Actors
How Actor Joel McCrea Created His Own Stardom
Joel McCrea was always clear-eyed about his place in the Hollywood firmament. He once said that he got offered the comedies that Cary Grant passed on, and the Westerns Gary Cooper rejected.
Actors
How Greer Garson Combined Refined Beauty With Raw Talent
During the Second World War, there was no bigger female star in Hollywood than Greer Garson. She was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar five consecutive times over that period, from 1941-1945. (Only Bette Davis matched Garson’s record, between 1939-1943).
Actors
25 Actors Who Transitioned From TV to Movies — And Vice Versa
In the first two decades of television, many a star from Hollywood’s Golden Age found both a warm reception and a welcome paycheck on the small screen as their movie careers were waning. That move happens almost as frequently today with paid cable series enjoying immense popularity.
Biographical
How Vivien Leigh Persevered as an Actress While Fighting Mental Illness
The actress who in 1938 came out of nowhere to win the most coveted role in Hollywood once said: “I'm not a film star; I am an actress. Being a film star is such a false life, lived for fake values and for publicity… Actresses go on for a long time and there are always marvelous parts to play.” Vivien Leigh was first and foremost a creature of the theater who only made twenty films. Still, over the course of her career she managed to win two Best Actress Oscars, becoming the first British player to do so.
Directors
How Saul Bass Transformed Opening Movie Credits Forever
His name is seldom invoked today, but if you compiled any list of innovators who’d actually changed the shape of movies, it would have to include Saul Bass.
Actors
How Jack Palance Achieved Immortality With a Gun and a Few Push-Ups
Few will ever forget this year’s Oscars, when Faye Dunaway read off the wrong card and mistakenly announced “La La Land” as Best Picture winner. Awkward as that was, there have been other memorably offbeat moments in Oscar history.
Actors
How Bill Murray Forged His Own Path- And Prevailed
Today there are certainly bigger stars in Hollywood than Bill Murray, but few if any command the cult-like devotion and fascination that he does from his fans.
Actors
Robert Donat: The Forgotten Man Who Stole Clark Gable’s Oscar
In 1939, right before World War 2 transformed the movie industry and the world, Hollywood produced the most copious output of outstanding films in a single year, titles that endure to this day.
Actors
The Sizzle of Cyd Charisse — Hollywood’s Dynamite Dancer
Fred Astaire called her “beautiful dynamite.” After nearly a decade in films, it was hardly surprising that she finally broke through playing a vamp who ensnares Gene Kelly in the immortal “Gotta Dance” sequence from “Singin’ in the Rain.”