Robert A. Mills, click
here to update your pages on AuthorsDen.
Blogs by Robert A. Mills
A PRECIOUS GOLDEN BOBBY 9/30/2010 8:34:28 AM
Before delving into the meat of this week’s piece, I want to tell you about an event in our subdivision in Cobb County, GA. We have a family here descended from the Revolutionary War icon, Judge Benjamin Chew. Justice Chew was a confidant and close friend of John Adams, a frequent dinner guest who often shared a flagon of Adams’ best wine.
The current Chews have a son named Ricky, a young man who attended Lassiter High School here, along with my daughter and her future husband. Rick Chew is a lieutenant in the U.S. Army, recently returned from a year of dismantling bombs in Afghanastan.
When Rick came home last week, he was greeted by neighbors lined up along the street, waving flags and shouting “Welcome Home!” as his car went by. I was particularly moved when he spotted us and stopped to tell us he had found time to speak with our daughter on the Internet, and he was especially excited she and her husband were “expecting.”
Rick’s family, of course, is delighted he is home briefly now, safe and sound, but they tell me he insists on going back over. “Gotta get the job done,” he says-—and this time he wants a more hazardous assignment. More hazardous that the Hurt Locker?
Where do soldiers like this come from?
* * *
When asked who is the greatest male actor of the 20th/21st century, I promptly answer without hesitation. My inquisitor is not surprised; she agrees with me (few ever do.)
Of course, the designee is a movie actor, not that discrimination is necessary. Most movie actors of any value (male or female) have stage experience and theater training. But keep in mind that even the worst movies open with larger audiences than all the stage productions from the Dorians to the Broadway Theater League combined (maybe that’s why New York theater tickets average $165.00. Outrageous.)
So, it follows that the greatest actor comes from the Silver Screen, provided he also has had adequate tenure on the boards. That alone eliminates the most of the popular majority.
Then too are the “stars” that habitually portray the only parts for fame available to them: themselves. Automatically eliminated consequently are the Alan Aldas, the Woody Allens, the Richard Burtons, Michael Caines, Montgomery Clifts, Gary Coopers, the James Deans, the Kirk Douglases, the Clint Eastwoods, the Glenn Fords, the Mel Gibsons, the Paul Newmans, the Cary Grants . . . and of course, so much for the Henry Fondas, the Jimmy Stewarts, the Clark Gables, the Jack Nicholsons, the Pat O’Briens, Burt Lancasters, Spencer Tracys, et al—-such pedestrian ilk can be dismissed out of hand.
Those mentioned are but a showcase that comes immediately to mind (there are many others.) Of the thousands left, we must choose the single most outstanding.
These vye for predominance: Gene Hackman, Tom Hanks, Dustin Hoffman, Anthony Hopkins, James Mason, Edmund O’Brien, Peter Sellers, Alec Guinness, Laurence Olivier, Edward G. Robinson, George C. Scott, James Woods—-I know, I know, I didn’t mention your choice. Jeez, there’re only so many hours in the day!
Well, too bad. We’ve only got one winner, and James Mason comes pretty close, thanks to his incredible performance in “Lolita” and his overall résumé. And he might have won had not Peter Sellers nearly stolen the movie from under his nose. Robert DiNero, Al Pacino and Marlon Brando had a shot, too, but “The Godfather” trilogy wacked them.
No, the clear-cut winner as the most outstanding, greatest actor of the 20th/21st century is Dustin Hoffman.
From “The Graduate” to “Midnight Cowboy” to “Kramer vs. Kramer” to “Rain Man”, no actor other than Hoffman, American or British, can legitimately lay claim to the crown. “Straw Dogs”, “Little Big Man”, “Lenny”, “All the President’s Men”, “Tootsie”, “Marathon Man” and “Papillon”
—-not to mention “Madigan’s Millions” and “Eh?” may be just frosting on the cake.
Since graduating from Los Angeles High School in 1955, this 73-year-old actor has enjoyed a remarkable career on stage and in movies, a career unparalleled in theatrical history, as the cliché goes. No one either living or dead has come within shouting distance of his achievements. His “credits” alone are in a class by themselves.
Congratulations, Dusty. You have won the first “Bobby”.
Now, for the distaff side, there is only one choice for the 20th/21st century’s greatest actress award (why they insist on calling the gals “actors” when everyone knows they are “actresses” is, as Yul Brenner would say “a puzzlement.”)
Meryl Streep. . . . Any arguments?
Of course, Katharine Hepburn and maybe Sally Field and Sigourney Weaver come close, but Streep’s credentials overwhelms them: the 61-year-old thespian has been nominated for 16 Academy Awards (won 2,) 25 Golden Globe nominations (took home 7,) 2 Emmy Awards, 2 Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Cannes Film Festival Award, 4 New York Film Critics Awards, 5 Grammy Award nominations, a BAFT award, an Australian Film Institute Award and a Tony Award nomination—plus others (hey, I’m running out of space here!)
Oh, yeah, she also received the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004!
From her stage debt in 1971 to playing the late Julia Child on screen in 2009, Meryl Streep has appeared in more theatrical productions than I have room to list here. She received a BA from Vassar and studied under Jean Arthur before earning her master’s degree from the Yale School of Drama.
One of her highest claims to fame was auditioning for the lead in “King Kong” and being turned down by Dino De Laurentis because, as he said in Italian, “she’s ugly!” (He had no clue she was fluent in the language. He’s no longer on her Christmas card list.)
Leonard Maltin’s “2002 Movie and Video Guide” lists a mere 29 of Streep’s credits, but, thanks to Ms. Streep, this 1,621 page anthology would be well over two thousand pages if kept up to date.
Of course, my own myriad detractors beg the question: Okay, Wisenheimer, which one is it you claim to be the greatest thespian—-Hoffman or Streep?
The answer is easy, if you’re a genuine and perspicacious student of dramatic arts. No question, the greatest performer of the 20th/21st century is fdjfddewVREIB RfggkeikfGafkbo44956tafiSKJUVadfjvfgbtgm,popwqb COMPUTER KEYBOARD MALFUNCTION ERROR PAGE WIN32 APPLICATION FAILEDDDDDDDDDD!!!
