Name 3 of the dullest, most boring, no there, there A list Hollywood male actors of the 40s, 50's and 60's

Alan Ladd

Jimmy Stewart ruined every single fucking movie he was in.

There is no way Grace Kelly would have given him the time off a wall clock, let alone her undivided attention in Rear Window.

George Peppard

Does George Kennedy count? Uninteresting asshole.

With all due respect, I never saw the appeal of Montgomery Clift. He was never more than okay-looking as far as I could see. And his acting was non-descript. In "A Place in the Sun" was "stand here and be slightly good-looking." But then I thought Winters and Liz were horrible in that as well, so maybe it was just shitty directing.

Rock Hudson redeems himself entirely with with performance in Seconds. Same with George Peppard to a lesser extent in The Blue Max.

Clift is really good in the "The Misfits", R5. He's very moving as a little-boy-lost cowpoke who Marilyn's character wants to care for, in a mothering way. His performance is very melancholy but he brings a good amount of quirkiness to the whole thing too.

His performance in Seconds

R6, agree that Hudson's performance in Seconds was amazing.

Marlene Dietrich was crazy about James Stewart. They had an affair while filming Destry Rides Again,

R7, I am ashamed to admit that I have never seen The Misfits and will do so.

Monroe and Gable were evidently turning in career-making performances as well.

Leave Rock alooooone. Love him.

I liked Dana Andrews in Laura

He was a good actor but I always found William Holden kinda dull

Doris Day.

Ronald Reagan

Laurence Harvey

Victor Mature

Yeah, I agree R13, William Holden was dull, except for Network

I like Fred MacMurray in "The Apartment," but not much else. Part of the reason he's boring is because he seems bored.

Ronald Reagan was as charismatic as an actor as he was as president.

Rod Taylor.

I disagree about Rod Taylor.

Gary Cooper

Henry Fonda

R21, I know this is all subjective but holy shit, I couldn't disagree more. Have you seen Once Upon a Time in The West? Fonda is chilling in that one. And Gary Cooper is the hottest Classic Hollywood star by far.

John Wayne

John Raitt

Matt Damon

Anyone thinking Glenn Ford is dull is just too stupid to pay attention.

Dana Andrews was smoking hot , and enjoyed Glenn Ford in Gilda ….

Van Johnson - a horror to look at and a dead fish of an actor

Danny Kaye - a horror to look act and a milquetoast dead fish of an actor

Jack Lemmon - is it possible to be annoying and boring at the same time? Jack Lemmon makes me say yes.

r23 I'd like to hear more about Matt Damon's 1940s-1960s film career.

Glenn Ford was a wonderful leading man and actor, is this a dumbed down Millennial posting? Of course it is.

I wouldn’t call John Raitt an A list Hollywood star - wasn’t he more Broadway? And Gary Cooper is so cool - he plays the harmonica in several movies and I think the tuba, too. And yes, he was absolutely beautiful. There was definitely there there.

R13- He was also good LOOKING.

Gregory Peck

They’re all of their eras. I think the shorter list is who was interesting. Clark Gable? Women had a much larger range of emotion to play. Men were stoic and often bland.

John Gavin was terribly good looking, but oh so boring.

John Hodiak

Hugh Marlowe

Dana Andrews was so sexy. He looked like he’d be up for a nasty fuck

Robert Ryan.

George Brent, forever looking like a giant zero next to Bette Davis.

To each his own, R5, but I find Clift far from dull or vacant in Red River, The Search, A Place in the Sun, From Here to Eternity, The Young Lions, Wild River, Judgment at Nuremberg, and The Misfits. Which actors from his era are more your cup of tea?

R39, I don't care for actors from that period. Bogart, Gable and Grant were okay.

IMO male actors didn't start to get interesting until the 1970s.

R28, like "dumbed down millennials" know who Glenn Ford is....

Robert Ryan was not boring at all. See Billy Budd or Crossfire

Totally agree about John Gavin

"Dana Andrews was so sexy. He looked like he’d be up for a nasty fuck."

As long as his brains and his dick weren't addled by booze.

Matt Damon is a fat faggot!

John Wayne

Glen Ford

Jerry Lewis - not funny at all to me

William Holden was NOT boring!! He was charismatic and vital in 'Picnic', unforgettable and convincing in 'Sunset Boulevard' and was the funniest guest star of them all in Lucy goes to Hollywood.

Disagree about John Hodiak - see Lifeboat. He and Tallulah were perfect foils for each other, brought on by the edginess in each other's characters. Agree about Gregory Peck. Wooden. Disagree about Rod Taylor and totally disagree about Fonda, Cooper, and Clift. Boss actors.

[quote] Danny Kaye - a horror to look act and a milquetoast dead fish of an actor

Ridiculous. You may not like him but he was no dead fish. Have you seen any of his movies?

Some of these posters clearly have seen very little of the actors they find so boring. It'd be like judging Spencer Tracy's work based on It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World or Bette Davis' based on WIcked Stepmother.

I always thought Glenn Ford was dull and boring until I saw Gilda. His chemistry with George Macready was off the charts.

I've never considered Mickey Rooney as a great A-lister. He was great as Mr. Yunioshi in "Tiffany's" but that's about all I remember him for at the moment.

Almost as good as my Genghis Khan!

OP looks like Rider Strong.

Boring in terms of performances or boring people?

As people, the studios strictly and rigidly controls their public images, so it's somewhat difficult to say for certain whether they were boring or merely pragmatic enough to tow the company line to continue to work.

In terms of performances, John Wayne needs to be added to the list.

Leslie Howard

Aldo Ray in Miss Sadie Thompson

John Dall in everything

No, John Dall was great in Rope and Gun Crazy

Mickey Rooney is a great actor. Totally underappreciated. His Mr. Yunioshi is hilarious simply hilarious

All I know is that I fell madly in love with George Peppard in Breakfast At Tiffany's.

John Dall: Simply embarrassing in Spartacus. You could detect his gayness a mile away and much more suitable for Pull My Daisy

[quote]Monroe and Gable were evidently turning in career-making performances as well.

Thank you Hedda Parsons. They had well over forty years of experience between them.

Pull My Daisy......I dare anyone to sit through it

[quote]Hugh Marlowe

Now, Liz.

Mickey out does Jerry.

Fred Astaire.

Brian Aherne.

Claude Rains - I don't even enjoy films he's in.

Glenn Ford was especially boring when he was no longer cute... Fred MacMurray could be good occasionally, but a real snooze when he hit his professional "father" years for TV and Disney. Kevin Costner is throwback dullard to the above two and other dull male icons.

Creepy and cold division: Robert Taylor (Tyrone Power with out the warmth or charm), George Peppard (soft, humorless version of Paul Newman), and Laurence Harvey who was PERFECTLY cast as the Manchurian candidate (not a compliment!)

Also, I can see why John Dall never became a star: aside from the fact he was obviously gay, his performances were always theatrical, never toned that either for movies. Tolerable in The Corn is Green, awful in Rope and Gun Crazy. Oh, and pouty, petulant, and posturing Farley Granger in Rope and everything else he ever did... but at least he was nice to look at!

The most stupid thread in forever.

R69, agree about Robert Taylor. He supported the blacklists, too. Asshole.

OP, please reconsider your verdict on Dana Andrews. His performances always conveyed emotional complexity and an angst that made him human and vulnerable in spite of his good looks. His work in film noir of the 40s and 50s was particularly exceptional. Even in schmaltzy pics like The Best Years of Our Lives, he stood out.

I think Dana Andrews was one of the first naturalistic actors of leading men. I've watched Laura many times and enjoyed the diverse cast, gorgeous Tierney, and career-making Clifton Webb performance, but I've come to appreciate what Andrews brings to the movie, a brooding realism.

[quote] There is no way Grace Kelly would have given him the time off a wall clock, let alone her undivided attention in Rear Window.

I never liked Jimmy Stewart, but he was sexy in Rear Window.

Jimmy Stewart was never sexy, ever.

R75 the whole gee-whiz aw-shucks accent killed it for me.

R50, I'm suspecting I'm much in the minority, but I think Danny Kaye was interesting-looking. He had an exceptional body and was an excellent dancer. Pleasant voice too, when he wasn't doing his Jerry-Lewis-Does Speedballs schtick.

I can handle Jimmy Stewart even when he's aw-shucks, but if he's playing a more adult version of it. like Anatomy of a Murder. Or here, in Rear Window.

Jimmy Stewart was not a good person.

Nelson Eddy

Gene Raymond

Stewart Granger

[quote]I like Fred MacMurray in "The Apartment," but not much else. Part of the reason he's boring is because he seems bored.

R17 No, no. He redeemed himself in Double Indemnity.

James Stewart, Alan Ladd, Rock Hudson.

Richard Baseheart

I always liked Richard Basehart. He had a great voice

I think as I've re-watched films from that period it's interesting to see that male characters tend to be presented as the lens through which the viewer experiences the film - and therefore there are few shifts in how the audience relates to them. Female characters had a range of mercuriality. This is particularly true of Film Noir. To what extent does Stanwick mean it when she tells MacMurray she loves him in Double Indemnity? How much does Lauren Bacall know about the string of killings in The Big Sleep? And even Kim Novak - not my idea of a great actress - had to play two entirely different people in Vertigo.

But even when a woman is the central character - as in Mildred Pierce or Gone With the Wind - there seem to be multiple ways to read that character. Are Peirce and Scarlett admirable, stoic survivors or just persistent monsters?

R84 Basehart hit his sweet spot in La Strada. Excellent. But after that, yep, you're right.

Good point, reply 86!

I agree with many of the choices here.... James Stewart, Gary Cooper, Glenn Ford, Fred MacMurray, Dana Andrews, George Brent.

I will add the ever dull and unappealing Frederic March, and the not unappealing but totally unexciting Dennis Morgan.

R63, yes, that was carelessly worded and thoughtless of me. I meant to say that when the film is described it seems that Gable and Monroe were playing somewhat against type - or perhaps with a new vulnerability - and that critics, especially with Monroe, saw a new depth in their performances.

[quote] Jerry Lewis - not funny at all to me

He was good in "King of Comedy." I think that role was close to his real personality. I think he was a horrible person, in real life. I am fascinated by him, actually. He had something like 6 sons with his first wife and became estranged from (and disinherited) every single one of them. He was a huge phony and on pills for several years in a row.

Joan Rivers said that he physically threatened her because she made a joke about him. She was really scared.

Lewis was an asshole but I wouldn't call him boring

I so agree with Glenn Ford.

Troy Donahue. C'mon, you know it's true.

R94, good answer

I agree about Glenn Ford, but Dana Andrews was fantastic and underrated. Rock Hudson was always fun to watch and had some untapped talent as well.

Jimmy Stewart was a great actor. Could do anything. Never got the hate some classic film fans have for him. Gene Kelly is someone who's beloved that I cannot fucking stand - beyond smug.

Gene Kelly was a great dancer but as an actor I never thought he was any better than okay. Same with Astaire

Glenn Ford absolutely. Jimmy Stewart could bring a lot of darkness to roles (in IAWL and Vertigo.) He was not always playing boring, aw shucks types. George Brent and John Payne (although handsome) always presented as dull.

Not sure why Stewart would be seen as a bad guy. No personal scandals or children writing he was a shit. Served in WW2. Was a Republican but don’t confused Republicans then with the garbage they are today.

George Brent - huge drip; only interesting thing about him is that he killed British soldier when he was in the IRA

Robert Taylor - a complete no-talent who got his career thanks to his looks, and then quickly lost them due to his drinking

Gene Kelley - insufferably smug, he worked hard to always show how hard he was working as a dancer - huge contrast with Astaire, who made everything look easy

Gary Cooper, Henry Fonda, Monty Clift and Frederic March - all fabulous actors, and Cooper was one of the most beautiful men and greatest screen presences in film history when he was in his prime.

I think Clark Gable is remarkably underrated as an actor - much better than he believed himself to be. I've found that in everything I've seen him in (GWTW, his pairings with Joan Crawford and Jean Harlow, The Misfits, Night Nurse, It Happened One Night) he never reads as fake. A lot of the matinee idol types were underrated for their talent stretching back to the silent days, more so than their leading women - men like Gable, Cooper, Tyrone Power, John Gilbert, Errol Flynn, etc. Could never stand Rudolph Valentino though. Oh well, there's another one I don't get.

Fred MacMurray was very handsome when he was young and had a nice acting range as well - love him in anything with my favorite actress ever, Barbara Stanwyck. I think the image of him as an annoying Disney dad has tainted the reality of his actual quality career of the 30s-50s.

A lot of the men being listed were never "A-List stars", just decent looking guys around to prop up the female star - George Brent and Dennis Morgan are good examples of this. Brent was MEANT to be a big zero opposite Hurricane Bette!

Agree with Alan Ladd and Robert Taylor. They do not compute in my brain either - both such big stars for so long!

R101 - I totally agree about Frederic March… an absolutely outstanding actor.

If he had only appeared in “Design for Living,” “The Best Years of our Lives,” and “Middle of the Night” (which incidentally features Kim Novak’s only good film performance), it would be enough to make him one of the all time greats.

But, of course, his filmography is much much richer. (Can you tell I like him?)

Tor Johnson

Tor was a genius! He made Olivier look like an overrated piece of shit

TIME FOR GO TO BED

Tor Johnson, ohhhhh

/fans self

He reminds me so much of mah favorite president.

Dana Andrews in Laura, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, The Best Years of Our Lives and Glenn Ford in Gilda and Human Desire negate the dull and bland theories. Two of my favorite actors and sexy as all hell in their prime to my eyes. To each his own I guess.

Dana Andrews because wtf kind of man’s name is DANA?

John Gavin could GET IT

He was mostly '30s, but I nominate Warren William.

Dana Andrews real first name was Carver, so Dana was actually an improvement.

I really love a lot of the actors mentioned in this thread. Dana, George Peppard, Fredric March, Dennis Morgan, even Robert Taylor and George Brent. I don’t like Fred MacMurray or Glenn Ford though.

Warren William???? You must be mad, boy!

R108 There's a line in Woody Allen's Radio Days about whether Dana is a male or female name. I always thought the same.

Clark Gable, James Stewart, Frederick March

OP, great topic. I's like to see a thread about B list (40s, 50s, 60s) actors who should have been A list. Any interest in starting?

Yeah Glenn Ford. As father, scoundrel, DA, he wasn’t really effective as anything he played. I liked The Courtship of Eddie’s Father for everyone else but not him. He seemed a Hugh Beaumont type.

Dana Andrews’s younger brother was Steve Forrest who won the Razzie for his performance as hunky Uncle Gregg in ‘Mommie Dearest’. Their father was a Baptist minister, and there were 13 kids in the family. Good gene pool on the looks.

My contribution to the list is Van Heflin. He’s more of a character actor, but having an Oscar makes him A list default I suppose. I watched him recently in the film noir ‘The Prowler’ from 1951 and wasn’t impressed.

Reply 100, totally agree: George Brent was block of wood, Robert Taylor was a zombie, and Gene Kelly was smug and mugged... hey, I rhymed!

R91- Dean Martin hated his guts for years. I don't know if that changed before Dean died, but he really loathed Jerry Lewis.

Jerry Lewis and Milton Berle both make my skin crawl, never understood their huge popularity... and I'm not referring to Berle's big dick!

R120- Add Bob Hope to that list. Revolting man.

John Gavin, Troy Donahue, and teen jesus Jeffrey Hunter.

George Brent. His bland onscreen style played well against actresses like Bette and Barbara. Next to lesser actresses, his shortcomings were quite apparent.

Same with Wendell Corey. He almost ruined my favorite western THE FURIES with Barbara Stanwyck. Van Heflin or Robert Ryan would have been more suitable in his role as Rip Darrow. John Boles…I mean what was the point of him?

Reply 121, as a '70s kid, me and my siblings found Bob Hope painfully unfunny. And in later years, thought his off-screen life was kinda gross.

Bob Hope was a first class asshat.

Those Hope/Crosby and Martin/Lewis "classics" have aged like milk. Bland and insipid as their stars back then, unstomachable now.

Disagree with : Bill Holden, Jack Lemmon, Clark Gable...all incredibly charming, super charismatic actors imo

Agree with: Glenn Ford and Monty Clift (he had talent but always played the same type...mixed up and vaguely depressed, I dont get why he was supposed to be Brando's competition)

Not true of Clift in Red River, The Search, The Heiress, The Big Lift, From Here to Eternity, or Raintree County.

Brent is great in Jezebel. Hudson was wonderful as a light romantic comedian. Andrews appeared in a number of terrific films(gorgeous in The Westerner) and is always moving and handsome. Alcoholism ruined his career.

The number one worst actor for me from classic Hollywood is Robert Young . Unwatchable in a movie but fine in a TV show. Worst male child actor is Terry Kilburn who practically ruins the wonderful Goodbye Mr Chips. He keeps showing up as his own son as the years pass. He is still alive. I wonder why he was never interviewed for TCM. One of the very last golden age actors left.

I confess I only saw FHTE and Raintree Country, so who knows, you might be right, but those 2 he played slightly more upbeat but I still found him pretty blah. To each their own.

* Also saw Place in the Sun.

[quote]Jimmy Stewart ruined every single fucking movie he was in.

You're insane, R2. Please take your meds. Stewart had loads of personality and was very likable.

I can't be surprised at all this disdain for Glenn Ford as it's been said on DL a lot over the years....but I've never understood it. I think in his 1940s films he was extremely hot, a genuinely feverish sexuality but with a certain something that seemed very modern for that decade. And in his 1950s/60s films he showed a great flair for comedy, as seen in The Gazebo, Teahouse of the August Moon and Pocketful of Miracles.

And Fred MacMurray? He had incredible range seen through 4 decades of remarkable performances. It's no surprise he was a favorite leading man to women like Barbara Stanwyck and Claudette Colbert.

Now, Robert Taylor - before the1930s were even over he had hit a wall and never recovered. Never got him at all, except as a bland pretty boy in his early MGM films like Camille.

Robert Taylor's furrowed eyebrows made it looked like he suffered from a chronic migraine.

R133- I agree and feel the same about Tyrone Power. He was convincing in Witness for the Prosecution only at the end when he was revealed to be a murderer.

I nominate Robert Cummings, Bing Crosby and Henry Fonda.

Tyrone Power was pushed into things that were far below his ability because of how profitable the shallow and charming roles were for him . Nightmare Alley is one of the films that show what he could really do as an actor and he had to fight tooth and nail to get it made. Likewise, Errol Flynn gave his best performances at the end of his career when he could no longer be the handsome swashbuckling hero.

Errol Flynn never thought he was much of an actor and only known for his beauty. Director Vincent Sherman said he had a great talent for looking like he belonged in period clothes as opposed to just looking like he was wearing a movie costume. But Flynn didn't think that was worth anything.

I thought Tyrone Power was far better than Robert Taylor, which isn't saying much. Closer to Rock Hudson, warm and charming, with a narrow but good range, when cast properly. And Robert Cummings... he was like a non-pianist version of Liberace!

R139- Robert Cummings was just awful, a deal breaker, really. If he was in a movie it was just about unwatchable for me.

R102 He gave the best ever interpretation of Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde! I also love him in Nothing Sacred, I Married a Witch, and Merrily We Go To Hell alongside all the movies you mentioned. And of course the original A Star is Born - he was the best Norman Maine. Equally at home in comedy and drama. I wish he ended up doing the film version of Long Day's Journey Into Night.

Robert Cummings is godawful. I watched Saboteur the other day and realized why it was an underseen Hitchcock - he starred in it!

Checkout the Loretta Young movie The Accused where Cummings is her love interest. Poor Loretta plays a mousy schoolteacher but deserves better than him.

Wasn't Glenn Ford the one who fucked every one of his costars?

Van Johnson was another actor that I found just unwatchable.

R15 for the winning trifecta!

Others:

Charlton Heston

Pat Boone

John Wayne

Tyrone Power was actually very charismatic and sexy in The Black Swam with Maureen O'Hara, but I havent seen him in anything else.

But Heston has Planet of the Apes. and Pat Boone is sexy shirtless in Journey to the Center of the Earth.

R143- I am surprised about Barbara Stanwyck

Reply 140-- Robert Cummings over-made up face and amateurish acting nearly ruins "Kings Row." And phony Ronald Reagan's supposedly "best" performance ain't all that. Thank God for Ann Sheridan, whose natural performing, plus the story, make this worth watching...

I remember a very long gossip thread about Glenn Ford on here. It was pretty interesting but Glenn Ford bores me to such tears I couldn't get through it. A lot about his affairs with Rita Hayworth and Judy Garland - who wanted him to marry her!

Also there was a funny tidbit about Orson Welles trying to shoot him (?) after he figured out about his affair with Rita. Frankly, I wish he had. Orson was a much better actor and I'd have rather fucked him any day.

Van Johnson tended to overdo it but he has good comic chemistry with June Allyson. Maybe because she knew him when they were both in Broadway shows when young and knew what a phony he was as a leading man.

Van chokes up over Mickey Rooney's acting.

Terry Kilburn is gay and while he is annoying as a child actor, he's cute and fun to watch in his uniform in Fiend Without a Face made in 1958.

He always seems to be waiting for co-star Marshall Thompson to put the make on him.

Johnson has good chemistry with Garland in In the Good Old Summertime. Maybe the last film she made for MGM where she didn't drive everyone crazy. But then it wasn't an Arthur Freed production.

Glenn Ford is so cute in Gilda driving Rita crazy. 'I hate you Johnny. I hate you so much I could die from it.'

I thought Terry Kilburn was adorable

Robert Cummings is a great choice for this thread. So dull

Don't flame me but Bob Cummings was wonderful in his TV series Love That Bob. He was a far better comic actor than dramatic, with a great sense of timing and self-deprecatory wit. When the material was good, which it often was for this mostly forgotten sitcom created by Paul Henning, who also created The Beverly Hillbillies and wrote a lot of the Burns & Allen scripts, Bob shined. And I thought he was quite sexy in it, too, with his 1950s SoCal style.

The idea that Grace Kelly prefers Cummings to Ray Milland in Dial M for Murder is absurd.

Ray Milland is underrated these days. Sexy as hell and very good in all the Mitchell Leisen comedies he was in - Easy Living is my favorite.

Lionel Barrymore. None of his brother's talent or sexiness.

R160, In RL, Grace didn't. 😉

Surprised the John Payne troll hasn’t weighed in on here yet. Is that queen dead now?

I think John Payne should get a pass here because he so rarely, if ever, carried an A film and thus was never thrust upon the public. There was never really a "Stop trying to make John Payne happen!" phase.

He usually either supported Alice Faye or Betty Grable handsomely in Fox musicals and comedies or starred in B westerns. And also because he had one of the hottest bodies of Golden Age Hollywood (that has to be a plus). And he seemed to be a real sweetheart.

Three of the biggest male box office stars of that era were also the blandest: John Wayne, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope.

[quote]I think John Payne should get a pass here because he so rarely, if ever, carried an A film and thus was never thrust upon the public

John Payne could have thrust upon me any time he wanted.

Bing Crosby had a great voice but I thought he was bland as an actor

The blandest stars are often the biggest!

I don't see how anyone can call Wayne, Hope or Crosby bland.

I never particularly liked what they did onscreen but each of them created an iconic and unique leading man character which carried each of them through at least 4 decades of starring roles. Again, you may not like those created personas but they were hardly bland. George Brent and Robert Cummings were bland.

Okay, R170, substitute "one note" for "bland" with some rare exceptions like Crosby in The Country Girl, or utter failures like Wayne in The Conqueror.

Hope was so corny. All the mugging and playing to the cheap seats was annoying af.

Wendell Corey for the win.

Dennis Morgan. Dennis O'Keefe.

Wait, they're two different people?

Nelson Eddy, anyone? George Murphy?

Anyone who mentioned George Brent never saw him, cast against type, in The Rains Came. He blew Tyrone Power off the screen. Same for Crosby in Little Boy Lost. He's amazing.

I saw George Murphy in some movie with Linda Darnell called Rise and Shine. He was so boring in it

I think George Brent was ok. He had a beefy build and could play gentle gentlemen. And he made Bette Davis seem feminine.

Most of these men were A-list stars because the crowds loved them and their personalities. They wouldn't have been able to continue making films if they were dull or boring. I think it would have to be actors who only made a few films and had their careers die out who could be in contention here. Sonny Tufts is one that people always bring up as being completely wooden. But I even like him, just because he was a big, blond, cornfed stud.

I thought Robert Taylor was family, or have I got that wrong?

Wendel Cory and Walter Brennan were major right wing extremist, kooky as hell without their combs. John Birchites to the 10th power

John Wayne was right along there with them.

R107 Ford was stiff as a board in Gilda BUT it worked for the character...similar to Rock Hudson in Giant imo.

[quote]He blew Tyrone Power off the screen.

Pics, please.

What about Franchot Tone? I have always found him beyond bland.

Have you seen Phantom Lady? He is cast against type in that.

Phantom Lady trailer

R176 yes George Brent is really good in The Rains Came, thanks for mentioning it!

I much prefer Franchot Tone in villainous roles than as the hero that MGM tried to push.

I had no idea Glenn Ford was such a stud. He really sprayed it around.

Tone is damn handsome in Mutiny on the Bounty. The wreck he turned into in the '60s is shocking.

I find Tone is always upstaged by women. Not in Mutiny the. Lol

they were boring but hung like bulls, a requirement to get roles. glenn was zzzzz but oh so hung.

Troy Donahue. I always think of him and Tab Hunter as a pair of idols in the same era. When I saw Donahue in something for the first time I thought he was just basic looking and bland on screen. Tab Hunter was at least very handsome, so he had that going for him.

At this point maybe it would be easier to list A list Hollywood male actors of the golden age who were NOT dull and boring. I'll start:

Edward Everett Horton

Jimmy Durante

Clifton Webb

Sidney Greenstreet

Monty Woolley

You bitches happy now?

EEH A list? Hardly.

Thoughts on Robert Montgomery? With Clark Gable, though a very different type, he was MGM's biggest male star of the early 30s. Like Dick Powell over at Warner Brothers, Montgomery began his career as a fresh-faced male ingenue but evolved into a more complex character actor by the 1940s.

And what about Dick Powell?

Bob Montgomery was dreamy and had a very long neck

Bill Bixby never made it to A list, but he tried. Just too bland (although I always thought he was adorable).

The early 1960s were filled with bland young actors trying to become A listers but were all thwarted by the arrival of Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino, Robert de Niro and even Elliott fucking Gould.

Lee Phillips, best known as Dr. Rossi opposite Lana Turner in PEYTON PLACE. IIRC, it was posted here that he eventually switched to directing television shows. He was handsome but had no real heat as a leading man.

Did Lee Phillips even mak it to the C list?

Lee Phillips had a voice like Mickey Mouse.

If anyone was bland it was Gould.

I like Gould in certain roles (mainly with Robert Altman) but he needs a very strong hand to be good. Compare him to his MASH co-star Donald Sutherland - uniformly excellent in everything.

As Ford got old he spent all his money on pretty young women. And he was a lousy father who could do nothing but chase skirts. All this according to his son who nevertheless took care of him in his old age. Yet he got his own back with the book on his father.

R197- Robert Montgomery was brilliant in Night Must Fall as the happy-go-lucky young Irish man who may or may not be a murderous psychopath. He was so charming yet a bit menacing at the same time and his behavior became more sinister and disturbed as the movie went on. He was boyishly handsome and charming.

Also, I just finished watching Laura with the stunning Gene Tierney for the first time without interruption. What a talented group of actors! The underrated, imo, Vincent Price, who had the most kissable looking lips when he was young. He was both charming and sleazy as the beautiful young kept man of an older, rich woman. How Clifton Webb managed to actually be convincing as an older man in love with a woman is testament alone to his great acting ability. It is an excellent who-done-it murder mystery and I love how they made use of shadows and light in this black and white film noir. Dana Andrews was perfect in this role as the detective who falls in love with his " murdered victim." Love it.

John Davidson. Not A list, but another who tried.

John Davidson should have stuck to Broadway where his dimples were appreciated.

Vincent Price is usually a lot of fun to watch. He had a great voice and seemed to be enjoying himself, good script or bad...

Vincent particularly seemed to be enjoying himself in that scene in The 10 Commandments in which he's whipping a chained and shirtless John Derek.

Vincent Price was always a great guest on the late shows. He was such a warm, gentle man with a wickedly funny sense of humor. He is one that I really miss.

Glenn Ford is surprisingly effective in “Trial” (currently showing as part of Katy Jurado Day on TCM), laying good guy in contrast to Arthur Kennedy’s Oscar-nominated crypto-commie lawyer. But in general, I found him lacking in personality—maybe that’s why he works okay in Gilda and A Stolen Life, partnered with larger than life female stars. He’s unconvincing as Dave the Dude in Pocketful of Miracles, a role that would have been better served with a more Rat Pack type.

I recently watched Price and Jane Russell in The Las Vegas Story. Such deck and Price is such a big 'mo but he is a decent actor for those characters with something up their sleeve.

Next Wednesday (8/23, one week from today) is Vincent Price Day on TCM.

6:00 am The Long Night (1947)

8:00 am The Las Vegas Story (1952)

9:45 am His Kind of Woman (1951)

12:00 pm The Baron of Arizona (1950)

2:00 pm Twice Told Tales (1963)

4:15 pm Diary of a Madman (1963)

6:15 pm The Last Man on Earth (1964)

8:00 pm House of Wax (1953)

9:45 pm House on Haunted Hill (1958)

11:15 pm The Pit and the Pendulum (1961)

12:45 am The Masque of the Red Death (1964)

2:30 am The Tingler (1959)

4:15 am The Bat (1959)

I have had a phobia of house flies ever since seeing Vincent Price in The Fly as a child. I really tried to avoid all his movies after that, sad to say.

Ford was pretty awful in Fate is the Hunter, although that movie sparked my lifetime obsession with air disasters. I rewatched it this morning on YouTube and he's all sudden yelling explosions and wild gesticulations, mixed with odd staring and brooding. It's an odd flick, where the supposedly hard-boiled existentialist meets the Chinese girlfriend of his dead pilot friend who convinces him fate and the supernatural were responsible for the accident. Then, inexplicably, he decides to recreate the accident and learns it was all explainable by natural causes. Kind of like Scooby Doo.

I agree that Robert Montgomery in the 1930s MGM gloss was a bit dull but he was better when he had some bite eg with Bette Davis in June Bride. She apparently hated working with him.

Robert Montgomery is one of the very best actors Hollywood had to offer during the classic era - in addition to “Night Must Fall,” he is wonderful with Joan Crawford and William Powell in “The Last of Mrs. Cheney.”

[quote]“The Last of Mrs. Cheney.”

I beg your pardon! I'm still here.

The movie is about Mrs. CHEYNEY.

R220- He wasn't very well liked by other actors. He was respected, but they said he was a snob who thought he was better than the others because his father was rich and Robert had an elite upbringing and education. Then when he was in his early 20s his father lost all of their money which is why RM went into acting. I have read that he was a staunch Republican all of his life , which clashed with his daughter, Elizabeth's, beliefs. They were estranged most of her life, but idk if the relationship ever improved.

I think Bette Davis said she hated him because in their scenes he would do something different in his closeup than what he had done when it was her closeup which was shot first so they didn't match.

1948 was a low point in Bette's career, when she was seeing Warners' best women's roles go to you-know-who..

Though by the next year they both hit high camp with Beyond the Forest and Flamingo Road. Bette was right to leave Warners, who did Joan no favors either in the junk they put her in until she left too, just a few years after Bette.

Robert Montgomery wasn't a Republican all his life, he supported Democrats before 1940. His father committed suicide by jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge.

R226- Thanks, I didn't know that about his father. How sad.

Montgomery was also hardcore right wing politically, which might have clashed against Bette’s New England liberal sensibilities. He even coached Dwight Eisenhower on how to give speeches and how to work the camera on television when debating. How did he manage to raise a very liberal Elizabeth is nothing short of incredible.

Oy You rang

I worked with Elliott in the late 1990s and found him utterly adorable. I just loved him, a real mensch.

R230 = Christina Pickles

Christina Pickles' "longtime companion" was Stan Zbornak, so consider the source.

Brian Keith=ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.....but not his father

Brian Keith literally acted like he was always waking up from a nap!

Barry Sullivan.

Richard Kiley and Barry Sullivan go hand in hand

Carey Mulligan....fucking boring and very humorless. Sexy?? Never gave me a boner

I dunno. These OCD binary-based judgemental listicles are so middlebrow. I like Glenn Ford. And Rock Hudson was a terrific movie star with charisma and a gift for light fare.

I'll second Lennie. Never juiced my pussy............ Now Liz Mongomery on the other hand......puffed my pussy lips, big time

Don't get me started on Liz...I'll never be able to cum down

George Brent

George Raft

George Hamilton

R228, Their relationship was up and down. years without even speaking to each other, especially when she married Gig Young.

[quote]I am ashamed to admit that I have never seen The Misfits and will do so. Monroe and Gable were evidently turning in career-making performances as well.

Their careers had already been made at that point. What each gave in "The Misfits" were career-ending performances. It was the final movie for both.

Surprisingly Montgomery and Shearer are delightful in Private Lives.

Cliff Robertson.

Though, with good reason, Glenn Ford is pretty much forgotten but his career was huge. It's just hard to believe. I'll add George fucking Clooney to this list.

Glen Powell is the Glenn Ford of the 21st c.

The package is handsome bordering on attractive but no matter how many times someone tries to light a spark, the fire just never quite stays lit.

I like Barry Sullivan in villain roles but he barely registers for me in nice guy roles

Barry Nelson

Not really A list, especially since he's dead now, but John Ritter. I hated him in everything he ever did.

r246 Glen Powell will never have 1/10 the career that Glenn Ford had.

Did someone forget this is a list of MALE actors?

John Ritter was funny in a small role in Bad Santa.

R242 Gig was drinking hard by the time he married Liz. Plus he was twenty years older than she was. I can see why her parents would disapprove. Just not to the extent that they didn’t speak to one another for years!

Robert Taylor was great in Johnny Eager(1942) along with Van Heflin. They were even able to suggest some undercurrents of homoerotica in their friendship!

Robert Mitchum.

R255 he is the only actor to play the 2 of the greatest villains in film history, but yeah, sure, he's boring....

Mitchum had a very long career, and was boring throughout most of it, those two roles aside.

Guy Madison and Rory Calhoun!

Congrats to Cary Grant, who is the only actor not to be mentioned in this thread! Though we're only at 259 responses.

Ralph Bellamy

I can't stand Ralph Bellamy.

Oscar winner Don Ameche.

Don Ameche was a mush better actor than people give him credit for. Did he play Alexander Graham Bell

Yes and he invented the telephone aka the Ameche

Bob Montgomery was right to disapprove of Gig. I doubt he wanted his daughter to get murdered.

Dick Powell, Charles Boyer, Randolph Scott.

Besides The Night of the Hunter and Cape Fear, Mitchum is far from boring in Out of the Past, The Story of GI Joe, His Kind of Woman, The Lusty Men, Angel Face, Track of the Cat, Heaven Knows Mister Allison, The Sundowners, Home From the Hill, Two for the Seesaw, Ryan's Daughter, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, The Yakuza and Dead Man. The films vary in quality (many are underseen gems, IMO) but he is magnificent in all of them. Him and (the wonderful) Deborah Kerr were a great screen pairing, lots of natural chemistry and they were good friends into their old age.

He is my all time favorite Old Hollywood actor. His whole "I don't care" thing was an act. He was an intelligent (self educated) man who cared deeply about his work. There was some very interesting gossip on an old thread about him openly hitting on male crew members during his time on the War and Remembrance miniseries.

Very relieved no one has mentioned me! Was it the giggling?

Mitchum had quite the checkered childhood. I wonder how true the rumors are that he turned tricks and dealt drugs when he arrived in LA as a teen.

You forgot Holiday Affair, R267. Mitchum was great in that.

Here's the link.

Mitchum even elevated dreck like THE RIVER OF NO RETURN opposite Marilyn Monroe. He was one of the very few (only?) of her male co-stars who were age appropriate and equal to her hotness.

And WHITE WITCH DOCTOR opposite Susan Hayward (she was the white witch doctor), not him).

You know the old joke about Mitchum, right? What does Bob look for in a script? Days off.

R271 Agree about Mitchum/Monroe, one of the very few co stars of Monroe I ever saw had actual sexual chemistry with. Marilyn may have been a sex bomb on her own but she rarely generated heat with her male co stars.

[ R271/273 ] Agree that Mitchum and Monroe had great chemistry in THE RIVER OF NO RETURN. and then there is the impossibly handsome Rory Calhoun who shares the screen with them and defines "dullest, most boring, no there, there" actor. However, I'm not certain that he was ever A list. He sure was pretty though.

Rory Calhoun was sexy and fucked a lot. He talked about fucking Guy Madison.

I wouldn't care how dull or boring Rory Calhoun was in a movie - I just love looking at him.

Rory and Guy became very popular names for American baby boys in the 1950s so I guess the public was generally unaware....

When Lita Baron divorced Rory Calhoun in 1970, she named Betty Grable as one of 79 women with whom he had adulterous relationships.

Betty and Rory were both contract players at Fox through much of the Late 1940s/1950s so it's no surprise that two hot tamales like them would have hooked up at some point.

R268, no one has mentioned you because you weren't boring. You were great in Pickup on South Street and didn't giggle even once, as I recall.

R267- I couldn't agree more, he is my favorite as well. This was a very good book that I read about him.

The sexual heat between Monroe and Ewell in Seven Year Itch burns up the screen.

Ewell is so dorky looking. With costars like him and Tony Curtis, Queen of the screen it's no wonder Marilyn lacked chemistry with them. I did find her relationship with Gable very well done in the Misfits. And her husband in Niagara was quite brawny and there was a scene or two of smoldering there (even tho she killed him).

Brian's Song with James Caan and Billy Dee Williams just came on. I have never watched this movie. It is going to make me cry, isn't it?

Yes, Monroe (past her early starlet years) never shared the screen with performers that matched her in star power until The Misfits - Larry Olivier was past his prime as a leading man so no one mention him - except for Mitchum. I think a lot of this was intentional on her part (I am not really a fan) because she didn’t want to be potentially upstaged.

And Gable was older than Larry. Why did he have the magnetism but not Larry even if was playing a character role. Well maybe it's because Larry became so fed up with her unprofessionalism, it showed in icy stare and glares in their scenes together

Gable might have been older but he was very much still semi-successfully playing the types of leading man roles that made him famous - he somehow remade Red Dust PLAYING THE SAME ROLE twenty years later and had it be a commercial/critical success. Gary Cooper was also in this boat with his Western successes. Olivier’s literary romantic heroes were past him.

R286- I believe that was a factor, he was said to be beyond exasperated with her and I can't blame him. But I also believe he may have been a bit afraid of being upstaged by her because of his age.

Hmmmm, Olivier had that "magnetism" with deliciously wooden John Gavin in SPARTACUS.

Some would say that Monroe had great chemistry with Yves Montand in LET'S MAKE LOVE.

Monroe and Dean Martin certainly had the potential for amazing chemistry. It's really a shame we never got to see much of it. Isn't most of the surviving footage from SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE of Monroe with everyone but Dean?

IMO Red Dust was much better and a hell of a lot sexier than Mogambo. Maybe it was all the gorgonzola...

Not exactly dull, but I have never understood the supposed sex appeal of John Garfield in the original The Postman Always Rings Twice. He just seems like a pouty little punk. Not hot at all.

James Coburn Charlton Heston Van Johnson

^^^apologies for the formatting.

R293 - Yes Dane Clark was the same type. Both copies of Cagney. I guess Warners thought women went for them as bad boys. I just found them obnoxious.

R294 feel the same way about Burt Lancaster...liked him as an actor but he was supposed to be a major sex symbol (so much so that when Tennessee Williams was recomending Brando for Streetcar he stated one of the reasons was he had "at least as much sex appeal as Burt Lancaster") but I never found him physically appealing...always reminded me of a slightly handsomer JFK ....anyway Tenn certainly did since he cast him in The Rose Tatoo.

After the accident, no paid attention to Monty. His Frankenstein face was permanently frozen giving him a vacant, dead look. But Huston helped him with The Misfits, and Monty kinda of came back with a lively, energetic, youthful performance. His movements were fluid, not stiff. And for those who have put Monty on this list, you don't know what the fuck you are talking about. See Judgment at Nuremberg, and especially Freud. Here was an actor living the part, not acting it, like Larry with Marilyn.

R293 try watching him in Four Daughters and you will understand

I thought James Coburn was anything but bland. But he was more effective in supporting roles than leads.

Joel McCrea had a hunky boy-next-door quality that was never dull or boring.

I am so glad to read all of these posts about Monroe and Mitchum in RIVER OF NO RETURN.

Fox kept pairing her with such dolts and idiots - Ewell, Donald O'Conner (great dancer but a sexual zero), David Wayne, and Tommy Noonan......I agree that Richard Allan as her boyfriend in NIAGARA was hot....

But she and Mitchum burned up the screen......sad that they didn't get to do another movie. And of course director Otto Preminger framed the cowboys in the audience during one of Monroe's numbers so it looked like one cowboy was eating her out. Can't find a picture, but watch the movie.

I'm the poster who brought up RIVER OF NO RETURN, glad to see some other fans. While I remember loving the film on TV as a kid, when I watch it now, all I can see is that outrageously bad fall of fake hair on MM and those very artificial background shots of the river. But nevertheless, Mitchum and MM are still dynamite together. How foolish of Fox that they never paired them together again.

I would also easily put Joel McCrea in my category of matinee idols that were quite underrated talents. He was an excellent comedic straight man, never showboating and always generous to his fellow actors. Perfect in his films from Preston Sturges, and always great fun in those pre-code films with Constance Bennett and The Old Dark House. Proved himself a capable dramatic actor in his Westerns - Stars in my Crown is one of the best of the genre despite it being relatively underseen. Lucky Frances Dee got to enjoy him for decades. Was also apparently a very nice, easygoing guy.

Buster Crabbe

John Garfield and Burt Lancaster were both sexy as hell, you prisspots. They had more of the rough, working class look - both were from New York poverty and led tough lives growing up and it showed in their faces and their manners of acting.

My very heterosexual father had something of an infatuation with Burt Lancaster - would always talk about how well built he was whenever I brought up classic actors. His mother was very into Montgomery Clift.

R304 his suggested bare ass in The Palm Springs Story is a most excellent scene. I also loved him in Foreign Correspondent and Come And Get It.

And of course his son Joel Dee.....aka Jody.....was a sad gay boy. He played Deadhead/Bonehead in the Beach Party movies and looked just like his sexy dad!

I was talking about Joel McCrea of course....

Another great Clift post-accident performance is in Wild River.

Joel McCrea's looks and acting style have aged well from today's standpoint...

Not all the actors named were A list. if we could cheat and do B+ list, I never got Stephen McNally (aka Horace McNally). He just seems like he's filling space.

I don't agree about William Holden. Sunset Boulevard, Stalag 17, The Key...he totally held my attention and not just his looks. Gregory Peck could be very dull when he was older. Younger, as in Duel In The Sun and The Macomber Affair and Spellbound, not at all. Though not the greatest actor who ever lived. Montgomery Clift was riveting. And an intelligent actor.

Re Dana Andrews: I'm 43 but only recently discovered him.

I first became smitten with him in BALL OF FIRE, which caused me to search more of his films, including LAURA and THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES, which further cemented my love for him.

Needless to say, I do not agree that he was a dull actor.

That said, the LA Times gave him probably the worst headline after he died: "Dana Andrews Dies; Actor Was a Success But Not a Star."

Why even mention that in his obituary headline?

I would definitely give Gregory Peck at least an honorable mention. He's pretty wooden. Usually though he was wise in choosing roles that worked well with that.

Dana Andrews was a star. The LA Times was ridiculous. He didn't remain a star but he definitely starred in films in the 40s.

The attraction to him guys have is a little baffling to me, though. I just don't think he's that hot. I like him a lot, but not particularly physically.

R310 That's a very astute observation.

Joel McCrea’s son Jody was gay? Never heard that before…

Cornell Wilde. He had a career as big, or even bigger, as Glenn Ford. The he wasn't nearly as dull as Ford. His dullness was perfect though for Leave Her to Heaven. Made Gene's psychopath character seem even crazier. If you haven't seen Leave Her to Heaven it should be at the top of your list to see. I think it was the first time a female lead really got to be apologetically nasty and crazy. Yet you still kind of liked her.

R317 hard to believe little Danny is 92 years old!

You're not making much progress Danny.

R300, agree. James Coburn was hot, practically oozing testosterone. If you like men, that's never boring. He was not a strong leading man, though, maybe because he got sidetracked into those spy spoofs. (I haven’t seen his “Flint” movies since I was a kid. I wonder how well they hold up, even as snapshots of the mid-‘60s era. I love films that are windows into their own times.)

Close the thread

How can it have taken 321 posts for Troy to come up?? You bitches are really slipping.

r320, I always thought James Coburn had a pansexual satyr-like quality that made you think he'd do it with anyone he fancied. Really a turn on for this teen gayling.

Troy was mentioned way upthread at least a couple of times.

R317 - also checkout Cornel in Road House. He is the nice guy in contrast with the crazy Richard Widmark.

I may be generalizing here, so forgive me, but I think those post-WWII years really opened the doors for neurotic character actor types like Richard Widmark to become leading men. At yet, at the same time, those years also began a popular trend for beefcake stars like Guy Madison and Lex Barker, who didn't have much to offer beyond their hunky looks.

My favorite era of leading men is 20s-40s. Too much talentless beef in the 50s.

John Bromfield. Looked great in bathing trunks though…

If Troy Donahue can be a movie star, then I can be a movie star.

[quote]those years also began a popular trend for beefcake stars like Guy Madison and Lex Barker, who didn't have much to offer beyond their hunky looks.

With Guy Madison, his looks were enough. He wasn't competing with Laurence Olivier for roles.

R326 is on to something. WW2 really really changed things and made everything pre-1941 seem innocent and quaint. Agreed: rise of the neurotic out of control emotional actors who were given leading man status......look at Clift, Brando, Dean....yet there was this other side, the non-neurotic he-man, chisel face beefcake types: Burt, Kirk, Victor Mature, Rock, Richard Egan, Mitchem, Duke, etc. who weren't limp wrist prissy sensitive faggots. Those actors represented the force and might of the USA, which exported through out the world, signaled we got your back.

Guy Madison was simply the best-looking leading man of all time. And aged well.

Warren, would you rate him even above James Franciscus?

Oh definitely Are you fucking kidding me. And why did you pick James Franciscus over Richard?.

As devastating good looking Guy Madison was, Monty topped him (can't remember if Monty was a top or bottom), but more obvious: Monty was a great actor. One of the Titans whose influence is still with us today, whereas Guy.....totally forgotten save for some young gayling finding photos, and whacking off to him

I suppose some people might think Wayne Morris was dull, but I like the thick-set blond's looks.

Wayne Morris? Don't Bogart me

Correction from Tyrone: "As devastatingly good-looking as Guy Madison was"

After 338 replies why has no one picked my pick, the absolute most boring, unappealing, sexless, expressionless, no there, there, name above the title Hollywood actor with zero acting ability? He wasn't a client of Harry Willson, so no cocksucking there. Who else could it be that found this no talent worthy of a first job? Any guesses? Anyway here he is:

Glenn Ford was eventually much bigger than Cornel Wilde. His career had a resurgence from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s. He made movies for MGM (mostly) and was a top box office star, in hits like Blackboard Jungle, Trial, Ransom! Jubal, The Fastest Gun Alive, Teahouse of the August Moon, The Sheepman, The Courtship Of Eddie's Father, Imitation General, It Started With A Kiss,The Gazebo, Advance To The Rear, Dear Heart, Fate Is The Hunter, Experiment in Terror, etc.

R339 - No dice.

I can't decide if Brando's worst performance was in Teahouse of the August Moon, Desiree, or The Apalloosa. God, dreadful, all

It's Desiree hands down

IMO there's definitely something there with Glenn Ford.

yeah R339, I second the nomination. He was a fucking prick, especially to Sergio

I hope if you haven't seen Leave her to Heaven you didn't watch that scene that fucking asshole put up. One of the most shocking scenes and especially coming from the era it did. And yet it made Tierney an even bigger star! It's a very sick film and was an enormous success. People to this day love it. And deservedly so.

It’s a crime that Joel McCrea gave up on sexy/romantic roles after The More the Merrier, just as he was hitting his stride in terms of acting. Westerns never really made any use of his sexiness.

Come on, Danny. You don't want to give up when you've come so far!

It was said that some women were going to see Leave Her to Heaven up to 10 times. They saw Ellen as a liberating figure. She really was a true psychopath and I'm absolutely shocked the movie made it through the studio and on to the screen. People really had to fight for that one. I'm sure the book being a huge seller helped. Sorry to have derailed the thread. .

OOOOOO someone has put all of Leave Her to Heaven up on YouTube

What the fuck??? It's taken 349 replies before this schlimazel is listed??? Shows you how much this jadrool is utterly forgotten. The schmucks a stiff

There is nothing dull or boring in the photo at r350.

Speaking of Jeffs ... how about Jeffrey Hunter, whose performance in "King of Kings" was derided as "I Was a Teenage Jesus."

Ingmar was slated to be the director of the greatest story ever told, but bugged out when they said it was going to be shot in Hawaii....but yeah, Jeffrey Hunter is a stiff.

Speaking of Jeffrey Hunter, what about Robert Wagner?

If you've never seen A KISS BEFORE DYING, you may be overwhelmed by Wagner's luscious youthful beauty in this film. That is, until halfway through when Jeffrey Hunter shows up.

Jeff Chandler had a strikingly handsome face with great coloring; his olive skin and salt & pepper hair were a camera’s delight. But his booty was non-existent.

R354 - I'm too distracted by Joanne Woodward's poodle cut.

You are easily distracted, r356.

R350 Jeff Chandler could have played 'Race Bannon' in a live-action version of the animated series JONNY QUEST.

Coburn was great in the fantastic Paddy Chayefsky film “The Americanization of Emily.”

Let's try that again.

I'm losing him, Ruth. I'll die if I lose him

Glenn was a Canadian. Is it any wonder he was so fucking boring?

Jeffrey Hunter was a really good actor,not a stiff. Maybe you haven’t seen him in enough movies. Try The Frogmen, The Searchers, Sailor Of The King and No Man Is An Island.

Was Jeffrey Hunter just too good-looking for late 60s Hollywood?

He died in the late ‘60s.

Even Jessie Brewer RN couldn't save him. His first, crazy wife ruined Jeffery's career.

[quote]Jeff Chandler had a strikingly handsome face with great coloring; his olive skin and salt & pepper hair were a camera’s delight. But his booty was non-existent.

You shoulda seen him in polka dots.

I'll never let you go......never......never......

I like Robert Wagner in A Kiss Before Dying, but I like him best in Between Heaven and Hell.

Broderick Crawford is a queer commanding officer who keeps his favorites safe and sends others out to be killed in raids on the Japanese on the island they are stationed on.

With other cuties like Mark Damon & Skip Homeier.....and Terry Moore actually giving her best performance until Peyton Place a few years later.

I like Wagner in a lot of things. Especially A Kiss Before Dying. Hated Hart to Hart though. He made a good villain.

Skip Homeier was the poor man's Keith Andes.

Keith Andes was the poor man's Keith Andes.

Wagner is also very hot as a young Greek fisherman with a perm in Beneath the 12-Mile Reef, also opposite Terry Moore. But not as hot as Gilbert Roland (who was never bland) as his Daddy.

Speaking of Robert Wagner, I never realized how handsome (and humorous) he was till I recently came across this video. The thumbnail doesn't do him justice.

I was sort of familiar with him, but only as the husband of Natalie Wood, who I mainly knew from WEST SIDE STORY, REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, and SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS. But I don't think I ever saw a photo/clip of him before.

Anyway, his face looks like a sculpture. And those lips!

I always preferred Homeier to Andes

Bob Wagner is even cuter (the most devastating smile ever!) and funnier in a second WML appearance if anyone cares to find it and post it. I'm hopeless with all that stuff. And yes, it's a shame he never really got to show his comic side, even in comedies, as he does in these clips.

Keith Andes never looks quite right in still photos but he was super hot in action. Besides some of his early films like The Asphalt Jungle opposite MM, he was an adorably hunky straight man opposite Glynis Johns in her short-lived mid-60s sit-com called....Glynis.

R376 is it this one?

Yes, r378! Thanks so much for taking the time to find it and post it.

I wonder how many casting couches Wagner was on. It's always been something of an open secret.

He's Glen Ford, Junior....Super bland and boring

I also liked when Robert Osborne on TCM only once pronounced Skip's name as - "Skip Homey-away."

I would guess that Robert Wagner was a casting couch favorite....but he had the world's FLATTEST ass.

Robert Forster was hot as fuck in "Reflections in a Golden Eye"

Edmund Purdom

I always confuse Edmund Purdom with Stewart Granger, both equally dull.

Edmund loved cock

So did Stewart.

Was Edmund Purdom gay? I heard Tyrone Power found him fucking his wife, Linda Christian on the set of some movie they were making together. He and Linda were in a relationship for a while. Otoh, Linda clearly didn’t mind a guy who loved cock.

Since when was Edmond Purdom A list?

The Student Prince and The Egyptian were 2 A-list films which starred Purdom. He also appeared in a few others in small roles.

They tried to make Purdom a thing but it didn’t happen. He was good looking enough. But there was no “there” there. Was beautiful in THE EGYPTIAN.

He played First Officer Lightoller in TITANIC - wonder if Clifton Webb had some of that?

Hopefully Purdom had standards r392. I think Webb was just too prissy.

Webb was too busy with RJ Wagner.

R394, I'm pretty sure RJ could aim higher than prissy (thanks, R393) Clifton, both in terms of looks and in terms of influence. And he certainly could command a higher price than that nobody, Purdom.

R390 In both films Purdom was just a last-minute replacement for someone else (Brando, Lanza). A movie I like him in (or at least I like the movie) is the MGM musical, Athena, with Jane Powell, Debbie Reynolds and Vic Damone - and Linda Christian. And bodybuilders Steve Reeves, Richard DuBois, and others.

I liked him but Robert Young could be on the dull side.

Clifton Webb, after years starring in Broadway and West End musicals became a huge and unexpected movie star in the mid-1940s at the age of 46, and one of Fox's biggest money-makers throughout the 1950s. Believe it or not, he would have had his choice of anyone on that lot, including Wagner, who he cast in 2 of his films Stars & Stripes Forever and Titanic.

R396 - Don't mention Athena to me.

Did Robert Wagner live with Clifton Webb for a while in the '50s?

Webb was born in 1889, so he was in his fifties when his film career took off…

Even more remarkable, r401.

Robert Preston

A lot of those 40-50's era actors were so stiff. They thought that talking fast conveyed emotion but they were just robotic. I never got the appeal of Humphrey Bogart, he hardly ever changed expression. If he was in a tense scene, he just sped up his rate of speaking, which just looks bizarre as seen through modern eyes. I recently finally saw The Maltese Falcon and HB was a blank as a piece of wood.

Same for James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson, George Sanders, John Garfield, etc.

A lot of those new Warner Bros. leading men like Bogart, Cagney and Robinson were underplaying it in reaction to the histrionics of those hams Paul Muni and George Arliss.

Also a lot of the characters that the "tough guy" actors played were stoic types, so their performances fit the characters

R404 I think you're the one who's blank as a piece of wood if you can't see the subtlety and emotion in Bogart's Maltese Falcon performance. He's playing a tough guy who buries his emotions, but they're there. He had an expressive face and eyes.

Cagney was not ever underplaying, whoever suggested that. He played big, but it worked.

Edward G. Robinson was wonderful R404, maybe the problem is you.

[quote]Robert Preston

Yes, so dull and boring in the movie of "The Music Man."

Jimmy Stewart. One-note actor.

Franchot Tone, Gene Raymond, Charles Farrell

Charles Farrell was adorable! Have you seen his silent films with Janet Gaynor, r411?

Charles Farrell had one of the worst speaking voices I've heard in my life. Great in the silents, not so much talking. I can't believe the myth perpetuated of a voice not fitting a leading man's face was regarding the truly maligned John Gilbert's perfectly fine voice instead of Farrell...

Did Farrell really have any kind of an acting career in Talkies? He didn't last any longer than Gilbert until his minor comeback in the sitcom MY LITTLE MARGIE in the early 1950s (when his voice sounded just fine). Wasn't Farrell the mayor of Palm Springs for many years in between and maybe a tennis pro?

Like Clara Bow (who interestingly was at Fox with him during the last years of her career) he had no trouble moving to talkies, but quit because he didn’t enjoy the roles he was offered or acting in general anymore. There wasn’t really a campaign against him or criticisms of his voice like there was for Gilbert, for example which is insane to me.

Heh heh heh heh - well that's my little Mahgie.

And here's my girlfriend Roberter.

Most of Charles Farrell's sound films have never been on TV or VHS/DVD. He was still paired with Janet Gaynor in most of these. I wish they would release them from the archives.

Was Farrell gay?

I think a big difference for undiscerning fans was John Gilbert was a brooding, dark he-man type, whereas Charlie Farrell mostly played male ingenues and lighter fare. So, the difference in expectations on their speaking voices was much greater on Gilbert's account.

And besides all that, wasn't there some hatred for Gilbert on LB Mayer's behalf that allowed Gilbert's career to slink away without MGM's support? Not sure what the cause of the animosity was but I think it was a thing.

Farrell was shitcanned when Zanuck took over at Fox. Zanuck didn’t care for either Gaynor or Farrell. She landed on her feet, he didn’t and went off to concentrate on playing tennis with Ralph Bellamy and inventing the Bloody Mary.

From what I’ve read, not gay. But rumors carried on because of his voice, his marriage to an older woman, and his association with Gaynor.

The completely forgotten Mark Stevens.

Bradford Dillman. Actors like him play better on television than on film.

Dillman was more of a character actor than leading man. I liked him in Compulsion

John Gilbert’s decline was for a couple of reasons - his voice, if you actually listen to it, was fine. Firstly he cost MGM money out the ASS. He had one of the highest paid contracts on the lot and refused to exit it when his films did not become hits in the early talkie time period - this is more important later on rather than his initial decline. Anyway, sound technology was expensive and most studios were cleaning house because there was now a huge amount of stage trained actors or second string players with passable voices willing to work for pennies compared to the big name stars on their roster who would have had to adjust to the talkie style. The second reason is yes; LB Mayer despised him more than almost anyone else. He also seriously hated Charlie Chaplin and Samuel Goldwyn. Nobody knows why - it surely isn’t the (literal) wives tale about him punching Mayer in the men’s bathroom to defend the honor of his great love Greta Garbo (at absolute most a fling that got blown up by the MGM publicity department - good for sales and to hide their new female star’s lesbianism) at King Vidor and Eleanor Boardman’s house. The singular person who claims to have witnessed this and spun the story? Boardman…what was she doing so that she was she privy to a private fight in the men’s room, there’s some good jokes there…

So MGM wanted to tank him, or at least try to get him to walk out on his overly expensive contract. They claim it’s now too expensive to pair him up with the leading ladies on the lot he’s worked with before (Garbo, Crawford, Shearer) and give him some of the worst scripts known to man for his foray into talkies - Downstairs (which he wrote, partially) is pretty decent but the rest are horrific. Compare his treatment to his female equivalent in terms of stardom, Garbo (who frankly had a far worse voice/accent for talkies than Gilbert) being eased into talkies with the best possible scripts (Eugene O’Neill!) and tons of good publicity and hype (Garbo talks!) from MGM. He kept pushing on this MGM contract to his ruin.

There is an interesting claim regarding the talkie that tanked Gilbert - His Glorious Night, which has been out of print since…it was released, probably. Some think it’s far fetched but I’m not so sure. Louise Brooks, among others, have attested to someone at MGM tampering with the audio levels to make Gilbert sound much worse than his. Director Lionel Barrymore was strung out on morphine and easily manipulated into giving his film up for this reason, allegedly.

Also, he was not a he-man, that type started with the likes of Clark Gable. Maybe a proto-Errol Flynn at times, but that was more Douglas Fairbanks. He was “The Great Lover” - brooding yes, but romantic and emotional. To be fair, this type did go out of fashion in the pre-code talkie era, the depression audiences preferring much less sentimental types. Again, it’s interesting to look back and see contemporary reviews of Gilbert as a talkie actor and how they evolved. The initial press around his talkie forays was not primarily negative. Then a few months later, there’s suddenly a slew of reviews about how Gilbert is laughable and outdated, and this continues for a couple of years. I do think he was the victim of some kind of a smear campaign. The studios owned the trade papers at the time!

TLDR; he was unlucky, got screwed over by studio politics and studio heads hating him in relation to money, with a dash of changing audience tastes. His alcoholism (which was SEVERE, but every other major star at the time was some form of substance abuser…) and stubbornness put the nail in his coffin so to speak.

If you can’t tell, I recently read his wonderful bio by Eve Golden. Would very much recommend it to anyone interested about the silent era/1930s Hollywood - my favorite time period in Old Hollywood history. Golden is funny and clear headed about the myth making surrounding Gilbert. At the time of his death, he had been slated to star opposite Marlene Dietrich (who had a much more serious relationship with him than Garbo ever did. - allegedly was with him right before he died...perhaps in bed) in Desire, which could have really turned his career around. He was very good at playing unsavory types with a comedic edge and might have flourished. He was still trim and handsome for a drunk pushing 40.

He was no Francis X. Bushman!

R425, thank you for your informative and entertaining posts! What's the name of the Gilbert bio?

As you said, I can easily imagine the studios using the sound revolution to revitalize their stable of contract players and times were changing with Depression tastes. Were there really many established stars besides Garbo, Crawford and Shearer who went on to long starring roles in the 30s? And Shearer and Crawford were really willing and able to completely revamp their images for Talkies.

I thought Mayer and Gilbert had a fist fight over Gilbert’s mother being a prostitute, not over Garbo. Can’t remember what doco that was in.

[quote] Jimmy Stewart was never sexy, ever.

He was in the films he made with Margaret Sullavan.

She brought something out of him no one else did, which is why they kept pairing him with her in the 30s and 40s.

R428 John Gilbert: Last of the Silent Film Stars.

There were many besides the women you named who who crossed over to talkies - Ronald Colman, Gary Cooper and William Powell too. Clara Bow - again, still a box office earner by the time of her retirement. Marion Davies actually made the transition too but decided to focus on her life as Lady of Hearst Castle instead. Like I mentioned in passing, a lot of the ones who crossed over went from support players to major stars in the next decade - Myrna Loy, Carole Lombard, Jean Arthur and Loretta Young all started in silents. Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff became stars in the monster movie genre because of sound. Chaplin was a special case, obviously. ZaSu Pitts completely changed specialities (silent dramatic actress to sound comedienne - she's very underrated today). Mary Astor and Gilbert Roland continued their careers uninterrupted. In Melvyn Douglas' autobiography it talks at length about how Hollywood became flooded with stage actors at the beginning of the talkies because of their training combined with relative cheapness for hire.

R429 I've read that variation too. It allegedly goes Mayer was a mama's boy and Gilbert openly loathed his neglectful and abusive mother who was an actual PROSTITUTION WHORE, yes. Nobody really knows - Gilbert knew of Mayer's hatred and would purposefully antagonize him as much as possible as retaliation, which did not help his case at all.

[quote]Myrna Loy, Carole Lombard, Jean Arthur and Loretta Young all started in silents

As did Joan Crawford.

I may be wrong but were Loy, Lombard, Arthur and Young really all stars in Silents or merely starlets in supporting roles? I don't think any of those young ladies had really established personas that needed to be reckoned with when sound came in.

Crawford, Shearer and, of course, Garbo were indeed stars of the Silent Screen. Marie Dressler also made the transition very effortlessly.

I’m saying they weren’t stars but supporting or featured players who became stars. Crawford has been mentioned many times and she was a star in silents.

The fact that all these women were at MGM does make me think there was at least a studio driven antipathy towards John Gilbert, - they were given tons of help from their studio (I don’t know whether to count Norma because she was, y’know, married to the boss - who interestingly, was one of Gilbert’s only executive champions/friends and even he didn’t really do that much to help him out) and Gilbert was not despite being an equivalent or a greater star than any of them before talkies.

Did John Gilbert really get drunk at a party and lose his toupee?

Colleen Moore was a silent star who successfully transitioned to talkies - (she even made a now-lost musical, "Footlights and Fools" ) but she took a hiatus from acting between 1929 and 1933, After she returned, her four sound pictures released in 1933 and 1934 were not financial successes. She then retired permanently from screen acting.

After her film career, Moore maintained her wealth through astute investments, becoming a partner of Merrill Lynch. She later wrote a "how-to" book about investing in the stock market.

Gilbert went over Mayer’s head and negotiated his expensive new contract with Nicholas Schenck in New York, the head of Loew’s Inc. Or so I’ve read.

Clearly if MGM (including his friend, Thalberg) really wanted to revive Gilbert’s sound career they could have put him in one of their all star films of the early 30s. Just associating with other big stars of the studio would have helped.

I’ve seen Gilbert’s last film (The Captain Hates The Sea). It was made away from MGM and I really think his voice sounded different - better - lending credence to the idea that at MGM the treble was turned up in the sound recording when he spoke. However he was visibly drunk in the film - as he was in one of the MGM films I saw. In the latter he was obviously unable to keep from weaving from side to side in one scene. I can’t believe MGM released it without a retake unless they wanted to sabotage him.

In a good biography of Cecil B. DeMille, I read he tried to hire Gilbert to play Julius Caesar in Cleopatra (at Paramount). MGM refused to loan him out (Warren William - from Warner Bros - played it).

Has anyone seen QUEEN CHRISTINA (1933) with Garbo and John Gilbert? Always wanted to but that film doesn't ever seem to be on TV. Supposedly, Garbo insisted on him as her leading man. How does he fare there?

You can watch it in the link, R439.

R433, Arthur and Loy starred in some minor silent films as ingenues, but Lombard and Young were hardly there at all before talkies.

R439 He’s fine in it.

Loretta Young played the lead in a pretty well known Lon Chaney silent, Laugh, Clown, Laugh.

I completely forgot about that, R442. Thanks for the correction.

R436 in that maligned bio of Barbara Stanwyck by Axel Madsen, allegedly Robert Taylor picked up the toupee and tried to get it back to Gilbert. YMMV because Madsen, RIP wasn’t well liked or respected as a biographer.

I agree with

Glenn Ford

Robert Cummings

Van Johnson

I don’t think Gilbert wore a toupee.

John Gilbert in his pool.

John Gilbert has taken over this thread. Have you heard his daughter speak in those MGM documentaries? She is so over the top.

Sorry to derail. She's just my favorite actress so when her name comes up I have to troll(next is Lee Remick. I trolled that thread hard too.) Jean Arthur was the highest paid woman in the United States during the 1940s.

Collen Moore was batshit crazy.....and even once testified in court that she was NOT herself.....

Colleen Moore had the greatest dollhouse this side of Queen Mary

As soon as sound came in Louise Brooks became as wooden and dull as Greta Garbo. And without the Buster Brown hairdo, sexless. Fuck, look at her. Hard severe, humorless, and totally fuckable

I mean UNFUCKABLE!!

451. And generations of little gay boys made pilgrimages to see them at the Field Museum in Chicago!

Aside. There is something surreal about Leave Her To Heaven. Is the entire thing matte paintings? With today's eyes, it resembles realistic animation. 100% artificial and beautiful.

Louise Brooks was great - far from wooden and dull, one of the few natural actresses around at the time. She ruined her own career by her admission - refusing to redub her dialogue in The Canary Murder Case and then passing on the Jean Harlow role in The Public Enemy.

Either way, playing Lulu in Pandora’s Box made her rightfully immortal. I don’t think any actresses before or since who pulled off something like that role. You can see shades of it in The Blue Angel maybe, with Dietrich, but there’s still something a bit contrived there that wasn’t present in PB.

Her voice, on that note, was rather lovely. Recalls Myrna Loy.

Dietrich was vulgar in The Blue Angel, fitting the character. Nothing like Pandora's Box.

Those early years of the Talkies from 1927-31 are so easily dismissed. So transitional and so much about finding their way with sound. And a lot of the imported stage stars who were popular those few years, like Ruth Chatterton and Ina Claire went right back to the stage once things got under control.

What about James Craig?

Thanks for initiating the thread, OP. I'm learning a lot about actors and film history I never knew before. The clips help too. Very informative. Oh, my choice....Jerry Lewis's My Fair Lady.. Who the fuck is James Craig?

James Craig…

James Craig was Myra Breckenridge's favorite actor.

Robert Montgomery was extremely bitchy and catty. Joan Crawford and Bette Davis hated him. On the set of “June Bride”, a light comedy, he criticized Bette’s acting. He told her she was playing Queen Elizabeth in the royal court with her overblown dramatics.

Bette Davis said Robert Montgomery was a “super conservative son of a bitch, always with his nose in the air.”

MGM liked Craig because he was similar to Gable in looks and they signed him to a contract, but he didn’t catch fire. He was also allegedly a wife beater.

James Craig at the gym

Elizabeth Montgomery and her father Robert were close, but they became estranged over politics. She was very liberal and a Democrat; he was the opposite. I suspect, though, more than politics were involved.

Richard Todd of Hitchcock's Stage Fright

John Lund of A Foreign Affair and High Society

Richard Travis of The Man Who Came to Dinner

John Loder of Old Acquaintance

Honestly, Dietrich, Davis and Hepburn's films were regularly filled some very dull leading men.

Someone here said that Richard Travis was gay

John Lund was always boring to me

J’adore Richard Todd. It’s too bad he didn’t get more roles The Hasty Heart. He was delicious.