Actors from old movies you adore

Dearest OP, I'm sure you meant to say, " Actors from old movies whom you adore."

Ronald Coleman

George Sanders

Peter Cushing.

Norma Shearer.

Marjorie Main

Maria Casarès

Dietrich

Marie Dressler

Hattie McDaniel

Edna May Oliver

Kay Francis

Ida Lupino

Thelma Ritter

I'm so disappointed to find out that so many of my favorite actors and actresses from the gold age of Hollywood were Republicans: Jimmy Stewart, Fred Astaire, Barbara Stanwyck, Rosalind Russell. Too many to list.

Gene Tierney

Marlene Dietrich

Fredric March

Vincent Price

The young Tyrone Power and young Elizabeth Taylor. Those two could be brother and sister, both dark-haired beauties with stunning eyes and face.

Jack Carson

Maybe the Republicans weren't as crazy and evil back then as they are now R10. It is very disappointing though.

Kay Francis, Una Merkel, Robert Montgomery, Louise Beavers, Guy Kibbee, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Ricardo Cortez, Aileen McMahon, and Joan Blondell.

Babs Stanwyck, Deborah Kerr, Irene Papas, Margaret Rutherford, Deanna Durbin, Barbara Steele, Burt Lancaster, Stefania Sandrelli, Robert Donat, Ruby Keeler, Doris Day...

Miriam Hopkins

Margaret Dumont, Claude Rains, William Powell, Myrna Loy, Charles Laughton, Elsa Lanchester, John Williams, Cary Grant, Tyrone Power

Claire Trevor, Ann Sheridan, Ava Gardner.

These "list" threads are ever so boring, my dears!

Lon Chaney Sr.

Dana Andrews

Van Heflin

Gene Tierney

Laird Cregar

Yeah, R22. Let's hear it for our favorite, ol' Laird!

Paulette Goddard

Norma Shearer

Gene Raymond

Miriam Hopkins

Leo and Lance

Not the best actor ever....but I always liked Alan Ladd for some reason. His frequent co-star Veronica Lake is another one I always liked despite a lack of serious acting talent

Bette Davis is my favorite actress ever - I'm a walking gay cliche.

I also like many of the actors mentioned upthread.....Jack Carson is always watchable, Gene Tierney had a memorable presence, and Van Heflin was underrated.

I know some people here don't like him but I usually enjoy watching Van Johnson

Mary Boland. L'amour! Toujours l'amour

William Powell, Myrna Loy, Edward G. Robinson, Richard Widmark. Too many to choose from.

Jean Arthur Ethel Barrymore …(and, not TOO "old", Sandy Dennis)

Did I start this thread in my sleep? Stanwyck is my favorite actress & I, too, love Margaret Sullavan (& OP knows how to spell her name!) But I've never seen her in a comedy, unless "The Shop Around The Corner" falls into that category (not really, in my view). Which of her films are comedies, OP?

What? No Ingrid Bergman! My all-time favorite. Love every one of her films. Stanwyck a close second but for very different reasons. And I know I shouldn't admit it but I happen to think Joan Crawford became a much better actress in the late 1930s and a damn good one in the 1940s. I'm fascinated by her 1940s films in particular.

Glenn Close

Eve Arden

Marilyn Monroe

Vincent Price

Thelma Ritter

[quote] I, too, love Margaret Sullavan (& OP knows how to spell her name!) But I've never seen her in a comedy, unless "The Shop Around The Corner" falls into that category (not really, in my view). Which of her films are comedies, OP?

Her greatest film, bar none, is "The Good Fairy," a hilarious comedy directed by William Wyler and written by Preston Sturges. I highly recommend you see this!

(She's also great in 'The Moon's Our Home,' another comedy with Jimmy Stewart.)

Irene Dunne: one of the funniest of all screwball comediennes.

Claudette Colbert: ditto.

Norma Shearer

Joan Crawford

Rosalind Russell

Paulette Goddard

Mary Boland

Joan Fontaine

Marjorie Main

Virginia Weidler

Someone just watched "The Women"

What the FUCK does r36 have against me?!

And me!

Ann Sothern Jack Carson (Hollywoods most versatile actor - he could play in any genre) Ann Sheridan Joan Blondell James Cagney Allen Jenkins (forgotten character actor, one of the very first in Hollywood to go public about his alcoholism and join AA)

Jeffrey Hunter

Robert Ryan

Barbara Rush

Teresa Wright

Jean Hagen

Sterling Hayden

Gloria Grahame

Dorothy Malone

George Kennedy

Martin Balsam

Arthur Kennedy

Ruth Roman

James Whitmore

Maureen O'Hara

Barry Sullivan

Ethel Barrymore

Laird Cregar

Jimmy Stewart

James Whitmore

Ralph Bellamy

Marilyn Monroe

Alice Faye

Dane Clarke. A sexy little bitch in the Warner Brothers, John Garfield mode.

Dorothy Lamour. Nobody could rock a sarong like she could.

I'm watching Fire Over England on TCM right now. Laurence Olivier is gorgeous in this, especially with the Van Dyck beard. His acting's a little too flowery, but what a beautiful man!

Molly Ringwald

James Spader

Meryl Streep

Cher

Matthew Broderick

Helen Twelvetrees, Leatrice Joy, Mary Miles Minter

Wow, R40! Allen Jenkins! I like him too! Even find him kind of hot in an odd way. Just realized he kind of resembles the first guy that I truly lusted for and obsessed over the summer that I was 13. Ugly/handsome kid up the road.

Oh, and Dane Clark, R44! So surly and hot in "A Stolen Life" with Bette Davis!

Love those Warner Brothers lugs and dames. Alan Hale, Allen Jenkins, Guy Kibbee, Frank McHugh, Dick Foran, Guinn Williams, Joan Blondell, Ann Dvorak, Claire Dodd, Aline McMahon, Hugh Herbert, Glenda Farrell...

Stanwyck was probably the most versatile actress of them all. Comedy, film noir, western, drama ... Her personality was strong, but not overpowering her roles.

Charles Coburn

Marilyn Monroe cracks me up as she continually calls his character of Sir Francis Beekman "Piggy" in GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES.

I learned only a few years ago that Charles Coburn was James Coburn's grandfather.

Carole Lombard

Myrna Loy

William Powell

Alice Brady

Claude Rains

Robert Mitchum ... so lovely to look at

Gail Patrick

Silvana Mangano

Setsuko Hara

Jean Gabin

Alain Delon

Lucia Bose

Gerard Philipe

Michelle Morgan

James Cagney

Alice Pearce

Mildred Natwick

I don't get the love for Stanwyck. Yes, she was versatile but like Davis, she had a tendancy to ham it up shamelessley. In Double Indemnity she is awful, like a drag queen.

[quote]Silvana Mangano

Fun fact: she was Giada De Laurentiis's grandmother.

I love Stanwyck. I never really knew her work until I was older, but now I see her as among the very nest among her peers. Although she isn't the best "actress" per se, but she's compelling and so much fun to watch!

I recently watched "Bad Day at Black Rock", and I was astounded at how wonderful Spencer Tracey was in it. He's always good, but as he got older he was even better.

Oops. I posted above this. I meant to say Joan Crawford wasn't the best actress but is compelling and fun to watch!

Stanwyck was a superb film actress.

James Cagney was pure charisma. Nobody could touch him.

Gregory Peck was always my favorite.

I also liked Ingrid Bergman, Robert Mitchum, Joseph Cotten, Jean Paul Belmondo and a bunch of others I'll think of later.

Christopher Lee, Vincent Price, Peter Cushing, Boris Karloff, Gregory Peck, Anthony Perkins, Montgomery Clift, Sterling Hayden, Burt Lancaster, Richard Burton, Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, Spencer Tracy, Marcello Mastroianni, Alain Delon, Robert Mitchum, Glenn Ford are always a pleasure to watch behind the screen.

[quote] These "list" threads are ever so boring, my dears!

We exist only to entertain and amuse you specifically, r20! That's why we get paid the big bucks.

I am partial to Ida Lupino, Irene Dunne, and Una Merkel.

[quote] I learned only a few years ago that Charles Coburn was James Coburn's grandfather. .

Not so, apparently.

cary grant

The dreamy boy next door Tom Drake.

Robert Benchley, Jimmie Gleason, Billy de Wolf, Jean Arthur, Margaret Rutherford, Hans Conreid, Oscar Levant, Doris Day, Howard Keel and Cary Grant

Jack Carson and James Garner.

I stand corrected about Charles and James Coburn being related.

They should have been though...

Thanks, R34. I've never seen those -- hope TCM shows them, the sound great.

Basil Rathbone. Quite sexy at times. Sometimes creepy, even satanic. Loved him.

Kay Francis, George O'Brien, Miriam Hopkins, Gail Russell, Gene Tierney, Ida Lupino

Another vote for Charles Coburn, and one for Marjorie Main.

As a big Stanwyck fan, let me recommend her 1960/61 anthology series "The Barbara Stanwyck Show" (for which she won an Emmy).

Ir's available on Netflix.

My particular favorite episodes feature her as "Josephine Little" -- a Hong Kong based importer/exporter.

Ralph Bellamy had a supporting role in them as the American ambassador.

They are delightfully campy- especially when Barbara gets to scream about the American way at some sinister Red Chinese spies.

Joe Cotton

R66

Good God. Can you believe someone even thought that possible ? I mean, sweet Jesus !!

"The First Lady Of The Screen", "The Queen Of The Lot" and "The Biggest Of The Big" Mrs. Irving G. Thalberg Miss Norma Shearer

How can I compete? She's fucking the boss!

I find John Davidson, a *very* peripheral member of the ensembles in *Dinner at Eight* and *Grand Hotel*, oddly riveting in his scenes.

Joel McCrea

Fiesty and Fun -- Teresa Wright. You know if she ever wandered into the story of The Women, she could beat down those bitches in a flash.

Doris Day

Eve Arden

Joel McCrea (befiore all that western shit) and Gene Raymond. Norma Shearer. Miriam Hopkins, Paulette Goddard. Bette and Joan.

Grady Sutton. Yes, I know he's more of a character actor than a leading man, but I've always enjoyed him whenever he's featured in a movie.

Peter Lorre

Jean Arthur was my favourite screwball heroine. (I loathe Lombard, Hepburn etc) Of that lot, Joel McCrea was the sexiest. Adore Herbert Marshall as well. Myrna Loy was the greatest.

I love the WB guys in drama AND comedy - Paul Muni, George Brent, Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre, Gordon Macrae, Gig Young, James Cagney and my number one, John Garfield (and his poor man blonde, Dane Clark)

Barbara Stanwyck was always Barbara Stanwyck in every movie she played. You never forgot who you were watching because it was always the same. She was the Jack Nicholson of the 30's and 40's.

Gladys Cooper.

Nobody could compare playing the evil rich mean condescending bitch.

She is the life force itself.

Ann Harding. Her acting style was so far ahead of the rest of the pack it was amazing. Watch, if you can find it, her Oscar-nominated performance in the first (pre-Hepburn) version of "Holiday". Incredible.

I have to add William Powell to the list. This guy was a very good actor and seems so modern in his laconic style. He had a comedic timing second to none and should be remembered more than he is. My favorite William Powell films are;

The Thin Man My Man Godfrey Libeled Lady I love you Again

I guess I'm the last one alive who loves the oh so grand and noble Greer Garson.

Nobody could pull off that shit like her and Random Harvest is one of the all time greats.

The way she and Coleman suffer terribly over lost love is perfection.

Garson is at her non-grand-dame best in "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" doing a music hall turn

R92

I love Bill Powell too.

One of my favorite things about him is his improbable "mid-Atlantic" accent. He was born in Pittsburg and raised in Kansas City, but spent his entire movie career sounding like Franklin Roosevelt prep-school roommate.

John Payne and Ida Lupino are two of many favorites. Of the old studios I like Warner Bros. best.

The late LEE PATRICK

So versatile and did everything very well. A WB contract player for some time. Amongst her long line of credits:

She played Mrs. Biederhoff, the woman Joan's husband Bert is fooling around with in MILDRED PIERCE

LEE was BOGART'S secretary in THE MALTESE FALCON

Played the sensible family friend of PAUL HENRIED who befriends Charlotte (BETTE DAVIS) in NOW, VOYAGER

Tough crime lady boss in CAGED

Comedy too; She was the original Mrs. Claude Upson (Doris) in AUNTIE MAME and NICK ADAMS' mother in 1959's PILLOW TALK

Agnes Moorehead.

Cesar Romero

Lee Patrick was also Leo G. Carroll's dizzy wife on the "Topper" series.

Mary Wickes

Marie Windsor - oh, those hooded eyes!

Thanks for mentioning Marie Windsor. She's one of my favorite noir dames. Audrey Totter is another one I like. She made an awesome bitch in "Tension"

Jan Sterling especially in Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole

R90 Only more butch .

James Cagney was sex on a stick. His slightly dangerous smile and cocky attitude always turned me to mush.

Sonja Henie

I realize that none of the Kay Francis fans who posted above may still be reading this 5 years later, but this question is for whoever's here now: what did/does anyone see in her? She had a plain face and bad posture, not to mention a speech impediment that caused her to slur the letter R -- and not much acting talent. Yet she was a major star for years, which is lost on me.

The now-forgotten Lee Tracy.

Margaret Wycherly (Cagney's mom in White Heat).

George Brent wasn't much of an actor, but he was great eye-candy until age (and some extra pounds) caught up to him.