Friday, July 19, 2013

CLARK GABLE

William Clark Gable (February 1, 1901 – November 16, 1960) was an American film actor. Though arguably best known for his role as Rhett Butler in the epic Gone with the Wind (1939), which earned him his third nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor, he was also nominated for Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), and he won for It Happened One Night (1934).[1] His other notable films include Manhattan Melodrama (1934) and The Misfits (1961).
 












 
Starting as a stage actor, Gable appeared as an extra in silent films between 1924 and 1930, and progressed to supporting roles with a few films for MGM in 1931. The next year he landed his first leading Hollywood role and became a leading man in more than 60 movies over the next three decades.
 
 
 
Gable appeared opposite some of the most popular actresses of the time. Joan Crawford, who was his favorite actress to work with,[2] was partnered with Gable in eight films; Myrna Loy worked with him seven times, and he was paired with Jean Harlow in six productions. He also starred with Lana Turner in four features, and with Norma Shearer and Ava Gardner in three each. Gable's final film, The Misfits (1961), paired him with Marilyn Monroe (also in her last screen appearance
 
 

RICK NELSON

Ricky Nelson was an American actor, musician, and singer-songwriter who starred alongside his family in the long-running television series, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952–66), as well as co-starring alongside John Wayne and Dean Martin in Howard Hawks's western feature film, Rio Bravo (1959).
 
 
 
From Rio Bravo (1959)
 
David &Ricky Nelson in "The Circus " From The Adventures Of Ozzie & Harriet. 1960.
 
David Nelson in "The Circus " From The Adventures Of Ozzie & Harriet. 1960.
 
David &Ricky Nelson in "The Circus " From The Adventures Of Ozzie & Harriet. 1960.
 
 
 
 
He placed 53 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 between 1957 and 1973 including "Poor Little Fool" which holds the distinction of being the first #1 song on Billboard magazine's then-newly created Hot 100 chart. He recorded 19 additional Top 10 hits and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on January 21, 1987. In 1996, he was ranked #49 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time.
 
 
 
 
Nelson began his entertainment career in 1949 playing himself in the radio sitcom series, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. In 1952, he appeared in his first feature film, Here Come the Nelsons. In 1957, he recorded his first single, debuted as a singer on the television version of the sitcom, and released the #1 album entitled Ricky. In 1958, Nelson released his first #1 single, "Poor Little Fool", and in 1959 received a Golden Globe nomination for "Most Promising Male Newcomer" after starring in Rio Bravo. A few films followed, and when the television series was cancelled in 1966, Nelson made occasional appearances as a guest star on various television programs.
 
 
 
 
In 1972, Nelson reached the Top 40 one last time with "Garden Party", a song he wrote in disgust after a Madison Square Garden audience booed him, because, in his mind, he was playing new songs instead of just his old hits. When he performed the Stones' "Honky Tonk Woman," he was booed off the stage.  He wanted to record an album featuring original material, but the single was released before the album because Nelson had not completed the entire Garden Party album yet. "Garden Party" reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart and was certified as a gold single.
 
 
 
Nelson and Sharon Kristin Harmon were married on April 20, 1963, and divorced in December 1982. They had four children: Tracy Kristine, twin sons Gunnar Eric and Matthew Gray, and Sam Hilliard. On February 14, 1981, a son (Eric Crewe) was born to Nelson and Georgeann Crewe. A blood test in 1985 confirmed that Nelson was the child's father. Nelson was engaged to Helen Blair at the time of his death in an airplane crash on December 31, 1985.
 
 
 


 

Friday, April 19, 2013

CLINT EASTWOOD

Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American film actor, director, producer, composer, and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide (1959–1966). He rose to fame for playing the Man with No Name in Sergio Leone's Dollars trilogy of spaghetti westerns (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) during the late 1960s, and as Harry Callahan in the Dirty Harry films (Dirty Harry, Magnum Force, The Enforcer, Sudden Impact, and The Dead Pool) throughout the 1970s and 1980s. These roles, among others, have made him an enduring cultural icon of a certain type of masculinity.




For his work in the films Unforgiven (1992) and Million Dollar Baby (2004), Eastwood won Academy Awards for Best Director and Producer of the Best Picture, as well as receiving nominations for Best Actor. These films in particular, as well as others including Ply Misty for Me (1971), Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), Escape from Alcatraz (1979), Tightrope (1984), Pale Rider (1985), Heartbreak Ridge (1986), In the Line of Fire (1993), The Bridges of Madison County (1995), and Gran Torino (2008), have all received commercial success and critical acclaim. Eastwood's only comedies have been Every Which Way but Loose (1978) and its sequel Any Which Way You Can (1980), which are his two most commercially successful films after adjustment for inflation.



















Doug Mclure & Clint Eastwood



 


 In addition to directing many of his own star vehicles, Eastwood has also directed films in which he did not appear, such as Mystic River (2003) and Letters from Iwo Jima (2006), for which he received Academy Award nominations, and Changeling (2008). He has received considerable critical praise in France, including for several films which were not well received in the United States, and he has been awarded two of France's highest honors: in 1994 he became a recipient of the French Republic's Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and in 2007 he was awarded the Légion d'honneur medal. In 2000, he was awarded the Italian Venice Film Festival Golden Lion for lifetime achievement.

 

Since 1967, Eastwood has run his own production company, Malpaso, which has produced all except four of his American films. He also served as the nonpartisan mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California from 1986 to 1988. Eastwood has seven children by five different women, although he has only married twice.

Sunday, April 7, 2013

TONY CURTIS

Tony Curtis (born Bernard Schwartz; June 3, 1925 – September 29, 2010) was an American film actor whose career spanned six decades, but had his greatest popularity during the 1950s and early 1960s. He acted in more than 100 films in roles covering a wide range of genres, from light comedy to serious drama. In his later years, Curtis made numerous television appearances.
 
 
Although his early film roles were partly the result of his good looks, by the later half of the 1950s he became a notable and strong screen presence. He began proving himself to be a “fine dramatic actor,” having the range to act in numerous dramatic and comedy roles. In his earliest parts he acted in a string of "mediocre" films, including swashbucklers, westerns, light comedies, sports films, and a musical. However, by the time he starred in Houdini (1953) with his wife Janet Leigh, "his first clear success," notes critic David Thomson, his acting had progressed immensely.
 
 
Burt Lancaster, Gina Lolabrigida and Tony Curtis in Trapeze (1956)

Tony Curtis with Gina Lolabrigida in Trapeze (1956)

He won his first serious recognition as a skilled dramatic actor in Sweet Smell of Success (1957) with co-star Burt Lancaster. The following year he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in another drama, The Defiant Ones (1958).
 
Tony Curtis with Sidney Poitier in The Defiant Ones (1958)
 
Curtis then gave what many believe was his best acting, three interrelated roles in the comedy Some Like It Hot (1959). Thomson calls it an "outrageous film," and a survey carried out by the American Film Institute voted it the funniest American film ever made.  It costarred Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe, and was directed by Billy Wilder.
 
On the set of Some Like It Hot with Marilyn Monroe (1959)
 
 
Some Like It Hot was quickly followed by Blake Edwards comedy Operation Petticoat (1959) with Cary Grant. They were both “frantic comedies,” and displayed "his impeccable comic timing."
 
 
He often collaborated with Edwards on later films. In 1960, he co-starred in Spartacus, which became another major hit for him.
 
Autographed photo of Tony Curtis in Spartacus (1960)
 
His stardom and film career declined considerably after the early 1960s. His most significant serious part came in 1968 when he starred in the true-life drama The Boston Strangler, which some consider his "last major film role." The part reinforced his reputation as a serious actor with his "chilling portrayal" of serial killer Albert DeSalvo. He gained 30 pounds and had his face "rebuilt" with a false nose to look like the real DeSalvo.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Curtis was the father of actresses Jamie Lee Curtis and Kelly Curtis by his first wife, actress Janet Leigh.