TCM showed Laurence Harvey movies today/tonight 8/11. How did this B-list talent get cast in good pictures?

I've always thought he was a captivating actor, but he has was a horrid human being.

He didn't act. He talked. And he wasn't pretty.

Laurence Harvey - who was his boyfriend?

No idea, R3, but obviously someone in power at a studio.

Why did they cast him as an American in "The Manchurian Candidate" when he didn't even attempt an accent?

[quote] Why did they cast him as an American in "The Manchurian Candidate" when he didn't even attempt an accent?

Because he was just that convincing!

Laurence Harvey was the kindest, warmest, bravest, most wonderful human being I ever knew in my life.

I always liked him. Why no Darling (1965), TCM?

Harvey had the sex appeal of a cold-blooded, slit-eyed lizard. Who could believe the gorgeous and sophisticated Simone Signore would kill herself because Harvey married the frumpy daughter of a rich guy in Room at the Top + Why would Liz kill herself by crashing her car into an unfinished freeway off-ramp in Butterfield Eight? Why would Capucine prefer getting fucked by Harvey instead of getting nightly humped by brothel-keeper Lezzie Barbara Stanwick in Walk on the Wild Side?

I liked him very much.

He had earwigs in his head.

^ love that episode of Night Gallery. That was his best performance, IMHO

He was family

Harvey's fellow British actors were bewildered by his Hollywood success. They couldn't figure out why he kept getting cast in prestige films. Apparently, he was an opportunist who bedded men and women to get ahead.

He was good looking in the '50s but by the mid-'60s had really gone to seed. His acting worked when the character was cold and remote.

But yes, his success at getting starring roles again and again despite his mostly dreary filmography is baffling.

George Jacobs, Frank Sinatra’s valet, wrote “Mr. S: My Life With Frank Sinatra,” a memoir in which he relates that Harvey often made passes at him while visiting Sinatra. Jacobs says that Sinatra was aware of Harvey's sexuality but did not mind, passing it off as a joke: “He has the handicaps of being a homo, a Jew, and a Polock*, so people should go easy on him.”

Gorge Jacobs recalled , "Sinatra affectionately called him "Ladyboy" in recognition of Harvey's bisexuality."

R7 I thought you were describing Monty Clift.

R16- Harvey was good looking at that time. Why would he make a pass at Sinatra who was NEVER good looking.

HE was a repellant actor. His success is baffling. Someone like Dirk Bogarde should have had Harvey's Hollywood success, a much better actor and far more appealing on screen.

He appeared on the game show Password. I laughed when he said, at 2:01, that he'd be playing in Camelot, as "either the king or the queen." A surprised Allen Ludden didn't know how to respond to that.

[quote]How did this B-list talent get cast in good pictures?

PICTURES? I didn't know you were still alive, Great-Great-Grandpappy!

Even though i just watched it, it boggles my mind seeing Laurence Harvey on a game show.

[quote] Hello this is my partner (ahem) Terry Barrett from Cedar Grove, New Jersey, and we're all here to play paahs-word.

I bought some of the old Password eps on DVD. They're a lot of fun, and, yes, there are a lot of celebrity guests you'd never expect to see on a game show (Anthony Perkins, Woody Allen, Jane Fonda). Both Joan Fontaine and Dear Livvie made appearances on the show, too!

After a decade of being only famous in the UK, he was ideally cast as an ambitious-if-conflicted cad in Room at the Top (1959), which got a ton of praise when released and was carried along to an Oscar nomination when the film nabbed 6 nominations; in addition to Best Actor for Harvey, the movie was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director (Jack Clayton), Best Supporting Actress (Hermione Baddeley, with 2 minutes 19 seconds of screen time, holds the record for the shortest nominated performance in Oscar history), and won for Best Actress (Simone Signoret) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Neil Paterson).

Capitalizing on the success of the film in the US and his Oscar nomination, as well as probably sexing with the right people, he nabbed lead roles in 2 major 1960 films, BUtterfield 8 opposite Elizabeth Taylor, and The Alamo, opposite John Wayne and Richard Widmark. Those films were even more successful, and so he coasted in Hollywood for several more years.

Not too difficult to understand.

I thought he was good in Room at the Top.