Author: Charles Tranberg
Publisher: BearManor Media
ISBN: 9781593938758
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 406
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Book Description
This is the HARDBACK version. Fredric March (1897-1975) was one of the most dynamic and versatile actors of his time. On the screen he created memorable performances in such classic films as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Death Takes a Holiday, Les Miserables, A Star is Born, Nothing Sacred, One Foot in Heaven, The Adventures of Mark Twain, The Best Years of Our Lives, Death of a Salesman and Inherit the Wind. Along the way he was nominated five times for an Academy Award and won the coveted statuette twice. He had an equally distinguished career as a stage actor-appearing in such acclaimed Broadway productions as The Skin of Our Teeth and Long Day's Journey Into Night-winning two Tony Awards-including the very first presented to an actor. Despite this great record of success, Fredric March isn't as well remembered today as some of his peers (Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, James Stewart) because unlike them he never developed a recognizable screen persona that followed him from film to film. He was always characterizing-always hiding his own personality behind that of the character he was portraying. He was the consummate actor who richly deserves to be rediscovered.
Author: Charles Tranberg
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781593937454
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 406
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Book Description
Fredric March (1897-1975) was one of the most dynamic and versatile actors of his time. On the screen he created memorable performances in such classic films as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Death Takes a Holiday, Les Miserables, A Star is Born, Nothing Sacred, One Foot in Heaven, The Adventures of Mark Twain, The Best Years of Our Lives, Death of a Salesman and Inherit the Wind. Along the way he was nominated five times for an Academy Award and won the coveted statuette twice. He had an equally distinguished career as a stage actor-appearing in such acclaimed Broadway productions as The Skin of Our Teeth and Long Day's Journey Into Night-winning two Tony Awards-including the very first presented to an actor. Despite this great record of success, Fredric March isn't as well remembered today as some of his peers (Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, James Stewart) because unlike them he never developed a recognizable screen persona that followed him from film to film. He was always characterizing-always hiding his own personality behind that of the character he was portraying. He was the consummate actor who richly deserves to be rediscovered. About the Author: Charles Tranberg has written six previous books: I Love the Illusion: The Life and Career of Agnes Moorehead, Not so Dumb: The Life and Career of Marie Wilson, Fred MacMurray: A Biography, The Thin Man Films: Murder over Cocktails, Robert Taylor: A Biography and Walt Disney & Recollections of the Disney Studios 1955-1980. In addition he has written articles for such publications as Classic Images and Films of the Golden Age. Mr. Tranberg lives in Madison, Wisconsin.
Author: Deborah Peterson
Publisher: Praeger
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 328
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Book Description
Fredric March was one of the foremost actors America produced during the 20th century, holding the distinction of winning Best Actor Awards in two films and two Broadway plays. He consciously chose not to shape his career by projecting his own personality, but created a new characterization for each role by becoming the individual he was portraying. Because of this, March is not as well remembered as many of his contemporaries. March was honored 12 years after his death at a tribute in 1987, but by then, many did not even know who he was. In this fascinating biography, Peterson details who March was, and why he was a craftsman first, star second. Yet, Fredric March is not as well remembered as his contemporaries, such as Bogart and Tracy, screen heroes who shaped their careers by projecting their own personalities. Instead March, endeavored to create a new characterization for each role by concealing his own temperament, becoming the individual he was portraying. From 1939 to 1961 he successfully flourished on the Broadway stage as well as on the Hollywood film lot. After 1961 he gracefully grew old in motion pictures, starring at the age of 75 in the 1973 movie version of O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh, two years prior to his death. March was honored posthumously at a joint tribute to the actor from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the American Cinematheque in 1987, 12 years after his death. But, by then, many did not even know who the actor was. In this fascinating biography, Peterson reveals who March was, and why he was a craftsman first, star second. Essential for all researchers interested in film studies and drama.
Author: Lawrence J. Quirk
Publisher: New York : Citadel Press
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 264
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Book Description
Fredric March was one of Hollywood's most celebrated, versatile stars of the 1930s and 1940s. A star of both stage and screen, he won both the Academy Award and the Tony Award twice. This lavishly illustrated study features a compact biography, followed by a complete filmography of his films. Each film is addressed in detail and presented in date order. Each film listing includes the studio and year produced, cast list, production staff, plot synopsis, and excerpts from contemporaneous reviews. A small section with similar notes for Mr. March's Broadway appearances closes the volume.
Author: Scott O'Brien
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781593935351
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Also includes lists of stage, radio and television appearances.
Author: Charles Tranberg
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781593936150
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 404
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Book Description
Robert Taylor was one of Hollywood's biggest stars for over thirty-years and starred in such classic films as Magnificent Obsession, Camille, A Yank at Oxford, Waterloo Bridge, Johnny Eager, Quo Vadis, Ivanhoe and The Last Hunt. He worked with the cream of Hollywood leading ladies: Irene Dunne, Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, Vivien Leigh, Lana Turner, Katharine Hepburn and Barbara Stanwyck, who he later married, just to name a few. An open and friendly man who usually tried to avoid controversy, Taylor stepped into it when he became a so-called friendly witness appearing before the House Un-American Activities Committee during the height of the Washington investigations into alleged Communism in Hollywood. It has haunted his reputation to this day. A happy second marriage to actress Ursula Thiess produced two children and gave Taylor a contentment he lacked in his earlier marriage. Author Charles Tranberg takes a fresh look at the actor who was once called, "The man with the perfect profile." This book also takes a fascinating look at the Hollywood Studio system which existed during Taylor's hey-day.
Author: Margaret Talbot
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1594631883
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 433
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Book Description
Using the life and career of her father, writer Margaret Talbot tells the story of the rise of popular culture through a personal lens. The arc of Lyle Talbot's career is in fact the story of American entertainment. Born in 1902, Lyle left small-town Nebraska in 1918 to join a traveling carnival. From there he became a magician's assistant, an actor in a traveling theater troupe, a romantic lead in early talkies, then an actor in major Warner Bros. pictures, then an actor in cult B movies, and finally a part of the advent of television, with regular roles on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet and Leave It to Beaver. In her impeccably researched narrative--a combination of Hollywood history, social history, and family memoir--Margaret Talbot conjures warmth and nostalgia for those earlier eras of '10s and '20s small-town America, '30s and '40s Hollywood.--From publisher description.
Author: Charles Tranberg
Publisher: BearManor Media
ISBN: 9781593938710
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 436
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Book Description
This is the HARDBACK version. Lovers of old-time radio hold a special place in their heart for Agnes Moorehead. She was one of the busiest and most definitive actresses of that medium. The bottom line is that Agnes Moorehead is one of the few actresses who succeeded in every realm of show business: stage, radio, film, and television. The respect of her peers can be summed up in these statistics: four Academy Award nominations, seven Emmy nominations - with one win - two Golden Globe nominations - with two wins - and the Best Actress award from the New York Film Critics. This impressive, 400+ page biography, complete with filmography and radiography, proves to readers and scholars alike that she was much more than the witch of Endor! *This is the 2nd edition of the bestselling book, with new material and cover!*
Author: Michael Burrows
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Actors
Languages : en
Pages : 56
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Book Description
Author: Charles Tranberg
Publisher: Midpoint Trade Books Incorporated
ISBN: 9781593930998
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 390
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Book Description
Fred MacMurray was one of the most durable stars in motion picture history. Fred arrived in Hollywood in 1934 and within a year he was one of the top leading men in the movie industry. He was the leading actor or one of the leads in films through 1973 when Walt Disney Studios released his final starring role in a motion picture, Charley and the Angel. Thirty-nine years - five separate decades. Few stars have equaled that distinction. Of course every star career has its peaks and valleys. The initial peak of Fred';s stardom was from his days as a Paramount leading man, beginning in 1935 and running roughly until the end of the Second World War. Like many aging stars, the post-war years were a mixed bag for Fred. Public tastes were changing and the kind of frothy, romantic comedies which had been his forte were going out of fashion. But he persevered and continued to do leading roles in a variety of pictures and from time to time found a film which registered strongly with film audiences and critics alike, such as The Egg and I (1947), and especially The Caine Mutiny (1954). By the mid 1950s Fred was appearing, increasingly, in that favorite genre of the aging leading man - the western film. Eight of ten films he made between 1955 and 1960 were westerns, not Fred's favorite genre. But they did keep his name before the public. Then in 1959, Fred began the second peak of his career thanks to Walt Disney, who cast Fred in his studios first live action comedy film, The Shaggy Dog. Incredibly this film which was made for under $1 million became the third biggest box office hit of that year, and Fred found a new audience. Over the next several years, Fred starred in a series of hugely popular family films for the Walt Disney Studios. Then in 1960, Fred did something that solidified his new family friendly image. He accepted the lead in a new television series called My Three Sons. For the next twelve years he played Steve Douglas, a widower with three rambunctious sons. Fred became THE quintessential father figure for a new generation of kids. In accepting My Three Sons Fred succeeded at something that few film actors had achieved up to that time. He became a star in both television and motion pictures. Look at it this way. In 1951 when Lucille Ball began I Love Lucy she had already spent nearly two decades as a motion picture actress, but she never had the kind of movie fame that Fred MacMurray had achieved when he became a television star. Loretta Young began a long running anthology series in 1953, and had been a popular, and Academy Award winning, movie actress prior to that, but when she began on television her days as a film actress were over. When Fred began doing My Three Sons in 1960, he was enjoying a rejuvenated film career thanks to the Disney films and his superb performance in Billy Wilder's hugely popular and Academy Award winning The Apartment. Fred was simultaneously enjoying popularity on both the big and small screens. Many film actors attempted this after Fred, including his contemporaries Jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda, but both proved failures in their own series.