Thursday, January 19, 2012

Other Famous People Portrayed (Or Not Portrayed) On Film

My post yesterday got me thinking about other legends and how they are portrayed on film.  So I pulled the top ten male and female legends according to the American Film Institute. 

It is interesting how some actors or actress like Marilyn Monroe have been portrayed over and over again.  Others, I can't find any depictions.

1. Humphrey Bogart



Bogie had a successful career, a crazy life and an epic love story.  But other than a lame television movie, they haven't tackled his life story.  Heck, his widow even wrote an awesome book about her life and their relationship.  But who could play Bogie?

1. Katharine Hepburn


What are these stars looking at anyway?  That is the beside the point.  Kate has been portrayed.  Most famously by Cate Blanchett.



Cate won an Oscar for it.  She has the voice down OK and holds herself pretty well.  But it wasn't the life story of the girl who lost her brother to suicide, had a mother who helped start Planned Parenthood and carried on a twenty-five year affair with a married man. 


2. Cary Grant




The only credit I can find for a portrayel is a little unknown guy in the movie "The Aviator".

Cary has the rags from riches story.  He started as Archie Leach, he was a circus performer and self made man.  He was married a whole bunch of times.  No movie  yet.


2. Bette Davis



There have been a few cameos, but no feature film on Bette Davis.  She was an actress with balls.  She ran her career and wasn't afraid to say it like it was.  Her only daughter wrote a brutal tell all book and Bette fired back with a hate filled retort.  That is why you save the celebrity memoir until after they pass away.


3. James Stewart




Poor Jimmy has never had a movie about him either.  He was a nice guy, the Tom Hanks of his day.  Just the fact that he left his movie career and enlisted in the military during World War II is worth a movie.  He was almost rejected because was too thin and worked to gain weight to go. 


3. Audrey Hepburn




Audrey was portrayed in a television movie by Jennifer Love Hewitt.   A TV movie?  Starring that girl from "Party Of Five"?   So sad.





4. Marlon Brando

   


There is young hot Brando.  Old "Godfather" Brando.  Dramatic life and no movie. 


4. Ingrid Bergman




She imigrated to the US, made incredible movies and then got pregnant out of wedlock.  It was a terrific scandal at the time.  She even managed to come back from that and married the love of her life and father of her baby.  That isn't a story that is movie worthy?


5. Fred Astaire




Fred Astaire doesn't have a movie.  What ticks me off here?  Ginger Rogers isn't in the top ten and she did everything that Fred did only backwards and in heels.


5. Greta Garbo




This one should be ripe for a dramatic feature.  She grew up in Swedish slums.  She was one of the few actresses to transition from silent films to the talkies.  Greta was rumored to be a lesbian and never married.  She dropped out of movies in the forties and never spoke in public.   It was even a plotline in a Anne Bancroft movie "Garbo Talks" about a dying woman who wants to meet Greta before she dies.

I will finish the top ten tomorrow. 


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