publié le 24/03/2011 à 10h03

Biographie de Elizabeth Taylor - Né(e) le : 27/02/1932 - Hampstead, Royaume-Uni  - Date de décès : 23/03/2011 Actrice

L'actrice aux yeux violets était une des grandes stars d'Hollywood. Deux fois oscarisée, elle restera une inoubliable Cléopâtre. Elizabeth Taylor est morte à l'âge de 79 ans à Los Angeles le 23 mars 2011.

L'actrice anglo-américaine Elizabeth Taylor, l'une des dernières grandes légendes du cinéma, est décédée à l'âge de 79 ans, a annoncé mercredi la chaîne de télévision américaine ABC News. Une information confirmée peu après par son agent. L'illustre actrice est morte à l'hôpital Cedars-Sinaï de Los Angeles entourée de ses quatre enfants. Elle avait été hospitalisée il y a six semaines à la suite d'une insuffisance cardiaque, a précisé son agent.

Une vie tumultueuse au service du cinéma, Elizabeth Taylor était un des monstres sacrés d'Hollywood. Mariée huit fois, son histoire d'amour avec Richard Burton s'inscrit dans la légende. Mais Liz Taylor était aussi une femme de conviction et de combats qui a beaucoup œuvré pour la lutte contre le sida.
 
Elizabeth Taylor est née à Hampstead, dans la banlieue de Londres, de parents américains et originaires d'Arkansas City dans l'Etat du Kansas. A l'aube de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, ses parents décident de retourner vivre aux États-Unis. Ils s'installent à Los Angeles en Californie. La jeune Elizabeth fait la connaissance de la capitale du cinéma et très vite sa mère la présente aux studios d'Hollywood. A l'âge de dix ans, elle débute au cinéma dans le film There's One Born Every Minute. Après une apparition en 1943 dans Fidèle Lassie, elle obtient le premier rôle dans National Velvet aux côtés de Mickey Rooney. Malgré le succès du film, l'enfant-star continue ses études. Elle obtient son diplôme d'études secondaires et suit les cours de l'école dramatique de l'Actors Studio. En 1951 elle tourne Une place au soleil de George Steven avec Montgomery Clift, avec qui elle entretiendra une relation amoureuse platonique jusqu'à la mort de l'acteur.

De l'Actors Studio à Cléopâtre

Elle renoue avec Hollywood en 1952, dans Le Père de la mariée avec Spencer Tracy. La même année, elle tient le rôle principal dans un film d'aventures médiévales Ivanhoé au  coté de Robert Taylor. En 1956, elle joue dans Géant, une fresque texane, avec James Dean et Rick Hudson pour partenaires.
 
Mais ce sont deux films tirés de pièces à succès de Tennessee Williams La chatte sur un toit brûlant avec Paul Newman (1956) et Soudain l'été dernier (1957) de Joseph Mankiewicz qui révèlent son talent exceptionnel et sa sensualité explosive. Sa performance d'actrice lui confère un statut de star internationale. Hollywood la consacre meilleure actrice en 1960 pour son rôle dans Vénus au vison. Six ans plus tard, elle décroche une seconde statuette pour son interprétation dans Qui a peur de Virginia Woolf ?, où elle campe Martha une terrifiante mégère face à Richard Burton. Pour ce rôle, Liz prend quinze kilos et se vieillit de vingt ans.
 
En 1963, elle ravive  le mythe antique de Cléopâtre dans le film éponyme.  Elle devient alors l'actrice la mieux payée d'Hollywood, ayant obtenu pour ce rôle un cachet d'un million de dollars. Le duo qu'elle forme avec Richard Burton emporte la ferveur du public. Avec l'acteur elle enchaîne les films et les succès : Hôtel international, Le Chevalier des sables de Vincente Minnelli, La mégère apprivoisée de Franco Zeffirelli, sans oublier Qui a peur de Virginia Woolf ?.  
 
A partir des années 1970, en raison de problèmes de santé, l'actrice se fait plus rare au cinéma. En 1980, elle donne la réplique à Kim Novak dans Le miroir se brisa, une adaptation du roman d'Agatha Christie.
 
Richard Burton, l'homme de sa vie
 
Femme fatale, Liz Taylor aura connu la gloire et le succès auprès des hommes. Il y a en effet de quoi se perdre dans le décompte de ses aventures amoureuses. Elle s'est mariée huit fois. Elle quitte son premier mari, une idylle de jeunesse pour épouser l'acteur Michael Wilding avec qui elle aura deux enfants, avant de connaître le coup de foudre pour Mike Todd, un producteur de cinéma, en 1957.  Il se tue dans un accident d'avion alors qu'elle tourne La chatte sur un toit brûlant. Elle s'attire les foudres de la presse en s'entichant d'Eddie Fisher, meilleur ami de Mike Todd mais surtout époux de l'actrice Debbie Reynolds. Faisant fi des critiques, elle l'épouse en 1959.
 
Elle défraie de nouveau la chronique sur le tournage de Cléopâtre où sa rencontre avec l'acteur britannique Richard Burton se transforme en passion absolue. Mariés tous les deux, leur liaison est un tel scandale que le film manque d'être interrompu. Le couple est harcelé par les paparazzi. Ils vivront une histoire d'amour  destructrice et charnelle qui se terminera en 1976, par un divorce après leur deuxième mariage.  
 
Lorsqu'Elizabeth Taylor n'est pas sous les projecteurs, elle consacre son temps à la collecte de fonds pour la lutte contre le Sida. Elle a par ailleurs aidé au lancement de l'American Foundation for AIDS Research, après la mort de son ami et partenaire de cinéma, Rock Hudson. On estime qu'en 1999, elle a contribué à la collecte de 50 millions de dollars pour financer la recherche contre la maladie. Elle a été honorée de plusieurs récompenses pour ses activités caritatives. Par ailleurs, en 1999, elle a été titrée commandeur de l'Ordre de l'Empire britannique par la reine Élisabeth II. En 2002, alors âgée de 70 ans, elle a été désignée plus belle femme du monde par le quotidien britannique The Sunday Express.

Depuis le début des années 80, elle résidait à Bel Air en Californie où habitait l'un de ses meilleurs amis Michael Jackson. Elle était d'ailleurs la marraine des deux enfants de la pop-star décédée, Paris Jackson et Prince Michael Jackson I. Ces dernières années, Elizabeth Taylor s'était peu à peu retirée de la vie publique après une opération au cerveau en 1997. A 78 ans, elle avait fait de nouveau la une des magazines américains en avril 2010, après que la presse a fait écho d'un neuvième mariage avec son compagnon Jason Winters de presque trente ans son cadet.

Richard Burton, né Richard Walter Jenkins le 10 novembre 1925 à Pontrhydyfen (Pays de Galles, Royaume-Uni) et mort le 5 août 1984 à Céligny (Suisse) à 58 ans, est un acteur gallois. De son vrai nom Richard Walter Jenkins, Richard Burton naît le 10 novembre 1925 dans le village de Pontrhydyfen, près de Port Talbot, au pays de Galles. Il est le douzième des treize enfants de Richard Walter Jenkins (1876-1957) et Edith Thomas (1883-1927).

Il grandit dans une communauté de mineurs de confession presbytérienne, où le gallois est la langue d'usage. La mère de Richard Burton meurt des suites d'une fièvre puerpérale après avoir donné le jour à Graham (1927). C'est alors sa sœur aînée, Cecilia, qui prend soin de lui et l'élève avec son mari, Elfed James. Toute sa vie, Richard Burton restera très proche de son deuxième frère aîné, Ifor Jenkins (1906-1972), dont la mort le laissera désemparé et le fera plonger dans son addiction à l'alcool.

Très tôt, Richard se révèle très bon élève et se passionne pour la poésie et l'écriture. Mais à l'âge de seize ans, il est forcé d'arrêter l'école et de trouver un travail. Son ancien professeur, Philip Burton (1904-1995), qui reconnaît son talent et l'encourage à perdre son accent gallois, l'adopte légalement et lui permet de retourner étudier. Richard prend alors son nom et devient Richard Burton. En 1943, il est autorisé à entrer pour six mois au Collège d'Exeter, au sein de la prestigieuse Université d'Oxford, parce qu'il appartient à la Royal Air Force.

En 1952, Richard Burton devient célèbre pour son rôle dans Ma cousine Rachel, de Henry Koster, qui lui vaudra une nomination aux Oscars. En 1954, il débute à la radio en tant que narrateur de Under milk wood, de Dylan Thomas (1914-1953), son poète favori et son ami. Il reprendra ce rôle au cinéma vingt ans plus tard. C'est au cours du tournage de Cléopâtre que Richard va rencontrer Elizabeth Taylor, avec laquelle il va entretenir une liaison plus qu'orageuse et très médiatisée. À bord d'un vol le ramenant du Mexique en Californie, Richard Burton est assis à côté d'un jeune homme travaillant dans le marketing, mais très intéressé par le métier d'acteur. Il lui conseille alors de tout abandonner et de se consacrer uniquement au cinéma s'il veut réussir dans cette voie. Le jeune homme en question est Kevin Costner.

Alors qu'il allait s'envoler le lendemain pour Berlin pour commencer le tournage du film Les Oies sauvages, Richard Burton décède subitement d'une hémorragie cérébrale le 5 août 1984 à Céligny (canton de Genève), où il est enterré au vieux cimetière à côté de l'écrivain Alistair MacLean. Insomniaque, alcoolique notoire et coureur de jupons invétéré, Richard Burton se marie cinq fois, dont à deux reprises avec Elizabeth Taylor :

Le 5 février 1949, il épouse Sybil Williams (née le 27 mars 1929), dont il a deux filles :

• Kate Burton, née le 10 septembre 1957, actrice ;
• Jessica Burton, née en 1960, handicapée, elle est autiste.

Le 5 décembre 1963, il divorce afin de pouvoir épouser sa maîtresse Elizabeth Taylor le 15 mars 1964. Ensemble, ils adoptent une fille, Maria, née en Allemagne en 1961. Après un premier divorce prononcé le 26 juin 1974, Richard et Elizabeth se remarient le 10 octobre 1975 et divorcent à nouveau le 1er août 1976. Ils auront une relation tumultueuse marquée par les coups et blessures, et par l'alcool ; De 1976 à 1982, Richard est marié à Susan Millar Hunt, modèle et épouse en premières noces de James Hunt (1947-1993), pilote de Formule 1 et champion du Monde en 1976. Le mariage se solde également par un divorce. Le 3 juillet 1983, Richard épouse Sally Hay (née le 21 janvier 1948), qui partage sa vie jusqu'à sa mort et est sa veuve.

Filmographie

• 1949 : The Last Days of Dolwyn (The Last Days of Dolwyn) d'Emlyn Williams
• 1949 : Now Barabbas (Now Barabbas was a Robber) de Gordon Parry
• 1950 : La Femme sans nom (The Woman with No Name) de Ladislao Vajda
• 1950 : Waterfront (Waterfront) de Michael Anderson
• 1951 : Green grow the rushes (Green Grow the Rushes) de Derek Twist
• 1952 : Ma cousine Rachel (My Cousin Rachel) de Henry Koster
• 1953 : Les Rats du désert (The Desert Rats) de Robert Wise
• 1953 : La Tunique (The Robe) de Henry Koster
• 1955 : La Mousson (The Rains of Ranchipur) de Jean Negulesco
• 1955 : Prince of players (Prince of Players) de Philip Dunne
• 1956 : Alexandre le Grand (Alexander the great) de Robert Rossen
• 1957 : Amère Victoire (Bitter Victory) de Nicholas Ray
• 1957 : L'Épouse de la mer (Sea Wife) de Bob McNaught
• 1959 : Les Corps sauvages (Look Back in Anger) de Tony Richardson
• 1959 : Le Songe d'une nuit d'été (Sen noci svatojánské) de Jiří Trnka
• 1960 : Le Buisson ardent (The Bramble Bush) de Daniel Petrie
• 1960 : Les Aventuriers (Ice Palace) de Vincent Sherman
• 1962 : Le Jour le plus long (The Longest Day) de Ken Annakin
• 1963 : Cléopâtre (Cleopatra) de Joseph L. Mankiewicz
• 1963 : Hôtel International (The VIPs) d'Anthony Asquith
• 1964 : Zoulou (Zulu) de Cy Endfield
• 1964 : Becket de Peter Glenville
• 1964 : La Nuit de l'iguane (The Night of the Iguana) de John Huston
• 1964 : Hamlet de Bill Colleran et John Gielgud
• 1965 : Le Chevalier des sables (The Sandpiper) de Vincente Minnelli
• 1965 : L'espion qui venait du froid (The Spy who came in from the Cold) de Martin Ritt
• 1965 : Quoi de neuf, Pussycat ? (What's new, Pussycat ?) de Clive Donner
• 1966 : Qui a peur de Virginia Woolf ? (Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf ?) de Mike Nichols
• 1967 : Les Comédiens (The Comedians) de Peter Glenville
• 1967 : Doctor Faustus (Doctor Faustus) de Nevill Coghill et Richard Burton
• 1967 : La Mégère apprivoisée (The Taming of the Shrew) de Franco Zeffirelli
• 1968 : Boom ! (Boom) de Joseph Losey
• 1968 : Candy (Candy) de Christian Marquand
• 1968 : Quand les aigles attaquent (Where Eagles Dare) de Brian G. Hutton
• 1969 : Anne des mille jours (Anne of the Thousand Days) de Charles Jarrott
• 1969 : L'Escalier (Staircase) de Stanley Donen
• 1971 : Le Cinquième Commando (Raid on Rommel) de Henry Hathaway
• 1971 : Salaud (Villain) de Michael Tuchner
• 1972 : Under Milk Wood (Under Milk Wood) d'Andrew Sinclair
• 1972 : L'Assassinat de Trotsky (The Assassination of Trotsky) de Joseph Losey
• 1972 : Barbe-Bleue (Bluebeard) d'Edward Dmytryk
• 1972 : Hammersmith Is Out de Peter Ustinov
• 1973 : La Cinquième Offensive (Sutjeska) de Stipe Delic
• 1973 : SS Représailles (Massacre in Rome) de George P. Cosmatos
• 1974 : L'Homme du clan (The Klansman) de Terence Young
• 1974 : Le Voyage (Il Viaggio) de Vittorio De Sica
• 1977 : L'Exorciste 2 : L'Hérétique (Exorcist II : The Heretic) de John Boorman
• 1977 : Equus (Equus) de Sidney Lumet
• 1978 : Absolution (en) (Absolution) d'Anthony Page
• 1978 : La Percée d'Avranches (Sergeant Steiner) d'Andrew V. McLaglen
• 1978 : La Grande Menace (The Medusa Touch) de Jack Gold
• 1978 : Les Oies sauvages (The Wild Geese) d'Andrew V. McLaglen
• 1980 : Circle of two (Circle of Two) de Jules Dassin
• 1981 : Lovespell (Lovespell) de Tim Donovan
• 1983 : Wagner (Wagner) de Tony Palmer
• 1984 : 1984 (1984) de Michael Radford
• 1984 : Ellis Island, les portes de l'espoir (Ellis Island) de Jerry London

Théâtre

• 1943 : Druid's Rest d'Emlyn Williams
• 1944 : Mesure for Mesure de Nevill Coghill
• 1948 : Castle Anna de Daphne Rye
• 1949 : The Lady’s not for Burning de John Gielgud
• 1950 : The Boy With a Cart de John Gielgud
• 1950 : A Phoenix too Frequent de Christopher Fry
• 1950 : The Lady’s not for Burning de John Gielgud
• 1951 : Henry IV d'Anthony Quayle
• 1951 : Henry V d'Anthony Quayle
• 1951 : The Tempest de Michael Benthall
• 1951 : Legend of Lovers de Peter Ashmore
• 1952 : Montserrat de Michael Benthall
• 1953 : Hamlet de Michael Benthall
• 1953 : Coriolanus de Michael Benthall
• 1953 : Hamlet de Michael Benthall
• 1953 : King John de George Devine
• 1953 : The Tampest de Robert Helpmann
• 1953 : Twelfth Night de Michael Benthall
• 1955 : Henry V de Michael Benthall
• 1956 : Othello de Denis Carey
• 1957 : Time Remembered d'Albert Marre
• 1960 : Camelot de Moss Hart
• 1964 : Hamlet de John Gielgud
• 1966 : Doctor Faustus de Nevill Coghill
• 1970 : Equus de John Dexter
• 1980 : Camelot de Frank Dunlop
• 1983 : Private Lives de Milton Katselas

published 09/12/1990 at 10:55 PM by Dave Lesher

Actress - Born Feb. 27, 1910 in Palisades, NJ - Died Dec. 7, 1990 of heart attack in Scarsdale, NY

Joan Bennett's 50-year career included more than 75 film roles including sweet, young blonds and sinister and vampy schemers.

A star of film, stage and television, her acting career began in 1928 and spanned some of Hollywood's most glamorous years. Her film credits include the 1933 classic "Little Women," in which she played one of the sisters of actress Katharine Hepburn.

In 1950, she also played a nurturing mother in Vincente Minnelli's comedy, "Father of the Bride." Bennett starred opposite Elizabeth Taylor and Spencer Tracy in Minnelli's 1951 comedy "Father's Little Dividend."

"I loved working with Spence and Liz," Bennett once told an interviewer. But she frequently dismissed her celebrity status and said her family was her life's most fulfilling role.

Bennett, who married her first of four husbands at age 16, once said of her children: "When they were still little, it was in my movie contract that I had to be home from work in time to bathe and feed and put them to bed."

"I don't think much of most of the films I made," she said in 1986. "But being a movie star was something I liked very much."

Bennett's marriages and home life were frequently the fodder for Hollywood gossip sheets. She never liked such attention and once sent Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper a live, de-scented skunk.

But in 1951, Bennett's third marriage made headlines when her husband, film producer Walter Wanger, shot Bennett's Hollywood agent twice in the groin. Bennett witnessed the afternoon shooting in a Los Angeles parking lot.

Wanger later told police, "I shot him because I thought he was breaking up my home." But Bennett said Wanger was distraught over finances and denied any romantic relationship with the agent, Jennings Lang.

Wanger, father of two of Bennett's daughters, served a four-month prison sentence for the shooting.

— Dave Lesher in the Los Angeles Times Dec. 9, 1990

published 09/12/1990 at 11:07 PM by Dave Lesher

Actress Joan Bennett, whose 50-year career included more than 75 film roles ranging from sweet, young blondes to sinister and vampy schemers, has died at her home in Scarsdale, N.Y. She was 80.

Bennett's daughter, Shelley Wanger, said the actress died of a heart attack while having dinner. She was declared dead on arrival at White Plains Hospital Friday evening.

A star of film, stage and television, her acting career began in 1928 and spanned some of Hollywood's most glamorous years. Her film credits include the 1933 classic "Little Women," in which she played one of the sisters of actress Katharine Hepburn.

In 1950, she also played a nurturing mother in Vincente Minnelli's comedy, "Father of the Bride." Bennett starred opposite Elizabeth Taylor and Spencer Tracy in Minnelli's 1951 comedy "Father's Little Dividend."

"I loved working with Spence and Liz," Bennett once told an interviewer. But she frequently dismissed her celebrity status and said her family was her life's most fulfilling role.

Bennett, who married her first of four husbands at age 16, once said of her children: "When they were still little, it was in my movie contract that I had to be home from work in time to bathe and feed and put them to bed."

"I don't think much of most of the films I made," she said in 1986. "But being a movie star was something I liked very much."

Bennett was born to an acting family in Palisades, N.J., as the daughter of Richard Bennett, one of the nation's top stage performers during the first three decades of the century. Joan Bennett's acting debut was with her father in a 1928 Broadway play called "Jarnegan." She was 16.

Soon after the play she was signed for films, following her two older sisters to Hollywood. Bennett was 18 when she was chosen by representatives of Samuel Goldwyn to play her first movie role in "Bulldog Drummond" opposite actor Ronald Coleman.

She was later to work on stage with one of her four daughters, Melinda, in the play "Susan and God."

Bennett's early roles tended to be bland, blonde innocent characters until 1939, when the script for "Trade Winds" required her to wear a brunette wig. After the change in hair color she was soon portraying a new type of character, like the Cockney tart in "Man Hunt," an artist's model in "Woman in the Window" and a scheming woman in "Scarlet Street."

Her sinister and sometimes vampy characters led one critic to refer to her as a "noir priestess."

Bennett's marriages and home life were frequently the fodder for Hollywood gossip sheets. She never liked such attention and once sent Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper a live, de-scented skunk.

But in 1951, Bennett's third marriage made headlines when her husband, film producer Walter Wanger, shot Bennett's Hollywood agent twice in the groin. Bennett witnessed the afternoon shooting in a Los Angeles parking lot.

Wanger later told police, "I shot him because I thought he was breaking up my home." But Bennett said Wanger was distraught over finances and denied any romantic relationship with the agent, Jennings Lang.

Wanger, father of two of Bennett's daughters, served a four-month prison sentence for the shooting.

Bennett's first husband was John Marion Fox, scion of a wealthy Seattle family. They were married when she was 16 and had one child before they divorced three years later. In 1932 she married Gene Markey, a writer. They also had one child and were divorced in 1937. Wanger and Bennett were married in 1940.

From 1966 to 1971, Bennett starred in the television soap opera, "Dark Shadows." She also authored two books, "The Bennett Playbill" and, in the 1950s, "How to Be Attractive."

Bennett's film credits also include "For Heaven's Sake," "Desire in the Dust," "Mississippi Gambler," "Moby Dick," "She Wanted a Millionaire," "The Texans, "The Man in The Iron Mask," "Girl Trouble," "We're No Angels," "Navy Wife" and "House of Dark Shadows."

Bennett appeared on stage in "Stage Door," "Pleasure of His Company," "Fallen Angels" and "Butterflies Are Free."

In 1978, she acted in the TV movie "Suddenly Love," followed by "A House Possessed" in 1980 and "Divorce Wars" in 1981.

The actress is survived by her husband, David Wilde, and four daughters, Diana Anderson of Los Angeles; Melinda Bena of Chappaqua, N.Y.; Stephanie Guest of Manhattan, and Shelley Wanger of New York.

She will be cremated and buried in Old Lyme, Conn. No date has been set, Wilde said.

published 31/08/1982 at 11:21 PM by Patt Morrison

Actress - Born Aug. 29, 1915 in Stockholm, Sweden - Died Aug. 29, 1982 of cancer in London, United Kingdom

Ingrid Bergman, the unaffected Swedish girl whose film roles enchanted two generations, won three Academy Awards during her career.

The commitment Bergman showed to her craft never waned, from her first part as an extra in a 1933 Swedish film, where she earned $1, to her final performance, as Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, in the 1981 television production “A Woman Called Golda.”

Bergman came to Hollywood in 1939 as an unknown Swedish ingenue – producer David O. Selznick caller her his “healthy Swedish cow.” At 5 feet 8 inches, big-boned and blue-eyed, she was a strapping woman who refused to conform to Hollywood image-making. She wore the same dress to the Academy Awards ceremony two years running.

In her first nine years in Hollywood, she made 14 movies. Married, with a small daughter, she tried to live as privately as possible, but her work enthralled the public. When she cropped her hair to play Maria in “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” thousands of women rushed out for haircuts.

She eventually made 44 movies, countless stage appearances and two television roles in her 48 years in show business, in a career spanning two continents and five languages.

Her Academy Award-winning films followed the evolution of her professional and personal maturity—from “Gaslight,” in 1944 to, as a tormented Victorian wife, to “Anastasia,” in 1956, where she played an amnesiac Russian grand duchess who comes into her own, to “Murder on the Orient Express” in 1974, where she portrayed an aging and insular Swedish missionary.

In 1948, at the peak of her career, she faced what at the time was called “the scandal of the century.” Although married to Swedish doctor Petter Lindstrom and with a young daughter, Pia, Bergman fell in love with Italian director Roberto Rossellini and became pregnant with his child.

It was a scandal of unimaginable proportions, in an era when stars, even in married roles, were clad in pajamas and consigned to twin beds.

After her son with Rossellini was born out of wedlock, the condemnation reached a crescendo. On the floor of the U.S. Senate, Colorado Sen. Edwin C. Johnson called Bergman “brazen” and demanded that she be banned for “moral turpitude.” A movie mogul visited Bergman in Italy and suggested she could return to Hollywood if she gave up Rossellini, put her son in an orphanage and apologize to Americans on the radio.

By 1958, Rossellini and Bergman, who married after her divorce from Lindstrom, had split and fought bitterly over custody of their son and twin daughters.

— Patt Morrison in the Los Angeles Times Aug. 31, 1982

Samuel Goldwyn, né Schmuel Gelbfisz, était un producteur américain d'origine polonaise né le 17 août 1879 à Varsovie (Pologne), décédé le 31 janvier 1974 à Los Angeles (Californie). Sous le nom de Samuel Goldfish, il créa la Goldwyn Pictures Corporation en 1916 en partenariat avec deux entrepreneurs de Broadway, Edgar et Archibald Selwyn : le nom "Goldwyn" est né de la collusion entre Goldfish et Selwyn. La Goldwyn Pictures introduit très tôt la mythique séquence avant-film de "Leo The Lion", celle du lion rugissant, qui deviendra l'image de marque de producteur cinématographique la plus célèbre au monde, ou du moins la plus ancienne encore en usage.

Sam fut assez rapidement écarté par ses partenaires qui finissent par vendre la GP à la Schubert Organization laquelle revend celle-ci à la Metro de Marcus Loew. En 1925, la naissance de la Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer n'a donc que peu à voir avec Sam sauf que le nouveau studio conservera la séquence de Leo The Lion et surtout, quelques terrains situés à Culver City (Californie) ayant jadis appartenu à Sam. Entre temps, ayant récupéré ses fonds, Sam lance en 1923 ses propres studios : Samuel Goldwyn Productions (SGP). Son studio, adoubé par la critique pour ses choix qualitatifs, fut infiniment respecté jusqu'en 1959, date à laquelle Sam pris sa retraite.

Les films produits par SGP furent successivement distribués par l'Associated First National, puis par la United Artists et enfin à partir de 1941, par la RKO Radio Pictures. Dans les années 1940-1950, Sam offrit à John Ford et Howard Hawks l'occasion de réaliser leurs meilleurs films. Il s'était mariée en 1925 avec Frances Howard : leur fils, Samuel Goldwyn Junior devint également producteur et fonda The Samuel Goldwyn Company (SGC). Le producteur-exécutif de Showtime, John Howard Goldwyn, est le petit-fils de Samuel Goldwyn.

Filmographie

• 1917 : Polly of the Circus
• 1917 : The Fighting Odds
• 1917 : Sunshine Alley
• 1917 : The Cinderella Man
• 1918 : The Beloved Traitor
• 1918 : The Floor Below
• 1918 : All Woman
• 1918 : Laughing Bill Hyde
• 1918 : A Perfect 36
• 1918 : The Hell Cat
• 1918 : A Perfect Lady
• 1918 : The Racing Strain
• 1919 : Lord and Lady Algy
• 1919 : Almost a Husband
• 1920 : The Truth
• 1920 : Water, Water Everywhere
• 1920 : The Paliser Case
• 1920 : Partners of the Night
• 1920 : Jes' Call Me Jim
• 1920 : Cupid the Cowpuncher
• 1920 : Satan (The Penalty)
• 1921 : What Ho, the Cook
• 1921 : A Tale of Two Worlds
• 1921 : Don't Neglect Your Wife
• 1921 : Oh Mary Be Careful
• 1921 : Doubling for Romeo
• 1922 : Watch Your Step
• 1922 : Remembrance, de Rupert Hughes
• 1922 : Sherlock Holmes
• 1922 : Head Over Heels
• 1922 : Mr. Barnes of New York
• 1922 : Hungry Hearts
• 1922 : A Blind Bargain
• 1922 : Broken Chains
• 1923 : The Christian
• 1923 : Lost and Found on a South Sea Island
• 1923 : Potash and Perlmutter
• 1923 : The Eternal Three
• 1923 : Unseeing Eyes
• 1923 : The Day of Faith
• 1923 : The Eternal City
• 1924 : Name the Man
• 1924 : Nellie, the Beautiful Cloak Model
• 1924 : True As Steel
• 1924 : Cytherea
• 1924 : In Hollywood with Potash and Perlmutter
• 1925 : A Thief in Paradise
• 1925 : Le Sublime Sacrifice de Stella Dallas
• 1925 : Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ
• 1926 : Partners Again
• 1926 : The Winning of Barbara Worth
• 1927 : The Night of Love
• 1927 : The Magic Flame
• 1928 : Two Lovers
• 1928 : The Awakening
• 1929 : The Rescue
• 1929 : Bulldog Drummond
• 1929 : This Is Heaven
• 1929 : Condemned
• 1930 : Raffles
• 1930 : Whoopee!
• 1930 : The Devil to Pay!
• 1931 : One Heavenly Night
• 1931 : Scène de la rue (Street Scene), de King Vidor
• 1931 : Palmy Days
• 1931 : The Unholy Garden
• 1931 : Arrowsmith
• 1931 : Tonight or Never
• 1932 : The Greeks Had a Word for Them
• 1932 : Arsène Lupin
• 1932 : Kid d'Espagne (The Kid from Spain)
• 1932 : Cynara
• 1933 : The Masquerader
• 1933 : Roman Scandals
• 1934 : Nana
• 1934 : We Live Again
• 1934 : Kid Millions
• 1935 : The Wedding Night
• 1935 : L'Ange des ténèbres (The Dark Angel), de Sidney Franklin
• 1935 : Ville sans loi (Barbary Coast)
• 1935 : Splendor
• 1936 : Strike Me Pink
• 1936 : These Three
• 1936 : Dodsworth
• 1936 : Le Vandale (Come and Get It)
• 1936 : Beloved Enemy
• 1937 : Woman Chases Man
• 1937 : Stella Dallas
• 1937 : Rue sans issue (Dead End)
• 1937 : The Hurricane
• 1938 : Hollywood en folie (The Goldwyn Follies)
• 1938 : Les Aventures de Marco Polo (The Adventures of Marco Polo)
• 1938 : Madame et son cowboy (The Cowboy and the Lady)
• 1939 : Les Hauts de Hurlevent (Wuthering Heights)
• 1939 : They Shall Have Music
• 1939 : The Real Glory
• 1940 : Raffles, gentleman cambrioleur (Raffles)
• 1940 : Le Cavalier du désert (The Westerner)
• 1941 : La Vipère (The Little Foxes)
• 1941 : Boule de feu (Ball of Fire)
• 1942 : The Pride of the Yankees
• 1943 : They Got Me Covered
• 1943 : L'Étoile du Nord (The North Star)
• 1944 : Up in Arms
• 1944 : La Princesse et le pirate (The Princess and the Pirate)
• 1945 : Le Joyeux Phénomène (Wonder Man)
• 1946 : Le Laitier de Brooklyn (The Kid from Brooklyn)
• 1946 : Les Plus Belles Années de notre vie (The Best Years of Our Lives)
• 1947 : La Vie secrète de Walter Mitty (The Secret Life of Walter Mitty)
• 1947 : Honni soit qui mal y pense (The Bishop's Wife)
• 1948 : Si bémol et fa dièse (A Song Is Born)
• 1948 : Enchantment
• 1949 : Roseanna McCoy
• 1949 : Tête folle (My foolish Heart), de Mark Robson
• 1950 : Our Very Own
• 1950 : Edge of Doom
• 1951 : I Want You
• 1952 : Hans Christian Andersen
• 1955 : Blanches colombes et vilains messieurs (Guys and Dolls)
• 1959 : Porgy and Bess

published 02/10/2001 at 11:37 PM by Patrick Goldstein

Producer - Born Schmuel Gelbfisz on Aug. 22, 1882 in Warsaw, Poland - Died Jan. 31, 1974 in Beverly Hills, CA

When he died in 1974, Samuel Goldwyn was the last survivor of the triumvirate that helped make Los Angeles the world's film capital. It was his foresight that led to the filming of "The Squaw Man" (1914) in a Hollywood lemon grove.

Like most of Hollywood's founding fathers, Goldwyn was an untutored immigrant who came to movies after apprenticing in more mundane businesses: He was a glove merchant in upstate New York before starting a picture company with industry pioneers Jesse Lasky — whose sister was his first wife — and Cecil B. DeMille.

To understand Goldwyn, all you need to know is that he wept easily. The irrepressible Hollywood mogul cried when he won an Oscar for producing "The Best Years of Our Lives." He cried every time he watched the ending of "Stella Dallas," a movie he liked so much he made it twice, first as a 1925 silent film, then as a 1937 talkie with Barbara Stanwyck.

And the Polish-born mogul cried when he told the story of arriving in New York and seeing the Statue of Liberty on his way to Ellis Island, the fabled arrival point of generations of immigrants to America. His emotions were real, but the story was a fabrication. Having heard that dockside clerks could send immigrants back home, Goldwyn had actually disembarked in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and walked the 500-odd miles to New York City in the dead of winter.

His life was a reinvention, one script polish after another, starting with his name: He was born Schmuel Gelbfisz, changed his name to Goldfish when he came to America and then to Goldwyn, naming himself after the studio he'd created, which gives you a pretty good idea of where his priorities in life lay.

— Patrick Goldstein in the Los Angeles Times Oct. 2, 2001

Egon Krenz est une personnalité politique est-allemande, né le 19 mars 1937 à Kołobrzeg, Poméranie. Il fut le dernier secrétaire général du Parti socialiste unifié d'Allemagne (SED). Russophone, il est diplômé de l'école du Parti communiste allemand à Moscou. Apparatchik communiste, il devint numéro deux du régime communiste de la RDA à partir de 1984. Il se bâtit dans l'ombre d'Erich Honecker une réputation de dur. Jusqu'au 18 octobre 1989 il avait en charge les questions de Sécurité intérieure et des cadres du parti. Ami personnel de Mikhaïl Gorbatchev, il fut président du conseil d'État de la République démocratique allemande du 18 octobre 1989 au 3 décembre 1989.

Annonçant dès sa prise de fonction « une offensive politique et diplomatique », il fit prendre des mesures pour faciliter les voyages à l'étranger des citoyens est-allemands et permit quelques débats publics à la radio. Le 30 octobre 1989, plus de 500 000 personnes réclament à Berlin-Est sa démission aux cris de « Gorby, Gorby, soutiens-nous » et demandent la création d'un mouvement indépendant sur le modèle du syndicat Solidarność. En 1997, il est condamné à six ans de prison pour meurtre, étant jugé responsable de la mort de quatre personnes qui avaient été abattues par les garde-frontières est-allemands en tentant de franchir le mur de Berlin.

Le Parti socialiste unifié d’Allemagne (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, SED) était le parti politique au pouvoir sous la République démocratique allemande (RDA). En avril 1946, les Soviétiques obligent les membres du Parti social-démocrate (SPD) et du Parti communiste (KPD) en activité dans leur zone d'occupation à fusionner au sein d'un seul et unique parti marxiste-léniniste (dans les zones occidentales d'occupation, les instances de ces mêmes partis en activité n'étaient donc pas concernées par cette fusion) : le SED est alors fondé, dont l'organisation est calquée sur celui du Parti communiste de l'Union soviétique. Le communiste Wilhelm Pieck et le social-démocrate Otto Grotewohl en furent conjointement les premiers leaders.

Le SED garde le pouvoir en RDA jusqu'à la chute du mur de Berlin en 1989, sa prédominance ayant même été inscrite dans la constitution de 1968, statut qu'il perdra le 1er décembre 1989 (le 3 décembre suivant, l’ensemble du comité central démissionna). Le SED forme également la principale organisation du Front national de la République démocratique allemande (anciennement Bloc antifasciste puis Front national de l'Allemagne démocratique), entité regroupant tous les partis politiques et organisations de masse du pays. Après la disparition de la RDA, le SED est renommé Parti du socialisme démocratique (PDS) en 1990, et entame une nouvelle ère sous l'impulsion de l'avocat Gregor Gysi, poursuivant ses activités après la Réunification allemande en se positionnant à gauche du SPD.

Les communistes « orthodoxes » refusant cette évolution réformatrice reconstituent pour leur part un nouveau KPD (en:Communist Party of Germany (1990)), auquel adhère notamment l'ancien dirigeant de la RDA, Erich Honecker. Lors des élections fédérales allemandes de 2005, il forme une alliance avec l’Alternative électorale travail et justice sociale (WASG) d'Oskar Lafontaine, originaire d’Allemagne de l'Ouest, et prend alors le nom die Linkspartei (« le Parti de la Gauche »). Il fusionne avec la WASG en 2007 pour former le nouveau parti die Linke (« la Gauche »).

Liste des dirigeants
Le premier secrétaire (1953-1976) ou secrétaire général (1950-1953 et 1976-1989) du comité central du SED était le véritable détenteur du pouvoir en RDA :

• 21 avril 1946 : premier congrès du SED. Wilhelm Pieck et Otto Grotewohl assurent en commun la présidence du parti.
• 24 juillet 1950 : Walter Ulbricht prend la tête du SED. À la mort de Wilhelm Pieck, la présidence de la République que ce dernier occupait jusqu'ici est transformée en un organe collégial, le Conseil d’État, dont Ulbricht devient le premier président.
• 3 mai 1971 : Erich Honecker remplace Ulbricht à la tête du parti.
• 18 octobre 1989 : Honecker est limogé, il est remplacé par Egon Krenz.
• 3 décembre 1989 : Egon Krenz perd son poste.

Janet Gaynor est une actrice américaine née le 6 octobre 1906 à Philadelphie et décédée le 14 septembre 1984 à Palm Springs en Californie. Elle a inspiré les animateurs de Blanche-Neige et les Sept Nains pour le personnage de Blanche-Neige. À la naissance de Janet, la famille Gaynor déménage de Philadelphie à San Francisco. Une fois son diplôme en poche, en 1923, Gaynor décide de poursuivre une carrière d'actrice. Elle déménage à Los Angeles, où elle travaille dans un magasin de chaussures pour vivre, recevant 230 dollars par semaine. Elle réussit à décrocher de petits rôles (non payés) dans plusieurs films et comédies durant deux ans. Finalement, en 1926, à l'âge de 20 ans, elle décroche le rôle principal du film The Johnstown Flood.

La même année, elle est sélectionnée comme l'une des WAMPAS Baby Stars. Sa performance attire l'attention des producteurs qui l'engagent dans plusieurs films. En moins d'un an, Gaynor est l'une des plus grandes stars d'Hollywood. Ses performances dans L'Heure suprême et L'Aurore, respectivement réalisés par Frank Borzage et F.W. Murnau, ainsi que L'Ange de la rue lui rapportèrent le premier Oscar de la meilleure actrice de l'Histoire (à cette époque, l'Oscar pouvait être remis pour plusieurs rôles à la fois). Jusqu'en 1986, Gaynor fut la plus jeune actrice à avoir gagné l'Oscar (elle avait 22 ans).

Gaynor fait partie de la poignée d'actrices qui s'adaptent parfaitement aux films parlants. Durant plusieurs années, Gaynor est l'actrice principale des studios Fox et a le choix entre de nombreux premiers rôles, jouant dans des films tels que Délicieuse, Merely Mary Ann et Adorable. Mais lorsque Darryl F. Zanuck fait fusionner les studios naissants de 20th Century Pictures avec ceux de la Fox (ce qui devait donner les désormais célèbres Twentieth Century Fox), son statut devient précaire et bientôt renversé par des actrices telles que Loretta Young et Shirley Temple. Elle réussit à résilier son contrat avec le studio et joue dans des films produits par David O. Selznick au milieu des années 1930.

En 1937, elle est à nouveau nominée pour l'Oscar de la Meilleure Actrice, cette fois pour son rôle dans Une étoile est née. Après une apparition dans La Famille sans-souci, elle quitte l'industrie du cinéma à l'âge de 32 ans pendant près de 20 ans pour voyager avec son mari Adrian, réapparaissant une dernière fois en 1957 dans le rôle de la mère de Pat Boone, dans le film Bernardine.

Filmographie

• 1924 : Trempé jusqu'aux os (All Wet)
• 1925 : The Plastic Age de Wesley Ruggles (non créditée)
• 1926 : The Johnstown Flood : Anna Burger
• 1926 : Gagnant quand même (The Shamrock Handicap) : Lady Sheila O'Hara
• 1926 : L'Aigle bleu (The Blue Eagle) de John Ford
• 1927 : L'Heure suprême (Seventh Heaven) : Diane
• 1927 : L'Aurore (Sunrise) : La femme
• 1928 : L'Ange de la rue (Street Angel) : Angela
• 1928 : Les Quatre Diables (Four Devils) : Marion
• 1929 : Lucky Star : Mary Tucker
• 1929 : Christina : Christina
• 1930 : High Society Blues : Eleanor Divine
• 1931 : Hors du gouffre (The Man Who Came Back) : Angie Randolph
• 1931 : Daddy Long Legs d'Alfred Santell : Judy Abbott
• 1931 : Merely Mary Ann : Mary Ann
• 1932 : The First Year : Grace Livingston
• 1932 : Tess of the Storm Country : Tess Howland
• 1933 : Adorable : Princesse Marie Christine/Mitzi
• 1933 : La Foire aux illusions (State Fair) : Margy Frake
• 1933 : Adorable : Princesse Marie Christine / Mitzi
• 1934 : Carolina : Joanna Tate
• 1934 : Premier amour (Change of heart) : Catherine Furness
• 1935 : One More Spring : Elizabeth Cheney
• 1935 : La Jolie Batelière (The Farmer Takes a Wife) : Molly Larkins
• 1936 : La Petite Provinciale (Small town girl) : Katherine 'Kay' Brannan
• 1936 : Quatre femmes à la recherche du bonheur (Ladies in Love) : Martha Kerenye
• 1937 : Une étoile est née (A Star Is Born) : Victoria Blodgett, alias Vicki Lester
• 1938 : Three Loves Has Nancy : Nancy Briggs
• 1938 : La Famille sans-souci (The Young in Heart), de Richard Wallace  : George-Anne Carleton
• 1957 : Bernardine : Mme Ruth Wilson
• 1969 : Hollywood: The Selznick Years (film documentaire) : Elle-même
• 1994 : A Century of Cinema (documentaire TV) : Elle-même

published 15/09/1984 at 14:56 PM by Cathleen Decker

Actress - Born Laura Gainer on Oct. 6, 1906 in Philadelphia, PA - Died Sept. 14, 1984 in Desert Hospital, CA

Janet Gaynor was the actress whose elegantly demure movie portrayals of forlorn heroines carried her to fame in both the silent and talking-film eras — and won her the first Academy Award for lead actress.

From the silent screen to the talkies, Janet Gaynor's fame never wavered, growing role by role until, after her triumph in 1937 in the original "A Star Is Born," she simply walked away from the glamour.

Barely 5 feet tall, freckled, slender and crowned with a mop of red hair, she exuded the right combination of naivete and primness, particularly in her roles opposite Charles Farrell, her costar in a series of films.

In 1926, she was second lead in "The Johnstown Flood," a role that put her in line for the job as Diane, the Parisian waif of "Seventh Heaven."

The movie provided Gaynor with her the Academy Award—at the ripe age of 21.

Technically, she won the 1929 Oscar for work in three silent pictures—"Seventh Heaven," "Sunrise" and "Street Angel"—all done for Fox studios.

Just after receiving her Oscar, she debuted in the talkies, starring in "Sunny Side Up." Unlike most silent stars, she saw her popularity rise.

In 1935, six years after her Oscar victory, she was cast opposite another relative youngster in his first movie role. The film was "Farmer Takes a Wife" and the actor was Henry Fonda.

She quit Hollywood in 1939 to marry designer Gilbert Adrian, whose clothes draped numerous movie stars, including Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford.

Gaynor and her former costar Farrell re-created their "Seventh Heaven" roles for radio, in 1951.

In 1957, she made her one and only return to film—as "Bernadine," a film that offended her largely because her scenes were cut.

Gaynor married her third husband, Paul Gregory in 1964. They spent most of their time in Palm Springs, he raising squab on a 100-acre estate and she painting Grandma-Moses-style primitives in an open-air gazebo above the desert floor.

She made her debut on Broadway in 1980, at 74, in "Harold and Maude," playing an eccentric 80-year-old woman attracted to a 19-year-old man.

She had been in failing health the last two years of her life, after September, 1982 traffic accident in San Francisco injured her and Broadway star Mary Martin and killed Martin's manager.

— Cathleen Decker in the Los Angeles Times Sept. 15, 1984

published 14/03/1991 at 15:01 PM by Leo Smith

The silent film 'Sunrise,' featuring Janet Gaynor, the first woman to be honored as best actress, will be shown Sunday in Ojai.

With the Academy Awards ceremony coming up in 11 days, you may want to get into the spirit of things. If so, why not check out Sunday's Ojai Film Society presentation of the multi-award winning silent movie "Sunrise," starring George O'Brien and Janet Gaynor.

Gaynor has the distinction of winning the first Oscar given for best actress, receiving the 1927-28 award for her work in three movies: "Sunrise," "Seventh Heaven" and "Street Angel."

"Sunrise" garnered two other inaugural Academy Awards--one for cinematography, the other for artistic quality. It's the story of a city woman who tries to convince a young farmer to kill his wife and return to the city with her.

As for the where and when of this screening, it's same time, different place.

As usual, the movie will begin at 4:30 p.m., but it will be shown at Thacher School's Lamb Auditorium instead of the Ojai Playhouse.

The school is at 50245 Thacher Road in Ojai.

Thousand Oaks Library's monthly classic film series will continue Saturday with a showing of the 1988 film "The Unbearable Lightness of Being."

The R-rated movie features Daniel Day-Lewis, who won an Academy Award for his lead role in "My Left Food," and Lena Olin, an Academy Award nominee for her performance in "Enemies: A Love Story."

"Unbearable Lightness" is an adaptation of a novel by Czech writer Milan Kundera. Set against the 1968 Soviet invasion of Prague, it's the story of a philandering brain surgeon who finds himself caught up in the political conflict while trying to deal with commitments to two women.

If you plan to see this one, be prepared to stay awhile. It's just under three hours long.

Show time is 7 p.m.

What are Ventura County residents watching in the privacy of their VCR-equipped homes?

Here are the top five rentals over the past week at several local video stores.

At Blockbuster Video in Port Hueneme: "Arachnophobia," "State of Grace," "The Two Jakes," "Darkman" and "Days of Thunder."

At Royal West Video I and II in Simi Valley: "Death Warrant," "Arachnophobia," "Flatliners," "Witches" and "State of Grace."

And at Video for You and Video Depot in Thousand Oaks: "Air America," "State of Grace," "Flatliners," "Darkman" and "Witches," (which barely edged out "The Two Jakes.")

published 02/04/2006 at 15:10 PM by Kenneth Turan

Janet Gaynor's scant dozen-year career earns a retrospective.

HAS anyone in Hollywood ever had a trajectory quite like the career and reputation of Janet Gaynor?

Gaynor began as a true silent-film goddess but lost part of that dazzling glow (while keeping her enormous popular appeal) when sound came in. Only 32 when she retired from acting, she gradually came to be remembered as no more than the answer to a trivia question, and today, except with die-hard film buffs, she is all but unknown.

As anyone who's seen her luminous performances knows, that is a brutally unfair situation. Though the actress was a wisp of a woman -- barely 5 feet tall and so light her male costars regularly picked her up off the ground -- when Gaynor was on her game, she took your breath away. UCLA's Film & Television Archive is determined to refresh her image with its "Janet Gaynor: A Centennial Celebration" series, which begins Thursday with a showing of "Street Angel" at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood.

Thanks to the Louis B. Mayer Foundation (the level-headed Gaynor is said to be the only actress the rajah of MGM allowed in his home), spanking-new prints have been struck of the features in the series, many of which will go on a post-UCLA national tour.

"Street Angel" was one of three films cited (the others are "7th Heaven" and F.W. Murnau's classic "Sunrise") when Gaynor, in a moment dear to movie-trivia questioners, won the first ever Academy Award for best actress for work done in the 1927-28 movie seasons. When she collected the statuette in 1929, she was just past her 22nd birthday.

"Street Angel" is also one of three silent films in the UCLA series ("7th Heaven" and the legendary but rarely seen "Lucky Star" are the other two) in which Gaynor co-starred with Charles Farrell and was directed by Hollywood's peerless romantic Frank Borzage. These films are in some ways the creative pinnacle of her acting career, but before Gaynor could get to them, she had to get through "The Johnstown Flood" (screening on April 7).

Until that 1926 film, which pasted a fictional story onto the all-too-real 1889 Pennsylvania disaster, Gaynor had been doing bit parts and extra work. But as Anna Burger, a logger's daughter fated to see her love for a handsome engineer unreturned, Gaynor was such an incandescent presence she was immediately signed by Fox to a five-year contract.

The Borzage connection

EVEN today -- maybe especially today -- it is easy to see why. For if we tend to think of silent-film acting as broad, Gaynor, even at this early stage of her career, had an instinct for the most subdued and delicate underplaying. As an actress she was neither showy nor simpering; rather, she had a natural self-possession and grace that are timeless. And when she laughed, as a German critic wrote of a later performance, "one longs with all one's heart to be where a human being is really so happy."With the kind of presence your heart completely goes out to, it's no wonder that, despite her young age, Gaynor became the muse of director Borzage, a filmmaker who believed in love as a transcendent, transformative feeling, a sensation so powerful it can overcome reality and even death. "No director," wrote the venerable French critic Georges Sadoul, "has shown better than he the intimate warmth of human love in a profoundly united couple."

And though 6-foot-2 costar Farrell towered over Gaynor, together they formed just that kind of irresistible couple, powerful enough to last through 12 films together with several directors. It is the Borzage epics, however, that are their most lasting work.

Especially noteworthy is 1927's "7th Heaven." Starting with the unlikely idea of a Parisian sewer worker as a romantic hero, the film capitalized on Gaynor's warmth and presence and Farrell's rough and ready masculinity to create a fantasy romance that managed to include realistic World War I trench warfare and a beyond-words ending. "One can only stare with admiration," summed up Herve Dumont, the reigning Borzage scholar, "at the skill with which the director turns this kitsch and improbable tear-jerker into an inspired diadem of purity."

But as memorable as this film is, 1929's "Lucky Star," its companion on a can't-miss double bill on Saturday, is even more of an immersion in over-the-top romanticism. Plus, it's almost never been screened in Los Angeles. Originally made with some spoken dialogue sequences and long thought to be a lost film, "Lucky Star" was discovered and restored (minus those spoken words) by the Netherlands Filmmuseum. It was acclaimed as a lost masterpiece at its debut at 1990's Pordenone festival and a follow-up screening at Telluride, and its power remains undiminished.

Pauline Frederick est une actrice américaine née le 12 août 1883 à Boston et morte le 19 septembre 1938.













Filmographie

• 1915 : The Eternal City : Donna Roma
• 1915 : Sold : Helen
• 1915 : Zaza : Zaza
• 1915 : Bella Donna : Bella Donna (Ruby Chepstow)
• 1915 : Lydia Gilmore : Lydia Gilmore
• 1916 : The Spider : Valerie St. Cyr / Joan Marche
• 1916 : Audrey : Audrey
• 1916 : The Moment Before : Madge
• 1916 : The World's Great Snare : Myra
• 1916 : The Woman in the Case : Margaret Rolfe
• 1916 : Ashes of Embers : Laura Ward / Agnes Ward
• 1916 : Nanette of the Wilds : Nanette Gauntier
• 1916 : The Slave Island
• 1917 : The Slave Market : Ramona
• 1917 : Sapho : Sapho, Fanny Lagrand
• 1917 : Sleeping Fires : Zelma Bryce
• 1917 : Her Better Self : Vivian Tyler
• 1917 : The Love That Lives : Molly McGill
• 1917 : Double Crossed : Eleanor Stratton
• 1917 : The Hungry Heart : Courtney Vaughan
• 1918 : Mrs. Dane's Defense : Felicia Hindemarsh
• 1918 : Madame Jealousy : Madame Jealousy
• 1918 : La Tosca : Floria Tosca
• 1918 : Resurrection : Katusha
• 1918 : Her Final Reckoning : Marsa
• 1918 : Fedora : Princess Fedora
• 1918 : Stake Uncle Sam to Play Your Hand : Miss Liberty Loan
• 1918 : A Daughter of the Old South : Dolores Jardine
• 1919 : Out of the Shadow : Ruth Minchin
• 1919 : The Woman on the Index : Sylvia Martin
• 1919 : Paid in Full : Emma Brooks
• 1919 : One Week of Life : Mrs. Sherwood & Marion Roche
• 1919 : The Fear Woman : Helen Winthrop
• 1919 : The Peace of Roaring River : Madge Nelson
• 1919 : Bonds of Love : Una Sayre
• 1919 : The Loves of Letty : Letty Shell
• 1920 : The Woman in Room 13 : Laura Bruce
• 1920 : The Paliser Case : Cassy Cara
• 1920 : Madame X : Jacqueline Floriot
• 1920 : A Slave of Vanity : Iris Bellamy
• 1921 : The Mistress of Shenstone : Lady Myra Ingleby
• 1921 : Roads of Destiny : Rose Merritt
• 1921 : Salvage : Bernice Ridgeway / Kate Martin
• 1921 : The Sting of the Lash : Dorothy Keith
• 1921 : The Lure of Jade : Sara Vincent
• 1922 : The Woman Breed
• 1922 : Two Kinds of Women : Judith Sanford
• 1922 : The Glory of Clementina : Clementina Wing
• 1924 : Let Not Man Put Asunder : Petrina Faneuil
• 1924 : Married Flirts : Nellie Wayne
• 1924 : Three Women : Mrs. Mabel Wilton
• 1925 : Smouldering Fires : Jane Vale
• 1926 : Her Honor, the Governor : Adele Fenway
• 1926 : Devil's Island : Jeannette Picto
• 1926 : Josselyn's Wife : Lillian Josselyn
• 1927 : The Nest : Mrs. Hamilton
• 1927 : Mumsie : Mumsie
• 1928 : On Trial : Joan Trask
• 1929 : Evidence : Myra Stanhope
• 1929 : The Sacred Flame : Mrs. Taylor - La mère
• 1930 : Terra Melophon Magazin Nr. 1 : Die Zofe (Episode "Was Ziehe ich an, Bevor ich mich anziehe")
• 1931 : This Modern Age : Diane 'Di' Winters
• 1932 : Wayward : Mrs. Eleanor Frost
• 1932 : Le Fantôme de Crestwood (The Phantom of Crestwood) de J. Walter Ruben : Faith Andes (sœur de Priam)
• 1932 : Self Defense : Katy Devoux
• 1934 : Social Register : Mrs. Breene
• 1935 : My Marriage : Mrs. DeWitt Tyler II
• 1936 : Ramona : Señora Moreno
• 1937 : Le Serment de M. Moto (Thank You, Mr. Moto) : Madame Chung

published 20/09/1938 at 15:29 PM

Actress - Born Aug. 12, 1883 in Watertown, NY - Died Sept. 19, 1938 of asthma attack in Beverly Hills, CA

Pauline Frederick was a noted actress of screen and stage.

Her debut on the stage was in "The Rogers Brothers at Harvard" at the Knickerbocker in New York, Sept. 1, 1902. A year later she appeared as Titiana in "A Princess of Kensington" at the Broadway Theater in New York.

She was engaged almost constantly in the theatrical world and had success after success on Broadway, in musical comedy, opera, dramas and eventually in film.

Among her many stage successes were "Joseph and His Brothers," "Innocent," and "Sampson." On the silent screen she starred in films including 1915's "ZaZa" and "Bella Donna," 1920's "Madame X" and 1921's "The Lure of Jade." She starred in talkies including 1928's "On Trial" and 1929's "Evidence" and "The Sacred Flame."


— The Los Angeles Times Sept. 20, 1938

Bessie Love (de son vrai nom Juanita Horton), née le 10 septembre 1898 à Midland et morte le 26 avril 1986 à Londres, est une actrice américaine. Elle a essentiellement joué dans des films de cinéma muet, tenant notamment le rôle de Pauline Gaudin de Witschnau dans La Peau de chagrin, d'après La Peau de chagrin d'Honoré de Balzac, dans le film de George D. Baker en 1923.











Filmographie

• 1916 : Intolérance (Intolerance) de D.W. Griffith : La mariée de Cana
• 1917 : Cheerful Givers de Paul Powell : Judy
• 1922 : Forget Me Not de W.S. Van Dyke : Ann
• 1922 : Le Forgeron du village (The Village Blacksmith) de John Ford : Rosemary Martin
• 1923 : La Peau de chagrin (Slave of Desire) de George D. Baker : Pauline Gaudin de Witschnau
• 1923 : Gentle Julia de Rowland V. Lee : Julia
• 1924 : Torment de Maurice Tourneur : Marie
• 1924 : Dynamite Smith de Ralph Ince : Violet
• 1925 : Le Monde perdu (The Lost World) de Harry O. Hoyt : Paula White
• 1926 : C'était un Prince ! (Meet the Prince) de Joseph Henabery
• 1927 : Rubber Tires de Alan Hale : Mary Ellen Stack
• 1928 : Bessie à Broadway (The matinee idol) de Frank Capra : Ginger Bolivar
• 1928 : Un cœur à la traîne (Anybody Here Seen Kelly?) de William Wyler : Mitzi Lavelle
• 1929 : Broadway Melody (The Broadway Melody) de Harry Beaumont : Hank Mahoney
• 1929 : Hollywood chante et danse (The Hollywood Revue of 1929) de Charles Reisner : Elle-même
• 1929 : The Idle Rich de William C. de Mille : Helen Thayer
• 1930 : Chasing Rainbows de Charles Reisner : Carlie Semour
• 1931 : Morals for Women de Mort Blumenstock : Helen Huston
• 1936 : I Live Again de Arthur Maude : Kathleen Vernon
• 1941 : Atlantic Ferry de Walter Forde : Begonia Baggot
• 1954 : La Comtesse aux pieds nus (The Barefoot Contessa) de Joseph L. Mankiewicz : Mme Eubanks
• 1957 : Le Scandale Costello (The Story of Esther Costello) de David Miller  : Une femme dans la galerie d'art
• 1958 : L'Heure audacieuse (Next to No Time) de Henry Cornelius : Becky Wiener
• 1961 : Un si bel été (The greengage summer / Loss of innocence) : Une touriste américaine
• 1961 : Le Visage du plaisir (The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone) de José Quintero : Karen Stone
• 1965 : Promise Her Anything d'Arthur Hiller : Cliente du magasin d'animaux
• 1968 : Isadora de Karel Reisz : Mme Duncan
• 1971 : Un dimanche comme les autres (Sunday Bloody Sunday) de John Schlesinger : L'opératrice téléphonique
• 1971 : Catlow (Catlow) de Sam Wanamaker : Mrs. Frost
• 1976 : The Ritz : Michael Brick : Maurine
• 1981 : L'Amant de Lady Chatterley ((Lady Chatterley's Lover) de Just Jaeckin : Flora
• 1981 : Ragtime de Milos Forman : la vieille dame au TOC
• 1981 : Reds, de Warren Beatty : Mme Partlow
• 1983 : Les Prédateurs (The Hunger) de Tony Scott : Lillybelle

published 29/04/1986 at 15:45 PM by Burt A. Folkart

Actress - Born Juanita Horton on Sept. 10, 1898 in Midland, TX - Died April 26, 1986 in London, United Kingdom

Bessie Love was a demure actress who managed to stretch her career from the silent screen well into the era of television despite a lengthy series of pedestrian roles.

D.W. Griffith, the director of "Intolerance," "Birth of a Nation" and other silent epics, fancied her brazenness and cast her as the bride of Cana in the Judean segment of his four-part treatment of prejudice.

Griffith renamed her Bessie Love "because nobody east of the Rockies knows how to pronounce Juanita." The success of his 1915 film made her an overnight star.

She was cast in a series of parts she once described as "sunbonnet girl next door" in "Nina the Flower Girl," "The Great Adventure," "The Yankee Princess," "Human Wreckage" and three dozen more before becoming a self-professed "sequined and spangled showgirl" in "The Broadway Melody." That 1928 production was the first talking picture ventured by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film, also believed to be the industry's first sound musical, brought her an Academy Award nomination.

In 1929 she married film producer William B. Hawks, brother of director Howard Hawks, at St. James Episcopal Church in Pasadena.

After her divorce in 1935, she moved to London, where she was seen in the television miniseries "Edward and Mrs. Simpson" and such films as "Isadora" in 1968 and "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" in 1971. Her final picture was "Ragtime" in 1981.

— Burt A. Folkart in the Los Angeles Times April 29, 1986

published 26/12/1977 at 16:48 PM by Bill Desowitz and Penelope McMillan

Actor | Comedian | Director - Born Charles Spencer Chaplin on April 16, 1889 in Lambeth, United Kingdom - Died Dec. 25, 1977 in Vevey, Switzerland

A pioneer of 20th century movie-making, Charlie Chaplin became part of the world's comic folklore in a film career that spanned 52 years. He was the industry's first superstar—thanks to the endearing charm and spirit of the Tramp—as well as one of the great comic geniuses of the century.

Chaplin was the first to blend comedy and pathos into an art form, drawing on his impoverished childhood in south London and his upbringing in the sanctuary of the music hall.

Chaplin's artistic maturity began during the years of 1916-17. The dozen two-reelers he made during that time gave him his first taste of complete freedom. Chaplin made 75 films, most of them shorts, between 1914 and 1931. Although some films before 1930 stand out, the time after 1930 is considered by critics his "great period."

There's probably no better example of laughter and tears than in "City Lights," Chaplin's luminous masterpiece from 1931. It was two years in the making, as he had to contend with the death of his mother, a stifling writer's block that halted production for a few weeks, and the emergence of sound. Yet the director triumphed magnificently with this comedy romance in pantomime.

After abandoning the Tramp and silents, Chaplin concentrated even more heavily on political issues—both publicly and creatively—a development that eventually led to his expulsion in the 1950s.

Never an American citizen, he refused to testify about his alleged communist affiliations before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Demands were made for his deportation, and he was denied reentry into America after attending the London premiere of "Limelight" in 1952. He didn't come back until 1972, when he was awarded an honorary Oscar.

But a decade earlier he redefined comedy with two darkly satiric gems: "The Great Dictator" (1940), in which Chaplin daringly explores his most intriguing personal paradox — his compassion and his tyranny; and "Monsieur Verdoux" (1947), which is about the Holocaust.

Buster Keaton, his closest rival, classified Chaplin as "the greatest motion picture comedian of all time."

— Bill Desowitz and Penelope McMillan in the Los Angeles Times Jan. 11, 1998 and Dec. 26, 1977

published 16/11/1954 at 17:12 PM

Actor | Director | Writer - Born Lionel Blythe on April 28, 1878 in Philadelphia, PA - Died Nov. 15, 1954 of heart attack in Van Nuys, CA

Lionel Barrymore was the eldest brother in a a famed family of actors and himself a veteran of stage, screen and radio.

He made his stage debut in 1883 at 5, and in 1909 entered the movies at a time when they were called "leaping tintypes."

Barrymore wrote movie scenarios at $25 apiece, toured in vaudeville and in his early youth studied art in Paris for two years. He abandoned his ambition to become a painter, he once said, because "acting was the only sure way I knew of getting salt and pepper to put in water to make believe it was soup."

Barrymore made his debut on the New York stage in "The Rivals," in which his grandmother was cast as Mrs. Malaprop.

He joined Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to star in "The Barrier" in 1926 and won an Academy Award in 1931 for the best performance by an actor in "A Free Soul."

Others of his many movies included "David Copperfield," "Camille," "Captains Courageous," "Test Pilot," "You Can't Take It With You" and "The Return of Peter Grimm."

In the "Doctor Kildare" series he was the gruff Dr. Gillespie. On radio his voice became a familiar sound to millions in the weekly "Mayor of the Town" and as Dickens' Scrooge, a character he played at Christmas time for years.

In addition to his stage and film careers, Barrymore wrote several books including "We Barrymores," which traces traces the background and experiences of the Barrymore family and was co-authored with Cameron Shipp.

Barrymore was also a proficient composer. His musical compositions "Tableau Russe" and Prelude and Fugue and others were played by symphony orchestras in Los Angeles and New York.

But he disparaged remarks that his musical works would ever become immortal.

"Why, I'm an actor," he once said. "People would think me impertinent if they believed I was taking myself seriously as a composer."

— Los Angeles Times Nov. 16, 1954

published 13/06/1983 at 17:18 PM

Actress - Born Edith N. Shearer on Aug. 10, 1902 in Montreal, Canada - Died June 12, 1983 of pneumonia in Motion Picture and Television Country House, CA

Norma Shearer was one of the last and most regal of Hollywood's film queens and one of the few to move successfully from silent to sound pictures.

For three decades she portrayed some of the world's most heroic and tragic women, ranging from Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Marie Antoinette to Shakespeare's Juliet.

Her silent films included: "The Stealers" (1920), "He Who Gets Slapped" (1924), "Tower of Lies" (1925), "The Waning Sex" (1926), "The Student Prince" (1927), "The Actress" (1928).

But her repertoire of talkies was even larger: "The Trial of Mary Dugan" (1929), "The Divorcee" (1929), "Let Us Be Gay" (1930), ""Strange Interlude" (1931), "Riptide" (1934), "Romeo and Juliet" (1936), "Marie Antoinette" (1938), "The Women" (1939), "Escape" (1940) and "Her Cardboard Lover" (1943).

Miss Shearer broke into the motion pictures industry as a bit player for Universal Studios.

She met Irving Thalberg (her future husband) just after he joined the Mayer Company (soon to become Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) as production chief, and was placed under Mayer contract in 1923.

Thalberg not only meticulously followed her career but insisted that he have a direct hand in her training and choice of roles. He was with her as she went from a simple shop girl, to a gang moll, to a society princess and more. They married in 1927.

In 1929 she was given the lead in "The Trial of Mary Dugan," only MGM's second talkie, and its success led to more roles for Miss Shearer.

The ultimate film accolade came in 1930 when she won her only Academy Award for her lead in "The Divorcee," adapted from Ursula Parrott's best-seller, "Ex-Wife."

Thalberg's death in 1936 signaled the end of a legendary film era and the beginning of Miss Shearer's decline at MGM.

She went into seclusion for 18 months but emerged to sign a three-year MGM contract at $150,000 a film.

In 1942 Shearer made her last film, "Her Cardboard Lover." On a vacation after the film she met a ski instructor, Martin Arrouge, whom she married a months later.

— Burt A. Folkart and Dana Priest in the Los Angeles Times June 13 and 14, June 1983