Clifton Webb

I thought he was a complete beast in Laura.

Sexless and unappealing.

Herbert Marshall may have been sexless but he was pleasantly appealing.

A good boy devoted to his mother her whole life

A very unlikely and improbable movie star but that's what he was, for a good ten years.

Here is a very good portrait of Webb as a young man by George Bellows.

Looks okay for a 71-year-old orphan.

Gore Vidal always hinted at SOMETHING about Clifton....I suspect it may have had something to do with PROCURING....well, arranging "dates"....

[quote] Gore Vidal

An utterly unreliable source of factual information.

Is this the guy who sang Puttin on the Ritz?

Great as Mr. Belvedere and in Cheaper by the Dozen.

Best friend of theater actress Jeanne Eagels. Befriended Marilyn Monroe around 1948. At a 1954 party, compared Monroe's talent on par with that of Eagels. Ironically, Marilyn was to play Sadie Thompson, Eagels most famous role for NBC.

Webb is buried with mom at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. For many years, the front of Clifton's crypt was loose. If you gently pushed on the top, it would wobble and make a booming noise in the marble hallway. On a midnight tour of the cemetery with the owner, a group of use went and "tipped Clifton" and proceeded to scare the crap out of everyone.

I can’t find it, but there is that painting of a young Robert Mitchum, stripped to the waist with a towel around his neck. The towel bears the initials “CW.”

It could have stood for Charlie Weaver, r11.

Who's had him?

Didn't RJ Wagner put out for him?

[quote]The towel bears the initials “CW.”

Chill Wills

He was the best thing about "Laura" and stole the whole movie.

Maybe CW means Cornell Woolrich? He was also a mama’s boy.

Or maybe it stands for The CW. Does Greg Berlanti’s influence know no bounds?

He introduced the song Easter Parade in As Thousands Cheer. Was first choice to co star in The Band Wagon with Fred Astaire. As good as Jack Buchanan was Webb would have been great. He was a musical star on Broadway at the same time as Astaire and the two of them together on screen was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Instead he starred alone in 20th Century Fox musical schlock.

R19, I loved Jack Buchanan in that role, but I see how Webb would've an interesting pairing with Astaire. Other than doing his own musicals, why did he not do The Band Wagon?

I believe Star and Stripes Forever had just been done and he got his name alone above the rest of the cast and wanted all the attention on himself. I imagine to being compared to Astaire was not something he wanted to deal with. They had similar builds as Buchanan was a very different type from Astaire. Nobody compares the two in the film they are both appreciated on their own. Also Webb was riding the crest of a late career renaissance and was a bonafide star. Taking second billing I assume was not something he wanted to do. Also when they were stars on Broadway were they friendly, cordial or competitive?

[quote] In 1928, William Frawley was fired from the Broadway show That's My Baby for punching actor Clifton Webb in the nose.

It was the only thing I liked about him.

[quote]I'd have punched him in the face too.

Why, OP/R22?

Since you bumped your thread with another remark on the punch, it's evidently something to which you wish to draw attention. I'll oblige.

Do you have difficulty distinguishing actors from the roles they play? Or are you triggered by effeminate men? Why do you feel Webb deserved to be punched?

^^^this is a good question. Would OP punch David Niven or Eric Blore?

There is a very ugly story about Clifton Webb and Ethel Waters when they starred together on Broadway in As Thousands Cheer(where she introduced Suppertime and Heat Wave.) Irving Berlin was so furious he interceded. But this is a thread to speak of Webb's considerable talents and not his considerable flaws.

Please don't tell me, R25, that he was a racist towards her.

r14 Who DIDN'T he put out for???

[quote] There is a very ugly story about Clifton Webb and Ethel Waters when they starred together on Broadway in As Thousands Cheer

According to Donald Bogle's bio of Waters, HEAT WAVE, the two white stars of the show (Webb and Marilyn Miller) had no social interaction with Waters offstage. At some point Webb took to greeting Ethel by saying, "Hi, Topsy." Waters, who didn't take shit from anyone, responded by greeting Webb with, "Hi, Pansy," at which point Webb stopped his racist greeting.

Good for her!

I bet the CW on Mitchum's towel was for "Clint Walker". I'd like to have seen that pairing!

I loved his interaction with Barbara Stanwyck in their version of [italic]Titanic[/italic], but at the same time it was difficult to believe that they could be a married couple.

His Beverly Hills home, which is he alleged to haunt, is for sale.

Actor Robert Wagner, who co-starred with Webb in the films Stars and Stripes Forever and Titanic and considered the actor one of his mentors, stated in his memoirs, Pieces of My Heart: A Life, that "Clifton Webb was gay, of course, but he never made a pass at me, not that he would have"...

Webb's closest friend was Broadway actress Jeanne Eagels.

Holiday For Lovers

[quote]He was the best thing about "Laura" and stole the whole movie.

Yeahhhh.

Fag!

And for a long time after that, [R3]. Accd'g to Noel Coward's diaries, our Clifton went quite round the bend after she passed.