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Knew you wouldn't want to miss the catfight between Joan Crawford and Bette Davis over at Monty's All Good Things. Click here to vote.
The Tale Of The Tape
Bette Davis
Name: Ruth Elizabeth Davis
Birth Date: April 5, 1908 (Lowell, Massachusetts)
Height: 5' 3"
Academy Awards: 11 nominations, 2 wins (Dangerous (1935) and Jezebel (1938))
Katie-Bar-The-Door Awards: 2 wins—Best Actress (Drama) (1934) (Of Human Bondage) and Best Actress (Drama) (1950) (All About Eve)
Three To See: The Letter (1940), Now, Voyager (1942) and All About Eve (1950)
Personal Quote: "Until you're known in my profession as a monster, you're not a star."
Joan Crawford
Name: Lucille Fay LeSueur
Birth Date: March 23, 1905 (San Antonio, Texas)
Height: 5' 5"
Academy Awards: 3 nominations, 1 win (Mildred Pierce (1945))
Katie-Bar-The-Door Awards: 1 win—Best Actress (Drama) (1945) (Mildred Pierce)
Three To See: Grand Hotel (1932), The Women (1939) and Mildred Pierce (1945)
Personal Quote: "There was a saying around MGM: 'Norma Shearer got the productions, Greta Garbo supplied the art, and Joan Crawford made the money to pay for both.'"
For various reasons (a road trip, the dog's surgery and one long, long Mary Pickford essay), I haven't been able to promote Monty's best actor tournament over at All Good Things as much as I normally would, but I'm here to tell you, the final four is set and voting starts today.
The match-ups: William Powell versus William Holden; and Cary Grant versus Paul Newman
Click here to vote.
The Tale of the Tape
BOUT ONE
Representing the Silent/1930s bracket
William Powell
Birth Name: William Horatio Powell
Birth Date: July 29, 1892
Birthplace: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Height: 6'
Film Debut: Sherlock Holmes (1922)
Three To See: One Way Passage, The Thin Man and My Man Godfrey
A Gem You Might Have Missed: I Love You Again
Katie-Bar-The-Door Awards: 1 win—Best Actor (Comedy/Musical) (1936) (The Great Ziegfeld, The Ex-Mrs. Bradford, My Man Godfrey, Libeled Lady and After The Thin Man)
Academy Awards: 3 Oscar nominations, no wins
Marriages: Eileen Wilson (1915-1930, divorced); Carole Lombard (1931-1933, divorced); Diana Lewis (1940-1984, his death)
Representing the 1950s bracket
William Holden
Birth Name: William Franklin Beedle
Birth Date: April 17, 1918
Birthplace: O'Fallon, Illinois
Height: 5'11"
Film Debut: Prison Farm (1938) (uncredited)
Three To See: Sunset Boulevard, Stalag 17 and The Wild Bunch
A Gem You Might Have Missed: Born Yesterday
Katie-Bar-The-Door Awards: 2 wins—Best Actor (Drama) (1950) (Sunset Boulevard) and Best Actor (Drama) (1969) (The Wild Bunch)
Academy Awards: 3 Oscar nominations, 1 win (Stalag 17)
Marriages: Brenda Marshall (1941-1971, divorced)
BOUT TWO
Representing the 1940s bracket
Cary Grant
Birth Name: Archibald Alexander Leach
Birth Date: January 18, 1904
Birthplace: Bristol, England
Height: 6'1½"
Film Debut: This Is The Night (1932)
Three To See: The Awful Truth, His Girl Friday and North By Northwest
A Gem You Might Have Missed: Holiday
Katie-Bar-The-Door Awards: 3 wins—Best Actor (Comedy/Musical) (1937) (The Awful Truth); Best Supporting Actor (1940) (The Philadelphia Story) and Best Actor (Drama) (1959) (North By Northwest)
Academy Awards: 2 Oscar nominations, 0 wins; honorary Oscar (1970)
Marriages: Virginia Cherrill (1934-1935, divorced); Barbara Hutton (1942-1945, divorced); Betsy Drake (1949-1962, divorced); Dyan Cannon (1965-1968, divorced); Barbara Harris (1981-1986, his death)
Representing the 1960s bracket
Paul Newman
Birth Name: Paul Leonard Newman
Birth Date: January 26, 1925
Birthplace: Shaker Heights, Ohio
Height: 5'9½"
Film Debut: The Silver Chalice (1954)
Three To See: The Hustler, Cool Hand Luke and The Sting
A Gem You Might Have Missed: Slap Shot
Katie-Bar-The-Door Awards: 1 win—Best Actor (Drama) (1961) (The Hustler)
Academy Awards: 10 nominations, 1 win (The Color of Money), honorary Oscar (1986); Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award (1994)
Marriages: Jackie Witte (1949-1958, divorced); Joanne Woodward (1958-2008, his death)
Some of the biggest names of movie history have already fallen—Chaplin, Keaton, Fairbanks, Astaire—and the list is down to two in the Silent/1930s Era bracket in Monty's Best Actor Tournament at All Good Things.
William Powell and Clark Gable have squared off before. In 1934, they teamed up with Myrna Loy in Manhattan Melodrama, the Oscar-winning story of crusading politician and his roguish gangster pal. Powell may have gotten the girl in that one (the first of fourteen movies he and Loy made together), but Gable got the better of the two parts.
Nine months later, Powell and Gable squared off again, this time in the best actor category at the Academy Awards. Score round two for Gable as well, as he won the Oscar for It Happened One Night over Powell's performance in The Thin Man.
And finally, in the Carole Lombard sweepstakes, both men married her, but only Gable stayed married to her—Powell and Lombard divorced in 1933, Gable and Lombard were married in 1939 and remained married until her death in an airplane crash in 1942.
Now the two meet once again in the finals of the Silent/1930s bracket of the Monty's Best Actor Tournament and Powell is out for payback. Will he get it or will Gable trump him once again? You can help decide.
Click here to vote.
The Tale Of The Tape:
William Powell
Birth Name: William Horatio Powell
Birth Date: July 29, 1892
Birthplace: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Height: 6'
Film Debut: Sherlock Holmes (1922)
Awards: New York Film Critics Circle Award for best actor of 1947 (Life With Father and The Senator Was Indiscreet); 3 Oscar nominations, no wins
Marriages: three, Eileen Wilson (1915-1930, divorced); Carole Lombard (1931-1933, divorce); Diana Lewis (1940-1984, his death)
Best-Known Role: Nick Charles in The Thin Man
Best-Known Quote: "He didn't come anywhere near my tabloids."
Clark Gable
Birth Name: William Clark Gable
Birth Date: February 1, 1901
Birthplace Cadiz, Ohio
Height: 6'1"
Film Debut: White Man (1924)
Awards: Academy Award for Best Actor of 1934 (It Happened One Night); 2 other Oscar nominations
Marriages: five, including Carole Lombard (1939-1942, her death) and Kay Williams (1955-1960, his death)
Best-Known Role: Rhett Butler in Gone With The Wind
Best-Known Quote: "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."
We're down to the final pairing in Monty's greatest actress tournament over at All Good Things. Two of the greats from cinema's Golden Age: Irene Dunne and Vivien Leigh.
Be sure to vote (click here). You've come this far; don't blow it now.
Irene Dunne
Birth Name: Irene Marie Dunne
Birth Place: Louisville, Kentucky
Birth Date: December 20, 1898
Date of Death: September 4, 1990
Height: 5' 5"
Film Debut: Leathernecking (1930)
Academy Awards: 5 nominations (Best Actress), 0 wins
Three To See: Theodora Goes Wild, The Awful Truth, I Remember Mama
Vivien Leigh
Birth Name: Vivian Mary Hartley
Birth Place: Darjeeling, India
Birth Date: November 5, 1913
Date of Death: July 7, 1967
Height: 5' 3-1/2"
Film Debut: Things Are Looking Up (1935)
Academy Awards: 2 wins (Best Actress)
Three To See: Gone With The Wind, Waterloo Bridge, A Streetcar Named Desire
The finals of the 1960s bracket of the Best Actress March Madness Tournament is underway over at All Good Things. Doris Day versus Natalie Wood.
The Tale of the Tape
Doris Day
Birth Name: Doris Mary Ann Von Kappelhoff
Birth Place: Cincinnati, Ohio
Birth Date: April 3, 1922
Height: 5' 7"
Film Debut: Romance On The High Seas (1948)
Academy Awards: 1 nomination (Best Actress Pillow Talk)
Signature Song: "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)"
Did You Know? She was referenced in the Beatles song "Dig It"
Natalie Wood
Birth Name: Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko
Birth Place: San Francisco, California
Birth Date: July 30, 1938
Date of Death: November 29, 1981
Height: 5'
Film Debut: The Moon Is Down (1943) (uncredited)
Academy Awards: 3 nominations (Best Actress Love With The Proper Stranger (1963) and Splendor In The Grass (1961) and Best Supporting Actress Rebel Without A Cause (1955)
The Monkey's Favorite NW role: Susan Walker, Miracle on 34th Street (1947). Sue me.
Did You Know? She dated Elvis Presley. "He didn't drink, he didn't swear, he didn't even smoke. It was like having the date that I never had in high school."
Click here to vote.
The poll for best song of 1932-33 is shaping up as a two horse race between "We're In The Money" from Gold Diggers Of 1933 and "Who's Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf" from Three Little Pigs. The other three songs between them don't have as many votes as either of the top two contenders.
Which really means this is a two man race between dance wizard Busby Berkeley and entertainment genius Walt Disney.
Yeah, yeah, technically the award will go to one of the songwriting teams of Harry Warren and Al Dubin or Frank Church and Ted Sears, but the fact is the guys who really figured how to sell these songs were Busby Berkeley on the one hand and Walt Disney on the other.
So who you got, Berkeley or Disney?
The tale of the tape:
Busby Berkeley
Birth Name: William Berkeley Enos
Nickname: Buzz
Born: November 29, 1895 (Los Angeles, California)
Died: March 14, 1976 (Palm Springs, California)
Height: 5'9"
Marriages: 4
Trademark: Grandiose dance choreography featuring overhead camera shots
Films: 36, including 42nd Street, Gold Diggers Of 1933 and Footlight Parade
Awards: 3 Oscar nominations for Best Dance Direction; no wins
Other Notable Achievements: single-handedly revived the movie musical
Little-Known Fact: never took a dance lesson in his life
Walt Disney
Birth Name: Walter Elias Disney
Nickname: Uncle Walt
Born: December 5, 1901 (Chicago, Illinois)
Died: December 15, 1966 (Los Angeles, California)
Height: 5'10"
Marriages: One, to Lillian Bounds, from 1925 until his death in 1966
Trademarks: innovative animation; making dreams come true
Films: produced 641 feature-length films, shorts, and television programs
Awards: 59 Oscar nominations, 26 wins (including 4 special awards), both records; Congressional Gold Medal, Légion d'honneur, Presidential Medal of Freedom, Special Katie Award
Other Notable Achievements: along with brother Roy, founded the Walt Disney Company, the world's largest media and entertainment conglomerate
Little-Known Fact: was a model train enthusiast
You've got until Sunday to cast your vote.
At the risk of incurring the wrath of Douglas Fairbanks, I thought I'd mention that today is Katie-Award winning actor Lon Chaney's birthday today. He is a robust 127.
I've written about him many times, and his dust-ups with Fairbanks in the pages of this blog are legendary. Perhaps you can take this as an opportunity to use the nifty search feature on the right hand side of the page and read all about it. You won't be disappointed. Unless, of course, you are.
In his honor, here is a public domain copy of perhaps his greatest performance, 1925's The Phantom Of The Opera. Enjoy.
Striving always for balance in our coverage of the ongoing feud between silent film greats Lon Chaney and Douglas Fairbanks, we here at the Katie-Bar-The-Door Awards present a movie poster of the latter's nominated feature, The Iron Mask.
While I've been busy working on essays about F.W. Murnau, Jean Hersholt and Clara Bow, as well as researching the Katie awards for 1928-29, two of my most famous readers, Lon Chaney and Douglas Fairbanks, have been engaged in a bit of verbal smackdown in the comments section. Fairbanks claims Chaney "couldn't carry my saddlebags," while Chaney says Fairbanks "couldn't act [his] way out of a paper bag."
I invite all my faithful readers to weigh in on this most vital debate.
The Tale Of The Tape:
Lon Chaney
Birth Name: Leonidas Frank Chaney
Nickname: Man Of A Thousand Faces
Trademark: Master of early makeup techniques
Born: April 1, 1883
Height: 5'9"
Films: 161, including The Hunchback Of Notre Dame (1923), The Phantom Of The Opera (1925) and Laugh, Clown, Laugh (1928)
Katie Awards: 1 win for Best Actor of 1927-28, 1 nomination for Best Actor Of The Silent Era
Other Awards: twice commemorated on U.S. stamps; first actor to be made honorary member of U.S. Marine Corps for his portrayal of a drill instructor in Tell It To The Marines (1926)
Other Achievements: directed 6 movies, wrote 6
Marriages: 2
Famous Children: Lon Chaney, Jr.
Salary: $3,750 per week The Unholy Three (1930)
Douglas Fairbanks
Birth Name: Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman
Born: May 23, 1883
Trademark: Stunt work
Height: 5'9"
Films: 49, including The Mark Of Zorro (1920), The Thief Of Bagdad (1924) and The Gaucho (1927)
Katie Awards: 1 nomination for Best Actor Of The Silent Era
Other Awards: Honorary Oscar (1940); Photoplay's Medal of Honor for Robin Hood (1922)
Other Achievements: co-founded United Artists, first president of AMPAS, produced 24 movies, wrote 18, directed 2.
Marriages: 3, including to Katie Award winner Mary Pickford
Famous Children: Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.
Salary: $300,000 for Reaching For The Moon (1930)
Analysis: The film record indicates Chaney had tremendous upper body strength and likely could have carried anybody's saddlebags, let alone Fairbanks's. On the other hand, I have yet to see any movie where Fairbanks began a scene in a bag, so I can't say definitively whether he ever acted his way out of one. He did make one movie with Mary Pickford, though, 1929's The Taming Of The Shrew, so draw your own conclusions.
My personal opinion? A well-rounded film collection contains the work of both.
Keep it clean, gents.
Name: Ruth Elizabeth Davis
Name: Lucille Fay LeSueur
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