Friday
Mar082019
Open Thread for International Women's Day
Friday, March 8, 2019 at 2:05PM Still sick. Apologies! So herewith an open thread. I'll give you a prompt.
Name the first three actresses you ever loved in the comments! Mine were probably Hayley Mills and Maureen O'Hara (because The Parent Trap was my favorite movie as a wee tyke) and Natalie Wood (because I was obsessed with musicals as a kid and particularly West Side Story airings on television). The trifecta of Michelle Pfeiffer, Kathleen Turner, and Meryl Streep that completely done me in* at movie theaters happened a bit later.
*aka caused my actressexuality
Reader Comments (124)
Catherine Zeta-Jones in The Mask of Zorro; I'm pretty sure she single-handedly pushed me into puberty.
Debbie Reynolds....Unsinkable Molly Brown....She survived the Titanic only to lose the Oscar to Julie Andrews...
Jaklyn Smith, Joan Collins and Kathleen Turner in my childhood. From then on , my holy Trinity are Maggie Smith , Glenn Close and Annette Bening .
What a great thread--I'm finding it a bit hard to figure out what mine might be! I was born in '78. I'm interpreting the question somewhere in the middle of how others have been answering--not as extreme as full-bloom actress love (where you're writing doctoral dissertations about your fave) but not as casual as "Oh, I loved this one person in this one role." There were certainly female characters I liked growing up (who didn't like Wonder Woman?), but I don't think I *loved* Lyda Carter. I loved Wonder Woman. I think one other thing to consider is access to TV/films, which was so much more limited when some of us were growing up. Pre-internet and pre-streaming there was much less access to information about your faves. My family didn't have a computer growing up, and now that's almost un-thinkable for most families.
So here's mine:
Kim Basinger--Maybe an odd choice, and I haven't seen her mentioned elsewhere. Batman came out in 1989 and I pretty much thought it was the most amazing film ever made, got the VHS tape as a Christmas gift, and probably watched it 8,000 times. I just thought she was impossibly beautiful and glamorous. Basically she just runs around screaming throughout the entire movie, but I thought she was so watchable and such a star. I remember getting the US Magazine with her on the cover --it was their "10 Most Beautiful Women in the World" issue (yes, magazines used to do that)--and being in awe. There was a movie that I really liked her in prior to "Batman" called "My Step-Mother Is An Alien" (before you judge, I was 10, and I was not watching art films at the time). And because I liked her so much, I even made my parents go see the much-maligned "The Marrying Man" and bought the cassette tape of the soundtrack after saving up allowance money. So even if Basinger was not a long-term actress love, I think she was the first actress I really dug in a big way.
Meg Ryan--I remember watching Top Gun and Innerspace and just finding her so warm and endearing. And then with When Harry Met Sally--I was too young to *get* a lot of the humor, but she made a big impression. Back in the day, she was my favorite rom-com queen, and I'd love it if she made *some* kind of a comeback someday.
Sigourney Weaver--I'm stretching a bit with this one, I think, because I didn't see those iconic Aliens films until I was a teenager (I remember seeing Alien 3 in the theaters and probably saw the others on video a year or so before), and that's when I really started to appreciate her.. But ... she's responsible for my first strong opinion about the Oscars, so she deserves a mention. When I was a kid I loved monkeys, and I REALLY wanted to see "Gorillas in the Mist." Anyway, I was quite taken with how strongly she felt about the gorillas lol. And I proclaimed to my parents that she deserved an Oscar, even though I don't think I quite understood what the Oscars were at the time. I'm sure my parents were thinking, "Where did this kid come from?"
So those would be mine. My true favorites (Moore, Kidman, Pfeiffer) would emerge later.
Keira Knightley
Vivien Leigh
Cate Blanchett
But I don’t really love any actors the same way some do here, expecially towards their personal lives. But these were the people who gave performances that effected me in early age and made me want to see other films by them.
Don't apologize for still being sick, Nathaniel! We are all sorry you are ill. Get better!
Natalie Wood, Natalie Wood, Natalie Wood
and Meryl Streep
The FIRST actresses I loved were those who made their mark in television: as a child, I wasn't taken to the movies very often.
Elizabeth Montgomery made her mark on my heart playing the part of Samantha in BEWITCHED. I'm sure part of why I found her mesmerizing had to do with the fact that she wielded magic powers. She was easy to love because she was beautiful and used her power for good. Naturally, I was traumatized when I saw her in The Legend of Lizzie Borden. She helped me realize that actresses are NOT the characters they play, but the best ones certainly can create the illusion of fully inhabiting their characters so as to create a sense of surprise when they later play against type. (I'll add that, as an adult, I am even more enamored of Agnes Moorehead and her "evil" Endora.)
When I saw Barbra Streisand in one of her tv specials and later in Funny Girl, I capitulated entirely to her charisma and her talent. She was funny and zany and heartbreaking and utterly unconventional with a voice that was capable of even more magic than Samantha's twitching nose.
One of the first movies I saw in a theater was Bedknobs and Broomsticks. I've loved Angela Lansbury ever since. She wasn't patronizing to children, she was fun, and she too had magic and music to aid her in winning my heart.
Carrie Fisher
The original women from The Mary Tyler Moore show - Mary Tyler Moore, Valerie Harper and Cloris Leachman.
I don't think anyone has mentioned mine yet. As a child of the 1970s, with a taste for science fiction and superheroes, let me present to you---
Yvonne Craig (TV's Batgirl)
Erin Gray (TV's Colonel Wilma Deering)
Connie Sellecca (Pam Davidson, from TV's The Greatest American Hero)
-Veronica Lake was really the 1st one that completely entranced me as a kid. One look at her and your mind was scrambled. Who is That?!?
-Molly Ringwald-something about her charisma made the 80s better. How about of us wore out VHS tapes rewatching ‘the Molly Trilogy?’ (16, TBC, PinP).
-Cameron Diaz-Just has a natural glow. I can watch anything she’s in just to look at her :)
Doris Day - Obsessed with the 50's & her when I was 12 (still love her because of that)... besides funny there was something pure (if u find the right movie even "raw" in her acting.
Diana Rigg - Whatever happened to Emma Peel scared the shit out of me !
Katharine Hepburn or Farah Fawcett - for the one I wanted the Oscar in 82 at the first ceremony I saw so badly - from the other one I wanted ... mostly her hair !
The early love never really vanishes completely ...
I had Clue memorized line for line by the sixth grade, so I'll go with the brilliant trio of Lesley Anne Warren, Madeline Kahn and Eileen Brennan.
now is Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, Kate Winslet
Earlier in life it probably was Geena Davis, Sela Ward (LOVED SIsters), Sharon Stone (LOVED Casino)
Hope you feel better, Nathaniel.
What a fun question. Would love to see these tabulated by age of responders.
Then;
Julie Andrews (ridiculously in love)
Maureen O’Hara (mostly for The Quiet Man but there was also a pirate movie)
Shirley Jones (while everyone! was drooling over David Cassidy, I was obsessed with Shirley)
Now:
Sarah Lancashire (can’t even explain; so in love)
Olivia Colman (just adorable)
Florence Pugh (something about her performances amaze me)
Jane Wyman In Pollyanna, Debbie Reynolds, and Julie Andrews.
Love this thread!
My first childhood loves:
1) Julie Andrews (glad, and not one bit surprised, to see she was so many others' first love)
2) Jane Powell from "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" - never saw her in anything else, but damn, did I adore her Milly...and still do.
Didn't really *love* any others until my teen years...and then I fell hard for Noni Ryder and Emma Thompson in the '90s.
Hayley Mills (Pollyanna)
Lynda Carter (Wonder Woman)
Daryl Hannah (Splash)
Julie Andrews, Deborah Walley and Stella Stevens.
Greta Garbo
Nicole Kidman
Julie Christie
eurocheese -- I was tempted to write the exact same thing before I made my final selections!
davide -- One day when I was furloughed I was THREE Lizzie Borden movies, and I think Liz's is the best (although I did like the Malicky version with Kristen Stewart and Chloe Sevigny).
Anjelica Huston, Margaret Hamilton, Bette Davis
Great answer euro cheese!