Oh -- too fast, Knitty. And correct.
After being named Miss Sweden, Ekberg was awarded a Hollywood contract, in this case with Howard Hughes. He liked her and wanted to make her over into whatever that image of womanhood was that he harbored, but she wasn't buying into it.
In the 1950s and 60s, Ekberg appeared often in those Page 6-type publicity photos, and her name was linked with many of Hollywood's lotharios. She also was involved for several years with one of the Fiat magnates.
The image of her standing in a Roman fountain, from La Dolce Vita is a frequently seen one. She now makes her home in Rome.
Do You Know Me?
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jdb1
Ladies and Gentlemen, your attention please -- here is another Mystery Guest
There's a biopic about me, but it's almost all fiction. Here's the real story:
I had been taken acting, singing, dancing and elocution lessons from the time I was about 7 years old. My teacher presented shows with her students, and I began to have large roles fairly early on. By the time I was a teen, I joined a theater company and appeared in supporting roles in many of the popular shows of the day, in this case, the early 20th Century. I married one of the producers of the company. It's rumored we had a son, but no one knows what happened to the child. Some stories say he died, and some say he was adopted because I didn't want to interrupt my career. My husband and his family bought many theaters all over the country, and they are still in existence today, only they now show movies. There was another rumor circulating that after I divorced my first husband, I was briefly married to a member of another illustrious family who became a Very Big Star in silents and made a few talkes, too.
I made my way to Broadway with a few years' experience behind me, and worked for Ziegfeld. I was seen by a very well known and well regarded English actor, who put me into some of his biggest hits on Broadway. I did well and played to good reviews. For a time, I decided to try making movies. By the mid-teens, I had made about a dozen, but they seem to have gotten lost to time. I returned to Broadway and starred in several hit shows, one of which was a real triumph for me and became a favorite of the public. It ran, with me starring, for two years and we then went on the road. Another rising star, an American acrtress who had some success in film and more success in radio and television, played the role in London. This play was also filmed, at least three times, once silent and twice with sound. Each time the title role was played by a Really Big Star, but not me.
I was very popular. I went back to Hollywood and made two sound films. One of them was another hit, a story by the same author who had written the story of my biggest Broadway success. I was well received in that film, and was an early nominee for an Oscar. That film was remade about 10 years later, again with another Really Big Star in the lead.
Although I was popular and successful, maybe I was my own worst enemy. I was as well-known for my erratic behavior as for my acting skills. I was outspoken, and some said unreliable. In fact, I was at one point banned from acting for almost two years because of my out-of-control behavior. My career faltered. I was still quite young, but I never was able to recapture my early success.
The true story of the circumstances of my early death were covered up for quite a while. Shortly after my death, a book about me was published. This book was primarily a reporting of all the rumors that had been circulating about me and my career, and that, unfortunately, was the basis of the film that was made about my life. The actress who portrayed me tried hard, but she wasn't really very much like me, and the movie wasn't really very much like my life.
Who am I?
There's a biopic about me, but it's almost all fiction. Here's the real story:
I had been taken acting, singing, dancing and elocution lessons from the time I was about 7 years old. My teacher presented shows with her students, and I began to have large roles fairly early on. By the time I was a teen, I joined a theater company and appeared in supporting roles in many of the popular shows of the day, in this case, the early 20th Century. I married one of the producers of the company. It's rumored we had a son, but no one knows what happened to the child. Some stories say he died, and some say he was adopted because I didn't want to interrupt my career. My husband and his family bought many theaters all over the country, and they are still in existence today, only they now show movies. There was another rumor circulating that after I divorced my first husband, I was briefly married to a member of another illustrious family who became a Very Big Star in silents and made a few talkes, too.
I made my way to Broadway with a few years' experience behind me, and worked for Ziegfeld. I was seen by a very well known and well regarded English actor, who put me into some of his biggest hits on Broadway. I did well and played to good reviews. For a time, I decided to try making movies. By the mid-teens, I had made about a dozen, but they seem to have gotten lost to time. I returned to Broadway and starred in several hit shows, one of which was a real triumph for me and became a favorite of the public. It ran, with me starring, for two years and we then went on the road. Another rising star, an American acrtress who had some success in film and more success in radio and television, played the role in London. This play was also filmed, at least three times, once silent and twice with sound. Each time the title role was played by a Really Big Star, but not me.
I was very popular. I went back to Hollywood and made two sound films. One of them was another hit, a story by the same author who had written the story of my biggest Broadway success. I was well received in that film, and was an early nominee for an Oscar. That film was remade about 10 years later, again with another Really Big Star in the lead.
Although I was popular and successful, maybe I was my own worst enemy. I was as well-known for my erratic behavior as for my acting skills. I was outspoken, and some said unreliable. In fact, I was at one point banned from acting for almost two years because of my out-of-control behavior. My career faltered. I was still quite young, but I never was able to recapture my early success.
The true story of the circumstances of my early death were covered up for quite a while. Shortly after my death, a book about me was published. This book was primarily a reporting of all the rumors that had been circulating about me and my career, and that, unfortunately, was the basis of the film that was made about my life. The actress who portrayed me tried hard, but she wasn't really very much like me, and the movie wasn't really very much like my life.
Who am I?
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jdb1
Correct.ken123 wrote:Jeanne Eagles.
I saw the biopic "Jeanne Eagels" the other day for the first time, and what a bunch of hooey.
Eagels was first married to Maurice (or Morris) Dubinsky, producer and theater owner. The Dubinskys founded the AMC Theater chain. There was a rumor, unsubstantiated, that she was at one time briefly married to John Barrymore. She was also married to collegiate football star Ted Coy. Eagels was considered a talented and versatile actress. Venerable actor George Arliss put Eagels into several of his shows, including the stage version of Disraeli. Her biggest stage success was in Rain - she played Sadie Thompson for four years, on Broadway and on tour. The actress who played the role in London to which I alluded was Tallulah Bankhead. Movie versions of Rain starred Gloria Swanson (silent), Joan Crawford and Rita Hayworth (that one was called Miss Sadie Thompson).
Eagels also starred in the first film version of The Letter, playing the part later played by Bette Davis. Eagels' erratic behavior was the stuff of lots of juicy rumors. It wasn't much of a secret that she drank too much, missed performances, and acted badly during rehearsals. Actors Equity banned her from the stage for not showing up for performances. At her young death, the cause was never fully explained. She died at a Manhattan "Psychoneurotic Clinic," which was actually a rehab kind of place for the rich. Later it was revealed that her death was most likely caused by alcohlism and a heroin overdose.
Eagels' nomination for an Academy Award for best actress of 1929 was posthumous, and she lost out to Mary Pickford.
So, contrary to the Kim Novak movie, Eagels was not a hoochie-coochie dancer in a carnival, she was not involved with a hot-blooded Italian carny owner who looked like Jeff Chandler, she did not "steal" the role of Sadie Thompson -- she was already an established Broadway star when she played the role. And, most of all, she did not play her scenes like an overwrought Joan Crawford imitator.
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jdb1
Anybody home? Care to solve a mystery? Here's one:
Do you know me?
I came from the West Coast to New York during WWII, and studied drama at two of New York's most prestigious schools. I made my stage debut with the National Theater Company, and was appearing on Broadway before too long. I played in Shakespeare several times, but I began to specialize in playing damaged women, and played such parts for most of my career.
I was not on the stage very long before I won a supporting Tony, appearing in a play with a Very Big Star of the past. That play has had several incarnations, both on TV and in film. I also did a great deal of live television and filmed anthology series. I appeared on Alfred Hitchcock Presents more than once.
Hollywood called, and for my very first film, I won a supporting Oscar. I worked steadily for decades in TV, film and on the stage, but not especially prolifically. I played in several films with actors who had studied with the same acting teachers I had. Very often, I played their mother. I generally played characters much older than my real age, and I was very good at bitter.
Who am I?
Do you know me?
I came from the West Coast to New York during WWII, and studied drama at two of New York's most prestigious schools. I made my stage debut with the National Theater Company, and was appearing on Broadway before too long. I played in Shakespeare several times, but I began to specialize in playing damaged women, and played such parts for most of my career.
I was not on the stage very long before I won a supporting Tony, appearing in a play with a Very Big Star of the past. That play has had several incarnations, both on TV and in film. I also did a great deal of live television and filmed anthology series. I appeared on Alfred Hitchcock Presents more than once.
Hollywood called, and for my very first film, I won a supporting Oscar. I worked steadily for decades in TV, film and on the stage, but not especially prolifically. I played in several films with actors who had studied with the same acting teachers I had. Very often, I played their mother. I generally played characters much older than my real age, and I was very good at bitter.
Who am I?
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jdb1
Good try, Knitty, but no. Although very close.
Actually, our Mystery Guest won her Tony for playing the same role that Heckert had played on television.
Hint: Our MG was a devotee of a particular kind of acting, and quite a few of her co-stars were of the same school of thought. She played the mother of two of those who were well-known for playing troubled young men - one on the stage, and one in a film.
As a real stretch, she also appeared as someone's mother in a musical written by Rogers & Hammerstein.
Actually, our Mystery Guest won her Tony for playing the same role that Heckert had played on television.
Hint: Our MG was a devotee of a particular kind of acting, and quite a few of her co-stars were of the same school of thought. She played the mother of two of those who were well-known for playing troubled young men - one on the stage, and one in a film.
As a real stretch, she also appeared as someone's mother in a musical written by Rogers & Hammerstein.
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jdb1
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Metry_Road
- Posts: 79
- Joined: February 24th, 2008, 1:31 pm
- Location: New Orleans, Louisiana.
- Contact:
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jdb1
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jdb1
Well done. Jo Van Fleet it is.
Born in California, Van Fleet studied drama at both The Neighborhood Playhouse and The Actors' Studio in New York. She won a supporting Tony in the mid-50s for the The Trip to Bountiful, which began life as a television play. Both versions starred Lillian Gish, but the TV version featured Eileen Heckert in the role Van Fleet won the Tony for.
Van Fleet won a supporting Oscar for her first film, East of Eden, wherein she played James Dean's mother the prostitute. Van Fleet also played the mother of Tony Perkins in Look Homeward, Angel on Broadway, and she was Paul Newman's mother in Cool Hand Luke. I think she was Ben Gazzara's mother in something, too. She co-starred with Montgomerly Clift in Wild River, but not as his mother.
And she played Cinderella's wicked stepmother in the second TV production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's musical version of same. (Lesley Ann Warren was the star of that one.)
Born in California, Van Fleet studied drama at both The Neighborhood Playhouse and The Actors' Studio in New York. She won a supporting Tony in the mid-50s for the The Trip to Bountiful, which began life as a television play. Both versions starred Lillian Gish, but the TV version featured Eileen Heckert in the role Van Fleet won the Tony for.
Van Fleet won a supporting Oscar for her first film, East of Eden, wherein she played James Dean's mother the prostitute. Van Fleet also played the mother of Tony Perkins in Look Homeward, Angel on Broadway, and she was Paul Newman's mother in Cool Hand Luke. I think she was Ben Gazzara's mother in something, too. She co-starred with Montgomerly Clift in Wild River, but not as his mother.
And she played Cinderella's wicked stepmother in the second TV production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's musical version of same. (Lesley Ann Warren was the star of that one.)
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jdb1
No doubt: we are living in some parlous times, friends. Maybe a little diversion will cheer us up. Try this one:
I was one of those actors you saw in hundreds of screen appearances, but whose name was probably not very well known.
My family was one of artists and actors, and my immediate family were engaged in teaching and performing in a very prestigious theater on the West Coast, one where many well-respected actors got their starts. My father was one of those - a well-respected character actor who was also rather anonymous, but prolific.
I started out as a very young man in silents, in leading man parts, but gradually gravitated toward my strong suit: character parts. I was in many westerns, sometimes as the nasty saloon owner or renegade cowpoke, and sometimes as the sheriff. In one film, I was Roy Rogers' nemesis.
I was also cast as a henchman or other criminal, but just as often as a cop, soldier, or doctor. In one film, I was one of a very famous and dashing trio, and in another I was an Arab sheik who went to Oxford with Ronald Colman.
In one of my most popular films, I was the leader of a military campaign against some oversized mutants. That one is still remembered and still shown on television.
I did a lot of TV, mostly westerns, but also anthology dramas and crime dramas. In a great many of those, my character was either "Doctor" or "General" somebody.
I was an outspoken advocate of the benefits of fresh air and nudism in real life, and I was always trying to persude my co-stars to join me. Later in life I became quite ill, and was confined to a nursing home, where I died under suspicious circumstances.
Who am I?
I was one of those actors you saw in hundreds of screen appearances, but whose name was probably not very well known.
My family was one of artists and actors, and my immediate family were engaged in teaching and performing in a very prestigious theater on the West Coast, one where many well-respected actors got their starts. My father was one of those - a well-respected character actor who was also rather anonymous, but prolific.
I started out as a very young man in silents, in leading man parts, but gradually gravitated toward my strong suit: character parts. I was in many westerns, sometimes as the nasty saloon owner or renegade cowpoke, and sometimes as the sheriff. In one film, I was Roy Rogers' nemesis.
I was also cast as a henchman or other criminal, but just as often as a cop, soldier, or doctor. In one film, I was one of a very famous and dashing trio, and in another I was an Arab sheik who went to Oxford with Ronald Colman.
In one of my most popular films, I was the leader of a military campaign against some oversized mutants. That one is still remembered and still shown on television.
I did a lot of TV, mostly westerns, but also anthology dramas and crime dramas. In a great many of those, my character was either "Doctor" or "General" somebody.
I was an outspoken advocate of the benefits of fresh air and nudism in real life, and I was always trying to persude my co-stars to join me. Later in life I became quite ill, and was confined to a nursing home, where I died under suspicious circumstances.
Who am I?
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jdb1
Yes! Excellent, Ken. This one was hard to make clues for, because Stevens was very much a background character, and made mostly B and C movies.ken123 wrote:Onslow Stevens.
He was the son of character actor Housely Stevenson, Sr., and sometimes was billed as Onslow Stevenson. Stevenson Sr. played the seedy surgeon who transformed Humphrey Bogart in Dark Passage.
Stevens played one of the Three Musketeers in the 1935 film of the same name (I think he was Aramis). He was Ronald Colman's Oxford classmate, turned warring Arab leader, in Under Two Flags. That was the one where Claudette Colbert played a character called Cigarette.
Stevens was also the Army general in command of the anti-giant mutant ant troops in Them!, and he was the wildlife photographer who discovered Bomba in Bomba the Jungle Boy. He had an extensive TV career, appearing in many of the popular dramas of the 1950s and 60s.
Stevens suffered ill health in late life and died in a nursing home. The official cause of death was complications from a broken hip, but the coroner ruled the death "not an accident," and the circumstances were never made clear. Stevens' wife maintained that her husband was abused by the staff and the other patients. A sad ending.