Here is a group of actors that seem the sort of people you’d want to know. People who don’t seem pretentious or vacuous. Actors that seem to have a little human decency. Aren’t generally alcoholics or drug addicts. Everybody is different in their tastes. There’s not a person on this list who is a “current” movie star. Someone you are going to find a feature on in this month’s People Magazine. That in itself say two things. One is a giveaway of my generation. The other is that modern film making has absolutely no appeal to my generation. The youngest actor here is 73, the rest are dead. 

Various stages of filmdom reflect the various stages of America. The most obvious example to me was the late 60s. Times they were a changing. What appeared in westerns was a strange character known as the “antihero”. Unheard of before in our horse operas. Another strange period was the vapid nature of a good number of late 20s and 30s films. Come to think of it, the 2 periods I just named were right before and right after the period largely controlled by the 2 Film Standards boards (1 protestant & 1 Catholic). They ran between 1935 an 1965 pretty much. Hollywood’s “Golden Age“.   

Sure the Duke had a ton of faults like the rest of us. He also had a ton of smarts. He made a documentary on the Vietnam War  that was one for the ages: ‘No Substitute for Victory‘. The picture was one of my favorites and one of his first, ‘Stagecoach’.

Richard Widmark was kind of an “everyman” actor. Spellcheck doesn’t even recognize his last name. This shot is from ‘The Last Wagon‘, the one I consider his best.

More than a siren. Sophia Loren was an actress. I did a series of “most beautiful” posts of actresses through all the years. She wasn’t on them. The women I put on those lists were generally classified as actresses, but to be honest a lot of them weren’t. She is. I find this photo one of her best, even if it wouldn’t be classified as “glamorous”.

Peter Sellers as his alter ego Inspector Clouseau. Like so many actors his life was  a brief one. But funny. Made me laugh.

John Rambo was my favorite Sylvester Stallone character. I chose him over Schwarzenegger, Norris, Seagal. He could make a ‘guy’ movie. Nobody grunts better.

Pluck! That’s what Shirley Temple had! And lots of it. Her kid movies were great of course, its her adult ones that left me in awe.

“The stuff that dreams are made of.” That’s what Sam Spade said. And I believe him.

Audie Murphy, he the man.

Roy Rogers
I feel bad for the kids who never got a chance to watch the best. Actor, role model.

He could a been somebody, I’m telling you. My favorite of Brando’s, On the Waterfront. That cast. Rod Steiger, Lee J. Cobb, Eva Marie Saint? That’s what believable is.

Hollywood is simply a collection of people who are work averse and want to get others to pay for their extravagant life styles while they pretend to do the “serious” work of playacting! 

There may be good movies made today, its just how would you ever know? There is so much crap out there it would obscure the gem. That brings up an interesting question though: How many movies were made in 1933? How many are made today? Okay after a little digging I come up with roughly 420 films made in 1933 according to Wikipedia. There were 876 films in 2018 according to The Numbers website. 90 years later. Twice as many films. I suppose by combining the reviews of Rotten Tomatoes critics review and audience review, that would give you a pretty good indication of which ones you want to see.

[Side note: Its as a director that Clint Eastwood shines for me. Top 3. I enjoy his work as an actor, but I swear he doesn’t come into his own until the last 10 years, where he is alone in his ability.]