Natalie Wood - Classic Movie Goddess Part 2

Here are interesting facts and trivia about Natalie Wood:

Her sister is Lana Wood. Her half-sister is Olga Viriapaeff.


She suffered from a deep fear of drowning after having barely survived an accident when she was a little girl, during the filming of The Green Promise (1949). Her fear was so great that Elia Kazan had to lie - promising a double - and trick her into doing the scenes at the water reservoir in Splendor in the Grass (1961). She also had to do her own swimming scenes in "From Here to Eternity" (1979) despite her protests.

Was commonly listed as 5' 3" wearing heels in movie magazines, though her actual height was 5' 0".


An accident on a movie set (she fell into a river and almost drowned) when she was 9 years old left her with a permanently weakened left wrist and a slight bone protrusion, which, for the rest of her life, she hid with large bracelets. Regardless of the movie role, or anytime that she was out in public, she always wore a large bracelet on the left wrist.


The daughter of a Russian architect and a French ballerina could do a proper plié before she could barely walk.

Spoke Russian and English.


Entertainment Weekly placed her on the "100 greatest stars of all time" list, at #70.


Sister Lana Wood wrote the best-selling book about her titled "Natalie: a Memoir by Her Sister".


Was the youngest nominee in her category each of the three times she was nominated for an Oscar, the first being when she was 17 and the last when she was 25.

Has multiple connections with the James Bond franchise. Her sister, Lana Wood, was a Bond girl in Diamonds Are Forever (1971). Jill St. John, who was Natalie's childhood friend and is now married to her widower, Robert Wagner, also appeared as a Bond girl in the same film. Natalie co-starred in Meteor (1979) with Sean Connery, who played the James Bond character in seven films, and in Brainstorm (1983), she co-starred with Christopher Walken, who was a Bond villain in A View to a Kill (1985). Natalie also co-starred in "From Here to Eternity" (1979) with Kim Basinger, who was a Bond girl in Never Say Never Again (1983). Robert Wagner's character, "Number Two" in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997), Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) and Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002), is a spoof of the character "Largo" in Thunderball (1965).


Her best friends included actresses Stefanie Powers, Dyan Cannon and Carol Lynley. She was a childhood friend of her widower's current wife Jill St. John but they were not close as adults.

Happy Birthday Raquel Welch

Happy Birthday to the sexy superstar Raquel Welch, who turns 70 today. And I must say she looks fabulous. My favorite films of Raquel are One Million Years B.C., Fantastic Voyage, 100 Rifles, Hannie Caulder, Kansas City Bomber, and The Three Musketeers. Her most recent films include Legally Blonde with Reese Witherspoon, and the TV shows 8 Simple Rules and Welcome to the Captain. One of her children is actress Tahnee Welch from the Cocoon movies. Trivia note: she auditioned for the role of Mary Ann on Gilligan's Island.

Be My Guest - Sarah (from And...Scene) Part 1

My friend Sarah from And...Scene has graciously accepted my invitation to Be My Guest this month on my blog. I will be posting her responses to the questions I sent her all throughout this month. Here is part one.

http://2009and-scene.blogspot.com/

Monty: Who are your Top 5 favorite actors/actresses?

Sarah:  Fredric March 

 William Powell  James Cagney
 Joan Crawford  Bette Davis 
Monty: Great choices Sarah. And once again Bette has made the favorite list of all my friends who have guested here on my blog. You make 5 in a row I believe.

Monty: Describe in detail why your number 1 favorite actor/actress is your favorite.

 

Sarah: Fredric March has captured my attention ever since I saw him in Ernst Lubitsch’s, Design for Living. I’m finding it hard to put into words why I enjoy him as an actor so very much. Sadly, there isn’t very much information out there on March (and I haven’t yet taken the plunge by buying Deborah Peterson’s rather expensive biography, Fredric March: Craftsman First, Star Second). Much of what I know about him comes from my observation of his films, what I have read on the interwebs and Quirk's, The Films of Fredric March. 

Besides being an attractive man, which is not the sole reason for liking him, I mean, Clark Gable was an attractive man, but I don’t feel I must watch every movie he’s ever been in, March has something that simply draws me in. He was a versatile actor, didn’t always need to play the hero, or the lead, was sometimes hammy, sometimes eloquently sentimental, sometimes hilarious, but always, in my opinion, human, touchable, and somewhat humble. Again, this is just what I have gleaned from my observations, and I hope to find no information to the contrary- even so, it won’t keep him from being my favorite actor.

Monty: Interesting choice Sarah. I've seen a few films of Fredric and I really do think he is an impressive actor.  

Monty: Describe your first classic movie experience.

 

Sarah: Sitting with my dad watching his favorite John Wayne movies on a fuzzy TV screen. It's funny, my dad always likes to give me bits of trivia about Wayne's films when we watch them, but with this past year of watching classic film and reading up on the actor's and actresses of that time, I'm the one giving him the behind the scenes dirt or biographical trivia.
We never tire of all the banter between Maureen O’Hara and John Wayne in McClintock and The Quiet Man. Donovan's Reef  is a favorite as well. 

Monty: Great story Sarah. Always nice to hear everyone's favorite first classic movie experience. 

That wraps up part one of my discussion with Sarah. I will post the second part within the next few days if time permits.

In Memory of Cammie King Conlon - played the daughter of Scarlett & Rhett

"Gone with the Wind" child star Cammie King Conlon has lost her battle with lung cancer at the age of 76. The former actress, born Eleanore Cammack King, passed away on Wednesday morning, September 1 at her home in Fort Bragg, California.


Conlon landed the tragic role of Bonnie Blue Butler - the daughter of the 1939 film's lead characters Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara - at the age of four. She went on to voice characters in Disney's 1942 film "Bambi", but her career ended almost as soon as it had begun after her mother pulled her out of Hollywood.

She frequently joked about how she "peaked at five", and, in a post on her blog in 2009, she wrote, "My mother decided she wanted me to have a normal childhood." Conlon later earned a degree in communications and pursued a career as a museum director and publicist.

She was married twice and is survived by her two adopted sons.

Stars In Summer Dresses

Now that summer is almost over, here is a nice collection of famous actresses wearing lovely summer dresses. A simpler and enchanting time.

GRACE KELLY

MYRNA LOY

AUDREY HEPBURN

GINGER ROGERS

CAROLE LOMBARD

VIVIEN LEIGH

LAUREN BACALL

MARILYN MONROE

OLIVIA de HAVILLAND

RITA HAYWORTH

DEBORAH KERR

MIRIAM HOPKINS

AND

BETTE DAVIS

Natalie Wood - Classic Movie Goddess Of The Month Part 1

Natalie Wood (July 20, 1938 – November 29, 1981) was an American film actress. Wood was born Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko in San Francisco, California, to Russian Orthodox immigrants, Nikolai and Mar... read moreia Zakharenko. Her parents changed their surname to the less cumbersome "Gurdin", and by the age of 4 she was billed as Natasha Gurdin. Her mother tightly managed and controlled the young girl's career and personal life from her start in films at the age of five. She starred in multiple films as a child including Miracle on 34th Street in 1947. Her father is described by Wood's biographers as a passive alcoholic who went along with his wife's demands. Her sister, Lana Wood, is also an actress, notably a Bond girl, and was a Playboy playmate.
At 16, Natalie was awarded the role of Judy in Nicholas Ray's Rebel Without a Cause, co-starring James Dean, Sal Mineo, and Dennis Hopper, signaling the start of her adult acting career. Most biographers claim that she slept with Ray and Hopper. Wood was one of the relatively few child stars to make a successful transition to adult stardom. By the time she was 28, she was already a three-time Oscar nominee, with nominations for Rebel Without a Cause, Splendor in the Grass and Love With the Proper Stranger.Another of her widely noted films was the Leonard Bernstein musical West Side Story, in which she played Maria. Wood was initially signed to do her own singing but in the end she was dubbed by professional singer Marni Nixon, which is said to have caused her disappointment. Nonetheless, she enjoyed worldwide celebrity, comparable to that of Elizabeth Taylor. As a restless on-screen companion of James Dean and an off-screen date of Elvis Presley, she was much admired and envied by the young girls of the day. One of her judgments of Elvis was, "He can sing but he can’t do much else." She married actor Robert Wagner in 1957 but divorced him in 1962.

After this she starred in Sex and the Single Girl (1964) and The Great Race (1965), which were poorly received. She delivered some of her best work in years by playing southern depression-era teens with big dreams in the similar films Inside Daisy Clover (1965) and This Property is Condemned (1966), both of which co-starred Robert Redford and earned her Golden Globe nominations. Although they were not box-office hits upon release, many consider the latter to be Natalie's greatest performance. In addition, her personal life was also suffering after her breakup with Warren Beatty and her suicide attempt in November of 1966. She began seeing a psychiatrist and stopped working for 3 years. She turned down opportunities to star in Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Barefoot in the Park(1967) and Goodbye, Columbus (1969) among others, and later regretted her decisions. In 1969, Natalie starred as a swinger in the hit film Bob & Carol & Alice & Ted (1969). She played Carol, the trophy wife of Bob, who is swapped with Alice to have sex with Ted. The film embraced the sexual revolution of the hippie era and increased Natalie's star status. Her salary for the film was a record-breaking $3 million after she was given a percentage of the film's profits. In addition to her movie success, her personal life was improving as well. On Friday, May 30th, 1969, 30-year old Natalie married British producer Richard Gregson after a year-and-a-half of dating. Within a few months, Natalie was pregnant.

On Tuesday, September 29th, 1970, she gave birth to a daughter, Natasha Gregson Wagner. She would wind up divorcing Gregson in 1972. Natalie's film output dwindled during the 70's as she spent more time with her family. She did appear in such films as Peeper and Meteor, but mainly did a lot of TV appearances such as the TV remake of From Here To Eternity and guest spots on shows such as Switch and Hart to Hart. She would remarry Robert Wagner in 1972. They remained married until her untimely death in 1981. On the night of Sunday, November 29th, 1981, she was sailing on the yacht she shared with her husband, Robert and their friend Walken, when Natalie fell in the ocean and drowned. She was 43 years old.

New Poll started: Natalie Wood

In honor of Natalie Wood being my Classic Movie Goddess of the month, she is the topic of my new poll. The question is what period of Natalie's career do you enjoy the most? As a child actor, a teen-ager or as an adult. Natalie was one of the few performers who started out as a child actress and was able to carry on as a teen-ager and into adulthood without missing a beat. More than likely she would still be making movies now if it weren't for her tragic and accidental death. So take a moment to vote on the poll as it will be up all month long.

And I will list a few of her films from each period to give you an idea.



Child:
The Miracle of 34th Street
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
Father Was A Fullback
Dear Brat

Teen-ager:
Rebel Without A Cause
The Searchers
The Burning Hills

Adult:
Westside Story
Inside Daisy Clover
This Property Is Condemned

Why Sandra Bullock is awesome...

I loved Sandra ever since she did the television series based on the Melanie Griffith/Harrison Ford 1988 movie, Working Girl. Yeah, over 20 years ago. She just had that lovable presence in all her films that you just like being around her. Just look at my lead off picture of her and Betty White. You can't tell me it wouldn't be fun hanging out with Sandy. And Betty too for that matter. Even when she plays a not so nice character like she did in Crash a few years ago, you still sympathize with her. And after her banner year in 2009 with The Proposal and The Blind Side, her career has never been better. Her personal life has suffered thanks to her ex-husband piece of crap Jesse James, but she is better off with out him.

Sandra is by far, my most favorite modern actress, ahead of Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow and Reese Witherspoon. And like I stated earlier, I didn't just start like Sandy recently. Even before the Working Girl series (which lasted a short 12 episodes) I remember seeing her in The Six Million Dollar Man/Bionic Woman reunion TV movie as Kate, a young woman with bionic abilities. She was cute and perky and I paid more attention to her than Lee Majors and Lindsay Wagner. It was cool seeing this fresh faced new actress on the scene. Her stint on Working Girl may not have lasted long but it did show that she had some potential comedic skills.

 Her first film that I recall seeing her in was the comedy Love Potion No. 9 which had playing a grad research student who along with her lab partner stumble across this love potion that makes both of them attractive to everyone else. Once again Sandra got to show her improving comedic abilities. She would make several more films such as the intense thriller The Vanishing with Kiefer Sutherland and Jeff Bridges; When The Party's Over, and The Thing Called Love with the late River Phoenix.

 But she got her first taste of stardom with 1993's sci-fi action film Demolition Man, starring Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes. As police officer Lenina Huxley, Sandy didn't let the boys have all the fun as she got to fight, shoot guns, and drive really fast. This film would set her up for the film that would really put her on the map, Speed, which is one of my all time favorite films. This movie is so cool as it makes Keanu Reeves an action star, Dennis Hopper doing his very best bad guy thing, and Sandy driving the runaway bus while also providing the film's best lines. After Speed became one of the biggest hits during the summer of 1994, Sandy became a genuine movie star. 

The films during the period of 1995 - 2002 would make Sandy one of the biggest actresses in the world with films such as A Time To Kill, While You Were Sleeping, Hope Floats, Practical Magic, Two Week Notice, and Miss Congeniality. Her career cooled off a bit after that but she came back strong with Crash, giving one of her best dramatic performances ever. Even as an unsympathetic wife, you still felt for her and wished her well. I will skip over her years with James and move on to what would be a banner year for her in 2009. With the summer romantic comedy smash The Proposal (which is funny as hell) and the winter release The Blind Side (which I think is her best film performance). She was her first Oscar as Best Actress for The Blind Side. Some say it was given as a consolation prize for all the turmoil that she was facing in her personal life. I don't think so. I thought she gave a terrific performance and deserved the Oscar more than anyone else that year.

I think the reason why a lot of people love Sandra Bullock is because she is so easy going and regular. We can all relate to her. She seems like that person who you would love to just be with. She's beautiful, funny, and has an amazing and friendly personality. I think she has been through a lot over the last year but will come out a better and stronger person from it. I believe she will continue to deliver more great performances in great films in the coming years. Her next film will be a family drama, co-starring none other than Tom Hanks. Color me excited for that one. And I think I will start doing regular posts of her on my blog. Reviews of her films, posting pics and whatever else that catches my fancy. So I hope that most of my followers are fans of Sandra because she will become a regular topic here on All Good Things.

All Good Things In September

Well, the summer is about over and time for the fall to begin. I love the fall, with the cooler weather and the leaves changing color, it's just a great time of the year. In September, the Classic Movie Goddess will be Natalie Wood, whose career was cut tragically short when she accidentally fell overboard on her yacht and drowned back in 1981. I will be posting reviews, facts and photos of her all month long. My guest blogger will be Sarah from And... Scene. She graciously accepted my invitation to be interviewed about her favorites. My new monthly series which I started in August about comparing two similar movies got a lot of response from followers, so I will be doing it again. Last month I did Breakfast at Tiffany's and Butterfield 8. In September the two movies will be My Favorite Wife (1940) with Cary Grant and Irene Dunne against Move Over Darling (1963) with Doris Day and James Garner. I also will start a new poll, most likely involving Natalie Wood. So swing by every now and then to check out All Good Things in September.

Summer Under The Stars - Lee Remick August 26th on TCM

Another of my favorites, Lee Remick gets her day on TCM with several note-worthy films. They include The Wheeler Dealers, A Face In The Crowd, Telefon, Days Of Wine and Roses, Experiment in Terror and Anatomy of a Murder.