Past Tense Present Tense

Hooray for Hollywood: Kentuckians in the Movies

Mom used to say Pop carried me in his arms into movie houses (babes in arms got in free in the early 1940s) until my feet almost touched the ground. This was an exaggeration, of course, but I have always loved movies, particularly from “the old days.”

Some months ago, many of you spent countless hours glued to your televisions watching the melodrama of Depp v. Heard. I confess I watched a bit.

I have seen a couple of Johnny Depp movies, including Pirates of the Caribbean. I must confess that his acting has not impressed me, and neither did his current decorations.

There are many other Kentuckyborn actors who have gained worthy national attention. In more recent years, George Clooney, Ashley Judd and Jennifer Lawrence have been the most famous “stars” to claim a Kentucky birthplace. I have seen at least some of their movies. Lawrence’s movies have grossed $6 billion, and she is the first actor born in the 1990s to have won an Oscar. Clooney has proven he can play comedy as well as drama. He is a handsome devil, isn’t he, with a sort of mischievous grin. Judd also has proven to be a rather good actress.

Kentuckians in Hollywood go back a long way.

Born in Louisville in 1889, Tom London began his career with his birth name Leonard Clapman before Hollywood became the filmmaking capital. He had a long career from the silent film days to 1959 and appeared in around 2,000 movies and television shows—a record, according to David Wallechinsky’s The 20th Century: History With the Boring Parts Left Out. As a kid, I must have seen London dozens of times in a “Cowboy Show” at the old Burley Theater in Shelbyville.

London appeared in some classics, including All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), The Oxbow Incident (1943) and High Noon (1952). Look for this Kentuckian, described as having “scowling, lantern-jawed features” in old westerns on TV.

Of the early Kentuckians to grace the Silver Screen, I don’t think anyone surpassed Irene Dunne (18981990). Discovered by showman Florenz Ziegfeld as a singer and dancer, Dunne became famous in comedy roles. In 1939, she co-starred with Charles Boyer in Love Affair. Cary Grant, with whom she starred in My Favorite Wife (1940), claimed she had the best sense of timing of anyone in Hollywood. She received five Academy Award nominations but never received that ultimate Hollywood honor.

Henry Hull, another Louisvillian of Dunne’s generation (1890-1977), usually spoke with a noticeable Southern drawl—perhaps exaggerated. The accent fit many of the parts he played, such as his stage role in Tobacco Road (1933) and movie role in Jesse James (1939). In the film The Werewolf of London (1935), he affected something different. He turned on the drawl again as a newspaper editor in The Return of Frank James (1940) starring Henry Fonda. In perhaps his best movie, Alfred Hitchcock’s Lifeboat (1944), Hull was a millionaire hoping to survive a U-Boat attack.

Tall, dark and handsome native Louisvillian Victor Mature (19131999) starred or co-starred in some great flicks. He could be menacing, as in the 1947 film noir Kiss of Death, or heroic, which he was in epic period pieces Samson and Delilah (1949) and The Robe (1953). In the latter, Richard Burton said Mature stole the scene in which he held the robe of Christ with some emotion. Although he appeared in more than 70 films, Mature never considered himself a serious actor. He once quipped that he only acted to make money so that he could play golf.

In my youth, I had a Sunday School teacher who had known Mature when they were teenagers growing up in Louisville. He said that Mature was a nice guy. The actor served in the United States Coast Guard during World War II.

Ned Beatty (1937-2021), who grew up in St. Matthews, had a long career as the ultimate character actor, appearing in six movies with Burt Reynolds and four movies with Christopher Reeve, along with many others. He was given the distinction as “the busiest actor in Hollywood,” appearing in more than 150 movies.

If you remember Deliverance, you cannot forget Beatty’s performance. He received his only Oscar nomination for best supporting actor in 1976 for Network. In many ways, he was an actor’s actor, having performed on stage both before and after his movie career. He could well be the best and most versatile actor of our native Kentuckians.

Another character actor, James Best (1926-2015), a native of Powderly in Muhlenberg County, was orphaned at an early age and grew up in Corydon, Indiana. He played dozens of roles, including the

bumbling Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane on the Dukes of Hazzard TV comedy series and, with his distinctive accent, is easily recognizable in his roles in westerns.

Warren Oates (1928-1982), also born in Muhlenberg County, appeared in dozens of TV westerns before graduating to movies, often directed by Sam Peckinpah. In keeping with his sense of humor, he once said, “I started out as playing the third bad guy on a horse and worked my way up to number one bad guy.”

Oates was always fun to watch no matter what role he played. He died all too soon at age 53.

Much has been written about West Irvine native Harry Dean Stanton (1926-2017), who was in numerous TV dramas, including eight appearances on Gunsmoke. His roles included Paul in the controversial movie The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) and supporting parts in other famous films such as Cool Hand Luke (1967), science fiction thriller Alien (1979) and The Green Mile (1999), one of my all-time favorites.

Lexington began a Harry Dean Stanton Fest at the Kentucky Theatre in 2011 and premiered Harry Dean Stanton: Crossing Mulholland, written, produced and directed by Tom Thurman, a producer-writer for KET. Thurman interviewed Stanton numerous times. “Harry Dean rarely answered a single question in a direct manner … I used his evasiveness as a structural device and didn’t see it as an obstacle,” Thurman said. Stanton appeared in five of his documentaries. “He never let me down or disappointed me. He might not have bothered to wash or comb his hair and even change his clothes from the night before, but he always showed up and gave me something special on camera.” The son of Arnold Thurman, who was my assistant football coach at Shelby County High School back in the early 1960s, Tom, who proudly claims Christianburg as his birthplace, has become a fine documentarian.

Since 1992, Thurman has produced and directed more than 30 TV biographies, beginning with Warren Oates: Across the Border, and including such personalities as Harry Crews, Hunter S. Thompson, Sam Peckinpah, John Wayne, Nick Nolte and Robert Penn Warren. Thurman also has contributed to the Kentucky Muse series.

Thurman added that Lexington native Michael Shannon (born in 1974) is among a group of established Hollywood stars, having received two Academy Award nominations. “He is absolutely one of our best,” Thurman said.

Most every week, I watch The Video Vault on KET. Hosted by Morehead State University Professor Jeffrey Hill, the series features individuals with a Kentucky connection. The eighth season of the program airs on Sunday at 8 p.m. I love Hill’s closing line for each episode: “Watch more movies.” Jeffrey, don’t forget the hat.

Some months ago, Hill featured Louisville-born Billy Gilbert (18941971), a comedian with a storied career. Whenever I feel down in the dumps, I watch the old Laurel and Hardy comedy The Music Box (1932), in which Gilbert played an eternally flustered professor. Hill often highlights the work of native Kentuckians who worked behind the cameras.

Hill has spotlighted the career of Charles Middleton, a native of Elizabethtown who appeared in dozens of roles, ranging from Abraham Lincoln to Ming the Merciless in the Flash Gordon serials in a career lasting from 1920-1949. I recall the latter as being shown as short films at movie theaters and later on TV. With his ominous baritone voice and imposing tall stature, he made a perfect villain. The Flying Deuces, released in 1939, is a classic Laurel and Hardy flick with Middleton as a French Foreign Legion officer.

Other important Kentucky natives have had successful entertainment careers. William Conrad (1920-1994) was the radio voice of Matt Dillon and starred in the TV series Jake and the Fatman. This native Louisvillian had a career that spanned five decades. And who can forget Tom Ewell (1909-1994), the pride of Owensboro, who muddled around in The Seven Year Itch (1955) with actress Marilyn Monroe?

Even Irvin S. Cobb (1876-1944), a native of Paducah famous for his newspaper, magazine and book authorship, appeared in movies. His most famous role was opposite Will Rogers in Steamboat Round the Bend (1935). He also wrote movie scripts, with a character named Judge Priest as the subject of two movies. Yours truly wrote a biography of the multitalented Kentuckian titled Irvin S. Cobb: The Rise and Fall of an American Humorist.

I think the best acting talent Kentucky can claim is Patricia Neal (1926-2010), the sultry-voiced actress born in Packard, a Whitley County coal camp. Neal (Kentucky Monthly, March 2001, page 10) starred in numerous Hollywood blockbusters, including The Fountainhead (1949), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), A Face in the Crowd (released in 1957 with a menacing Andy Griffith), and Hud (1963), for which she won an Academy Award. She played Olivia Walton in the TV drama The Homecoming: A Christmas Story (1971), which spawned the long-running series The Waltons.

The drama Neal endured while married to British writer Roald Dahl was as compelling as her movies. One of their children died early in life. Neal suffered several strokes and had a long recovery period. She relearned to walk and talk, but her speech was slowed. Dahl stayed with her throughout the tragedies, but they divorced after 30 years of marriage. Neal returned to the United States and continued her career. She played her last movie role only a year before her death in 2010. In her 1988 autobiography, As I Am, she claimed, “A strong positive mental attitude will create more miracles than any wonder drug.” As you can tell, I am a movie fan, particularly of the Golden Age of Movies.

Who is your favorite Kentuckyborn actor or actress?

Readers may contact Bill Ellis at editor@kentuckymonthly.com