberg, Tony Scott Links Amazon IMDB
? Appears in 2 of the 1,000 Greatest Films
? Appears in 2 of the 21st Century's Most Acclaimed Films

A star rather than an actor. He's not incapable of good acting, though, when well-cast.

 

Got to appear in a Paul Thomas Anderson film and a Stanley Kubrick film in the same year. No mean feat.

He can be really excellent when properly directed. When not, he can be fairly obnoxious and hammy.

And I agree that most of the flack he cops is for his off-screen shenanigans.

 

Agreed. But those shenanigans are so bad, I can't watch his movies anymore. I could still watch Top Gun, but not much more.

 

He's getting older, though, and if he doesn't want to end up like Warren Beatty--ie. unemployed because he has to be the male lead--he needs to be open to character parts. He seems to be quite able in comedy, which is a good start.

 

I don't think Warren Beatty is unemployed because he refuses not to be the male lead. I think he is in a self imposed retirement which is kind of sad.

As for Cruise I think he is a pretty poor actor. He is mainly a star with minimal acting abilites. A pretty boy. I think if we want a good mix between acting chops and star power Brad Pitt is far more capable

 

Pitt is probably better as an actor, but Cruise is surprisingly good when he wants to be. He can be smarmy, shallow and unconvincing when he's at his worst (like off screen), but in Rain Man and Jerry Maguire, just to name a couple, he gives brilliant, nuanced, entirely convincing and real performances. Vanilla Sky is a lesser film and a lesser performance, but he is still very good in it.

And he's more than serviceable as an action hero. The first Mission Impossible, he's very good in. Likewise Minority Report and the unfairly maligned War of the Worlds, in which he is actually extremely good.

He is strangely ageless on screen, which can be a bit unsettling. But he's more than just the pretty face.

 

Willem Dafoe

Leading & Character Player

(1955- ) Born July 22, Appleton, Wisconsin, USA
"Known for the darkly eccentric characters he often plays, Willem Dafoe is one of the screen's more provocative and engaging actors. Strong-jawed and wiry, he has commented that his looks make him ideal for playing the boy next door ? if you happen to live next door to a mausoleum." - Excerpt from Allmovie biography
Key Films To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Platoon (1986), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Wild at Heart (1990), Light Sleeper (1991) Key Directors Oliver Stone, Martin Scorsese, Paul Schrader Links Amazon IMDB
? Appears in 3 of the 1,000 Greatest Films
? Appears in 1 of the 21st Century's Most Acclaimed Films

 

I love Dafoe and think he is extremely talented. A perfect character actor. He can carry a film as the lead if given the chance but it is in the great character roles that he props up a film.

 

Bette Davis

Leading Player

(1908-1989) Born April 5, Lowell, Massachusetts, USA

"Dazzling on-stage, Davis was signed to a contract by Universal in 1930. After an unimpressive debut in Bad Sister in 1931, however, Davis was out of work, but picked up by Warner Bros. soon thereafter. Davis applied herself with white-hot intensity to becoming a star with that company, and after a major role in the 1932 George Arliss vehicle The Man Who Played God, a star she became." - Excerpt from Allmovie biography

Key Films The Little Foxes (1941), Now, Voyager (1942), All About Eve (1950), What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1965) Key Directors William Wyler, Robert Aldrich, Irving Rapper Links Amazon IMDB
? Appears in 2 of the 1,000

Famously described as having 'all the sex appeal of Slim Sommerville' [a skinny cowboy in Grade Z westerns]. Not true, but quite possibly a manic depressive. Also very mannered unless the director was as tough as William Wyler, and few were. Still all three films with Wyler are good to great; she's also excellent in "All About Eve" in which the mannerisms work for a change.

 

Willem Dafoe is a very good actor. You can find him in everything from cult movies to box office hits, but he always invests his character, no matter what kind of movie it is, with real humanity.

Davis is a legend and rightly so. She was capable of a kind of high camp, or at least so it looks to us today. She was also capable of surprisingly great performances, as in Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte (very late) and Dark Victory (very early). Sometimes, as in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, even the camp achieves a strange kind of grace.