Legends of the Golden Age…. the golden age is now a part of history. It began with Edison and Eastman and ended with the collapse of the studio system and the rapid rise of television. The stars of that age are almost gone now and it is time to pass the torch.

 

Legends of the New Age…….Those fabulous actors who came after the golden age had passed but who have gone on, leaving behind a remarkable body of work. They have now become legends in our time and deserve their own place in history.


Jerry Orbach
Issue #21
   


Legends of tomorrow………..They are the talented actors of today piling up treasures to insure their place in cinematic history. You have chosen them to be in this honored group.

 


Now here are some more of your selections:

 

Bernadette from Waretown, New Jersey selects

GERARD BUTLER!

 Bernadette tells me that Gerard’s performance in “The Phantom of the Opera” was “mesmerizing”. It took her back to the golden days when musicals were opulent and romantic and Nelson and Jeanette reigned supreme. Bernadette is sure that Gerry’s star will continue to burn brightly, a true legend of tomorrow.

But you know, Bern, he is awfully good-looking, too, isn’t he?

Gerard James (Gerry) Butler

was born in Glasgow, Scotland

on November 13th, 1969

Gerry was actually studying to be a lawyer! He attended Glasgow University and was even president of his school’s law society. But a cup of coffee sent him down a different road when he met actor Steven Berkoff in a coffee shop and the actor enticed him to do a stage play. Bye-bye law books and hello, scripts. He made his film debut as Archie Brown in 1997’s “Her Majesty, Mrs. Brown”. It was during the making of this film that he earned a “Certificate of Bravery” for saving a young boy from drowning in the River Tay.

Since then, Gerry has made 17 films and is currently working on two others….he has the title role as Robert Burns in “Burns” and plays the Spartan King Leonidas in “300” both due for release in 2006. Gerard Butler is a very talented and a very busy young man!

 

Henry from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania has 3 selections!

 

SIGOURNEY WEAVER DUSTIN HOFFMAN
& STEVE McQUEEN!

 “Dear Arabella…Ok, let’s get this moving. Here are a few legends of tomorrow. Who put up Susan Sarandon anyway? I’ve got much better. (Sigourney Weaver). A lot of good movies from this great actress. She should be nominated solely on her incredibly intense performances as Ellen Ripley in the 4 “Alien” movies. If you missed this, you have missed some of the greatest performances on film.”

Can I interrupt here, Henry? I like to take things one at a time. I even had eight children one at a time….no twins!

Sigourney Weaver

was born Susan Alexandra Weaver

in New York City

on October 8th, 1949.

She is married to actor/director Jim Simpson and

they have one child.

This gal has always been surrounded by talented people so she gets her talents naturally.

Her father was Sylvester L. “Pat” Weaver, television producer of NBC’s “The Today Show” and “Tonight” fame and mom is Elizabeth Inglis, the British actress (“The Letter” in 1940) who gave up her career to raise a family. Susan became Sigourney after a character in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby”. Her height (over 5’11”) was always a problem in school and getting parts in stage productions. She was often taller than the lead actor! But she managed to be very successful on stage with a Drama Desk Award for “Das Lusitania Songspiel” , a play she co-wrote with Christopher Durang

Henry mentions her films in the Alien series but I liked her best in “Gorillas in the Mist”, “Copycat” and “Dave”. Coming soon ..a thriller called “Awake” and a bio-drama about Truman Capote called “Have You Heard?”.


Ready for the next one, Henry!

 

“ (Steve McQueen) should be nominated because of his role as prisoner Henri “Papillon” Charriere in “Papillon”, his best work of many great films in his career.”

Well, since Steve has passed on, he will go into our list of Legends of Today (see above). Next!

 

“The movie “Papillon” gave us another great performance by Dustin Hoffman. Of course there is “The Graduate”, “Midnight Cowboy” and “Rain Man”. All worthy of his nomination.”

I agree, Henry. Dustin is certainly worthy of a place among the stars of the future.

 

Dustin Lee Hoffman

was born on August 8th, 1937

in Los Angeles.

He is married to his 2nd wife. Lisa

and he has 5 children.

 The man writes songs, plays piano and sometimes tap dances when he is at loss for words. He got into acting because “no one flunks acting” and “to meet girls”. But that is one thing he can do better than almost anyone. He can act and for that fantastic talent he has now earned two Oscars out of seven nominations, an Emmy (“Death of a Salesman” 1985) and a total of six Golden Globes! College wasn’t his thing but he took acting classes while he was at Santa Monica City College, has some training at the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music and two years of work at the Pasadena Playhouse. But he used that multifaceted training very well. You will see him soon in a thriller titled “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer” and a comedy with Robert Duvall titled “The Berkeley Connection” to be released in 2006.

 

Send me your selections for legends at mamalion27@aol.com