Alexander the Great and Judy the Greatest
Friday, June 10, 2016 at 8:00AM On this day in history as it relates to the movies...
323 BC Alexander the Great dies of an unknown illness. Colin Farrell plays him in a movie centuries and centuries later and it's suggested that it's a combo of Typhus, Bad Wigs, and Loving Jared Leto that does him in. Who could survive that combo? (Remember when Baz Luhrmann was going to make an Alexander movie, too, but Oliver Stone beat him to it? We wish it had been the other way around.)
38 AD Julia Drusilla dies in Rome. In the infamous Bob Guccione movie Caligula (1979) her brother Caligula (Malcom McDowell) is shown licking her corpse. Somehow that's not remotely the most perverted thing in the movie!
1692 Bridget Bishop is executed for "Detestable Arts called Witchcraft & Sorceries." She's the first victim of the notorious Salem Witch Trials that will claim many lives and inspire many works of art including The Crucible and The VVitch and so on.
1889 Sessue Hayakawa is born in Japan, becomes an international silent screen superstar. Later Oscar nominated for The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
1895 Hattie McDaniel is born. Becomes a major studio player in Hollywood, the first black actor to win an Oscar, and appears in many classic films albeit as The Help. We only wish Monique were ambitious about her film career and would work on that biopic that was suggested. It'd be so rich.
1901 Frederick Loewe is born. Meets Alan Jay Lerner 41 years later and the rest is movie and stage musical history: My Fair Lady, Brigadoon, Gigi, Camelot, etcetera...
1922 Frances Ethel Gumm is born. Becomes Judy Garland, "The World's Greatest Entertainer" and one of the greatest movie stars of all time. (Easy top ten for me. How about you?) We hope you're enjoying Anne-Marie's current series "Judy by the Numbers".
1936 Soyuzmultfilm, influential animation studio of the former Soviet Union, is founded
1963 Sex god Tony Ward is born. Becomes super model, Madonna plaything ("Justify My Love" / "Sex"), and Bruce La Bruce's Hustler White (1996)
1974 Dustin Lance Black is born. Later wins the Oscar for writing Milk (2008) but, weirdly, no one threatens to take the statue back when he writes J Edgar (2011)
1985 Claus von Bulow is acquitted on attempted murder charges of his heiress wife. Jeremy Irons wins an Oscar playing him in Reversal of Fortune just five years later while the heiress wife (Glenn Close) narrates the morbid proceedings. Quibblers, including me, suggest that the Oscar was in part for that awful Dead Ringers (1988) snub two years prior.
1988 Big Business opens starring two Lily Tomlins and two Bette Midlers. Double the pleasure
2003 Wicked opens on Broadway. It goes on to gross billions. Still no movie in sight and it'll already be old hat by the time we get one. (sigh)
2007 The final episode of The Sopranos cuts to black. Do you ever think about that show now?
Reader Comments (14)
Nathaniel, while I agree that Irons should have won for Dead Ringers (or at least been nominated) he's really terrific in Fortune and of those nominees probably deserved the win. Also, and this was before my time, but was anyone really talking about Dead Ringers at all? I feel like unless your a cronenberg super fan, the default eighties classic is The Fly or Videodrome. Fortune got a lot more attention and Irons was hardly an enormous movie star so it's hard to imagine people gave him the Oscar for any reason other than his performance. Maybe I'm just biased because while I think Dead Ringers is his best, I think Fortune is a pretty worthy win (and I think it's odd Close couldn't get any traction).
Peter -- the way i remember people *were* talking about the Dead Ringers snub -- perhaps retrospectively just two years later but he did win raves for that movie and also won the Chicago, NYFCC, and Genie awards for Best Actor for DEAD RINGERS. but yes he's very good in Reversal of Fortune, too.
i assume the Close thing was just Close fatigue at that point since she'd so dominated the 80s (other than Meryl)
...only wish Monique were ambitious about her film career and work on that biopic that was suggested.
Her conversation on Hollywood is compensation. Because she did not come to acting as a trained actor she has none of the integrity to pursue the craft for art's sake. Everything is about building a business off her name with her husband-pimp manager. Hollywood could not possibly blackball someone who they're not in the business of making big to begin with.
Got it. I LOVE Dead Ringers, it's probably one of my favorite movies of all time and that anyone prefers Dustin Hoffman to Irons is ridiculous. But it seems like when you read about Cronenberg that movie tends to go unmentioned in favor of some of the more flashily crazy movies (which I also love lol) so I wasn't sure how it fared at the time. It's not something that strikes me as beings in Oscars' wheelhouse anyway.
Regarding Close-I guess after five unawarded nominations they were over it, which is sad because I prefer her in fortune to most of her nominated work. It's a shame when Oscars are finally just like "you had your chance, no more"
Nathaniel and Peter C -- Remember also that Irons himself even sort of acknowledged the likely influence of Dead Ringers on his Oscar win in his acceptance speech, "Thank you also, and some of you will understand why... thank you David Cronenberg."
Robert-I had actually forgotten about that since I tend to watch male actors' speeches once lol as opposed to the ladies' speeches (I'm sure I'm not along in this). That makes total sense.
I keep seeing Brad Pitt in Troy in that picture instead of Farrell in Alexander. And instead of Troy I almost put "Thor." Help! I'm getting my blond muscle men all mixed up!!
Judy would make any top ten greatest movie stars list I would think but most assuredly the iconic one. Those who endure through some combination of charisma, talent and infamy:
Humphrey Bogart
Marlon Brando
Charlie Chaplin
Joan Crawford
Bette Davis
James Dean
Judy Garland
Cary Grant
Audrey Hepburn
Katharine Hepburn
Marilyn Monroe
Okay, that's 11 but as far as cultural imprint I wouldn't know who to eliminate.
She'd also make my personal top twelve of favorite actresses:
Linda Darnell
Ida Lupino
Susan Hayward
Thelma Ritter
Eve Arden
Gloria Grahame
Margaret Sullavan
Jean Simmons
Judy Holliday
Priscilla Lane
Judy Garland
Rosalind Russell
I have met Jeremy Irons once or twice, but have also spoken to Claus Von Bulow several times, both of them charming in their own ways.
Yes, I recall there being at the time a lot of residual goodwill for Irons in the wake of Dead Ringers. Though his performance in Reversal of Fortune was award-worthy in its own right.
I agree about Close - and would have liked Ron Silver to be in the running too: he is amazing in the film - Irons' and Close's equal in every way. What a great triumvirate they make.
I would've loved to have seen Baz Luhrmann's version of Alexander the Great instead of the abomination that was Oliver Stone's bullshit.
I think about The Sopranos a lot. It's basically Citizen Kane of television for me.
I love Glenn Close. She's just fun to watch. I wish ROF focused more on the actual relationship of the Von Bulows rather than all the legal drama. I know it's interesting, but, IDK, I think their relationship seemed much more interesting. Plus, it would give Close a chance to go toe–to–toe with Irons throughout the movie instead of being a supporting character, which she was. She'd be amazing.
I think the Academy was confused as she was top–billed in that film but was playing a supporting character. Her physical screen time was far less than Irons (and maybe not even as much as Silver) and not enough for a lead nomination. Narration doesn't count in the minds of the voters.
A well-known person such as Alexander the Great made great feats of which the whole world knows. I want you to turn your attention to the article theislandnow.com/blog-112/great-feats-of-alexander-the-great-2/, which you will definitely like. Despite the many oppositions he faced from the rulers of Persia, the king remained strong, as in most cases he commanded his troops until victory.