Trevor Eve has had a prolific career on television both in Britain and the U.S. One of his early roles was playing Paul McCarthney in Willy Russell’s “John Paul, George and Ringo” on the stage. He also had a major role in the 1979 version of “Dracula” with Frank Langella and Laurence Oliver. Trevor Eve starred as Eddie Shoestring in the much-loved “Shoestring”. Eve played a computer analyst who recovering from a nervous breakdown becomes a radio dj witch an ability to solve crimes. The series was filmed in Bristol and the West Country. Since 2000 he has starred as Boyd in the hughly popular TV series about cold cases “Waking the Dead”.
One of the most versatile actors of his generation, Norton’s range is astonishing. Compare his performance as the far-right-wing skinhead thug in “American History X” to his work as the bookish quiet selfless doctor Walter Vane in “The Painted Veil”. My favourite films of Norton’s are “The Fight Club” and “Primal Fear”. It will be interesting to see his work evolve and mature.
TCM Overview:
A consistently first-rate actor who impressed audiences and critics alike with a disparate array of roles ranging from remorseless criminal to buttoned-up lawyer to period romantic lead, Edward Norton began as an actor but quickly adopted the roles of screenwriter, producer and director. The ambitious Ivy League grad stood out in Hollywood for his thoughtful, articulate manner and his tendency to eschew the “fame game” in favor of intense involvement in high quality films of varying box office success. He was undaunted and arguably fueled by films that explored darker, controversial sides of human nature, including “American History X” (1998), “Fight Club” (1999) and “25th Hour” (2002), but maintained a reputation as a film enigma with unexpected and successful turns in comedies like “Keeping the Faith” (2000) and period dramas including “The Illusionist” (2006). Fiercely opinionated in matters of art and politics, Norton occasionally found himself the target of verbal sniping from collaborators who clashed with him during productions, yet few questioned his talent and for putting everything he had into whatever project he immersed himself in.
A stylish versatile actor just getting into his stride, Matthew Goode made a recent particular impact in “A Singular Man” with Colin Firth and also in the Irish set rom com “Leap Year” which he was a witty Kerry taxi driver with a dodgy Irish accent. He is definitely an actor on the way up.
TCM Overview:
From classical stage training to period television dramas, British actor Matthew Goode started out on that well-traveled path to an international film career, but after turning out supporting performances that were much more memorable than warranted, he was bumped up to star status in short order. He earned a significant female following for his role as the charming secret service agent and love object of the president’s teen daughter (Mandy Moore) in “Chasing Liberty” (2004), and critical kudos for his posh performance in the acclaimed Woody Allen film, “Match Point” (2005). Goode went on to surprise audiences with his ensemble role in the comic book adaptation “Watchmen” (2009) as the dapper Ozymandias, and while the period dramas regularly invited the actor back into their worlds, he revealed himself to be a versatile, charming leading man known for his off-the-cuff sense of humor.
Paddy Considine is an English actor of Irish parents. He was born in 1972 in Burton-Upon-Trent. He is best known for his work with director Shane Meadows. His movies include “In America”, “Dead Men’s Shoes” and on television “Red Riding Trilogy”.
TCM overview:
ossessing an enormous wealth of animated charm, along with a touch of quiet intensity, actor Paddy Considine established himself as a talented performer in his relatively short career. From the time he made his feature debut in friend Shane Meadows’ “A Room for Romeo Brass” (1999), Considine amassed a number of credits that displayed his versatility, particularly in roles that required morally or mentally troubled characters. He delivered fine turns in the stark drama, “Last Resort” (2000), while doing a 180 degree turn for the lighthearted romantic comedy “Born Romantic” (2000). Considine’s exceptional performances often exceeded rather underwhelming material, as so happened with Michael Winterbottom’s “24 Hour Party People” (2002). He shined as an Irish immigrant who struggles to make good in the United States in Jim Sheridan’s critically hailed semi-autobiographical drama, “In America” (2003). Following smaller supporting roles in studio fare like “Cinderella Man” (2005) and “The Bourne Ultimatum” (2007), Considine excelled in lower profile projects like “The Cry of the Owl” (2009), “Red Riding: 1980” (Channel 4, 2009) and “Blitz” (20110), which once again allowed the actor to put the full breadth of his talents on display.
Born on Sept. 5, 1974 in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, Considine was raised with his six brothers and sisters in a working-class household in the suburb of Winshill. After finishing his required studies at the Abbot Beyne Senior School, Considine studied acting at Burton College, where he befriended future director and collaborator Shane Meadows. He failed to complete his studies, however, and eventually went on to study photography at the University of Brighton. Considine held a career as a professional photographer until the end of the 1990s, when he returned to acting for his feature debut after Meadows cast him in a starring role for the director’s critically acclaimed comedy drama, “A Room for Romeo Brass” (1999). He played Morell, a strange neighborhood character in working-class Nottingham who ultimately drives a wedge between two 12-year-old friends (Andrew Shim and Ben Marshall) after pursuing the sister of one of the boys. Prior to starring in the film, Considine thought very little about an acting career. But after his memorable turn, Considine rethought the direction of his career.
Considine followed his film debut with another fine performance in the grim drama “Last Resort” (2000), directed by Pawel Pawlikowski. The actor played Alfie, a washed-up boxer who runs a dilapidated arcade. Considine’s endearing performance gave the otherwise stark film a much-needed comic spark. Though released in only 14 theaters in the United States, “Last Resort” did make the festival rounds, which helped expose Considine’s already impressive acting talents to a wider audience. He settled back into a light-hearted romantic comedy for his next project, “Born Romantic” (2000), about three lonely Londoners contemplating life’s greatest mystery: women. After a virtually unnoticeable role in the crime-comedy “The Martins” (2001), Considine was the troubled and volatile music manager, Rob Gretton, in Michael Winterbottom’s nostalgic “24 Hour Party People” (2002). Though unfamiliar with both Gretton and the larger Manchester music scene, Considine impressed Winterbottom enough to be cast in the role. Once again, however, Considine gave a notable performance in a film that was barely seen by audiences, particularly in America.
Considine’s fortunes changed virtually overnight when he appeared in the Oscar-nominated drama “In America” (2003). Helmed by acclaimed director Jim Sheridan, “In America” told the near-autobiographical tale of a man (Considine) who emigrates from Ireland with his family to America in order to realize his dreams of becoming an actor. Told that he would not be playing a character based on Sheridan in the film, Considine nonetheless could not help having the idea in the back of his mind. Considine’s experience on “In America” proved to be the most taxing in his short career, starting with the death of his father two weeks before shooting began. He pointed to the support of his fellow cast members, particularly the two little girls who play his daughters, as helping him get through the shoot. Considine also had trouble performing love scenes with co-star Samantha Morton because of his fidelity to his wife, Shelly – he was so nervous and guilt-ridden that he briefly considered giving up acting over love scenes. Though not nominated for an Oscar like co-stars Morton and Djimon Hounsou, Considine nonetheless turned in his finest performance to date.
From there, Considine teamed with director Pawel Pawlikowski for the romantic drama “My Summer of Love” (2005), before appearing alongside Russell Crowe and Renee Zellweger in the Oscar-baiting drama “Cinderella Man” (2005). He next appeared in the speculative historical drama “Stoned” (2005), in which he played a man accused of murdering Rolling Stones founding member, Brian Jones. After reuniting with Meadows to co-write and star as a vengeance-minded brother in the crime thriller “Dead Man’s Shoes” (2006), Considine wrote and directed “Dog Altogether” (2007), a short film partially inspired by the life of his father. Back on the big screen, he had a small role as a newspaper reporter in the blockbuster action thriller, “The Bourne Ultimatum” (2007), starring Matt Damon, before he starred on British television in the addiction-themed drama, “My Zinc Bed” (BBC, 2008). In “The Cry of the Owl” (2009), he was a recent divorcé who moves to rural Pennsylvania, where he becomes unhealthily obsessed with a younger woman (Jenny Thierolf). He next starred as a police detective brought in to investigate the Yorkshire Ripper case, only to unearth massive police corruption in the acclaimed “Red Riding: 1980” (Channel 4, 2009), part two of three feature-length television movies based on the famed serial killings. Meanwhile, he followed by playing a charming spiritual guru in the coming-of-age drama, “Submarine” (2011), before starring opposite Jason Stratham in the action thriller “Blitz” (2011).
The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.
James Wilby was born in Rangoon, Burma in 1958. He has carved out a niche in period dramas such as “A Tale of Two Cities” in 1989, “Maurice”, “Howard’s End” and “Gosford Park”. To view article on James Wilby, please click here.
TCM overview:
A handsome, athletic blond British lead, James Wilby garnered his first film success as the title character of “Maurice” (1987), the Merchant-Ivory adaptation of E M Forster’s novel about an Edwardian youth coming of age and coming to terms with his homosexuality.
Born in Rangoon (his father was an executive with the British Oxygen Company), Wilby was raised in England. While still in drama school at RADA, he landed a feature role in Michael Hoffman’s “Privileged” (1982), alongside Hugh Grant and Imogen Stubbs. After graduating in 1983, he landed a leading role in the West End in the much-heralded production “Another Country”, loosely based on the early life of spies Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean. Based on his stage role, Wilby was cast by Ismail Merchant and James Ivory as Maurice, again opposite Hugh Grant. He followed with one of his best screen performances as an unhappily married aristocrat cuckolded by his wife in “A Handful of Dust” (1988) before reteaming with Merchant-Ivory to play Charles Wilcox in the superb adaptation of “Howards End” (1992). More recently, Wilby earned praise for his portrayal of poet Sigfried Sassoon in the WWI-era drama “Regeneration” (1997).
On the small screen, Wilby first caught American audiences’ attention as Sidney Carton, who does a far better thing than he has ever done before, in the Granada TV remake of “A Tale of Two Cities” (aired in the USA in 1989 on PBS’ “Masterpiece Theatre”). He was Diana Rigg’s son and the object of much more in “Mother Love”, a 1990 British TV production that aired as an installment of PBS’ “Mystery!”. Throughout the 90s, Wilby has continued to appear on British television often as wealthy eccentrics as in the heroine’s crippled husband in “Lady Chatterley” (1993) and as the unctuous owner of a mysterious estate in “The Woman in White” (1997).
The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.
“‘La-dee-dah’ said Diane Keaton as ‘Annie Hall’. ‘Wow’ and ‘Oooh’ and ‘Oh’ and ‘Right’ and ‘Yeah’, putting them into various permutations. Her director and co-star Woody Allen had lived with her at one time and we all suspected that the film was more autobiographical than they cared to admit in interviews. We did’nt care either for it told us more than we needed to know: but since she won an Oscar for it we may say that this is the most valuable self-portrait of an Oscar winner that we have. The films success was surely due to her: seemingly spontaneous, healthy looking, a free spirit bubbling with merriment – and occasional doubts- ‘Wow’, /Right’. ‘Yeah’,’Oh’, ‘Wo'”. – David Shipman in “The Great Movie Stars – The Independent Years
Diane Keaton was born in 1946 in California. She made her film debut in 1971 in the excellent “Lovers and Other Strangers”. She also starred in several movies with Woody Allen such as “Play It Again Sam”, “Manhatten” and “Annie Hall”. She also starred in “Reds” with Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson.
Radio Days
Love and Death
Father of the Bride
Shoot the Moon
The Godfather Part Two
The Lemon Sisters
Manhattan Murder Mystery
Morning Glory
Hanging Up
Smoother
I Will, I Will for Now
Play It Again, Sam
Annie Hall
Looking for Mr Goodbar
The Price of Passion
Title
Reds
Caption
Alt Text
Description
Deselect
Reds
Something’s Gotta Give
Darling Companion
Harry and Walter go to New York
Breaking Through
Marvin’s Room
The Godfather Part Three
Amelia Earhart
Mad Money
Plan B
Ruth and Alex
Crossed Over
Sister Mary Explains It All
Interiors
And So It Goes
The Only Thrill
Tennessee Valley
Mrs Soffel
Baby Boom
Surrender, Dorothy
Love the Coopers
The Godfather
Sleeper
Because I Said So
Town & Country
The Family Stone
The Little Drummer Girl
Mama’s Boy
Crimes of the Heart
Manhattan
Father of the Bride Part Two
The Big Wedding
TCM overview:
As a multi-faceted actress, director and producer, Diane Keaton received her start as a favorite actress – as well as off-screen girlfriend – of filmmaker Woody Allen, earning a Best Actress Academy Award for her breakout performance in “Annie Hall” (1977). Prior to that, she was the troubled wife of Michael Corleone in “The Godfather” (1972) and “The Godfather, Part II” (1974), and further displayed her dramatic chops as a promiscuous schoolteacher in “Looking for Mr. Goodbar” (1977). Following a role in Woody Allen’s “Manhattan” (1979), she earned another Oscar nod for Warren Beatty’s “Reds” (1981) and had another critical success with “Crimes of the Heart” (1986). Keaton made her directing debut with the documentary “Heaven” (1987) and segued into television with “The Girl with the Crazy Brother” (CBS, 1990). Along the way, she starred opposite Steve Martin in “Father of the Bride” (1989), reprised Kay Corleone for “The Godfather, Part III” (1990) and had her last role with Allen in “Manhattan Murder Mystery” (1993). Meanwhile, she scored a big hit with “The First Wives Club” (1996), directed the box-office dud “Hanging Up” (2000) and revived that failure with an acclaimed turn opposite Jack Nicholson in the comedy “Something’s Gotta Give” (2003). By the time she starred in the romantic comedy “Morning Glory” (2010), the ever stylish Keaton was well known for showcasing powerful emotional journeys of typically non-conformist characters, while having made significant contributions to movies, television, photography, interior design and fashion.
Keaton was born Diane Hall on Jan. 5, 1946, and raised in Santa Ana, CA. The eldest of four kids born to an engineer and amateur photographer, Keaton displayed an enormous range of creative talent growing up, enjoying photography and designing her own clothes while appearing in school plays and harboring dreams of becoming a singer. She spent several years at local colleges after graduating from Santa Ana High School in 1964, but soon moved to New York City, where she studied at Sanford Meisner’s renowned Neighborhood Playhouse. She sang on small nightclub stages, but her acting career was first to take off, and in 1968 Keaton landed a long Broadway run in the original cast of “Hair” (1968), where she became known as the one girl who declined to remove her clothes during the finale. The following year, she was cast in Woody Allen’s Broadway production “Play It Again, Sam” (1970), earning a Tony Award nomination for the comedy and beginning a long working relationship (as well as romantic relationship) with writer and co-star Allen.
After making her feature debut in “Lovers and Other Strangers” (1970), Keaton had already earned an industry reputation for her eccentric leanings, and it was just that undertone that Francis Ford Coppola was looking for in the character of Kay Adams, Michael Corleone’s innocent girlfriend in “The Godfather” (1972). Keaton teamed up with Allen on the big screen in the screwball futuristic comedy “Sleeper” (1973), reprised her role as the now-Mrs. Michael Corleone in “The Godfather Part II” (1974), and retreated to Allen’s skewed world with “Love and Death” (1975). As Allen’s film style evolved into studies of creative, intellectual New Yorkers, he brought Keaton with him and she became an Oscar-winning movie star with her co-starring role opposite him in the landmark “Annie Hall” (1977), a film loosely based on the pair’s now defunct relationship. Keaton made a huge impact in the film, establishing her persona as a multi-dimensional modern woman, smart and culturally sophisticated, but grappling with emotional insecurities. The actress also unwittingly became a style icon whose penchant for men’s vintage clothing and odd vest and hat pairings was widely adopted by the fashion world.
Later that year, Keaton gave another excellent performance in “Looking for Mr. Goodbar” (1977), where her free-spirited persona and ability to embody “mainstream” values added to the impact of her portrayal of a newly “liberated” teacher who forays into the gritty pre-AIDS singles bar scene. After accompanying Allen in the anguished “Interiors” (1978) of his first drama and co-starring as the off-putting know-it-all who eventually woos his character away from his teenaged girlfriend in “Manhattan” (1979), Keaton landed the meaty role of leftist writer-artist Louise Bryant in then-beau Warren Beatty’s ambitious “Reds” (1981). Her complex portrait of lover, heroine and feminist earned her another Best Actress Oscar nomination and solidified her position at the top of Hollywood’s A-list. Keaton left her flair for comic characters in the background, going on to give fine performances as strong-willed women in dramas “Shoot the Moon” (1982), “The Little Drummer Girl” (1984), and “Mrs. Soffel” (1984), where she starred opposite Mel Gibson as a prison warden’s wife who falls in love with an inmate.
The casting of Jessica Lange, Sissy Spacek and Keaton as quirky Southern sisters in “Crimes of the Heart” (1986) did not transform Beth Henley’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play into a hit film, but the actress did finally enjoy some mainstream success with Charles Shyer’s “Baby Boom” (1987), a fluffy comedy she headlined about a devoted career woman suddenly saddled with a baby. Keaton’s lifelong passion for photography eventually led her to directing, so in the late 1980s she began to get her feet wet with music videos and a documentary glimpse at the hereafter called “Heaven” (1987). Keaton rejoined Coppola and the “Godfather” team for the franchise’s ill-received third installment, “The Godfather Part III” (1990) and retreated behind the camera to direct the made-for-TV movies, The CBS Schoolbreak Special, “The Girl with the Crazy Brother” (1990) and “Wildflower” (1991), and episodes of the drama series “China Beach” (ABC, 1988-1991) and “Twin Peaks” (ABC, 1990-91). Back on the silver screen, the mild comedy remake “Father of the Bride” (1991) marked the beginning of a new onscreen era for Keaton; one that often found her as matriarchs of upper middle class families.
Keaton played an eccentric writer involved with Presidential candidate Ed Harris in “Running Mates” (HBO, 1992) before a hilarious and long overdue re-teaming with Allen in “Manhattan Murder Mystery” (1993), a lighthearted caper whose real star was the pair’s undiminished comic chemistry. Back on the small screen, she gave an Emmy Award-nominated starring performance in “Amelia Earhart: The Final Flight” (TNT, 1994), where she was appropriately coiffed for the period and bore a striking resemblance to the famous aviatrix who disappeared over the Pacific in 1937. Back in the director’s chair, Keaton helmed her first fictional feature, “Unstrung Heroes” (1995), receiving mostly good notices for her examination of a boy’s adventures growing up in an off-center Jewish family of the 1960s. In her first big hit since “Annie Hall” nearly a decade earlier, Keaton co-starred with Goldie Hawn and Bette Midler in Hugh Wilson’s “The First Wives Club” (1996) and scored big for her wickedly witty characterization of one of a group of gleefully vengeful exes who have been replaced by younger counterparts.
That uptick in Keaton’s profile led to an Oscar-nominated turn in Marvin’s Room” (1996), an intimate exploration of family love and sacrifice which paired her and Meryl Streep as estranged sisters forced by circumstance to resume their relationship. With neither “The Only Thrill” (1997) nor “The Other Sister” (1999) finding an audience, the Disney Channel’s “Northern Lights” (1997), for which she also served as executive producer, offered arguably her best role for the balance of the decade. As a smart, unsentimental and childless widow who unwillingly takes on the responsibility for her late brother’s nine-year-old, Keaton allowed softer edges to emerge in her delightfully comic performance. Her second feature as director, “Hanging Up” (2000), revisited the sister dynamic, and this time she starred with Meg Ryan and Lisa Kudrow as siblings coping with the impending death of their father (Walter Matthau). After appearing in the all-star ensemble of the comic misfire “Town & Country” (2001) opposite ex-boyfriend Warren Beatty, Keaton scored on television in the amusing “Sister Mary Explains It All” (2001), playing a tough-as-nails nun facing a foursome of former students whose lives her teachings ruined.
Behind the scenes, Keaton served as the executive producer of the critically championed but little-watched series “Pasadena” (Fox, 2001), for which she also directed episodes. She went on to star in the CBS telepic “Crossed Over” (2002), the real-life story of a mother whose son was killed by a hit-and-run driver and overcame her grief and depression by befriending a woman on death row in Texas. A third quality telepic, the Lifetime movie “On Thin Ice” (2003) – based on the true story of a single, widowed mother who dealt drugs during a financial emergency only to late become an FBI drug informant – also earned kudos for Keaton as the lead. Keaton made a triumphant return to the big screen opposite Jack Nicholson in the over-50 romantic comedy “Something’s Gotta Give” (2003). In one of Keaton’s most endearing roles, she gave a bravura performance as a tightly wound novelist who finds herself falling in love with her daughter’s much older, womanizing boyfriend (Jack Nicholson) after he suffers a heart attack at her house. Her palpable chemistry with her co-star, both on the screen and off, fueled the film’s crowd-pleasing appeal and earned Keaton her fourth Oscar nomination as Best Actress (giving her a nod in four different decades), as well as a Golden Globe victory. It even led to rumors of life imitating art, with tabloids whispering of the seemingly ageless Keaton dating her younger co-star from the film, Keanu Reeves. They claimed to be simply friends.
In 2003, Keaton served as executive producer of “Elephant” (2003), director Gus Van Sant’s much-praised exploration of a high school shooting, but returned to comic outings with the 2005 holiday film “The Family Stone” (2005), where she played the matriarch of a bohemian family who welcomes home her son (Dermot Mulroney) and his new girlfriend (Sarah Jessica Parker), a high-powered and controlling New Yorker who is greeted with awkwardness, confusion and hostility. As one of the few middle-aged actresses in much demand, the ever-fashionable 60-year-old, who was outspoken about her anti-plastic surgery stance, was even selected to become a spokesmodel for L’Oreal beauty products. The following year, she appeared opposite former teen singing sensation, Mandy Moore, in “Because I Said So” (2007), a romantic comedy about a well-intentioned but overzealous mother who goes on a mission to find the right man for her daughter. Unfortunately, the film was one of the worst reviewed of the year, with critics slamming Keaton for her choice in vehicle and accusing her of mining the onscreen neurotic act a bit longer than necessary. “Mad Money” fared slightly better with critics, though the implausible female-powered caper starring Keaton, Queen Latifah and Katie Holmes, disappeared from theaters within a few short weeks. Undaunted, the comedy of errors “Smother” (2008) gave Keaton slightly more to work with in her role as a flighty mom who moves in with her grown son (Dax Shepard) and his wife (Liv Tyler). She went on to play a morning show anchor opposite Harrison Ford in the underwhelming comedy “Morning Glory” (2010) and the following year released her memoirs, Then Again, which relied on her mother’s private journals.
By Susan Clarke
The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.
Guardian obituary in 2025.
Too tall and too ‘kooky’” – that was a casting director’s verdict on Diane Keaton in the late 1960s. Either she was ahead of the curve or she bent the world gently to her will, but within a few years she was a star.
Keaton, who has died aged 79, appeared in both the year-long stage run and the film adaptation of the comedy Play It Again, Sam (1972). This began her long association – spanning one play, eight movies, a romance and more than half a century of friendship – with its author, Woody Allen. He later gave her what became her signature role in Annie Hall (1977), for which she won the best actress Oscar.
Recalling her audition for Play It Again, Sam, Allen described her as “adorable, funny, totally original in style, real, fresh … One talks about a personality that lights up a room, she lit up a boulevard.”
In the same year as the film of Play It Again, Sam, she was also heartbreaking as Kay, the ingenuous but ultimately crushed and neglected wife of Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), son of a Mafia don, in The Godfather.
Across the entire Godfather trilogy (there were sequels in 1974 and 1990), she provided a minor but effective counterpoint to the brooding, fatalistic masculinity. “Her presence is alive with uncompromising kindness,” wrote the critic David Thomson, who compared her to Ingrid Bergman in the films of Roberto Rossellini.
In acting terms, Keaton proved that a woman could have it all. From the start, she balanced comedy and drama without one discipline undermining the other. Her intelligence was always palpable, along with a restless energy
Another one-time partner, Warren Beatty, marvelled at what he called her “unfair allotment of gifts” and said: “She’s constantly in search of something that’s true.”
For further proof of Keaton’s dexterous ability to toggle between the grave and the goofy, one need only compare two films of hers from 1977. In Annie Hall, she was the title character, a neurotic and idiosyncratic singer who embarks on a faltering romance with a comedy writer, played by Allen. He also co-wrote and directed the film, and based it on their relationship.
Annie Hall is unavoidably bittersweet, but Keaton’s loosey-goosey charm brings buoyancy to the film, her giddiness a rebuke to Allen’s comic pessimism. With her awkward habit of filling conversational silences with “la-di-da”, her blithe way with a faux pas and her mix-and-match wardrobe, which sparked a trend for women to wear traditionally male clothes, Keaton embodied a dynamic vision of femininity liberated from gender norms.
The character was modelled on the actor herself, from Annie’s name (Keaton was born Diane Hall, and adopted her mother’s maiden name to distinguish herself from another Equity member) to her family (“It turns out they are wonderful material for a film,” Allen told her) and her Ralph Lauren-accented ensemble. “Let’s just say Keaton always suited up with a certain eccentric imagination,” Allen observed, “as if her personal shopper was Buñuel.”
The performance won her an Oscar – the first of four nominations, and the only one converted into a prize – and might have led a lesser actor to be pigeonholed.
However, Keaton had already established her versatility in the early years of her screen career, when she juggled the first two Godfather films with hilarious turns in Allen’s screwball comedy Sleeper (1973) and Love and Death (1975), his breakneck pastiche of Russian literature.
Her range was proved beyond doubt, though, with the release six months after Annie Hall of Looking for Mr Goodbar, a gruelling drama in which she played a teacher of deaf children who spends her evenings cruising singles bars for sex and is finally murdered.
The director Bruce LaBruce called her work in the movie “fearless”. Combined with Annie Hall, he said, it “signified a new kind of female star, independent, liberated, and sexually assertive”.
Born in Los Angeles, she was the eldest of four children, and raised in Santa Ana. Her mother, Dorothy (nee Keaton), was a photographer and the regional winner of the Mrs America housewives’ competition, one of many talent contests she threw herself into trying to win, while her father John, known as Jack, was a real estate agent. Diane’s lucrative sideline in flipping properties – that is, buying a dilapidated home, renovating and then reselling it – could be traced back to her childhood experience of accompanying him to view houses.
Keaton was educated at Santa Ana high school, where she developed a taste for acting and singing, and Santa Ana college. She moved to New York – “I was looking for an audience, any audience,” she later said – and studied dance with Martha Graham and acting under Stanford Meisner, who told her: “Some day you’re going to be a good actress.”
One of her first parts came in the hippy stage sensation Hair (1968), though in refusing to appear naked at the climax she forfeited the $50 nudity bonus. She also bristled at the ungainly speed with which her co-stars became career-minded: “All that peace and love—they were competitive as hell.” During the run, she was promoted from understudy to main cast member on the condition that she lose weight. This became the catalyst for her struggle with disordered eating and eventually full-blown bulimia. She left theatre behind after Play It Again, Sam, and, after a barren spell in which she scratched out a living in commercials, she established herself as a TV and film actor
In The Godfather Part II, she handled her heaviest material to date, including a scene in which she tells Michael why she has aborted their baby: “I wouldn’t bring another of your sons into this world … I had it killed because this must all end.”
Keaton and Pacino would later have an on-off relationship, which did not end definitively until they were filming The Godfather Part III.
By the time Annie Hall opened in 1977, she was in a relationship with Beatty, who told her: “You’re a movie star. That’s what you wanted. You got it. Now deal with it.” She later admitted she “wanted to be Warren Beatty, not love him”.
He cast her as the journalist Louise Bryant in Reds (1981), his epic drama about Communism, though she admitted it took her “something like 65 excruciating close-ups” before she could begin to like her character.
That film, for which she received her second Oscar nomination, coincided with her commitment during the first half of the 1980s to dramatic roles. Her fiercest performance was opposite Albert Finney in Alan Parker’s stinging divorce drama Shoot the Moon (1982). She then played an actor-turned-spy in the John Le Carré thriller The Little Drummer Girl and a warden’s wife springing two prisoners (Mel Gibson and Matthew Modine) from jail in Mrs Soffel (both 1984). She starred with Sissy Spacek and Jessica Lange as sisters raking over their lives and mistakes in Crimes of the Heart (1986).
It was not until Baby Boom (1987), in which she played a management consultant saddled unexpectedly with a child, that Keaton enjoyed her first commercial hit since Annie Hall and returned wholeheartedly to comedy. Under that film’s director, Charles Shyer, she brought some unearned sparkle to the perfunctory Father of the Bride (1991) and its 1995 sequel. She enjoyed another hit with The First Wives Club (1996), teaming up with Goldie Hawn and Bette Midler for sharp-clawed comic revenge
During the 80s, her collaborations with Allen – who had followed Annie Hall by directing her in the Bergmanesque chamber-piece Interiors (1978) and Manhattan (1979) – had fallen away as she concentrated on drama. Meanwhile, Allen’s new partner, Mia Farrow, became his go-to female lead.
But after a cameo singing You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To in Allen’s Radio Days (1987), Keaton was reunited with him for the jubilant Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993). They played a couple whose marriage is rejuvenated when they become amateur sleuths following the death of a neighbour. Keaton’s role was intended for Farrow, who had still hoped, somewhat unrealistically, to play it even after her break-up with Allen.
Keaton continued to defend Allen against accusations from Farrow and her daughter Dylan of child molestation (“I believe my friend”), and refused to join the chorus of celebrity denunciations. “He would cringe if he knew how much I care about him,” she wrote.
‘The most spontaneous person I’ve ever met’: Guardian writers remember Diane Keaton
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Though there was a blandness to her recent films, Keaton herself was never less than watchable. In the tear-jerker Marvin’s Room (1996), for which she was Oscar-nominated, she was a woman calling on her estranged sister (Meryl Streep) for a bone marrow transplant. There was a fourth Oscar nod for Something’s Gotta Give (2003), in which she was a playwright who develops feelings for her daughter’s ex, played by Jack Nicholson. Keaton described the film, which also shows her fielding romantic interest from a doctor played by Keanu Reeves, as a favourite among her own work.
She was part of an ensemble cast, also featuring Sarah Jessica Parker, in the Christmas-themed comedy-drama The Family Stone (2005), and played a daytime TV presenter in Morning Glory (2010). Her most complex recent work was on TV in The Young Pope (2016), where she was the confidante to Pope Pius XIII (Jude Law).
Among the films Keaton directed were the documentary Heaven (1987), the drama Unstrung Heroes (1995) and the comedy Hanging Up (2000), in which she co-starred with Meg Ryan and Lisa Kudrow. As executive producer of Elephant (2003), the Palme d’Or-winning elliptical drama inspired by the Columbine high-school shootings, she was responsible for bringing together the director Gus Van Sant and the film’s production company, HBO.
Her books include Then Again (2011), a fragmentary memoir which mixes her own recollections with accounts of caring for her late mother, who suffered from dementia, as well as extracts from her mother’s extensive diaries.
“I never found a home in the arms of a man,” said Keaton, reflecting on her relationships. But at the age of 50, she began a new life as an adoptive mother.
She is survived by her daughter, Dexter, and her son, Duke.
Cary Elwes was born in London in 1962. He made his film debut in 1984 with Rupert Everett and Colin Firth in “Another Country”. He went on to star in “The Princess Bride”, “Hot Shots”, “Twister” and “Robin Hood; Men in Tights”.
TCM overview:
Revered for his charming lead performance in Rob Reiner’s classic fairy tale, “The Princess Bride” (1987), British actor Cary Elwes went on to find success largely in supporting roles in a variety of genres. He showed a career-long interest in period films, donning medieval tights again in the satirical “Robin Hood: Men in Tights” (1993), which solidified his believability as a genuine swashbuckler throwback, a la Errol Flynn. In his higher profile Hollywood work, the actor appeared as Tom Cruise’s rival in “Days of the Thunder” (1991) before sending up the action film genre in “Hot Shots” (1991). He supported Jim Carrey in the comedy “Liar Liar” (1997), chased storms in “Twister” (1996), and while he was initially typecast for his dashing, patrician air, Elwes’ later career was marked by darker roles in genre material like “The X-Files” (Fox, 1993-2002), “Saw” (2004) and “The Riverman” (A&E, 2004), the latter of which saw him portraying infamous serial killer Ted Bundy. The actor’s charm and humor was still on display, however, with animated voice work on the CGI adaptation of “A Christmas Carol” (2009) and a recurring role as the roguish Pierre Despereaux on the TV dramedy “Psych” (USA Network, 2006- ). By turns dashing, sinister or downright silly, Elwes maintained a well-earned reputation as one of the most dependable and versatile actors of his generation.
The youngest son of painter Dominic Elwes and interior designer Tessa Kennedy, Elwes was born Ivan Simon Cary Elwes on Oct. 26, 1962. Following his parents’ divorce, the child of privilege split his time between London, where his mother lived, and his father’s home in Spain. His stage debut at age six in “Robin Hood” foretold his film breakout decades later, but prior to that, a teenaged Elwes moved to New York City where he studied acting at Sarah Lawrence College, the Lee Strasberg Institute, and The Actors’ Studio. His first few film appearances were in British productions like “Another Country” (1984), about elite students at a British public boarding school in the 1930s, and the period drama “Lady Jane” (1986), where he garnered attention for his romantic turn as a highborn adolescent opposite Helena Bonham Carter. Among those who saw the newcomer’s potential as a modern-day Errol Flynn was filmmaker Rob Reiner, who courted Elwes to star as a farm boy-turned-swashbuckling hero in his hilarious fairy tale “The Princess Bride” (1987). A moderate box office success at the time, film’s popularity grew with the advent of home video and cable television, and by the end of the 20th century it was revered as a true comedy classic.
Elwes continued to display a penchant for historic productions with his supporting role as the second-in-command to Union officer Matthew Broderick in the Civil War epic, “Glory” (1989), directed by Edward Zwick. He remained in the public eye as Tom Cruise’s arrogant rival in the car racing hit “Days of Thunder” (1991) and parodied the Cruise hit “Top Gun” (1986) in Jim Abrahams’ “Hot Shots!” starring Charlie Sheen. Although Elwes’ portrayal of Lord Holmwood got lost behind the grand visuals of Francis Ford Coppola’s “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (1992), he managed to rebound with a dead-on parody of Errol Flynn – by way of Kevin Costner – as a slightly dim denizen of Sherwood Forest in Mel Brooks’ zany spoof, “Robin Hood: Men In Tights” (1993). Fast-forwarding to modern American suburbia, Elwes was cast as a journalist who finds himself the object of affection of his landlord’s sociopathic teen daughter (Alicia Silverstone) in “The Crush” (1993), which was popular with the MTV crowd, thanks to the debut of its young music video starlet. In a more menacing turn, Elwes had a leading role in adventure filmmaker Stephen Sommers’ adaptation of “Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book” (1994), starring as a corrupt British officer whose greed and arrogance spoil the jungle boy’s idyllic existence.
Tapped again to play the thorn in a hero’s side, Elwes was seen as the corporate-sponsored rival to Bill Paxton’s salt-of-the-earth storm-chaser in “Twister” (1996), the second most popular film of 1996 and an expertly crafted action film from Jon de Bont. Elwes gave a strong performance as a detective hot on the trail of a missing woman (Ashley Judd) in the thriller “Kiss the Girls” (1997). That same year, he also had a supporting role in the blockbuster Jim Carrey comedy “Liar Liar” (1997) and voiced the blind hero of the animated “Quest for Camelot” (1998). While Elwes’ television appearances were rare, a spate of screen projects in the late 1990s included his casting as a whistle-blower out to expose the U.S. military’s profligate spending in the satire “The Pentagon Wars” (HBO, 1998), as well as portraying Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins in Tom Hanks’ Emmy-winning HBO miniseries, “From the Earth to the Moon” (1998). Shortly thereafter, Elwes starred as a British military officer who befriends an IRA terrorist in the Showtime telefilm, “The Informant” (Showtime, 1998).
Independent filmgoers saw Elwes deliver a turn as famous British thesp John Houseman in Tim Robbins’ period drama “Cradle Will Rock” (1999), which he followed by portraying German cinematographer Fritz Arno Wagner in “Shadow of the Vampire” (2000), a fictionalized take on the filming of the 1922 German masterpiece, “Nosferatu.” Elwes’ portrayal of early entertainment figures was rounded out with his role as 1920s film mogul Thomas Ince, who died under mysterious circumstances, in “The Cat’s Meow” (2002) from Peter Bogdanovich. Elwes returned to television with a recurring role as an FBI agent on the final season of Fox’s sci-fi hit “The X-Files” (Fox, 1993-2002), and kept his offerings dark with a follow-up portrayal of serial killer Ted Bundy in the A&E film, “The Riverman” (2004).
Elwes’ biggest box office haul in years resulted from the ultra-violent horror film “Saw” (2004). That same year, he gave a lighter villainous performance in the fairy tale-like romantic comedy, “Ella Enchanted” (2004) starring Anne Hathaway. While the actor remained busy in the new century, his appearances were mostly in little-seen low budget films, with the exception of his portrayal of the pontiff in “Pope John Paul II” (CBS, 2005) and the lead alongside Eliza Dushku in the thriller “The Alphabet Killer” (2008). Elwes’ profile enjoyed a rise during the 2009 holiday season when he lent his voice to “A Christmas Carol” (2009), Robert Zemeckis’ big-budget retelling of the classic tale starring Elwes’ former co-star, Jim Carrey. The seemingly indefatigable Elwes also appeared for the first of several times as the elusive, charismatic art thief Pierre Despereaux in a 2009 episode of the comedic mystery series “Psych” (USA, 2006- ). After settling a legal dispute with the film franchise’s producers over profits owed him from the first movie, Elwes returned as Dr. Lawrence Gordon in “Saw 3-D: The Final Chapter” (2010). Although his character had survived the first film, Dr. Gordon’s fate remained a lingering mystery throughout the series until “Saw 3-D” revealed the grim secret life he had been living during the intervening years.
Elwes went on to portray more doctors, albeit in much lighter fare, with supporting turns in the romantic comedies “No Strings Attached” (2011) and “New Year’s Eve” (2011). Following guest spots in 2012 episodes of the cable series “Leverage” (TNT, 2008- ) and “Perception” (TNT, 2012- ), Elwes was seen in the critically-assailed children’s fantasy “The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure” (2012), a film that set a box office record as the lowest grossing wide-release movie of all time. Fortunately, Elwes was able to relive happier cinematic memories when he and his former castmates reunited for a 25th Anniversary screening of “The Princess Bride” in October of that year. Following the event, the actor spent time on the talk show circuit discussing the continued appreciation of a production that, while only a middling success at the time of its release, had grown to become one of the most beloved family films of its era and certainly remained the role by which he would always be measured.
The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.
Dylan McDermott was born in Waterbury, Connecticut in 1961. he is best known for his performance in the long running TV series “The Practice”. His movies include “Twister” and “Neon Empire”.
TCM overview:
As an actor, Dylan McDermott’s innate inner fire set him apart from many of his less dangerous television contemporaries. McDermott showed the makings of a leading man early on, turning in solid supporting work in such diverse feature films as the grim Vietnam War story “Hamburger Hill” (1987) and the comedic drama “Steel Magnolias” (1989), amidst a cast of leading lady all-stars. He edged up toward movie stardom with the lead in the cult sci-fi thriller “Hardware” (1990) and held his own alongside screen icon Clint Eastwood in “In the Line of Fire” (1993). With the Jodie Foster-directed “Home for the Holidays” (1995), McDermott demonstrated a knack for lighter fare as well, but it was his intense portrayal of driven criminal defense attorney Bobby Donnell on David E. Kelley’s acclaimed legal drama “The Practice” (ABC, 1997-2004) that finally gained the actor critical recognition and sex symbol status. McDermott’s track record after “The Practice,” however, was spotty at best, with such features as the supernatural thriller “The Messengers” (2007) and the short-lived cop drama “Dark Blue” (TNT, 2009-2010) failing to ignite sparks with audiences. Ironically, his next hit project came when he starred in the gleefully gratuitous cable shocker “American Horror Story” (FX, 2011- ) – an anthology series that would change not only its setting, but its core cast each season. As a fiercely committed performer willing to take creative risks, McDermott was sure to shake things up on screens for years to come.
Born Mark Anthony McDermott in Waterbury, CT on Oct. 26, 1961, McDermott’s childhood was rocky from the start. McDermott’s mother Diane was only 15 years old when she had her son, and at age 17, his factory worker father, Richard McDermott, was not anymore more prepared for marriage and children than Diane. Nonetheless the couple stayed married long enough to have a second child, a daughter, Robin McDermott. By early 1967, the young couple separated, leading Richard to move to Manhattan to work as a bartender, while Diane stayed in Connecticut to raise her two children, with the help of her mother, Avis. Things took a turn from difficult to tragic in February 1967 when Diane McDermott was shot and killed at the age of 20 – presumably accidentally by her boyfriend while he was cleaning his gun – though he denied it at that time, saying that she shot herself. It was ruled a suicide, but 40 years later, her death still remained shrouded in mystery with no clear answers. McDermott was just five years old at the time and his sister, Robin a mere six months old.
Not unexpectedly, the overwhelming responsibility of raising two children was too much for McDermott’s 22-year-old father. Fortunately maternal grandmother, Avis Marino stepped in and raised her grandchildren. Losing his mother at such a young age made McDermott a lonely and isolated child, who later said he felt virtually invisible. By the time he hit adolescence, he was angry, acting out, drinking heavily and getting into fights whenever possible. Things were looking grim for his future, when luck finally smiled on the 15-year-old delinquent when his father married playwright Eve Ensler, the writer behind the hit play “Vagina Monologues” (1996-2001) Though she was only nine years older than her new stepson, Ensler took young Mark under her wing, eventually adopting the troubled youth when he was 19. Acting as his personal cheerleader and mentor, Ensler saw potential in McDermott’s talent, giving him his first acting role in her play “Believe It, See It.” With Ensler’s help, McDermott began to channel his anger into acting and away from self-destructive behavior. Unfortunately, Ensler’s marriage to his father did not survive, but his beloved stepmother and the young actor had formed a lasting bond which would continue post-divorce. In fact, when Ensler miscarried a baby she intended to name Dylan, her stepson changed his name to bring her happiness and honor her unborn child.
With a newfound ambition, McDermott renounced his wild ways and enrolled at New York City’s Fordham University to study drama and to immerse himself in the theater world. In 1985, he appeared in Neil Simon’s “Biloxi Blues.” It was during one of his stage performances, that an agent spotted the handsome actor and sent McDermott packing for Hollywood. He was off to a solid start, making his feature film debut in the Vietnam drama “Hamburger Hill” (1987) as Sergeant Frantz, following that up with two consecutively disappointing roles in the box office underachievers “The Blue Iguana” (1988) and “Twister” (1989). Fortunately his next film was a major hit. In the Southern tearjerker “Steel Magnolias” (1989), he portrayed Julia Roberts’ supportive husband alongside an all-star cast that included Sally Field, Daryl Hannah and Shirley MacLaine. Off-screen, he began dating co-star Roberts – that is until she met Kiefer Sutherland on the set of her next film, “Flatliners” (1990) and unceremoniously dumped him. Apparently not one to hold a grudge, McDermott later teamed with Sutherland – who at that point had also been dumped by Roberts – in the 1994 feature flop “The Cowboy Way.”
After his successful turn in Steel Magnolias,” McDermott suffered through several box office disappointments like “Hardware” (1990), and “Jersey Girl” (1992) before starring as a secret service agent opposite Clint Eastwood in the critically praised hit “In the Line of Fire” (1993). His career was not the only thing improving. That same year he met his future wife, Shiva Rose in a Santa Monica coffee house. The couple wed in November 1995 and soon became a red carpet staple. Continuing to rack up impressive credits – as well as being constantly mistaken for fellow up-and-coming actor, Dermot Mulroney – McDermott co-starred as the dashing love interest to Elizabeth Perkins in a misguided remake of the classic film “Miracle on 34th Street” (1994). A year later McDermott redeemed himself in the underrated Jodie Foster-helmed feature dramedy “Home for the Holidays” (1995), where he played to his strengths as the charming Leo Fish, who tries to win over a frazzled Holly Hunter during her holiday visit with her dysfunctional family.
McDermott’s association with Clint Eastwood benefited him yet again when while attending a dinner to honor the screen legend, he met Jeffrey Kramer, president of David E. Kelly productions, who asked McDermott to audition for a new series called “The Practice” (ABC, 1997- 2004). A perfect fit for the role of Bobby Donnell, McDermott helped turn “The Practice” into a ratings hit by bringing a smoldering sex appeal combined with a hard-headed intensity – both of which kept viewers glued to their televisions. The critics agreed, paving the way for McDermott’s 1998 Golden Globe win for Best Actor in a Drama. That same year, People magazine named him as one of its “50 Most Beautiful People.” The following year, he spent his “Practice” hiatus filming the bland romantic comedy “Three to Tango” (1999) also starring Matthew Perry and Neve Campbell. By 2003, “The Practice” was suffering from dwindling ratings. In a surprising move, David E. Kelly fired most of the cast, including his star and main attraction, McDermott, in an attempt to cut production costs. Fans were outraged and the show was finally canceled the following year.
With his steady gig over, McDermott went back to the unpredictable world of feature films, none of which did anything to further his career. In 2003, he was miscast as a tattooed drug dealer in the feature “Wonderland” (2003), based on the real-life 1981 drug murders on Wonderland Avenue in Los Angeles. In 2005, he starred as the romantic hero opposite Indian actress Aishwarya Rai in the mystical drama “The Mistress of Spices” (2005). Even their staggering combination of good looks could not save the film from box office Siberia. Next, he tried his hand at the horror genre, starring in “The Messengers” (2007) as a city slicker who moves his family away from the dangers of urban living to a haunted house in the country. Critics skewered the film for being a silly snoozefest rather than remotely scary. In 2007, McDermott returned to the medium television starring on the dramedy “Big Shots” (ABC, 2007-08), which was touted as a male version of “Desperate Housewives” (ABC, 2004-2012). Regardless of labels and Nielsen expectations, he was clearly in his element, starring as womanizing scoundrel, Duncan Collingsworth, a cosmetics company CEO who has plenty of time to spend kvetching at the country club with his three best male friends, as well as carry on an affair with his beautiful ex-wife. At the same time that McDermott was making his big return to network television, the sad news arrived via his reps that McDermott had separated from Rose after nearly 12 years of marriage.
Far more short-lived than either McDermott’s marriage or his previous television series was “Big Shots.” Critically-panned and stillborn in the ratings, the show was canceled after less than a dozen episodes. While he looked for his next long-term project, McDermott kept busy with roles in a pair of little-seen indie films. First came a supporting role in actor-writer Scott Caan’s relationship drama “Mercy” (2009), followed by a turn in a segment of “Burning Palms” (2010), a dark satire of Los Angeles comprised of five vignettes about several of its more troubled denizens. McDermott then rolled the dice on another series with “Dark Blue” (TNT, 2009-2010), a gritty police drama in which he played the head of a crack undercover team in the LAPD. Despite the backing of producer Jerry Bruckheimer and a solid supporting cast, critics and audiences found the action far from arresting, resulting in yet another cancellation for McDermott after the second season. Throwing every horror movie trope imaginable at the screen from its premiere episode, “American Horror Story” (FX, 2011- ) starred McDermott and Connie Britton as a couple who moved from Boston to Los Angeles with their teenage daughter (Taissa Farmiga) in an effort to rebuild their damaged marriage. Unfortunately, their new dream house was also home to a host of malicious ghosts. Unapologetically over-the-top and boundary-pushing in its sex and violence, “American Horror Story” drew rave reviews for its cast and impressive ratings throughout its first season. Despite finally landing a hit series, McDermott would not return for season two, as “American Horror Story” had been conceived as an anthology series, telling entirely new tales each season.
The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.
Kurt Russell starred in one of my favourite movies “Escape from New York” in 1981. He began his career as a child actor and was featured in “It Happened At the World’s Fair” in 1962 with Elvis Presley. His other movies include “Swing Shift” with his partner Goldie Hawn and “Guns in the Heather” which was made in the West of Ireland for Walt Disney.
TCM overview:
After getting his start as a child star in several movies for Walt Disney Studios, actor Kurt Russell managed to shed his wholesome image to play some of cinema’s most notorious and hard-edged tough guys. Russell first broke the Disney mold with an acclaimed portrayal of the King in the made-for-television biopic, “Elvis” (ABC, 1979), which many hailed as one of the finest performances of his career. Having partnered with director John Carpenter, he next essayed one of his most enduring characters, Snake Plissken, the antihero of Carpenter’s cult classic “Escape from New York” (1981). Russell delivered another solid performance as memorable hard-case R.J. MacReady in Carpenter’s gory remake of “The Thing” (1982). While making the troubled romantic comedy, “Swing Shift” (1984), Russell became romantically involved with co-star Goldie Hawn, with whom he forged a lasting partnership that resembled a marriage, but without the actual legal certificate. He was even considered by Hawn’s two children from a previous marriage, actress Kate Kudston, and her brother, Oliver, to be – at least in spirit – their father. Meanwhile, Russell thrived throughout the 1980s with “Big Trouble in Little China” (1986) and “Tequila Sunrise” (1988), which carried over into the next decade with “Backdraft” (1991), “Captain Ron” (1992) and a dead-on portrayal of Wyatt Earp in “Tombstone” (1993). Following box office success with “Stargate” (1994) and “Executive Decision” (1996), Russell offered up his most engaging performance in the tense thriller “Breakdown” (1997). Though he later faltered with “3000 Miles to Graceland” (2001) and “Poseidon” (2006), Russell nonetheless remained one of the most engaging actors in Hollywood.
Born on March 17, 1951 in Springfield, MA, Russell was later raised in Thousand Oaks, CA by his mother, Louise, a dancer, and his father, Bing, a character actor best known for playing Deputy Clem Foster on “Bonanza” (NBC, 1959-1973). Growing up around the entertainment industry gave the young Russell an opportunity to appear onscreen himself. Russell made his first television appearance with a guest starring role on the short-lived sitcom “Our Man Higgins” (ABC, 1962-63) before turning to hour-long drama with an episode of “The Eleventh Hour” (NBC, 1962-64). In short order, Russell found himself starring in his own series, “The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters” (ABC, 1963-64), in which he played the titular role of a 12-year-old boy who depicts his experiences with his family and the hardships faced after settling California in 1849. Following the cancellation of that series, the young actor appeared as a guest star on shows like “The Virginian” (NBC, 1962-1971) and “Gilligan’s Island” (CBS, 1964-67), before making his feature debut in “Follow Me, Boys!” (1966), one of several pictures for Walt Disney made by Russell early in his career. He played a Boy Scout who befriends a traveling saxophonist (Fred McMurphy) settling down in his small Midwestern town.
Russell continued making films for Disney with a supporting role in “The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit” (1968), followed by a starring role in “The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes” (1970), in which he played Dexter Riley, a student whose brain becomes a virtual hard drive after a computer he was trying to fix is struck by lightning. He revived the same character, now turned college student, who invents an invisibility spray coveted by a gang of thieves in the pseudo-sequel, “Now You See Him, Now You Don’t” (1972). As he entered his twenties, Russell made his last pictures with Disney – “Charley and the Angel” (1973) and “Superdad” (1974), co-starring Bob Crane – before making his final Disney movie under contract with “The Strongest Man in the World” (1975), playing for the last time troublesome college student Dexter Riley. He began making the segue to more adult roles with two failed series, “The New Land” (ABC, 1974) and “The Quest” (NBC, 1976), and completely shedding his nice kid image with a chilling portrayal of mass-murderer Charles Whitman in the television movie, “The Deadly Tower” (NBC, 1975).
A few years later, Russell delivered a career-defining performance as the King of Rock and Roll in director John Carpenter’s television biopic, “Elvis” (ABC, 1979). Though low-budget and missing certain key details, Carpenter’s movie opened to huge ratings and earned Russell an Emmy Award nomination, whole touching off a fruitful collaboration between actor and director over the next decade. Russell also married co-star, Season Hubley, who played Priscilla Presley, after the couple displayed undeniable chemistry onscreen. On the big screen, he became a bankable adult Hollywood star, thanks to a fine performance as a fast-talking charmer in Robert Zemeckis’ raucous, under-appreciated comedy, “Used Cars” (1980). He experienced greater popular success by reuniting with Carpenter for the cult classic sci-fi actioner, “Escape From New York” (1981), playing eye-patched antihero, Snake Plissken, a former solider-turned-criminal in a dystopian future where Manhattan has been turned into a maximum security prison, who is backed into saving the President of the United States (Donald Pleasence) after Air Force One crash lands on the island. Made on a shoestring budget of $6 million, “Escape” earned over $50 million at the box office. It also ushered in a new career trajectory for Russell, who managed to shed his family-friendly image from the previous decade for good.
After voicing the adult hound dog Copper in “The Fox and the Hound” (1981) for his former employer, Walt Disney Studios, Russell reunited with Carpenter for “The Thing” (1982), a gory remake of Howard Hawks’ 1951 film about a 12-man rescue team that discovers a parasitic alien life form that had been buried beneath the Earth for 100,000 years. Though admired by some critics despite the film’s excesses of violence and gore, “The Thing” wound up being a box office failure. It did, however, live on as another cult classic, while adding on to Russell’s impressive array of big screen tough guys. He next co-starred in Mike Nichols’ somber biopic, “Silkwood” (1983), playing the lover of nuclear plant work, Karen Silkwood (Meryl Streep), whose mysterious car accident death after her groundbreaking investigation into plant safety led to a reexamination of nuclear energy. Meanwhile, Russell took a turn toward romantic comedy with a co-starring role opposite Goldie Hawn in “Swing Shift” (1984), in which he played a factory worker denied enlistment during World War II, who falls for a woman (Hawn) working the production line while her husband is off fighting in Europe. Though conventional onscreen, “Swing Shift” was noted for the behind-the-scenes battles between Hawn, who also served as producer, and director Jonathan Demme over the film’s tone. It also marked the beginning of a long-running companionship between Russell and Hawn; though they never married, the couple remained a steadfast couple for several decades while Russell was considered by Hawn’s children, Kate Hudson and Oliver Hudson, to be their father, even though they were never legally adopted by him.
Following a starring turn opposite Mariel Hemingway in the psychological thriller, “The Mean Season” (1985), Russell teamed up again with John Carpenter for “Big Trouble in Little China” (1986), doing a hilarious John Wayne-like turn as a tough-guy truck driver who tries to save his friend’s fiancée (Suzee Pai) from an ancient sorcerer (James Hong) hiding beneath San Francisco’s Chinatown. He next played a former star high school quarterback-turned-garage owner coaxed back into reigniting an old gridiron rivalry by a teammate (Robin Williams) in “The Best of Times” (1986). In their first film as a famous Hollywood couple, Russell and Hawn starred in “Overboard” (1987), a screwball comedy about a snobby heiress (Hawn) with amnesia who is tricked by a disgruntled carpenter (Russell) into believe she is his wife and the mother of four rambunctious boys, leading her to a hectic life of cleaning and cooking. Though not a major success, the film enjoyed a hefty video rental life and became something of a guilty pleasure for fans of silly but charming romantic comedies. Russell followed up by playing a celebrity cop who falls for the same woman (Michelle Pfeiffer) as his life-long friend – a retired drug dealer (Mel Gibson) – in Robert Towne’s hit crime drama, “Tequila Sunrise” (1988).
Russell received some of his worst reviews of his career with his next feature, “Tango & Cash” (1989), a buddy action comedy which paired him opposite Sylvester Stallone, as both are set-up for a crime they did not commit by a notorious drug dealer (Jack Palance). Panned by critics, the movie also earned Russell the first Razzie award nomination of his career, thanks to a scene in which he dressed in drag. Russell rebounded quite well with his next film, director Ron Howard’s “Backdraft” (1991), playing a stalwart firefighter who is suspected of being an inside man during a series of arsons investigated by a dogged fire inspector (Robert De Niro). He next played the crusty, seafaring “Captain Ron” (1992), who takes the family of a beleaguered Chicago businessman (Martin Short) on a cruise from the Caribbean. Noted for its finely-tuned comic performance from Russell and numerous quotable lines, “Captain Ron” earned status as a yet another Russell cult hit. After a good turn as a husband terrorized by a crazed cop (Ray Liotta) in “Unlawful Entry” (1992), Russell delivered his most convincing performance then to date in “Tombstone” (1993), playing famed U.S. Marshal Wyatt Earp, whose involvement in the shootout at the O.K. Corral became the stuff of Old West legend.
Though the movie itself was successful with both critics and audiences, “Tombstone” was plagued with problems during production, especially when original director, Kevin Jarre, was fired for refusing to cut down an over-long script. Though the rest of the film was helmed by George P. Cosmatos, Russell had claimed – especially in later years – to have directed some scenes himself. He delivered another memorable tough-guy turn in “Stargate” (1994), an action sci-fi combo in which he played a suicidal colonel teamed up with a nerdy Egyptologist (James Spader) to explore another world reached by an ancient cosmic traveling device. Following a reprisal of sorts in voicing Elvis for a brief scene in “Forrest Gump” (1994), Russell starred in the political thriller “Executive Decision” (1996), in which he portrayed a military intelligence analyst who tries to save 400 passengers aboard a hijacked 747. After a good 15 years, Russell once again played futuristic antihero Snake Plissken in John Carpenter’s follow-up, “Escape from L.A.” (1996). Despite the hype surrounding the reprisal, the film failed to live up to expectations, while also having a poor run at the box office. Aside from his starring role, Russell also served as a producer and co-screenwriter.
Russell delivered a good performance in the surprisingly tense Hitchcockian thriller, “Breakdown” (1997), playing a desperate husband trying to find his wife (Kathleen Quinlan), who was mysteriously kidnapped after their jeep breaks down in the middle of the New Mexico desert. Following this compelling addition to his oeuvre, Russell began appearing in a string of disappointing films that pushed him further and further from the public’s consciousness after spending a better part of his career at the forefront of Hollywood’s most bankable stars. He starred in the critically panned box office flop, “Soldier” (1998), playing a genetically enhanced officer tasked with protecting an innocent civilian village in a distant galaxy from being destroyed. Following a small role as a court psychologist in the Cameron Crow misfire “Vanilla Sky” (2001), Russell made another questionable choice by starring opposite Kevin Costner in “3000 Miles to Graceland” (2001), a much-maligned caper movie in which Russell revisited his Elvis roots by dressing up as the King alongside his partner in crime (Costner) to pull off a heist at a Las Vegas casino.
In 2003, Russell co-starred in the emotionally charged, James Ellroy’s adaptation, “Dark Blue,” playing a streetwise, but corrupt police veteran in Los Angeles during the 1992 riots. Russell delivered a commanding performance in the controversial, gray-shaded role and carried the movie on his shoulders until the plot gave way to conventional thriller territory. He again had a strong turn in “Miracle” (2004) playing Herb Brooks, the real-life coach of the United States Olympic hockey team; the same Cinderella team that pulled off the unimaginable defeat of the dominating teams from the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia. Russell, an avid hockey enthusiast himself, practically channeled the complicated Brooks and delivered another knockout performance. Russell’s next effort was not as winning, however, though he did deliver his trademark charm in the superhero spoof “Sky High” (2005), in which he played Captain Stronghold, a super-powered father who sends his non-powered son (Michael Angarano) to a secret academy for superhero offspring. He next had a turn in the family film “Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story” (2005), playing a once gifted horseman who is given a lame horse and takes the mare on a quest to win the Breeders Cup Classic, thanks to the unwavering determination of his young daughter (Dakota Fanning).
After turning in several fine, low-key performances, Russell tried to step back into the limelight with the larger-than-life remake, “Poseidon” (2006), playing a middle-aged father struggling to escape a capsized ocean liner with a ragtag group of passengers. But “Poseidon” sank at the box office, leaving Russell still attempting to recapture past box office glory. In a hat-tip to Snake Plissken and other onscreen bad-asses of films past, Russell was a sadistic stunt driver named Stuntman Mike in the Quentin Tarantino-Robert Rodriguez double bill “Grindhouse” (2007). A compilation of two 90-minute horror flicks from both directors, “Grindhouse” was a throwback to the days of bloody, sex-fueled, low-rent double features that played in seedy 42nd Street theaters in New York City. In Tarantino’s offering, a slasher-cum-road rage flick called “Death Proof,” Russell was a crazed killer who tries to mow down young women – including Rosario Dawson and Zoë Bell – in a black Chevy Nova. Though unsuccessful at the box office, “Grindhouse” – which included the Rodriguez portion, “Planet Terror,” and fake movie trailers – was embraced by a majority of critics.
The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.
Sam Elliott, Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer & Bill Paxton
