Filmmaker Cary Fukunaga doesn’t have a huge number of directorial gigs under his belt. However, over the course of his career, one thing has been certain—he’s not a director that likes to repeat himself. From the Spanish-language film, “Sin Nombre,” that marked his directorial debut to the period film,” Jane Eyre,” to the crime drama series, “True Detective,” and many more, Fukunaga isn’t one that finds himself working on similar projects back-to-back.
Continue reading Cary Fukunaga Would Like To Direct A Remake Of ‘Beau Geste’ at The Playlist.
Continue reading Cary Fukunaga Would Like To Direct A Remake Of ‘Beau Geste’ at The Playlist.
- 4/6/2020
- by Charles Barfield
- The Playlist
Frances Dee movies: From 'An American Tragedy' to 'Four Faces West' Frances Dee began her film career at the dawn of the sound era, going from extra to leading lady within a matter of months. Her rapid ascencion came about thanks to Maurice Chevalier, who got her as his romantic interested in Ludwig Berger's 1930 romantic comedy Playboy of Paris. Despite her dark(-haired) good looks and pleasant personality, Dee's Hollywood career never quite progressed to major – or even moderate – stardom. But she was to remain a busy leading lady for about 15 years. Tonight, Turner Classic Movies is showing seven Frances Dee films, ranging from heavy dramas to Westerns. Unfortunately missing is one of Dee's most curious efforts, the raunchy pre-Coder Blood Money, which possibly features her most unusual – and most effective – performance. Having said that, William A. Wellman's Love Is a Racket is a worthwhile subsitute, though the...
- 5/18/2017
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
This is a Cinderella story about a girl who could never quite shake off the soot from her heels. The girl who found her prince, made her way to the kingdom, but still couldn’t fit into her glass slipper—at least, not the way the old princess did, not like Rebecca.
It may seem like Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 murder mystery, Rebecca, is nothing more than a story about a jealous woman succumbing to her insecurities, but the truth is that Hitchcock wasn’t just a master of suspense—he was also the master of subtly injecting deeper layers of meaning into his movies. Yes, it’s true that the second Mrs. de Winter lets her obsession with her husband’s first spouse take over her life, but there’s something else at work here. It isn’t just envy that drives the second Mrs. de Winter mad, as in addition to her identity issues,...
It may seem like Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 murder mystery, Rebecca, is nothing more than a story about a jealous woman succumbing to her insecurities, but the truth is that Hitchcock wasn’t just a master of suspense—he was also the master of subtly injecting deeper layers of meaning into his movies. Yes, it’s true that the second Mrs. de Winter lets her obsession with her husband’s first spouse take over her life, but there’s something else at work here. It isn’t just envy that drives the second Mrs. de Winter mad, as in addition to her identity issues,...
- 6/2/2016
- by Kalyn Corrigan
- DailyDead
Val Lewton, Russian émigré turned horror master, was a reporter, pulp novelist and MGM publicity writer before moving into film. He spent the 1930s as David O. Selznick’s story editor, directing second unit work on A Tale of Two Cities (1935) and script doctoring Gone With the Wind (1939), warning Selznick it would be “the mistake of his life.” While not Hollywood’s most prescient man, Lewton’s professionalism earned Selznick’s respect, and their collaboration led to Rko offering Lewton a producing job in 1942.
Rko was reeling from Orson Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons, an expensive flop forcing a refocus on low budget films. Charles Koerner headed the studio’s B Unit, envisioning a horror series inspired by Universal Studio’s successful franchises. Where Universal culled from established literature (Dracula, Frankenstein), Rko worked from Koerner’s whim: he created a title and left the filmmakers to handle trivia like plot and characters.
Rko was reeling from Orson Welles’ The Magnificent Ambersons, an expensive flop forcing a refocus on low budget films. Charles Koerner headed the studio’s B Unit, envisioning a horror series inspired by Universal Studio’s successful franchises. Where Universal culled from established literature (Dracula, Frankenstein), Rko worked from Koerner’s whim: he created a title and left the filmmakers to handle trivia like plot and characters.
- 10/6/2015
- by Christopher Saunders
- SoundOnSight
Los Angeles, Calif. (October 2, 2015) – In 1915 William Fox founded Fox Film Corporation and forever changed the course of cinema. Over the next century the studio would develop some of the most innovative and ground-breaking advancements in the history of cinema; the introduction of Movietone, the implementation of color in partnership with Eastman Kodak, the development of the wide format in 70mm and many more. Now in honor of the 100th anniversary of the studio, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment will celebrate by releasing some of their most iconic films that represent a decade of innovation.
Starting today, five classic films from the studio will be made available digitally for the first time ever – Sunrise (1927), Drums Along the Mohawk (1939), Man Hunt (1941), How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) and The Flight of the Phoenix (1965). Throughout the rest of the year a total of 100 digital releases will follow from Fox’s extensive catalog, including 10 films...
Starting today, five classic films from the studio will be made available digitally for the first time ever – Sunrise (1927), Drums Along the Mohawk (1939), Man Hunt (1941), How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) and The Flight of the Phoenix (1965). Throughout the rest of the year a total of 100 digital releases will follow from Fox’s extensive catalog, including 10 films...
- 10/3/2015
- by ComicMix Staff
- Comicmix.com
Every week we dive into the cream of the crop when it comes to home releases, including Blu-ray and DVDs, as well as recommended deals of the week. Check out our rundown below and return every Tuesday for the best (or most interesting) films one can take home. Note that if you’re looking to support the site, every purchase you make through the links below helps us and is greatly appreciated.
Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson)
Wes Anderson’s leap through the animated realm was a key moment that shifted his filmic characterization toward metaphysical poignancy, thus making way for Moonrise Kingdom, an impressionistically stylized portrait of a pre-Vietnam adolescent bliss. It’s not just Pierret Le Fou for children, but a story about the recreation of storytelling, appropriating aesthetics from low and high arts to burn memories of innocent times as a protection against the fears of adulthood, portrayed here as a melancholic,...
Moonrise Kingdom (Wes Anderson)
Wes Anderson’s leap through the animated realm was a key moment that shifted his filmic characterization toward metaphysical poignancy, thus making way for Moonrise Kingdom, an impressionistically stylized portrait of a pre-Vietnam adolescent bliss. It’s not just Pierret Le Fou for children, but a story about the recreation of storytelling, appropriating aesthetics from low and high arts to burn memories of innocent times as a protection against the fears of adulthood, portrayed here as a melancholic,...
- 9/22/2015
- by TFS Staff
- The Film Stage
Teresa Wright in 'Shadow of a Doubt': Alfred Hitchcock heroine (image: Joseph Cotten about to strangle Teresa Wright in 'Shadow of a Doubt') (See preceding article: "Teresa Wright Movies: Actress Made Oscar History.") After scoring with The Little Foxes, Mrs. Miniver, and The Pride of the Yankees, Teresa Wright was loaned to Universal – once initial choices Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland became unavailable – to play the small-town heroine in Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt. (Check out video below: Teresa Wright reminiscing about the making of Shadow of a Doubt.) Co-written by Thornton Wilder, whose Our Town had provided Wright with her first chance on Broadway and who had suggested her to Hitchcock; Meet Me in St. Louis and Junior Miss author Sally Benson; and Hitchcock's wife, Alma Reville, Shadow of a Doubt was based on "Uncle Charlie," a story outline by Gordon McDonell – itself based on actual events.
- 3/7/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
She had a long and fruitful life, and sadly Joan Fontaine died on Sunday (December 15) at age 96 in her Carmel, California home.
The “Rebecca” actress was born to British parents in Tokyo, Japan on October 22nd, 1917 and moved to California in 1919 with her sister, actress Olivia de Havilland.
Funny enough, Joan once joked about her now-97-year-old sister- "I married first, won the Oscar before Olivia did, and if I die first, she’ll undoubtedly be livid because I beat her to it!”
In addition to her Hitchcock flick, Fontaine also starred in “Letter From an Unknown Woman,” “The Constant Nymph,” “Jane Eyre,” and “Ivy.”...
The “Rebecca” actress was born to British parents in Tokyo, Japan on October 22nd, 1917 and moved to California in 1919 with her sister, actress Olivia de Havilland.
Funny enough, Joan once joked about her now-97-year-old sister- "I married first, won the Oscar before Olivia did, and if I die first, she’ll undoubtedly be livid because I beat her to it!”
In addition to her Hitchcock flick, Fontaine also starred in “Letter From an Unknown Woman,” “The Constant Nymph,” “Jane Eyre,” and “Ivy.”...
- 12/16/2013
- GossipCenter
Joan Fontaine’s star burned brightly, but flickered out quickly. The Oscar-winner died Sunday at age 96, having enjoyed successful collaborations with such directors as Alfred Hitchcock and Max Ophuls during her 1940s’ heyday. For a decade, Fontaine was one of Hollywood’s most successful actresses, bringing sophistication and strength to such films as “Suspicion” and “Jane Eyre.” Yet, her film career did not endure into the 1960s, and after the collapse of the studio system she found herself relegated to television and stage work. Also read: Oscar-Winning Actress Joan Fontaine Dead at 96 Fontaine became equally famous for her tempestuous relationship with sister Olivia De Havilland,...
- 12/16/2013
- by Brent Lang
- The Wrap
I was already in love with movies before someone showed me Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca at the tender age of nineteen, but something about it opened up a whole new world of cinema to me. You’d think it was the film’s acclaimed director or the mastery with which he brought Daphne Du Maurier’s gothic novel to the screen, but no, I can’t claim anything as respectable as that. Instead, it was the smiling woman pictured above who helped ease my way into black & white cinema. Joan Fontaine earned an Academy Award nomination, the first of three, for her performance as the second Mrs. de Winter, and she went on to win the Best Actress Oscar for her very next film, Hitchcock’s Suspicion. (She’s the only actor, male or female, to have ever won an Academy Award for one of his films.) I watched both in rapid succession before devouring several more...
- 12/16/2013
- by Rob Hunter
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Joan Fontaine, who won the Best Actress Oscar for Alfred Hitchcock's 1941 classic Suspicion, has died in her California home at age 96. Fontaine began her film career playing attractive but nondescript characters until Hitchcock cast her as the female lead in his 1940 film version of the bestseller Rebecca opposite Laurence Olivier. The film earned her an Oscar nomination and elevated her to one of Hollywood's most in-demand actresses. In 1943 she received a third and final Oscar nomination for The Constant Nymph. Fontaine also won rave notices in the film version of the Gothic novel Jane Eyre, starring opposite Orson Welles. In both films she played an innocent woman whose husband is harboring a shocking secret that is unveiled within the walls of a stately but foreboding country manor. Fontaine's other major films include Ivanhoe, The Emperor Waltz, Kiss the Blood Off My Hands, This Above All, The Women, Gunga Din,...
- 12/16/2013
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
It has been a very sad weekend, as two of cinema's most revered talents have passed away. On Saturday, it was Peter O'Toole, and just a day later, Joan Fontaine has left us at the age of 96. While her big screen career was relatively brief—her last theatrical role was in the 1966 film "The Witches"—her impact was undeniable. In the span of three years, she was nominated for an Oscar three times, winning for Best Actress in Alfred Hitchcock's classic "Suspicion" (she was nominated in the same category for "Rebecca" in 1940 and "The Constant Nymph" in 1943). And in general, the 1940s found her doing some of her most memorable work including roles in Robert Stevenson's "Jane Eyre" opposite Orson Welles, Max Ophuls' "Letter From An Unknown Woman" and "Ivy." By the '60s, Fontaine had begun working more steadily in television and on stage, where she...
- 12/16/2013
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
Joan Fontaine
The iconic actress Joan Fontaine has died at the age of 95. Star of Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca, she went on to win an Oscar for her work in Suspicion, setting the standard for the director's many cool blondes. She also gave the screen a memorable Jane Eyre and appeared in the likes of Gunga Din and Letter From An Unknown Woman.
The sister of Olivia de Havilland, Fontaine began her career on the stage but was quickly signed by Rko and groomed for stardom, starring alongside Katharine Hepburn in Quality Street. Alongside her film career, she worked in television and became a successful radio star. She retired in 1994 to spend more time with the dogs she adored.
Fontaine died peacefully at her home in Carmel-by-the-sea, California. She is survived by a daughter from her second marriage, Deborah, and by an adopted daughter, Martita, from whom she had become estranged.
The iconic actress Joan Fontaine has died at the age of 95. Star of Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca, she went on to win an Oscar for her work in Suspicion, setting the standard for the director's many cool blondes. She also gave the screen a memorable Jane Eyre and appeared in the likes of Gunga Din and Letter From An Unknown Woman.
The sister of Olivia de Havilland, Fontaine began her career on the stage but was quickly signed by Rko and groomed for stardom, starring alongside Katharine Hepburn in Quality Street. Alongside her film career, she worked in television and became a successful radio star. She retired in 1994 to spend more time with the dogs she adored.
Fontaine died peacefully at her home in Carmel-by-the-sea, California. She is survived by a daughter from her second marriage, Deborah, and by an adopted daughter, Martita, from whom she had become estranged.
- 12/16/2013
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Joan Fontaine, the legendary Oscar-winning actress, died on Sunday at her home in Carmel, Calif. She was 96.
Joan Fontaine Dies
Fontaine rose to fame during Hollywood’s Golden Era in the 1930s and ‘40s, starting off in supporting roles before landing the lead in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca. The part earned the actress her first Academy Award nod. Her second time teaming up with Hitchcock, for 1941 film Suspicion in which she starred opposite Cary Grant, saw her take home the statuette for best actress in a leading role.
Following the pair of Hitchcock films, Fontaine’s career maintained its steam with The Constant Nymph, earning her third Oscar nomination. The actress went on to receive praise for her turns in the titular role in Jane Eyre (1944), Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), September Affair (1950), Ivanhoe (1952) and Island in the Sun (1957).
Throughout the ‘60s, Fontaine made a number of TV appearances and...
Joan Fontaine Dies
Fontaine rose to fame during Hollywood’s Golden Era in the 1930s and ‘40s, starting off in supporting roles before landing the lead in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca. The part earned the actress her first Academy Award nod. Her second time teaming up with Hitchcock, for 1941 film Suspicion in which she starred opposite Cary Grant, saw her take home the statuette for best actress in a leading role.
Following the pair of Hitchcock films, Fontaine’s career maintained its steam with The Constant Nymph, earning her third Oscar nomination. The actress went on to receive praise for her turns in the titular role in Jane Eyre (1944), Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), September Affair (1950), Ivanhoe (1952) and Island in the Sun (1957).
Throughout the ‘60s, Fontaine made a number of TV appearances and...
- 12/16/2013
- Uinterview
Washington, Dec. 16: Joan Fontaine, who won an Oscar for her role in Alfred Hitchcock-helmed 1940 film 'Suspicion', has passed away due to undisclosed reasons. She was 96.
According to People Magazine, the Hollywood star died on Sunday at her northern California house.
Apart from starring in another Hitchcock-helmed 1939 film 'Rebecca', the iconic actress' other well-known movies included 1943's 'The Constant Nymph', 1944's 'Jane Eyre' and 1952's 'Ivanhoe'. (Ani)...
According to People Magazine, the Hollywood star died on Sunday at her northern California house.
Apart from starring in another Hitchcock-helmed 1939 film 'Rebecca', the iconic actress' other well-known movies included 1943's 'The Constant Nymph', 1944's 'Jane Eyre' and 1952's 'Ivanhoe'. (Ani)...
- 12/16/2013
- by Machan Kumar
- RealBollywood.com
Oscar-winning actress Joan Fontaine has died, per the AP and multiple news reports. She was 97. Born Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland to British parents in Japan, Fontaine began her film career under contract with Rko in films like The Man Who Found Himself (1937), her official onscreen “introduction,” A Damsel in Distress (1937) opposite Fred Astaire, and George Cukor’s The Women (1939). A year after leaving Rko, Fontaine starred in the gothic thriller Rebecca as a woman haunted by her new husband’s (Laurence Olivier) dead wife. The film, Alfred Hitchcock‘s American debut, was nominated for 11 Oscars and won two including Best Picture. Fontaine earned her first Best Actress nod and reteamed with Hitch the following year for another domestic thriller, Suspicion, which won her the Academy Award over sister Olivia de Havilland, who was herself nominated for Hold Back The Dawn. Fontaine’s third Best Actress nomination was awarded for 1943′s The Constant Nymph.
- 12/16/2013
- by THE DEADLINE TEAM
- Deadline TV
Academy Award-winning actress Joan Fontaine, the leading lady known for her string of roles as demure, well-mannered and often well-bred heroines in the 1940s, and the younger sister of actress Olivia de Havilland, died today at her home in Carmel, California; she was 96.
Known best for her back-to-back roles in two Alfred Hitchcock thrillers -- the 1940 Best Picture winner Rebecca and the 1941 film Suspicion, for which she won a Best Actress Oscar, making her the ony actor in a Hitchcock film to receive an Academy Award -- she and her sister were enshrined in Hollywood lore as intense rivals, and their rivalry reached a peak of sorts when Fontaine beat de Havilland for the 1941 Best Actress Oscar.
Born Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland in 1917 in Tokyo, Japan, Fontaine suffered from recurring ailments throughout her childhood, resulting in her mother moving both her and Olivia to California. While her mother, stage actress Lillian Fontaine, desired for both her daughters to be actresses, it was only Olivia who initially pursued an acting career, as Fontaine returned to Japan for two years when she was 15 years old to live with her father, who divorced Lillian in 1919. Upon returning to the states, Fontaine found that Olivia was already becoming an established actress, and began to embark on her own career. Starting out in theater, Joan initially changed her name to Joan Burfield, then Joan Fontaine (so as to avoid confusion with her sister), and soon found herself in moderately noteworthy parts in such films as You Can't Beat Love (1937), A Damsel in Distress (1937, opposite Fred Astaire) and Gunga Din (1939, alongside Cary Grant, her future leading man in Suspicion). Though she garnered more notice in 1939 in the supporting part of naive newlywed Peggy Day in the classic comedy The Women, she was far eclipsed in fame and reputation by her sister, who had already starred along Errol Flynn in a number of romance adventures, and who received her first Oscar nomination for the blockbuster Gone With the Wind.
It was the same man who cast de Havilland in Gone With the Wind who would make Fontaine into a major star. Looking to follow up the monstrous success of Gone With the Wind with another noteworthy literary adapation, producer David O. Selnick snapped up the rights to the Daphne du Maurier bestseller Rebecca, in which an unnamed, demure heroine -- known only as "the second Mrs. de Winter" -- is taunted by the memory of her husband's first wife, the beautiful and seductive title character. Selznick brought director Alfred Hitchcock over for his first American production, cast matinee idol and rising star Laurence Olivier as moody, mysterious husband Maxim de Winter, and embarked on a Scarlett O'Hara-style talent search for his leading lady. Rejecting Loretta Young, Margaret Sullavan, Vivian Leigh (then Olivier's wife), and a then-unknown Anne Baxter along with hundreds of other actresses, Selznick decided on Fontaine, who though not an established star projected the right mix of beauty, insecurity, and tenacity needed for the part. Fontaine's insecurity, however, was heightened by Olivier's sometimes cruel treatment of her on set, as he had lobbied aggressively for Leigh to get the role, and Hitchcock capitalized on her inferiority complex to shape her performance. The resulting film, released in 1940, was an unqualified critical and financial success, catapulting Fontaine into the tier of top Hollywood leading ladies, establishing Hitchcock firmly in the United States, and nabbing the film 11 Academy Award nominations, includine ones for both Fontaine and Olivier; it would go on to win Best Picture.
Selznick, pleased with the combination of Hitchcock and Fontaine, signed the two on for a follow-up about a demure heiress who begins to suspect that her playboy husband is out to murder her for her money. Initially titled Before the Fact, it would later be retitled Suspicion, and Cary Grant was cast as the charming but caddish husband. Though the final ending of the film was tinkered with -- studio heads thought making Grant guilty would be bad for box office, and insisted on a twist to make him actually heroic -- it was another success, earning three Oscar nominations, including Fontaine's second Best Actress nod. It was at the 1941 Academy Awards that Fontaine, once considered the also-ran to her movie star sister, beat Olivia de Havilland for the Best Actress Oscar (de Havilland had been nominated for Hold Back the Dawn). In what became part of Hollywood and Academy Award legend, Fontaine coolly rejected her sister's efforts at congratulations, and What had always been a fractious relationship since childhood became officially estranged. Hollywood wags often reported that because de Havilland lost to her sister, she would retaliate by winning two Oscars -- in 1946 for To Each His Own and 1949 for The Heiress -- in order to top Fontaine. The two would officially stop speaking to one another in 1975.
Fontaine received a third Oscar nomination in 1943, for the music melodrama The Constant Nymph, and that same year essayed the title role in the commercially successful if moderately well-regarded version of Jane Eyre opposite Orson Welles. She remained a star throughout the 1940s, appearing in the comedy The Affairs of Susan (1945), the thriller Ivy (1947), and opposite Bing Crosby in The Emperor Waltz (1948). Fontaine also gave what many consider to be her best performance in 1948's Letters from an Unknown Woman, Max Ophuls' romantic drama opposite Louis Jourdan. In 1945 she divorced her first husband, actor Brian Aherne, and in 1946 married producer William Dozier, whom she would divorce in 1951. Two years later, she was embroiled in a bitter custody battle with him over their daughter, Debbie, and the ongoing lawsuit would prevent Fontaine from accepting the role of frustrated military wife Karen Holmes in the Oscar-winning drama From Here to Eternity -- Deborah Kerr was instead cast, and received an Oscar nomination for the part.
Though she continued to work throughout the 1950s, most notably in the lavish Technicolor adaptation of Ivanhoe (1952), Ida Lupino's film noir The Bigamist (1953), and in the pioneering if often campy racial drama Island in the Sun (1957), her work in both film and television lessened, and her last film appearance was in Hammer Films horror movie The Devil's Own (1966). Television work followed in the 1970s and 1980s, and Fontaine received a Daytime Emmy nomination for the soap opera Ryan's Hope. She published an autobiography, No Bed of Roses, in 1978, and after the television film Good King Wenceslas (1994), retired officially to her home in Carmel, California.
Fontaine is survived by her daughter, Debbie Dozier.
Known best for her back-to-back roles in two Alfred Hitchcock thrillers -- the 1940 Best Picture winner Rebecca and the 1941 film Suspicion, for which she won a Best Actress Oscar, making her the ony actor in a Hitchcock film to receive an Academy Award -- she and her sister were enshrined in Hollywood lore as intense rivals, and their rivalry reached a peak of sorts when Fontaine beat de Havilland for the 1941 Best Actress Oscar.
Born Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland in 1917 in Tokyo, Japan, Fontaine suffered from recurring ailments throughout her childhood, resulting in her mother moving both her and Olivia to California. While her mother, stage actress Lillian Fontaine, desired for both her daughters to be actresses, it was only Olivia who initially pursued an acting career, as Fontaine returned to Japan for two years when she was 15 years old to live with her father, who divorced Lillian in 1919. Upon returning to the states, Fontaine found that Olivia was already becoming an established actress, and began to embark on her own career. Starting out in theater, Joan initially changed her name to Joan Burfield, then Joan Fontaine (so as to avoid confusion with her sister), and soon found herself in moderately noteworthy parts in such films as You Can't Beat Love (1937), A Damsel in Distress (1937, opposite Fred Astaire) and Gunga Din (1939, alongside Cary Grant, her future leading man in Suspicion). Though she garnered more notice in 1939 in the supporting part of naive newlywed Peggy Day in the classic comedy The Women, she was far eclipsed in fame and reputation by her sister, who had already starred along Errol Flynn in a number of romance adventures, and who received her first Oscar nomination for the blockbuster Gone With the Wind.
It was the same man who cast de Havilland in Gone With the Wind who would make Fontaine into a major star. Looking to follow up the monstrous success of Gone With the Wind with another noteworthy literary adapation, producer David O. Selnick snapped up the rights to the Daphne du Maurier bestseller Rebecca, in which an unnamed, demure heroine -- known only as "the second Mrs. de Winter" -- is taunted by the memory of her husband's first wife, the beautiful and seductive title character. Selznick brought director Alfred Hitchcock over for his first American production, cast matinee idol and rising star Laurence Olivier as moody, mysterious husband Maxim de Winter, and embarked on a Scarlett O'Hara-style talent search for his leading lady. Rejecting Loretta Young, Margaret Sullavan, Vivian Leigh (then Olivier's wife), and a then-unknown Anne Baxter along with hundreds of other actresses, Selznick decided on Fontaine, who though not an established star projected the right mix of beauty, insecurity, and tenacity needed for the part. Fontaine's insecurity, however, was heightened by Olivier's sometimes cruel treatment of her on set, as he had lobbied aggressively for Leigh to get the role, and Hitchcock capitalized on her inferiority complex to shape her performance. The resulting film, released in 1940, was an unqualified critical and financial success, catapulting Fontaine into the tier of top Hollywood leading ladies, establishing Hitchcock firmly in the United States, and nabbing the film 11 Academy Award nominations, includine ones for both Fontaine and Olivier; it would go on to win Best Picture.
Selznick, pleased with the combination of Hitchcock and Fontaine, signed the two on for a follow-up about a demure heiress who begins to suspect that her playboy husband is out to murder her for her money. Initially titled Before the Fact, it would later be retitled Suspicion, and Cary Grant was cast as the charming but caddish husband. Though the final ending of the film was tinkered with -- studio heads thought making Grant guilty would be bad for box office, and insisted on a twist to make him actually heroic -- it was another success, earning three Oscar nominations, including Fontaine's second Best Actress nod. It was at the 1941 Academy Awards that Fontaine, once considered the also-ran to her movie star sister, beat Olivia de Havilland for the Best Actress Oscar (de Havilland had been nominated for Hold Back the Dawn). In what became part of Hollywood and Academy Award legend, Fontaine coolly rejected her sister's efforts at congratulations, and What had always been a fractious relationship since childhood became officially estranged. Hollywood wags often reported that because de Havilland lost to her sister, she would retaliate by winning two Oscars -- in 1946 for To Each His Own and 1949 for The Heiress -- in order to top Fontaine. The two would officially stop speaking to one another in 1975.
Fontaine received a third Oscar nomination in 1943, for the music melodrama The Constant Nymph, and that same year essayed the title role in the commercially successful if moderately well-regarded version of Jane Eyre opposite Orson Welles. She remained a star throughout the 1940s, appearing in the comedy The Affairs of Susan (1945), the thriller Ivy (1947), and opposite Bing Crosby in The Emperor Waltz (1948). Fontaine also gave what many consider to be her best performance in 1948's Letters from an Unknown Woman, Max Ophuls' romantic drama opposite Louis Jourdan. In 1945 she divorced her first husband, actor Brian Aherne, and in 1946 married producer William Dozier, whom she would divorce in 1951. Two years later, she was embroiled in a bitter custody battle with him over their daughter, Debbie, and the ongoing lawsuit would prevent Fontaine from accepting the role of frustrated military wife Karen Holmes in the Oscar-winning drama From Here to Eternity -- Deborah Kerr was instead cast, and received an Oscar nomination for the part.
Though she continued to work throughout the 1950s, most notably in the lavish Technicolor adaptation of Ivanhoe (1952), Ida Lupino's film noir The Bigamist (1953), and in the pioneering if often campy racial drama Island in the Sun (1957), her work in both film and television lessened, and her last film appearance was in Hammer Films horror movie The Devil's Own (1966). Television work followed in the 1970s and 1980s, and Fontaine received a Daytime Emmy nomination for the soap opera Ryan's Hope. She published an autobiography, No Bed of Roses, in 1978, and after the television film Good King Wenceslas (1994), retired officially to her home in Carmel, California.
Fontaine is survived by her daughter, Debbie Dozier.
- 12/16/2013
- by Mark Englehart
- IMDb News
Hollywood stalwart Joan Fontaine, best known for her roles in director Alfred Hitchcock's 1939 Rebecca and her Best Actress Oscar-winning role in his 1940 film Suspicion, died Sunday at her northern California home, according to several reports. She was 96. Details of her death were not immediately available. In addition to playing a mousey spouse in both the Hitchcock films, first alongside Laurence Olivier and then to Cary Grant, Fontaine's other well-known movies included 1943's The Constant Nymph, which got her a third Oscar nomination, 1944's Jane Eyre with Orson Welles, 1952's Ivanhoe with Robert Taylor, and 1957's controversial Island in the Sun with Harry Belafonte.
- 12/16/2013
- by Stephen M. Silverman
- PEOPLE.com
Legendary actress Joan Fontaine has died. She was 96. No details are immediately available.
Born in Japan to British parents in 1917, she and her sister Olivia de Havilland moved to California as toddlers and began working for Rko Pictures by 1935. Early roles include the likes of "Quality Street" and "The Women," "Gunga Din," "The Man Who Found Himself," and "Damsel in Distress".
Fontaine achieved stardom in the early 1940s when she scored an Oscar nomination for Alfred Hitchcock's Best Picture winner "Rebecca" (underrated and one of my personal favorite Hitchcocks).
The following year she went on to win the Oscar for "Suspicion," her second team-up with Hitchcock and the only actress to ever win for a Hitchcock film. Fontaine beat her sister that year at the Oscars, and a rejected attempt to congratulate her added to an already frictional relationship - the pair having not spoken since the 1970s. De Havilland currently lives in Paris.
Born in Japan to British parents in 1917, she and her sister Olivia de Havilland moved to California as toddlers and began working for Rko Pictures by 1935. Early roles include the likes of "Quality Street" and "The Women," "Gunga Din," "The Man Who Found Himself," and "Damsel in Distress".
Fontaine achieved stardom in the early 1940s when she scored an Oscar nomination for Alfred Hitchcock's Best Picture winner "Rebecca" (underrated and one of my personal favorite Hitchcocks).
The following year she went on to win the Oscar for "Suspicion," her second team-up with Hitchcock and the only actress to ever win for a Hitchcock film. Fontaine beat her sister that year at the Oscars, and a rejected attempt to congratulate her added to an already frictional relationship - the pair having not spoken since the 1970s. De Havilland currently lives in Paris.
- 12/16/2013
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
Joan Fontaine, the polished actress who achieved stardom in the early 1940s with memorable performances in the Alfred Hitchcock films Suspicion -- for which she earned the best actress Oscar over her bitter rival, sister Olivia de Havilland -- and Rebecca, has died. She was 96. The Hollywood Reporter awards analyst Scott Feinberg spoke with Fontaine's assistant, Susan Pfeiffer, who confirmed the actress' death of natural causes Sunday at her home in Carmel, Calif. Fontaine earned a third best actress Oscar nomination for her role in The Constant Nymph (1943). She also was notable as Charlotte Bronte's eponymous heroine in Jane Eyre
read more...
read more...
- 12/15/2013
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
If you've never seen The Bat before, then we can promise you're in for a treat. If you have seen the flick, we can also promise you've never seen it quite like this! Read on for details.
From the Press Release
Mystery, murder, and mayhem take flight in The Bat – restored and in HD for the first time ever – debuting on Turner Classic Movies October 24 and DVD November 12 from Film Chest Media Group. Featuring an all-star cast, this suspenseful cult favorite from 1959 will keep you on the edge of your seat!
In The Bat, mystery writer Cornelia van Gorder (Agnes Moorehead - TV’s "Bewitched"; Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte; Citizen Kane) resides in a town terrorized by a mysterious murderer known only as “The Bat,” said to be a man with no face who kills women at night by ripping out their throats with steel claws.
Breaking into Cornelia’s countryside home one night,...
From the Press Release
Mystery, murder, and mayhem take flight in The Bat – restored and in HD for the first time ever – debuting on Turner Classic Movies October 24 and DVD November 12 from Film Chest Media Group. Featuring an all-star cast, this suspenseful cult favorite from 1959 will keep you on the edge of your seat!
In The Bat, mystery writer Cornelia van Gorder (Agnes Moorehead - TV’s "Bewitched"; Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte; Citizen Kane) resides in a town terrorized by a mysterious murderer known only as “The Bat,” said to be a man with no face who kills women at night by ripping out their throats with steel claws.
Breaking into Cornelia’s countryside home one night,...
- 10/24/2013
- by Uncle Creepy
- DreadCentral.com
This kaleidoscopic compilation of soundtracks by Bernard Herrmann scored for film, television and radio presents a feature-length overview of this incredibly unique composer's wide-ranging and distinctive style. Working with directors such as Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock and Martin Scorsese, during a career that spanned over forty years, Herrmann created scores of such innovative and emotional magnitude that notions of sound and music in cinema have never been the same. The breadth and scope of Herrmann's ingenious composing, arranging and orchestrating talent is on full display here, from the use of the theremin in The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951), to the all-string "black & white" sound for Psycho (1960), and the whistled main title of The Twisted Nerve (1968). Despite a well-charted, stormy history of personal and professional battles, Herrmann could work effortlessly in many musical idioms, seemingly without pause, whether it be within the Romanticism of Jane Eyre (1943) and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir...
- 10/22/2013
- by Paul Clipson
- MUBI
It’s well known that Prohibition was an epic failure in terms of deterring the consumption of alcohol, but it did succeed at making the 1920s and early 1930s a very exciting period of American history. Not since the Wild West era of the mid-1800s has America seen such lawlessness, hence the title of director John Hillcoat‘s new film Lawless. The story of the Bondurant brothers takes place during Prohibition in Franklin County, Virginia. Notoriously known as the “wettest county,” this rural mountain region is a central hub of illegal bootlegging. Everyone seems to be making moonshine, but no one seems to do it as well, or with as much disregard for the authorities and outside influences as the legendary Bondurant brothers.
John Hillcoat has established a reputation for atmospheric, impressive dramatic films that fall short of receiving the exposure nor the appreciation they truly deserve. Hillcoat’s...
John Hillcoat has established a reputation for atmospheric, impressive dramatic films that fall short of receiving the exposure nor the appreciation they truly deserve. Hillcoat’s...
- 8/29/2012
- by Travis Keune
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
2012 Oscars: Photos from the Show (111 images so far) | Live Blog | Oscar History The season has finally come to an end. The 2012 Oscars have come to a close and things went pretty much as expected with a few hitches in the technical awards and what some may look at as a surprise win for Meryl Streep for Best Actress over Viola Davis, but even if you had Davis there (as I did) you most likely had Streep as your number two so you weren't exactly blown away. Getting the expected out of the way, The Artist took home a total of five Oscars including Best Picture, Director (Michel Hazanavicius), Actor (Jean Dujardin), Original Score (Ludovic Bource) and Costumes (Mark Bridges), the latter of which is really the only "surprise" win. I had The Artist winning five Oscars but instead of Costumes, I expected that fifth Oscar to come for Film Editing,...
- 2/27/2012
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Yes, this one I know was directed by Hitchcock.
And Oh God, they're remaking it!
Rebecca is my favorite Hitchcock film. And the novel upon which it is based, Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (she also wrote the short story that would become The Birds) is one of the best gothic romance thrillers ever written. Right up there with Jane Eyre. I'm serious!
The 1940 Best Picture Oscar-winning film is absolutely beautiful in ever way (sure, the first 30 minutes are a bit slow, but once Laurence Olivier starts talking about how hot his ex-wife Rebecca was and the evil maid Mrs. Danvers starts lamenting her untimely death, it gets good).
Steven Knight (he wrote Eastern Promises, which is a good sign) is currently writing the script for DreamWorks. That's as far as it's gotten, but I'm a little put out.
I guess part of me is desperately afraid they're going to cast,...
And Oh God, they're remaking it!
Rebecca is my favorite Hitchcock film. And the novel upon which it is based, Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (she also wrote the short story that would become The Birds) is one of the best gothic romance thrillers ever written. Right up there with Jane Eyre. I'm serious!
The 1940 Best Picture Oscar-winning film is absolutely beautiful in ever way (sure, the first 30 minutes are a bit slow, but once Laurence Olivier starts talking about how hot his ex-wife Rebecca was and the evil maid Mrs. Danvers starts lamenting her untimely death, it gets good).
Steven Knight (he wrote Eastern Promises, which is a good sign) is currently writing the script for DreamWorks. That's as far as it's gotten, but I'm a little put out.
I guess part of me is desperately afraid they're going to cast,...
- 2/10/2012
- by Superheidi
- Planet Fury
The Oscar statue awarded to Orson Welles in 1941 Best Screenplay for "Citizen Kane" has sold at auction for $861,542 in Los Angeles Tuesday (Dec. 20). Auctioneer Nate D. Sanders says in a statement:
"This is a testament to the popularity of Orson Welles and his magnum opus 'Citizen Kane.' I'm proud to have represented this fantastic award to the cinema collecting community. Welles received this award for best original screenplay, which was, incredibly, the only Oscar that either 'Citizen Kane' or Orson Welles received."
That is rather astounding, as "Citizen Kane" is largely regarded as one of the best, if not the best, movie of all time. It was also nominated for Best Picture and Best Director and Actor for Welles, but lost to "How Green Was My Valley" for the first two and Gary Cooper in "Sergeant York" for the latter.
Welles also starred in, wrote or directed (among others) "The Third Man,...
"This is a testament to the popularity of Orson Welles and his magnum opus 'Citizen Kane.' I'm proud to have represented this fantastic award to the cinema collecting community. Welles received this award for best original screenplay, which was, incredibly, the only Oscar that either 'Citizen Kane' or Orson Welles received."
That is rather astounding, as "Citizen Kane" is largely regarded as one of the best, if not the best, movie of all time. It was also nominated for Best Picture and Best Director and Actor for Welles, but lost to "How Green Was My Valley" for the first two and Gary Cooper in "Sergeant York" for the latter.
Welles also starred in, wrote or directed (among others) "The Third Man,...
- 12/21/2011
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Pop2it
The BFI restoration team has given new life to The First Born, a silent film co-written by Hitchcock's wife, Alma Reville
Why don't we know more about our own silent film history? Is it a lack of interest or a lack of pride? Last month it was announced that a few reels of film by respected British director Graham Cutts had been found in an archive in New Zealand. But while the story was reported widely, it was as a "lost Hitchcock" discovery. It's true that Hitchcock worked on The White Shadow (1923) as a young man, but by overstating his influence we risk casting his peers into oblivion.
The Archive Gala strand of the London film festival was conceived for just such a purpose: to give the floor to some forgotten figures from our cinematic history, while recognising the work of the BFI restoration team. Two years ago, it was...
Why don't we know more about our own silent film history? Is it a lack of interest or a lack of pride? Last month it was announced that a few reels of film by respected British director Graham Cutts had been found in an archive in New Zealand. But while the story was reported widely, it was as a "lost Hitchcock" discovery. It's true that Hitchcock worked on The White Shadow (1923) as a young man, but by overstating his influence we risk casting his peers into oblivion.
The Archive Gala strand of the London film festival was conceived for just such a purpose: to give the floor to some forgotten figures from our cinematic history, while recognising the work of the BFI restoration team. Two years ago, it was...
- 9/22/2011
- by Pamela Hutchinson
- The Guardian - Film News
Does China have the chops to take on the panda?
The big story
The Us and China are going to war. And Kung Fu Panda struck the first blow. Not content with whispers about cyber attacks, squabbles over currency values and set-tos at environmental summits, the two global powers are widening their conflict to the more violent field of animated film.
China, after decades of using panda gifts as tools of diplomacy, appears to have been caught out by the approach of one of the sex-shy shoot-munchers travelling in the opposite direction. Hollywood's Kung Fu Panda hit the box office hard in China three years ago and now its sequel has arrived with another onslaught on its mind.
Beijing is about to strike back in the form of Legend of a Rabbit, featuring a belligerent bunny with, coincidentally, a ruthless panda for a foe. But that is unlikely to be...
The big story
The Us and China are going to war. And Kung Fu Panda struck the first blow. Not content with whispers about cyber attacks, squabbles over currency values and set-tos at environmental summits, the two global powers are widening their conflict to the more violent field of animated film.
China, after decades of using panda gifts as tools of diplomacy, appears to have been caught out by the approach of one of the sex-shy shoot-munchers travelling in the opposite direction. Hollywood's Kung Fu Panda hit the box office hard in China three years ago and now its sequel has arrived with another onslaught on its mind.
Beijing is about to strike back in the form of Legend of a Rabbit, featuring a belligerent bunny with, coincidentally, a ruthless panda for a foe. But that is unlikely to be...
- 6/2/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
It didn't get much more beautiful than Elizabeth Taylor in her heyday. The pall cast by the loss of the Hollywood icon—really too soon, at only 79—definitely shadowed the rest of the week, as we came to the conclusion that Taylor's brand of glamour is of a bygone era that doesn't look to be reappearing anytime soon, now that so many celebs only care whether they're #winning or not. And, sometimes, when they think they might be fighting a losing battle, they rip off their shirts and throw chairs at windows. End Of An Era: Elizabeth Taylor (1932-2011) was one of the last great stars from a golden age that ended long ago. From playing an ill-fated orphan in Jane Eyre to voicing the...
- 3/26/2011
- E! Online
Sad news comes out of Hollywood today. Elizabeth Taylor a screen legend and icon died early this morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles where she had been being treated for congestive heart failure for approximately six weeks was the statement issued by publicist Sally Morrison. Elizabeth Taylor was 79.
Remembering Elizabeth Taylor 1932 - 2011
As infamous off screen as she was famous on screen, this film legend won two Oscars for the films Butterfield 8 and Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf? She gave ground breaking performances in films like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Suddenly, Last Summer. She also won the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Oscar for her humanitarian efforts. She was the epitome of the classic old Hollywood movie star and her loss signals the true end of an era.
Elizabeth Taylor was one of the last classic Hollywood era movie stars.
Her career spanned a phenomenal...
Remembering Elizabeth Taylor 1932 - 2011
As infamous off screen as she was famous on screen, this film legend won two Oscars for the films Butterfield 8 and Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf? She gave ground breaking performances in films like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Suddenly, Last Summer. She also won the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Oscar for her humanitarian efforts. She was the epitome of the classic old Hollywood movie star and her loss signals the true end of an era.
Elizabeth Taylor was one of the last classic Hollywood era movie stars.
Her career spanned a phenomenal...
- 3/23/2011
- Cinelinx
One of the greatest actresses to ever grace the silver screens has passed away today. Liz Taylor, the English-American actress, 79, was born on February 27th, 1932. The American Film Institute named her seventh on its Female Legends List.
She's been a film star her whole life, starring in the films such as Lassie Come Home (1943), and Jane Eyre (1943). The movie that jump started her career was National Velvet which grossed $4 million (impressive at the time in 1944) and got her a long-term contract. As an adult, she starred in such hits like, Father of the Bride (1950) and A Place in the Sun (1951).
She's been a film star her whole life, starring in the films such as Lassie Come Home (1943), and Jane Eyre (1943). The movie that jump started her career was National Velvet which grossed $4 million (impressive at the time in 1944) and got her a long-term contract. As an adult, she starred in such hits like, Father of the Bride (1950) and A Place in the Sun (1951).
- 3/23/2011
- by Get The Big Picture
- GetTheBigPicture.net
Elizabeth Taylor, one of the last great screen legends and winner of two Academy Awards, died Wednesday morning in Los Angeles of complications from congestive heart failure; she was 79. The actress had been hospitalized for the past few weeks, celebrating her birthday on February 27th (the same day as this year's Academy Awards) while at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center with friends and family. Her four children, two sons and two daughters, were by her side as she passed.
A striking brunette beauty with violet eyes who embodied both innocence and seductiveness, and was known for her flamboyant private life and numerous marriages as well as her acting career, Taylor was the epitome of Hollywood glamour, and was one of the last legendary stars who could still command headlines and standing ovations in her later years. Born to American parents in England in 1932, Taylor's family decamped to Los Angeles as World War II escalated in the late 1930s. Even as a child, her amazing good looks -- her eyes were amplified by a double set of eyelashes, a mutation she was born with -- garnered the attention of family friends in Hollywood, and she undertook a screen test at 10 years old with Universal Studios. She appeared in only one film for the studio (There's One Born Every Minute) before they dropped her; Taylor was quickly picked up by MGM, the studio that would make her a young star.
Her second film was Lassie Come Home (1943), co-starring Roddy McDowall, who would become a lifelong friend. She assayed a few other roles (including a noteworthy cameo in 1943's Jane Eyre) but campaigned for the part that would make her a bona fide child star: the young Velvet Brown, who trained a champion racehorse to win the Grand National, in National Velvet. The box office smash launched Taylor's career, and MGM immediately put her to work in a number of juvenile roles, most notably in Life With Father (1947) and as Amy in 1949's Little Women. As she blossomed into a young woman, she began to outgrow the roles she was assigned, often playing women far older than her actual age. She scored another hit alongside Spencer Tracy as the young daughter preparing for marriage in Father of the Bride (1950), but her career officially entered adulthood with George Stevens' A Place in the Sun (1951), as a seductive rich girl who bedazzles Montgomery Clift to the degree that he kills his pregnant girlfriend (Shelley Winters). The film was hailed as an instant classic, and Taylor's performance, still considered one of her best, launched the next part of her career.
Frustrated by MGM's insistence at putting her in period pieces (some were hits notwithstanding, including 1952's Ivanhoe), Taylor looked to expand her career, and took on the lead role in Elephant Walk (1954) when Vivian Leigh dropped out after suffering a nervous breakdown. As her career climbed in the 1950s, so did Taylor's celebrity: she married hotel heir Conrad "Nicky" Hilton Jr. in 1950, and divorced him within a year. She then married British actor Michael Wilding in 1952, with whom she had two sons, though that marriage ended in divorce in 1957, after she embarked on an affair with the man who would be her next husband, producer Michael Todd (who won an Oscar for Around the World in 80 Days). As her personal life made headlines, she appeared alongside James Dean and Rock Hudson in Giant (1956), and received her first Academy Award nomination for Raintree County in 1957. Roles in two Tennessee Williams adaptations followed -- Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) and Suddenly Last Summer (1959), both considered two of her best performances -- earning her two more Oscar nominations, just as tragedy and notoriety would strike her life.
Todd, whom she married in 1957 and had a daughter with, died in a plane crash in 1958 in New Mexico, leaving a bereft Taylor alone at the height of her stardom. Adored by millions, she went from lovely widow to heartless home-wrecker in the tabloids after starting an affair with Eddie Fisher, Todd's best friend and at the time husband of screen darling Debbie Reynolds. The relationship was splashed across newspapers as Fisher left Reynolds and their two children (including a young Carrie Fisher) for Taylor. The two appeared together in 1960's Butterfield 8, where Taylor played prostitute Gloria Wandrous in a performance that was considered good but nowhere near her previous films, and earned her another Oscar nomination. As the Academy Awards ceremony approached, Taylor was thrust into the headlines again when a life-threatening case of pneumonia required an emergency tracheotomy, leaving her with a legendary scar on her neck. Popular opinion swung yet again as newspapers and fans feared for her life, and the illness was credited with helping her win her first Oscar for Butterfield 8.
Taylor was now the biggest female star in the world, in terms of film and popularity, and her notoriety was only about to increase. Twentieth Century Fox, making a small biopic about the Egyptian queen Cleopatra, tried to offer Taylor the part; she laughed them off, saying she would do it for $1 million, a then-unheard of sum for an actress. The studio took her seriously, and soon she was signed to a million-dollar contract (the first for an actress) and a movie that would soon balloon out of control as filming started. Initially set to film in England with Peter Finch and Rex Harrison as Marc Antony and Julius Caesar, the movie encountered numerous problems and after a first shutdown was moved to Italy, with director Joseph L. Manckiewicz at the helm. Finch left and was replaced by acclaimed stage actor and rising movie star Richard Burton.
The rest was cinematic and tabloid history, as Taylor and Burton, whose electric chemistry was apparent to all on set, embarked on quite possibly the most famous Hollywood affair ever, while the filming of the epic movie took on gargantuan proportions and its budget increased exponentially. After the dust settled, Fox was saddled with a three-hour-plus film that, despite starring the two actors whose every move was hounded by photographers and reporters, was considered a bomb. The 1963 film almost sunk the studio (which only rebounded thanks to the megahit The Sound of Music two years later), while Burton and Taylor emerged from the wreckage relatively unscathed and ultimately married in 1964.
However, despite carte blanche to do whatever they wanted, the newly married couple made two marginally successful films, The V.I.P.s (1963) and The Sandpiper (1965), both glossy soap operas that made money but hardly challenged their talents. That opportunity would come with Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), the adaptation of the Edward Albee play directed by first-time filmmaker Mike Nichols. As the beleaguered professor George and his shrewish wife Martha, whose mind games played havoc one fateful night with a younger faculty couple (George Segal and Sandy Dennis), the two gave perhaps their best screen performances ever, tearing into the roles -- and each other -- with a gusto never seen in their previous pairings. They both received Oscar nominations, but only Taylor won, her second and final Academy Award.
A successful adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew (1967) followed, but the couple's next films were a string of notorious bombs, including Doctor Faustus, The Comedians, and the so-bad-it's-good Boom. Though still one of Hollywood's biggest stars, Taylor's cinematic output in the 1970s became somewhat dismal, as her fraying marriage with Burton took center stage in the press, as did her weight gain after Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The couple divorced in June 1974, only to remarry briefly in October 1975; by then, Taylor was more celebrity than movie star, still appearing occasionally onscreen and in television, but to less acclaim.
Taylor married U.S. Senator John Warner at the end of 1976, and during the late 1970s and 1980s played the politician's wife, and her unsatisfying life led her to depression, drinking, overeating and ultimately a visit to the Betty Ford Center. After TV and stage appearances during the 1980s (including a reunion in 1983 with Burton for a production of Private Lives), Taylor found another, surprising role, that of social activist as longtime friend Rock Hudson died of complications from AIDS in 1985. She threw herself into fund-raising work, raising by some accounts $50 million to fight the disease, helping found the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AMFAR).
Though later generations only saw Taylor on television in films like Malice in Wonderland, and the mini-series North and South, and in her final screen appearance as the mother of Wilma in the live-action movie adaptation of The Flintstones, she remained a tabloid fixture through her marriage to construction worker Larry Fortensky (her eighth and final husband), her friendship with singer Michael Jackson, and her continual charity work, which was only sidelined by hospital visits after being diagnosed with congestive heart failure in 2004. She is survived by four children -- two sons with Michael Wilding, a daughter with Michael Todd, and another daughter adopted with Richard Burton -- and nine grandchildren.
--Mark Englehart...
A striking brunette beauty with violet eyes who embodied both innocence and seductiveness, and was known for her flamboyant private life and numerous marriages as well as her acting career, Taylor was the epitome of Hollywood glamour, and was one of the last legendary stars who could still command headlines and standing ovations in her later years. Born to American parents in England in 1932, Taylor's family decamped to Los Angeles as World War II escalated in the late 1930s. Even as a child, her amazing good looks -- her eyes were amplified by a double set of eyelashes, a mutation she was born with -- garnered the attention of family friends in Hollywood, and she undertook a screen test at 10 years old with Universal Studios. She appeared in only one film for the studio (There's One Born Every Minute) before they dropped her; Taylor was quickly picked up by MGM, the studio that would make her a young star.
Her second film was Lassie Come Home (1943), co-starring Roddy McDowall, who would become a lifelong friend. She assayed a few other roles (including a noteworthy cameo in 1943's Jane Eyre) but campaigned for the part that would make her a bona fide child star: the young Velvet Brown, who trained a champion racehorse to win the Grand National, in National Velvet. The box office smash launched Taylor's career, and MGM immediately put her to work in a number of juvenile roles, most notably in Life With Father (1947) and as Amy in 1949's Little Women. As she blossomed into a young woman, she began to outgrow the roles she was assigned, often playing women far older than her actual age. She scored another hit alongside Spencer Tracy as the young daughter preparing for marriage in Father of the Bride (1950), but her career officially entered adulthood with George Stevens' A Place in the Sun (1951), as a seductive rich girl who bedazzles Montgomery Clift to the degree that he kills his pregnant girlfriend (Shelley Winters). The film was hailed as an instant classic, and Taylor's performance, still considered one of her best, launched the next part of her career.
Frustrated by MGM's insistence at putting her in period pieces (some were hits notwithstanding, including 1952's Ivanhoe), Taylor looked to expand her career, and took on the lead role in Elephant Walk (1954) when Vivian Leigh dropped out after suffering a nervous breakdown. As her career climbed in the 1950s, so did Taylor's celebrity: she married hotel heir Conrad "Nicky" Hilton Jr. in 1950, and divorced him within a year. She then married British actor Michael Wilding in 1952, with whom she had two sons, though that marriage ended in divorce in 1957, after she embarked on an affair with the man who would be her next husband, producer Michael Todd (who won an Oscar for Around the World in 80 Days). As her personal life made headlines, she appeared alongside James Dean and Rock Hudson in Giant (1956), and received her first Academy Award nomination for Raintree County in 1957. Roles in two Tennessee Williams adaptations followed -- Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) and Suddenly Last Summer (1959), both considered two of her best performances -- earning her two more Oscar nominations, just as tragedy and notoriety would strike her life.
Todd, whom she married in 1957 and had a daughter with, died in a plane crash in 1958 in New Mexico, leaving a bereft Taylor alone at the height of her stardom. Adored by millions, she went from lovely widow to heartless home-wrecker in the tabloids after starting an affair with Eddie Fisher, Todd's best friend and at the time husband of screen darling Debbie Reynolds. The relationship was splashed across newspapers as Fisher left Reynolds and their two children (including a young Carrie Fisher) for Taylor. The two appeared together in 1960's Butterfield 8, where Taylor played prostitute Gloria Wandrous in a performance that was considered good but nowhere near her previous films, and earned her another Oscar nomination. As the Academy Awards ceremony approached, Taylor was thrust into the headlines again when a life-threatening case of pneumonia required an emergency tracheotomy, leaving her with a legendary scar on her neck. Popular opinion swung yet again as newspapers and fans feared for her life, and the illness was credited with helping her win her first Oscar for Butterfield 8.
Taylor was now the biggest female star in the world, in terms of film and popularity, and her notoriety was only about to increase. Twentieth Century Fox, making a small biopic about the Egyptian queen Cleopatra, tried to offer Taylor the part; she laughed them off, saying she would do it for $1 million, a then-unheard of sum for an actress. The studio took her seriously, and soon she was signed to a million-dollar contract (the first for an actress) and a movie that would soon balloon out of control as filming started. Initially set to film in England with Peter Finch and Rex Harrison as Marc Antony and Julius Caesar, the movie encountered numerous problems and after a first shutdown was moved to Italy, with director Joseph L. Manckiewicz at the helm. Finch left and was replaced by acclaimed stage actor and rising movie star Richard Burton.
The rest was cinematic and tabloid history, as Taylor and Burton, whose electric chemistry was apparent to all on set, embarked on quite possibly the most famous Hollywood affair ever, while the filming of the epic movie took on gargantuan proportions and its budget increased exponentially. After the dust settled, Fox was saddled with a three-hour-plus film that, despite starring the two actors whose every move was hounded by photographers and reporters, was considered a bomb. The 1963 film almost sunk the studio (which only rebounded thanks to the megahit The Sound of Music two years later), while Burton and Taylor emerged from the wreckage relatively unscathed and ultimately married in 1964.
However, despite carte blanche to do whatever they wanted, the newly married couple made two marginally successful films, The V.I.P.s (1963) and The Sandpiper (1965), both glossy soap operas that made money but hardly challenged their talents. That opportunity would come with Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), the adaptation of the Edward Albee play directed by first-time filmmaker Mike Nichols. As the beleaguered professor George and his shrewish wife Martha, whose mind games played havoc one fateful night with a younger faculty couple (George Segal and Sandy Dennis), the two gave perhaps their best screen performances ever, tearing into the roles -- and each other -- with a gusto never seen in their previous pairings. They both received Oscar nominations, but only Taylor won, her second and final Academy Award.
A successful adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew (1967) followed, but the couple's next films were a string of notorious bombs, including Doctor Faustus, The Comedians, and the so-bad-it's-good Boom. Though still one of Hollywood's biggest stars, Taylor's cinematic output in the 1970s became somewhat dismal, as her fraying marriage with Burton took center stage in the press, as did her weight gain after Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? The couple divorced in June 1974, only to remarry briefly in October 1975; by then, Taylor was more celebrity than movie star, still appearing occasionally onscreen and in television, but to less acclaim.
Taylor married U.S. Senator John Warner at the end of 1976, and during the late 1970s and 1980s played the politician's wife, and her unsatisfying life led her to depression, drinking, overeating and ultimately a visit to the Betty Ford Center. After TV and stage appearances during the 1980s (including a reunion in 1983 with Burton for a production of Private Lives), Taylor found another, surprising role, that of social activist as longtime friend Rock Hudson died of complications from AIDS in 1985. She threw herself into fund-raising work, raising by some accounts $50 million to fight the disease, helping found the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AMFAR).
Though later generations only saw Taylor on television in films like Malice in Wonderland, and the mini-series North and South, and in her final screen appearance as the mother of Wilma in the live-action movie adaptation of The Flintstones, she remained a tabloid fixture through her marriage to construction worker Larry Fortensky (her eighth and final husband), her friendship with singer Michael Jackson, and her continual charity work, which was only sidelined by hospital visits after being diagnosed with congestive heart failure in 2004. She is survived by four children -- two sons with Michael Wilding, a daughter with Michael Todd, and another daughter adopted with Richard Burton -- and nine grandchildren.
--Mark Englehart...
- 3/23/2011
- IMDb News
Oscar winner was one of the screen's great beauties and object of tabloid fascination.
By Gil Kaufman
Elizabeth Taylor in 1957
Photo: Hulton Archive/ Getty Images
One of Hollywood's most legendary beauties, Elizabeth Taylor, died on Wednesday (March 23) at the age of 79 after spending two months in a Los Angeles hospital for treatment of congestive heart failure. One of the brightest stars in the history of the American movie business, Taylor starred in a string of hit movies in the 1950s and 60s, including "Giant," "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and "Cleopatra," while becoming an international sex symbol and object of tabloid fascination for her string of love affairs with leading men.
Photos from the life and career of Elizabeth Taylor.
In addition to being a fashion icon, perfume mogul and movie legend, later in life Taylor also became one of the leading advocates for victims of AIDS, raising millions...
By Gil Kaufman
Elizabeth Taylor in 1957
Photo: Hulton Archive/ Getty Images
One of Hollywood's most legendary beauties, Elizabeth Taylor, died on Wednesday (March 23) at the age of 79 after spending two months in a Los Angeles hospital for treatment of congestive heart failure. One of the brightest stars in the history of the American movie business, Taylor starred in a string of hit movies in the 1950s and 60s, including "Giant," "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and "Cleopatra," while becoming an international sex symbol and object of tabloid fascination for her string of love affairs with leading men.
Photos from the life and career of Elizabeth Taylor.
In addition to being a fashion icon, perfume mogul and movie legend, later in life Taylor also became one of the leading advocates for victims of AIDS, raising millions...
- 3/23/2011
- MTV Music News
1942: There's One Born Every Minute - her first movie, aged nine.1943: Lassie Come Home - she played Priscilla.1943: Jane Eyre - minor role, film starring Orson Welles. 1944: The White Cliffs of Dover - with young Roddy McDowall1944: National Velvet - horseriding movie, starring Mickey Rooney.1946: Courage of Lassie - second dog film, aged 14.1951: A Place in the Sun - with Montgomery Clift.1951: Quo Vadis - with Peter Ustinov.1954: Beau Brummell - with Ustinov again.1958: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - with Paul Newman.1959: Suddenly, Last Summer - with Katherine Hepburn.1960: Butterfield 8 - best actress Oscar.1963: ...
- 3/23/2011
- Hindustan Times - Cinema
1942: There's One Born Every Minute - her first movie, aged nine.1943: Lassie Come Home - she played Priscilla.1943: Jane Eyre - minor role, film starring Orson Welles. 1944: The White Cliffs of Dover - with young Roddy McDowall1944: National Velvet - horseriding movie, starring Mickey Rooney.1946: Courage of Lassie - second dog film, aged 14.1951: A Place in the Sun - with Montgomery Clift.1951: Quo Vadis - with Peter Ustinov.1954: Beau Brummell - with Ustinov again.1958: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - with Paul Newman.1959: Suddenly, Last Summer - with Katherine Hepburn.1960: Butterfield 8 - best actress Oscar.1963: ...
- 3/23/2011
- Hindustan Times - Cinema
1942: There's One Born Every Minute - her first movie, aged nine.1943: Lassie Come Home - she played Priscilla.1943: Jane Eyre - minor role, film starring Orson Welles. 1944: The White Cliffs of Dover - with young Roddy McDowall1944: National Velvet - horseriding movie, starring Mickey Rooney.1946: Courage of Lassie - second dog film, aged 14.1951: A Place in the Sun - with Montgomery Clift.1951: Quo Vadis - with Peter Ustinov.1954: Beau Brummell - with Ustinov again.1958: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - with Paul Newman.1959: Suddenly, Last Summer - with Katherine Hepburn.1960: Butterfield 8 - best actress Oscar.1963: ...
- 3/23/2011
- Hindustan Times - Cinema
1942: There's One Born Every Minute - her first movie, aged nine.1943: Lassie Come Home - she played Priscilla.1943: Jane Eyre - minor role, film starring Orson Welles. 1944: The White Cliffs of Dover - with young Roddy McDowall1944: National Velvet - horseriding movie, starring Mickey Rooney.1946: Courage of Lassie - second dog film, aged 14.1951: A Place in the Sun - with Montgomery Clift.1951: Quo Vadis - with Peter Ustinov.1954: Beau Brummell - with Ustinov again.1958: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - with Paul Newman.1959: Suddenly, Last Summer - with Katherine Hepburn.1960: Butterfield 8 - best actress Oscar.1963: ...
- 3/23/2011
- Hindustan Times - Cinema
1942: There's One Born Every Minute - her first movie, aged nine.1943: Lassie Come Home - she played Priscilla.1943: Jane Eyre - minor role, film starring Orson Welles. 1944: The White Cliffs of Dover - with young Roddy McDowall1944: National Velvet - horseriding movie, starring Mickey Rooney.1946: Courage of Lassie - second dog film, aged 14.1951: A Place in the Sun - with Montgomery Clift.1951: Quo Vadis - with Peter Ustinov.1954: Beau Brummell - with Ustinov again.1958: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - with Paul Newman.1959: Suddenly, Last Summer - with Katherine Hepburn.1960: Butterfield 8 - best actress Oscar.1963: ...
- 3/23/2011
- Hindustan Times - Cinema
1942: There's One Born Every Minute - her first movie, aged nine.1943: Lassie Come Home - she played Priscilla.1943: Jane Eyre - minor role, film starring Orson Welles. 1944: The White Cliffs of Dover - with young Roddy McDowall1944: National Velvet - horseriding movie, starring Mickey Rooney.1946: Courage of Lassie - second dog film, aged 14.1951: A Place in the Sun - with Montgomery Clift.1951: Quo Vadis - with Peter Ustinov.1954: Beau Brummell - with Ustinov again.1958: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - with Paul Newman.1959: Suddenly, Last Summer - with Katherine Hepburn.1960: Butterfield 8 - best actress Oscar.1963: ...
- 3/23/2011
- Hindustan Times - Cinema
1942: There's One Born Every Minute - her first movie, aged nine.1943: Lassie Come Home - she played Priscilla.1943: Jane Eyre - minor role, film starring Orson Welles. 1944: The White Cliffs of Dover - with young Roddy McDowall1944: National Velvet - horseriding movie, starring Mickey Rooney.1946: Courage of Lassie - second dog film, aged 14.1951: A Place in the Sun - with Montgomery Clift.1951: Quo Vadis - with Peter Ustinov.1954: Beau Brummell - with Ustinov again.1958: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - with Paul Newman.1959: Suddenly, Last Summer - with Katherine Hepburn.1960: Butterfield 8 - best actress Oscar.1963: ...
- 3/23/2011
- Hindustan Times - Cinema
1942: There's One Born Every Minute - her first movie, aged nine.1943: Lassie Come Home - she played Priscilla.1943: Jane Eyre - minor role, film starring Orson Welles. 1944: The White Cliffs of Dover - with young Roddy McDowall1944: National Velvet - horseriding movie, starring Mickey Rooney.1946: Courage of Lassie - second dog film, aged 14.1951: A Place in the Sun - with Montgomery Clift.1951: Quo Vadis - with Peter Ustinov.1954: Beau Brummell - with Ustinov again.1958: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - with Paul Newman.1959: Suddenly, Last Summer - with Katherine Hepburn.1960: Butterfield 8 - best actress Oscar.1963: ...
- 3/23/2011
- Hindustan Times - Cinema
1942: There's One Born Every Minute - her first movie, aged nine.1943: Lassie Come Home - she played Priscilla.1943: Jane Eyre - minor role, film starring Orson Welles. 1944: The White Cliffs of Dover - with young Roddy McDowall1944: National Velvet - horseriding movie, starring Mickey Rooney.1946: Courage of Lassie - second dog film, aged 14.1951: A Place in the Sun - with Montgomery Clift.1951: Quo Vadis - with Peter Ustinov.1954: Beau Brummell - with Ustinov again.1958: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - with Paul Newman.1959: Suddenly, Last Summer - with Katherine Hepburn.1960: Butterfield 8 - best actress Oscar.1963: ...
- 3/23/2011
- Hindustan Times - Cinema
1942: There's One Born Every Minute - her first movie, aged nine.1943: Lassie Come Home - she played Priscilla.1943: Jane Eyre - minor role, film starring Orson Welles. 1944: The White Cliffs of Dover - with young Roddy McDowall1944: National Velvet - horseriding movie, starring Mickey Rooney.1946: Courage of Lassie - second dog film, aged 14.1951: A Place in the Sun - with Montgomery Clift.1951: Quo Vadis - with Peter Ustinov.1954: Beau Brummell - with Ustinov again.1958: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - with Paul Newman.1959: Suddenly, Last Summer - with Katherine Hepburn.1960: Butterfield 8 - best actress Oscar.1963: ...
- 3/23/2011
- Hindustan Times - Cinema
1942: There's One Born Every Minute - her first movie, aged nine.1943: Lassie Come Home - she played Priscilla.1943: Jane Eyre - minor role, film starring Orson Welles. 1944: The White Cliffs of Dover - with young Roddy McDowall1944: National Velvet - horseriding movie, starring Mickey Rooney.1946: Courage of Lassie - second dog film, aged 14.1951: A Place in the Sun - with Montgomery Clift.1951: Quo Vadis - with Peter Ustinov.1954: Beau Brummell - with Ustinov again.1958: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - with Paul Newman.1959: Suddenly, Last Summer - with Katherine Hepburn.1960: Butterfield 8 - best actress Oscar.1963: ...
- 3/23/2011
- Hindustan Times - Cinema
1942: There's One Born Every Minute - her first movie, aged nine.1943: Lassie Come Home - she played Priscilla.1943: Jane Eyre - minor role, film starring Orson Welles. 1944: The White Cliffs of Dover - with young Roddy McDowall1944: National Velvet - horseriding movie, starring Mickey Rooney.1946: Courage of Lassie - second dog film, aged 14.1951: A Place in the Sun - with Montgomery Clift.1951: Quo Vadis - with Peter Ustinov.1954: Beau Brummell - with Ustinov again.1958: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - with Paul Newman.1959: Suddenly, Last Summer - with Katherine Hepburn.1960: Butterfield 8 - best actress Oscar.1963: ...
- 3/23/2011
- Hindustan Times - Cinema
1942: There's One Born Every Minute - her first movie, aged nine.1943: Lassie Come Home - she played Priscilla.1943: Jane Eyre - minor role, film starring Orson Welles. 1944: The White Cliffs of Dover - with young Roddy McDowall1944: National Velvet - horseriding movie, starring Mickey Rooney.1946: Courage of Lassie - second dog film, aged 14.1951: A Place in the Sun - with Montgomery Clift.1951: Quo Vadis - with Peter Ustinov.1954: Beau Brummell - with Ustinov again.1958: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - with Paul Newman.1959: Suddenly, Last Summer - with Katherine Hepburn.1960: Butterfield 8 - best actress Oscar.1963: ...
- 3/23/2011
- Hindustan Times - Cinema
1942: There's One Born Every Minute - her first movie, aged nine.1943: Lassie Come Home - she played Priscilla.1943: Jane Eyre - minor role, film starring Orson Welles. 1944: The White Cliffs of Dover - with young Roddy McDowall1944: National Velvet - horseriding movie, starring Mickey Rooney.1946: Courage of Lassie - second dog film, aged 14.1951: A Place in the Sun - with Montgomery Clift.1951: Quo Vadis - with Peter Ustinov.1954: Beau Brummell - with Ustinov again.1958: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - with Paul Newman.1959: Suddenly, Last Summer - with Katherine Hepburn.1960: Butterfield 8 - best actress Oscar.1963: ...
- 3/23/2011
- Hindustan Times - Cinema
1942: There's One Born Every Minute - her first movie, aged nine.1943: Lassie Come Home - she played Priscilla.1943: Jane Eyre - minor role, film starring Orson Welles. 1944: The White Cliffs of Dover - with young Roddy McDowall1944: National Velvet - horseriding movie, starring Mickey Rooney.1946: Courage of Lassie - second dog film, aged 14.1951: A Place in the Sun - with Montgomery Clift.1951: Quo Vadis - with Peter Ustinov.1954: Beau Brummell - with Ustinov again.1958: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - with Paul Newman.1959: Suddenly, Last Summer - with Katherine Hepburn.1960: Butterfield 8 - best actress Oscar.1963: ...
- 3/23/2011
- Hindustan Times - Cinema
1942: There's One Born Every Minute - her first movie, aged nine.1943: Lassie Come Home - she played Priscilla.1943: Jane Eyre - minor role, film starring Orson Welles. 1944: The White Cliffs of Dover - with young Roddy McDowall1944: National Velvet - horseriding movie, starring Mickey Rooney.1946: Courage of Lassie - second dog film, aged 14.1951: A Place in the Sun - with Montgomery Clift.1951: Quo Vadis - with Peter Ustinov.1954: Beau Brummell - with Ustinov again.1958: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - with Paul Newman.1959: Suddenly, Last Summer - with Katherine Hepburn.1960: Butterfield 8 - best actress Oscar.1963: ...
- 3/23/2011
- Hindustan Times - Cinema
Hollywood Icon Elizabeth Taylor has died of congestive heart failure on Wednesday in Los Angeles of at the age of 79, reports Variety. The actress was born Feb. 27, 1932, in London to American parents and later returned to the U.S., settling in Los Angeles, where her father operated Beverly Hills Hotel art gallery. Her first movie was There's One Born Every Minute from Universal back in 1942. Later, after signing on at MGM, she appeared in Lassie Come Home in 1043 and then followed that with films like Jane Eyre, White Cliffs of Dover, National Velvet, Ivanhoe, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Cleopatra and many more...
- 3/23/2011
- Upcoming-Movies.com
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.