MARLON BRANDO Generally considered to have been one of the greatest and most influential actors of the 20th century (by peers like Elia Kazan, Tennessee Williams, Martin Scorsese, Laurence Olivier, and Johnny Depp, among others), Marlon Brando was only 23 years old when he played Stanley Kowalski, the role that catapulted him to international fame, in Tennessee Williams’ Broadway play, A Streetcar Named Desire. He eventually went on to star in the Hollywood movie version of the play, as well as headline in such other notable films as The Wild One, On the Waterfront, Julius Caesar, Viva Zapata, Guys and Dolls (a musical in which Brando is supposed to know how to sing and Frank Sinatra isn’t — go figure!), Mutiny on the Bounty, Apocalypse Now and, of course, The Godfather. So powerful is his influence on the acting craft that today there are considered two “chapters” in acting — “before Brando” and “after Brando.”
HUMPHREY BOGART Affectionately referred to as “Bogie,” Humphrey Bogart — the son of a doctor and an artist — grew up comfortably attending private schools and learning how to sail. His first acting role was as a Japanese waiter in a stage play. Once in Hollywood, Bogart began to get typecast as villains and bad guys — roles that quickly became rote for him. So he jumped at the chance to bring Dashiell Hammett’s private eye, Sam Spade, to the screen in The Maltese Falcon, which essentially redefined his career. Following that success, he was cast in his first real romantic role opposite beautiful Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca — a film that, to this day, still vies for best movie ever made. When Lauren Bacall, a 19-year-old model-turned-actress, was cast with Bogie (age 44) in the screenplay adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s novel To Have and Have Not, sparks flew. They went on to make three more movies together, in addition to marrying and having two children. Other notable films include Sabrina, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and The African Queen, the last of which garnered him his only Oscar for Best Actor for his performance as the rough-and-ready boat captain. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Bogart the greatest male star in the history of American cinema.
CARY GRANT Born Archibald Leach in England, Cary Grant is the ultimate Hollywood leading man — devastatingly handsome, dashing, debonair, he was the epitome of elegance, charm and sophistication. He was equally at ease playing comedic roles (a veritable master of physical comedy and comic timing) as he was serious ones. Some of his most famous movies are The Philadelphia Story (with Katharine Hepburn), His Girl Friday (with Rosalind Russell), An Affair to Remember (with Deborah Kerr) and Charade (with Audrey Hepburn). He was the favorite leading man of legendary director Alfred Hitchcock, for whom he starred in classics like Notorious, To Catch a Thief, and North by Northwest. Grant was the first actor to become a free agent, effectively leaving the Hollywood studio system. Married five times, his wives included Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton (one of the wealthiest women in the world) and actress Dyan Cannon, who had his only child, Jennifer, when he was 62 years old. Never winning a competitive Academy Award, he was granted an honorary Oscar for his “unique mastery of the art of screen acting” and also earned the prestigious Kennedy Center Honor for Career Achievement in the Performing Arts. Grant’s Hollywood image concealed his deeply complex personal life, prompting him to once famously quip, “Everyone wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant.” njlifestyleonline.com
LIFESTYLE | Fall 2013
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