Thursday, September 30, 2010

Eight 1950s Oscar Nominated (Male) Actors Left

Today came the news that Tony Curtis and Joe Mantell died, Best Actor nominee 1958 and Best Supporting Actor nominee 1955, respectively. This leaves just eight (male) actors left among 1950s Oscar nominees, as follows— Best Actor nominees (three): Ernest Borgnine [the last male '50s Oscar winner; photo], Kirk Douglas, and Sidney Poitier. Best Supporting Actor nominees: Don Murray, Mickey Rooney, Russ Tamblyn, Theodore Bikel, and Robert Vaughn. Surprising how few remain.

Friday, September 10, 2010

New "At the Movies": The Return of Roger Ebert

Good News!  At the Movies is back.  The piece of the pilot that's available online (below) is very encouraging.  If you get Ebert's annual, you see that he's extremely well-informed as to what movie fans spend their time doing/thinking, in addition to the latest in moviemaking techniques.  That's suggested in this new program which combines various features to the usual movie reviewing.



My only question is why isn't Ebert using the computerized voice that matches his own (as he demonstrated on Oprah) and instead has that Stephen Hawking-like "voice."

Show starts in January... I'll be watching!

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Four Surviving Cast Members (Speaking Parts) Remain From "Gone With the Wind"

With the passing of Cammie King at the age of 76, just four cast members with speaking parts are left from the all-time classic Hollywood epic Gone With the Wind (according to all available sources online).  As "Bonnie Blue Butler," she was Scarlett and Rhett's daughter.  She first appears at 187 minutes into the film [1 hour 19 min into DVD 2] Cammie King obit at pressdemocrat.

Although in previous blog entries, I noted Mary Anderson as living (per her IMDb and Wikipedia pages), it seems less and less likely that she is alive.  No one is actually claiming she is and when genarians.com didn't list her on their comprehensive living people born in 1920 list, I decided to drop my own claim herein.)

The surviving actors are as follows:

Alicia Rhett (b. 2/1/15) as "India Wilkes."  She is the young daughter from the Twelve Oaks Plantation.  She can be seen at 18 minutes into the film (using the 4-disc Collector's Edition DVD version of the movie as a guide).



Olivia de Havilland (b. 7/1/16) as "Melanie Hamilton."  De Havilland was fourth billed and received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for Gone With the Wind.   She's first seen at 19 minutes into the film.



Ann Rutherford (b. 11/2/20) as "Carreen O'Hara."  She is the youngest sister of Scarlett.  She is first seen at 14 minutes into the film.




Mickey Kuhn (b. 9/21/32) as "Beau Wilkes."  Playing Ashley and Melanie's son, he appears toward the very end of the film (216 minutes into the approximately 223 minute film [1 hour 48 min into DVD 2])


Among the non-speaking parts is cast member Patrick Curtis who appeared at a screening of GWTW at the Motion Picture Academy last year— he played Beau Wilkes as a baby (and was therefore born c. 1938-39).