Siegel S., Siegel B. The Encyclopedia Of Hollywood
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the two stars parted company, not to be reunited again on film
until 1949.
Rogers had long wanted to be taken seriously as a dra-
matic actress and, in 1940, she accomplished just that, win-
ning a Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of the title
character in the soaper Kitty Foyle. The early 1940s were her
golden solo years, when, without Astaire, she starred in a
number of popular, amusing comedies such as Tom, Dick, and
Harry (1941), Roxie Hart (1942), and The Major and the Minor
(1942). Her career tailed off, however, in the latter part of the
decade, only to be saved by her reunion with Astaire in their
final film together, The Barkleys of Broadway (1949), a movie
that also poked good-natured fun at Rogers’s desire to be a
serious actress.
Rogers worked steadily until 1957, appearing in a few
amusing movies, most notably
HOWARD HAWKS
’s Monkey
Business (1952), but when there was little work to be found in
the movies, she went back to the stage, where she triumphed
during the 1960s as Carol Channing’s replacement in the
Broadway production of Hello, Dolly! and in a London run of
Mame. One of her rare film appearances during the 1960s
was as Carol Lynley’s mother in Harlow (1965). She spent the
1970s and 1980s in semiretirement, making an occasional
TV appearance. Ginger: My Story, her autobiography,
appeared in 1991.
See also
MUSICALS
;
SCREEN TEAMS
.
Rogers, Roy (1912–1998) He was the heir to Gene
Autry’s title of “King of the Cowboys.” A popular singing
cowboy in low-budget western films, principally during the
1940s, he later reached the height of his fame as a TV star in
a long-running series that bore his name during the 1950s.
Like Autry, Rogers appealed to the juvenile audience, but he
was never quite as awesomely successful in the movies as was
his predecessor. Earnest, rather than playful, Rogers had a
somewhat staid image that was brightened by his perky wife,
Dale (who appeared in many of his films); the amusing side-
kick, Gabby Hayes; Roger’s remarkable horse, Trigger; and
his well-trained dog, Bullet. One suspects that, alone, Rogers
might not have had the success he did.
Born Leonard Slye, Rogers made his way to California as
a migrant farm worker, picking fruit. He was a singer (using
the name Dick Weston) long before he became an actor, but
he eventually formed the Sons of the Pioneers, a singing
group that appeared in a great many westerns, including sev-
eral of
JOHN FORD
’s films.
His first film appearance was in a tiny part in Gene Autry’s
Tumbling Tumbleweeds (1935). He sailed along in small roles
throughout the rest of the 1930s, deep in the shadow of Autry’s
success. As a means of keeping Autry in line, worried produc-
ers ultimately pushed Rogers into the limelight as a potential
new singing star. With his pleasant voice and warm manner, he
took hold in films such as Sons of the Pioneers (1942), Romance
on the Range (1942), and finally the one that established him as
Autry’s successor, King of the Cowboys (1943).
Rogers worked steadily in thoroughly forgettable light
western musicals with simple plots and clichéd stories until
the early 1950s. He went on to star, with wife Dale Evans, in
The Roy Rogers Show on television, making his last film
appearance in Mackintosh and TJ in 1975.
Rogers, like Autry, invested his money very well and
became wealthy through his restaurant chains. And, yes, it is
true that Rogers did have Trigger stuffed after the horse’s
death.
See also
AUTRY
,
GENE
;
WESTERNS
.
Rogers, Will (1879–1935) Rarely has there been an
actor more beloved by American movie audiences than Will
Rogers. There were actors who were more dashing, sexy, and
dynamic, but none matched his folksy wit, wisdom, and
charm. Rogers was the uncle everyone wished he had.
Born William Penn Adair Rogers in Oolagah, Indian
Territory (which later became the state of Oklahoma), of
reputedly Irish and Cherokee Indian ancestry, he learned his
roping and riding tricks very early in life.
Those tricks served him in good stead when he joined a
Wild West show in Johannesburg, South Africa, after deliv-
ering mules to the British there during the Boer War. Rogers
continued working in Wild West shows until he made his
ROGERS, ROY
348
Roy Rogers succeeded Gene Autry as “King of the Cow-
boys” during the 1940s, gaining his greatest fame on TV
during the 1950s. The debate still rages between men of a
certain age as to who was a greater hero, Roy or Gene.
(PHOTO COURTESY OF ROY ROGERS)
way to New York and took a stab at vaudeville. His act con-
sisted entirely of rope tricks; he had yet to speak on stage. It
wasn’t until he got a laugh ad-libbing a joke to cover a failed
trick that he suddenly became a humorist.
During the next several years Rogers began to make
amusing comments on politics, politicians, and human
nature. By 1912, he had become a well-known vaudevillian
and was able to make the leap to Broadway. Five years later,
he was a star attraction in the Ziegfeld Follies.
The movies beckoned in 1918, and Rogers made his first
film, Laughing Bill Hyde, for
SAMUEL GOLDWYN
. The movie
did reasonably well, and it seemed as if Will Rogers was
about to become a silent-screen star. But after 12 more fea-
tures between 1918 and early 1922, the rope-twirling star had
failed to find an audience. His appeal was in what he said and
how he said it, and silent films simply couldn’t project his
personality.
But neither Hollywood nor Rogers were willing to give
up. He made One Glorious Day (1922) for Paramount, and an
independent version of The Headless Horseman (1922). He
even produced, wrote, and directed three films himself that
same year and proceeded to go broke.
Except for two pretalkie features in 1927, Rogers’s only
other film experience during the silent era was in a series of a
dozen shorts he made for
HAL ROACH
in the mid-1920s, but
they weren’t terribly successful either.
Though his film career appeared to be a bust, Rogers’s
popularity continued to grow thanks to his humor columns in
the newspapers. He had also written two successful books.
With the coming of sound, Hollywood gave Rogers another
chance with They Had to See Paris (1929), and he was a hit.
From that moment his film career never seriously fal-
tered. He was an American Everyman who managed to
ridicule and satirize without ever offending. His support of
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was generally credited with help-
ing FDR win the presidency in 1932. Rogers, himself, was
offered the nomination for governor of Oklahoma but
declined it. (He did, however, serve as the honorary mayor of
Beverly Hills.)
Though his movies were almost all formulaic, they were
immensely successful, making Rogers the second most popu-
lar film star in 1933 (after
MARIE DRESSLER
) and the number-
one draw in 1934.
Rogers made a total of 20 sound films, but only a handful
hold up reasonably well today. His best were A Connecticut
Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1931), State Fair (1934), Judge
Priest (1934) and Steamboat ’Round the Bend (1935), the latter
two directed by
JOHN FORD
.
Romero, George A. (1940– ) A director of mostly
low-budget horror films who burst on the filmmaking scene
in 1968 with his shockingly violent, no-holds-barred Night of
the Living Dead. Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Romero
has shot most of his films in and around his home state, rel-
ishing his reputation as a movie maverick. Though few of his
films have reached a wide audience, the director has had a
significant impact on the movie industry. His debut film has
often been cited as the spur that led to the MPAA rating sys-
tem. In addition, Romero, via Night of the Living Dead, can be
credited as the father of the blood-and-gore cycle of horror
films that spawned such later entries (by other filmmakers) as
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the Friday the 13th series, and
the Halloween series.
Born in the Bronx, New York, Romero received his
higher education at the Carnegie Institute of Technology
(later the Carnegie-Mellon Institute of Technology) in Pitts-
burgh, and he has stayed in that area ever since.
He made Night of the Living Dead on a minuscule budget
with money invested by friends. He could afford to shoot
only on weekends when his cast and a rented farmhouse were
available. Soon after its release, the film became a top attrac-
tion at midnight shows and quickly attained cult status.
Among Romero’s later films, only the long-awaited
sequel to Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead (1979),
and Creepshow (1982), a bigger-budget film scripted by
Stephen King and boasting a well-known cast, have garnered
box-office honors. One of Romero’s most interesting films,
however, was his prophetic movie about a biological plague
in a small town. The film was called Crazies (1973), but it
failed after being rereleased under the title Code Name: Trixie.
Some of Romero’s other films include Day of the Dead (1985)
and Monkey Shines: An Experiment in Fear (1988), this last
another rare big-budget, major-studio production.
In the 1990s, Romero wrote a script for Tales from the
Darkside: The Movie (1990), an omnibus film featuring loose
adaptations of stories by Stephen King, Arthur Conan Doyle,
and Michael McDowell, and directed and scripted one story
for Two Evil Eyes (1990), a film featuring two adaptations of
Poe horror stories; legendary Italian goremeister Dario
Argento wrote and directed the other story. Romero turned
to Stephen King again in 1993 when he directed and wrote
the screenplay for The Dark Half, substituting his native
Pittsburgh for King’s New England setting.
See also
HORROR FILMS
.
Rooney, Mickey (1920– ) A prodigiously talented
actor who began his career as a child star, becoming one of
Hollywood’s most popular teenagers, a role he was able to
assume well into his twenties because of his short stature and
baby face. Although he had a bumpy career in adult films, he
has continued to act in movies ever since the silent era.
Though he reached the peak of his fame in the late 1930s and
early 1940s, Rooney has never been long out of the limelight.
Married eight times, most memorably to
AVA GARDNER
(1942–43), he has made and lost a fortune; tinkered in the
business world; and conquered the stage, the nightclub cir-
cuit, and TV; but his boundless energy and talent has best
been captured by the big screen.
Born Joe Yule Jr., the son of a vaudeville couple, he
began to perform at the age of 15 months in his parents’ act.
His first film was a silent short, Not To Be Trusted (1926). The
following year he took the name of Mickey McGuire, the
same monicker as the comic-strip character he played in a
long-running series of comedy shorts made between 1927
ROONEY, MICKEY
349
and 1933; in 1932, when he began to appear in films other
than the Mickey McGuire movies, he changed his name to
Mickey Rooney.
In small roles in films such as The Big Cage (1933) and The
Chief (1933), Rooney bounced around from studio to studio
until MGM finally signed him to a long-term contract in
1935. He was promptly loaned out to
WARNER BROS
., where
he made a lasting impression as Puck in A Midsummer Night’s
Dream (1935). He was in three films supporting child star
Freddie Bartholomew, and his brashness was the perfect foil
for the young English actor’s reserve. After Little Lord
Fauntleroy (1936), The Devil Is a Sissy (1936), and Captains
Courageous (1937), Rooney’s star began to rise just as
Bartholomew’s began to fade.
In 1937, MGM produced a “B” movie called A Family
Affair, the first of a series of Andy Hardy films that featured
Rooney as the affable teenager in an archetypal American
family. The film was a surprise hit, and it was followed by 15
more Hardy films.
When
JUDY GARLAND
was featured in Love Finds Andy
Hardy (1938), Rooney found his perfect female counterpart
(although the “love” Hardy found in the film was
LANA
TURNER
). The two MGM teenagers starred together in three
Andy Hardy films but more notably in a series of charming
musicals including Babes in Arms (1939), Strike Up the Band
(1940), Babes on Broadway (1941), and Girl Crazy (1943).
At the same time that Rooney was playing light comedy in
the Andy Hardy films and singing and dancing in musicals, he
was also playing heavy dramatic roles in films such as Boys
Town (1938) and Young Tom Edison (1940). It was eminently
clear that Rooney was an immensely talented young man with
a remarkable acting range. The public could hardly get
enough of him: He appeared in anywhere from three to eight
films per year during the latter 1930s and early 1940s, becom-
ing the recipient of a special Academy Award along with
another teenage star,
DEANNA DURBIN
, for their “significant
contribution in bringing to the screen the spirit and personi-
fication of youth and as a juvenile player setting a high stan-
dard of ability and achievement.” Rooney reached the apex of
his career in 1939 when he became the nation’s number-one
box-office draw, a title he held for three straight years.
After starring with
ELIZABETH TAYLOR
in National Velvet
(1944), Rooney joined the army. It was hard for audiences to
accept the young baby-faced actor as Andy Hardy after his
return from the service, and Love Laughs at Andy Hardy
(1946) was a commercial flop. So, too, were the rest of his
movies during the late 1940s. By 1949, MGM bought out his
contract and Rooney was on his own. He set up an inde-
pendent film company that produced a string of box-office
and critical failures throughout the early part of the new
decade, and eventually he was forced to declare bankruptcy.
Though Rooney worked in nightclubs and on TV, he
continued making films, usually undistinguished “B” movies,
until he reestablished himself with three important character
roles: as a soldier in The Bold and the Brave (1956), for which
he was nominated for an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor; as
a tough sergeant in the service comedy Operation Mad Ball
(1957); and as a vicious gangster in the title role of Baby Face
Nelson (1957). Then MGM brought Rooney temporarily
back into the fold, starring him in the last Andy Hardy film,
Andy Hardy Comes Home (1958). It was a bomb and a career
mistake for the actor.
Rooney was nothing if not irrepressible; he continued to
find work in a variety of poor films until he once again played
a character role as
AUDREY HEPBURN
’s Japanese neighbor in
Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961). From comedy to drama, he was
once again searing in a supporting role in Requiem for a
Heavyweight (1962), but the actor couldn’t parlay his good
reviews into starring roles. In addition to a stream of appear-
ances in minor films throughout the 1960s, he managed to
create some memorable moments in a few bigger-budget
films such as It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) and The
Comic (1969).
Rooney’s comeback picture was the surprise hit film of
1979, The Black Stallion, for which many thought he deserved
ROONEY, MICKEY
350
The multitalented Mickey Rooney has spent most of his life
in show business and has acted in films since 1926. He is seen
here with one of his longtime costars, Judy Garland, with
whom he appeared in many of his Andy Hardy films as well
as in some of the most exuberant musicals of the early 1940s.
(PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SIEGEL COLLECTION)
an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his role as
the aging horse trainer. Despite his success in the movie,
Hollywood didn’t come calling. His film work has been
scarce in the 1980s, but he hit it big on Broadway in Sugar
Babies in 1979 and found an outlet for his dramatic talents on
television, starring in several powerful TV movies, including
his Emmy-award-winning performance in the title role of
Bill (1981).
Rooney continues to perform in TV films and in the the-
ater, most recently in a revival of A Funny Thing Happened on
the Way to the Forum (1987). During the 1990s Rooney was
very active, appearing in 15-odd films, primarily on televi-
sion, where he has had an occasional leading role. Most of the
films have been undistinguished, but three of the perform-
ances were noteworthy: In Home for Christmas (1990) he
played an elderly homeless man who teaches some wealthy
folks the true meaning of Christmas, tapping into seasonal
sentimentality; as an aging World War II fighter pilot who
shot down the Red Baron, Rooney was plagued by memories
and dreams of his past in Revenge of the Red Baron (1993); and
the most popular feature film that he appeared in was Babe:
Pig in the City (1998), in which he played a clown. Rooney has
had no trouble finding film and television roles, but, for the
most part, they were not stellar.
Ross, Herbert (1927–2001) He was Hollywood’s
leading director of dance movies. The former actor and
dancer had deep roots in the theater that went back to the
1950s and 1960s, but his success as a film director of musicals
and nonmusicals alike was quite extraordinary. For instance,
the films with which he had been associated through 1988
accumulated a stunning 15 Oscar nominations. In one year
alone, 1977, two of his movies were nominated for Best Pic-
ture, The Turning Point and The Goodbye Girl. Those two pic-
tures garnered a total of 15 nominations, including a Best
Director nod for Ross for The Turning Point.
Ross was a choreographer for the American Ballet The-
ater and, at the age of 23, had his first ballet performed.
Later, he became the resident choreographer for the Ameri-
can Ballet Theater and married the company’s prima balle-
rina, Nora Kaye. He had an early inauspicious experience
with the big screen when he directed the musical portions of
Summer Holiday (1948).
It was during the 1960s that Ross began to direct for the
theater. An important milestone in his career came when he
directed
BARBRA STREISAND
’s show-stopping number as Miss
Marmelstein in the musical I Can Get It for You Wholesale.
He then went on to direct the musical numbers in the
stage version of Funny Girl, the play that turned Streisand
into a Broadway star. He was asked to direct Miss Streisand’s
screen test for the film version of the play, and eventually he
also directed the film’s dazzling musical numbers.
Ross attained full director status in films with Goodbye,
Mr. Chips (1969). Among his other musicals were Funny Lady
(1974), Pennies from Heaven (1981), and Footloose (1984). It
was Ross’s dramatic dancing films that earned him accolades.
For instance, he directed Nijinsky (1980), Dancers (1987), and
his most famous film, The Turning Point (1977), a movie
about the ballet and about those who must choose between
the world of art and a normal life.
Ross’s reputation for musical/dance films has overshad-
owed his accomplishments in comedy. He directed a number
of memorable hits, including The Owl and the Pussycat (1970),
Play It Again, Sam (1972), The Sunshine Boys (1975), The
Goodbye Girl (1977), and The Secret of My Success (1987).
Ross rarely had long fallow periods, although he had his
share of critical and box-office fiascos, including
GOLDIE
HAWN
’s Protocol (1985). But one should also remember that
Ross directed the critically admired The Last of Sheila (1973),
scripted by
ANTHONY PERKINS
and Stephen Sondheim, and
The Seven Percent Solution (1976).
In 1989 Ross directed the critical hit Steel Magnolias,
adapted from Robert Harling’s autobiographical play, star-
ring
JULIA ROBERTS
, Dolly Parton, Olympia Dukakis,
SHIRLEY MACLAINE
, and
SALLY FIELD
, proving that he had
not lost his touch at making “women’s pictures.” He went on
to direct the comedy hit My Blue Heaven (1990), starring
STEVE MARTIN
, but then faltered in 1991 when he directed
True Colors, concerning the divergent postgraduate school
careers of two friends, played by James Spader and John
Cusack. His next two films, Undercover Blues (1993) and Boys
ROSS, HERBERT
351
Herbert Ross, a former choreographer, was regarded as the
premier contemporary director of dance movies, having
made such commercial hits as The Turning Point (1977) and
Footloose (1984). He also proved himself to be an adroit
director of comedic and dramatic films.
(PHOTO COUR-
TESY OF HERBERT ROSS)
on the Side (1994), however, were successful comedy thrillers,
particularly Boys on the Side, starring Whoopi Goldberg,
which successfully merged elements from disparate genres,
being a road movie, a female buddy picture, a sentimental
women’s film, and a film with a “serious” message concerning
AIDS. Boys on the Side marked a successful conclusion to a
productive and intelligent Hollywood career. Herbert Ross
died in 2001.
Rossen, Robert (1908–1966) A talented writer-director-
producer who made hard-hitting, socially conscious films dur-
ing the late 1930s through the early 1950s but was crippled
artistically by the politics of the McCarthy era. Rossen con-
tinued to make films until his death, but with just a couple of
exceptions, his career was never the same after his run-in with
the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1951.
Born Robert Rosen and raised on the Lower East Side of
New York, he struggled to get his college degree from New
York University and, in the process, became enamored of the
theater. He wrote and directed plays, gaining experience in
stock and eventually making his way to Broadway. He was not,
however, a major success on the Great White Way. When his
play The Body Beautiful closed on Broadway after four perform-
ances, Rossen decided that he had suffered enough and that it
was time to heed the clarion call of Hollywood. He went west
and found that the movies were a far better vehicle through
which to express his social concerns—and there was no better
studio for a liberal-minded screenwriter than
WARNER BROS
.
Rossen wrote a number of memorable scripts for Warner
Bros., including Marked Woman (1937), They Won’t Forget
(1937), Racket Busters (1938), Dust Be My Destiny (1939), and
The Roaring Twenties (1939). He made his liberal points about
justice and corruption through character, rarely opting for
easy solutions. But he was also a showman, and his films were
well paced, with crackling good dialogue.
It wasn’t surprising that World War II inspired Rossen to
write films that touched on the broad issues of freedom such
as Edge of Darkness (1943) and A Walk in the Sun (1945), but
those horrific times also stimulated him to write scripts of a
more psychological nature, focusing not so much on the
injustice of society as on personal moral choices. Powerful
films from this period include A Child Is Born (1940), The Sea
Wolf (1941), Out of the Fog (1941), The Strange Love of Martha
Ivers (1946), and his uncredited work on the screenplay of
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948).
In the late 1940s, Rossen began to take more control of
his own scripts, and he got off to a stunning start writing and
directing the hit film noir Johnny O’Clock (1947) and a pow-
erful and provocative boxing drama, Body and Soul (1947). He
rose to the very top of his profession as a writer, director, and
producer when he made the compelling film All the King’s
Men (1949), a film that took top honors with a Best Picture
ACADEMY AWARD
.
Rossen had demonstrated his liberal and reformist political
convictions by joining the Communist Party during the late
1930s. He left the party in 1945 but was not spared from bru-
tal and intrusive questioning when the House Un-American
Activities Committee investigated communist influence in
Hollywood in 1951. Yet he refused to name others in the
movie industry who had also been party members.
Rossen’s principled stand caused him to be blacklisted in
Hollywood. Two years later, he finally buckled under to the
committee and named names. He was removed from the
blacklist and went back to work, but Rossen was never quite
the same. His spirit had been broken, and films such as
Mambo (1955), Alexander the Great (1956), and Island in the
Sun (1957) weren’t nearly as powerful as his earlier efforts,
either as a writer or director.
It was not until the early 1960s that he regained some of
the fire of his earlier years, writing, producing and directing
the highly regarded hit The Hustler (1961), as well as Lilith
(1964), which was the last film he made.
See also
HOLLYWOOD TEN
.
rough cut The first version of a movie after the shooting
is completed. Though the film’s individual scenes are almost
never shot in the order that they appear in the script, in the
rough cut, the scenes are edited together so that they flow in
the general manner in which they were originally intended to
be seen.
From this point on, the movie is edited toward its final
version. New scenes may have to be shot; other scenes may
have to be reshot; dialogue may still have to be dubbed; and
so on, but the editing process has begun. The end result will
be the final cut—that which will be seen in movie theaters.
See also
FINAL CUT
.
Rowlands, Gena (1934– ) An actress of considerable
range who has become one of Hollywood’s most respected
performers. In a film career that spans more than 40 years,
she has gracefully made the transition from leading lady to
character actress. The widow of actor-director
JOHN CAS
-
SEVETES
, Rowlands’s roles have often been in her husband’s
independent films. These parts have been both a bane and a
deliverance—limiting her exposure to the “art” crowd while
giving her some of the best female roles in recent American
film.
Born and raised in Wisconsin, Rowlands traveled to New
York to attend the American Academy of Dramatic Arts while
she was still in her teens. Cassavetes, then at the beginning of
his acting career, saw her in one of her early productions, and
they were married soon after.
Her big professional break came when she was discovered
by Joshua Logan, who gave her the lead opposite
EDWARD G
.
ROBINSON
in
PADDY CHAYEFSKY
’s The Middle of the Night in
1956. The play ran 18 months on Broadway, and her career
was launched.
MGM’s Dore Schary brought her to Hollywood, where
she made her film debut in the comedy The High Cost of Lov-
ing (1958). Important screen credits followed, including the
now minor classic Lonely Are the Brave (1962) and A Child Is
Waiting (1963), in which she appeared under the direction of
her husband for the first time.
ROSSEN, ROBERT
352
In 1968, Rowlands starred in Cassevetes’s film Faces, fol-
lowed by further collaborations, including Minnie and
Moskowitz (1971) and A Woman under the Influence (1974) (in
which Rowlands gave a searing performance and received a
Best Actress Oscar nomination), Opening Night (1978), Gloria
(1980) (which brought her yet another Academy Award nom-
ination), and Love Streams (1984).
Rowlands hasn’t appeared in many films other than her
husband’s, at least not until recently. She gave a strong per-
formance as the mother of Joan Jett and Michael J. Fox in
Light of Day (1987) and was riveting in
WOODY ALLEN
’s
Another Woman (1988). Those two roles aside, she has found
richer work of late in TV. For instance, she garnered an
Emmy nomination for playing the mother of a man with
AIDS in An Early Frost (1985), and she took home an Emmy
for her portrayal of Betty Ford in The Betty Ford Story (1987).
She later received another Emmy for her role in Face of a
Stranger (1991).
Rowlands played
BETTE DAVIS
’s daughter in the TV film
Strangers: The Story of a Mother and Daughter (1989). Davis
won an Emmy for her performance as an embittered widow.
During the 1990s, Rowlands made more movies for television
and appeared in supporting roles in several feature films, but
she had the lead in Unhook the Stars (1997), in which she played
a widowed woman who finally gets a life of her own. Nick Cas-
savetes, her son, directed her in this film and also directed her
in She’s So Lovely (1997), which John Cassavetes had scripted
before his death. Two other notable films were Grace & Glorie
(1998), a film in which Rowlands played a woman who gets
help on her farm from a younger woman who has problems of
her own, and Playing by Heart (1999), an episodic film in which
she and
SEAN CONNERY
play a couple whose 40-year marriage
is threatened by emotional and health problems.
Russell, Jane (1921– ) A voluptuous actress made
famous by her debut in
HOWARD HUGHES
’s sexy western The
Outlaw (1943). She made few memorable movies among the
two dozen of her career, yet she remains an important figure
in Hollywood because she was the first of the bosomy sex
symbols that dominated the film industry throughout the
1950s and beyond.
Born Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell, she was not an
unschooled actress when Hughes chose her to star in his racy
western. Russell had studied acting at the prestigious The-
atrical Workshop founded by Max Reinhardt and had taken
acting lessons from longtime Hollywood character actress
and teacher Maria Ouspenskaya.
Unfortunately for Russell, The Outlaw was deemed too
salacious by the Hays Office as originally shot in 1941. The
film was released briefly in 1943, gained notoriety, and was
then put on the shelf until it was finally given a general
release in 1946. Russell’s career was in limbo during that six-
year period. Hughes, who owned her contract, was reluctant
to let her appear in other films, fearing that if she bombed,
The Outlaw, when finally released, would be worth nothing.
As a result, Russell starred in just one film during that time,
Young Widow (1946).
In a recent autobiography she expresses little bitterness
over the fact that what might have been her prime years dur-
ing the 1940s had been wasted by Howard Hughes.
After The Outlaw became a box-office sensation, Russell
appeared in a number of films that exploited both her fame
and physical attributes, the most obvious of which was Dou-
ble Dynamite (1951). She showed comedic flair in The Paleface
(1948) and in Son of Paleface (1952), both with
BOB HOPE
, but
she really demonstrated her versatility and talent in the
HOWARD HAWKS
musical Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), in
which she costarred with
MARILYN MONROE
.
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes was the high point of her career.
Until 1957, she continued to work steadily in a string of
mostly forgettable films, the best of them being The Tall Men
(1955), Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955), and The Revolt of
Mamie Stover (1956). During the late 1950s and throughout
much of the 1960s, she performed a singing and dancing act
in nightclubs.
After a seven-year absence from the screen, Russell
returned to films in a supporting role in Fate Is the Hunter
(1964). She appeared in just four more movies, among them
Born Losers (1967), the precursor to the low-budget sleeper
hit Billy Jack, in which, surprisingly, she portrays Tom
Laughlin’s mother. Russell was last seen on film in a support-
ing role in Darker than Amber (1970).
In the 1970s she became famous to a whole new genera-
tion as the spokesperson for a company selling bras for “full-
figured gals.”
See also
HUGHES
,
HOWARD
.
Russell, Rosalind (1908–1976) A talented and popu-
lar actress who served as a role model for women during the
late 1930s and 1940s. In a film career spanning nearly 40
years and comprising more than 50 films, Russell often out-
classed her material. Although relatively few of her films have
weathered the test of time, Russell’s appeal endures for hav-
ing proved that pretty women could be smart and resource-
ful, as well as sexy and desirable. If
JOAN CRAWFORD
’s career
women suffered for their choices, Rosalind Russell’s were
healthy, confident, and fun loving.
Born to a wealthy family, Russell had the advantage of a
good education, at Marymount College and the American
Academy of Dramatic Arts, before the beginning of her act-
ing career. She acted first on the stage in the late 1920s, gain-
ing valuable experience before heading to Hollywood. Her
film debut was in an important supporting role in Evelyn
Prentice (1934). After nearly a dozen mediocre movies, she
made her critical breakthrough playing the none-too-likable
title character in the hit Craig’s Wife (1936). With her stock
rising, she was given better scripts, and she starred in such
strong dramatic films as Night Must Fall (1937) and The
Citadel (1938).
Russell’s first major break in sophisticated comedy was
her role in the all-star, all-female The Women (1939). More
comedies followed, such as His Girl Friday (1940) and No
Time for Comedy (1940), in which she proved to be the
match of any man—even
CARY GRANT
—in trading quips
RUSSELL, ROSALIND
353
and sly rejoinders. Her wonderfully brittle comedic style
brought her a Best Actress Oscar nomination in 1942 for
My Sister Eileen. She played the lead in the biopic Sister
Kenny (1946) about the nurse who helped discover the cure
for polio. It brought her a second Oscar nomination and led
to additional dramatic roles. The following year she gar-
nered her third Oscar nomination for her work in Mourning
Becomes Electra (1947). Her subsequent films during the late
1940s and early 1950s, by which time she was playing sec-
ond leads, were neither notable nor successful, except for
Picnic (1955).
In 1958 Russell made a comeback in the title role of
Auntie Mame, winning her fourth and last Best Actress Acad-
emy Award nomination. Despite her success, she didn’t
appear in films again until 1962, when she blitzed the
nation’s movie screens in three movies, the most memorable
of them being Gypsy.
Russell appeared in few movies during the rest of her
career, usually playing strong supporting roles in films such as
The Trouble with Angels (1966), Rosie! (1968), and Where Angels
Go, Trouble Follows (1968). Her last theatrical film was the
unfortunate Mrs. Pollifax—Spy (1971), an embarrassing movie
that Russell also scripted under a pseudonym. She then turned
to television, starring in a TV movie, “The Crooked Hearts”
(1972). That same year, Russell became one of the few actors,
and only the second woman, to be honored by the academy
with the
JEAN HERSHOLT
Humanitarian Award. She died four
years later after a long bout with cancer.
Ryan, Meg (1961– ) Although she has occasionally
appeared in dramatic roles, such as 2003’s In the Cut, Meg
Ryan has become an outstanding star in romantic comedy.
Pert and cute, she elicits audience sympathy and has had the
ability to create the elusive chemistry needed for romantic
roles; and although she has been paired with
TOM HANKS
in
some of her biggest hits, she has worked well with other leads.
She got an early start in show business, writing and pro-
ducing plays as a nine-year-old at St. Pius Elementary
School. In her high school years, she had acting and jour-
nalistic ambitions. When her parents split in 1976, her
mother left the house, and she stayed with her father. She
did some modeling for print advertisements in local stores,
as well as for Britannia Jeans and General Electric. She was
the homecoming queen at Bethel High School, and she
played a conehead in a school adaptation of Saturday Night
Live. She enrolled at the University of Connecticut in Sep-
tember 1979 but transferred to New York University the fol-
lowing year. She made her screen debut in
GEORGE CUKOR
’s
Rich and Famous (1981) with Candice Bergen and Jacqueline
Bisset. In 1982, she played Betsy Montgomery on As the
World Turns and appeared in small roles in a variety of tele-
vision sitcoms. She dropped out of NYU in 1984 and
devoted herself to her career.
Her first big film was Top Gun (1986), which starred
TOM
CRUISE
, but her meeting with Dennis Quaid that same year
was more important. She and Quaid appeared together in
Innerspace (1987), and they costarred with each other in
D.O.A. (1988). In When Harry Met Sally . . . (1989) she was
responsible with costar
BILLY CRYSTAL
for one of the most
memorable sequences in film history. The couple is seated at
a restaurant when the Crystal character claims that he can tell
if a woman is faking an orgasm. The Ryan character proves
him wrong, and her moans and cries prompt a matronly
diner (played by director
ROB REINER
’s mother) to order
whatever it is that the Ryan character is eating. The follow-
ing year, she appeared for the first time with Tom Hanks in
Joe Versus the Volcano, and the chemistry between the two
inspired writer-director Nora Ephron to comment, “They
just look as if they go together.”
In 1991, she married Quaid, and the couple appeared
together in Flesh and Bone (1993), with Ryan cast in a rare
dramatic role as an alcoholic. Sleepless in Seattle (1993), how-
ever, was her pivotal film. Under the sure hand of writer-
director Nora Ephron, she and Hanks established themselves
as worthy successors to
SPENCER TRACY
and
KATHARINE
HEPBURN
. Drawing on An Affair to Remember (1957), a quin-
tessential woman’s film, Sleepless in Seattle won praise for
Ryan and Hanks—they both received Golden Globe nomi-
nations and were nominated for best on-screen duo by MTV.
In I.Q. (1994), she and
TIM ROBBINS
were the romantic leads,
but she had a dramatic role as an alcoholic wife in When a
Man Loves a Woman, a performance that won her Best Actress
nominations from the Screen Actors Guild and MTV. After
making the romantic comedy French Kiss (1995) with Kevin
Kline, she played Capt. Karen Walden, a Gulf War pilot, in
Courage under Fire (1996) with
DENZEL WASHINGTON
; then
in Addicted to Love (1996), she was Maggie, a leather-clad,
motorcycle-riding nutcase.
In 1998, she was in three films: In Hurlyburly, adapted
from David Rabe’s play, she had a small role in a film domi-
nated by
SEAN PENN
, Kevin Spacey, and Garry Shandling; in
City of Angels with
NICOLAS CAGE
, she played a pragmatic
heart surgeon; and in You’ve Got Mail, she costarred again
with Tom Hanks. The film, freely adapted from the Jimmy
Stewart/Margaret Sullavan hit The Shop around the Corner
(1940), featured competing bookstore owners who eventually
discover true love through e-mail; the performance won her
a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a
Musical/Comedy.
In 2000, Ryan starred in Hanging Up with
DIANE
KEATON
, who also directed, as two of three sisters who face
the coming cancer death of their father (
WALTER
MATTHAU
). The screenplay was by Delia and Nora Ephron,
adapted from the novel by Delia Ephron. With Nina Sad-
owski, Ryan produced Lost Souls (costarring
WINONA
RYDER
and Ben Chaplin) for Prufrock Pictures in 2000, but
Ryan’s best picture of 2000 was Proof of Life, skillfully
directed by Taylor Hackford, a kidnapping-and-ransom
thriller in which
RUSSELL CROWE
organizes a rescue mis-
sion in an unnamed South American country to recover
Meg Ryan’s husband (David Morse), captured by terrorists
and held in the mountains.
In 2001, Ryan teamed with Hugh Jackman in the fantasy
Kate & Leopold. Jackman played Prince Leopold, Duke of
Albany, the eighth child and fourth son of Queen Victoria and
RYAN, MEG
354
Prince Albert, who falls in love, of course, with Ryan. The
gimmick here was time travel: Leopold, who came to New
York in 1876, finds himself falling in love with Meg Ryan a
century later. How could that be? Because a “mad” scientist
(Liev Schrieber) discovers “a crack in the fabric of time.” The
film only grossed $22 million but demonstrated that even past
the age of 40, Ryan was still ripe for romantic roles.
Ryder, Winona (1971– ) A talented young actress
who has performed a wide variety of roles and has had her
problems with the police, Winona Ryder (Winona Horowitz
was her given name) was born in Winona, Minnesota, and
later raised in a counterculture environment in northern Cal-
ifornia. Her godfather was Dr. Timothy Leary of LSD fame,
and her parents, friends of Allen Ginsberg, the Beat poet,
edited an anthology of writings on drugs in literature. As a
child, she often watched films with her mother, who ran a
nearby revival movie theater. When she was 10 years old, she
moved with her parents to Petaluma, California; here, she
took acting classes at the American Conservatory Theater
and attended public schools, graduating from the high school
with a 4.0 grade point average.
At age 13, she auditioned for the film Desert Bloom
(1986) but didn’t get the part; she did, however, get cast in
Lucas (1986) and adopted the stage name Ryder, reportedly
because she was listening to her father’s Mitch Ryder album
when she was called to provide a stage name for the credits.
Lucas was followed by another teen flick, Square Dance
(1987), but her first noteworthy role was as the death-
obsessed daughter in the popular Beetlejuice (1988). Other
teen roles followed, the most notable of which was the 13-
year-old wife/cousin of Jerry Lee Lewis in the biopic Great
Balls of Fire (1989).
Better roles were to follow. Tim Burton’s Edward Scis-
sorhands (1990) was a hit, and as the 15-year-old daughter of
CHER
in Mermaids (1990), she attracted a great deal of atten-
tion. Unfortunately, performing in three 1990 films took its
toll: she caught the flu and had to turn down the meaty role
of May Corleone in The Godfather: Part III (also 1990). In
1991, she appeared in Night on Earth, an omnibus film. Jim
Jarmusch wrote a part for her as a tattooed cabbie who wants
to be a mechanic. The following year, she was cast as the
innocent Mina Murray/Elisabeta in
FRANCIS FORD COP
-
POLA
’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the first of the film adaptations
she would appear in. In
MARTIN SCORSESE
’s adaptation of
Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence (1993), she was May
Welland, the innocent woman who wins Newland Archer
(
DANIEL DAY
-
LEWIS
) and keeps him through a series of
deceptive stratagems; and in The House of the Spirits (1993),
an adaptation of Isabel Allende’s novel, she was the rebel-
lious daughter in love with a revolutionary, played by
ANTO
-
NIO BANDERAS
.
As the unconventional Jo March in the 1994 adaptation
of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, she won an Oscar nom-
ination as Best Actress. She dedicated her performance to
Polly Klaas, a young girl from Petaluma who had been kid-
napped and murdered; she has continued to support the Polly
Klaas Foundation. After appearing in How to Make an Amer-
ican Quilt (1995) and Boys (1996), mediocre films at best, she
got the part of Abigail “Abby” Williams, the ringleader of the
hysterical, sexually repressed girls in the 1996 adaptation of
Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. She became the personification
of evil in the film. The actress was up to the role, holding her
own against the likes of actor Paul Scofield. As the girl who
informs on her enemies, Ryder convincingly displayed a
cold-hearted viciousness and a duplicitous nature.
After a number of roles that were not worthy of her tal-
ents (Lost Souls was shot in 1998, for example, and New
Line Cinema kept it on the shelves for two years; Boys
grossed less than $1 million in 1996), Ryder made an
appearance in
WOODY ALLEN
’s Celebrity (1998), along with
dozens of other celebrities who worked with Allen in a film
that barely made $5 million. Ryder got rave reviews, more-
over, for Girl, Interrupted (1999), serving also as executive
producer for the project, which was four years in the mak-
ing. Stephen Holden of the New York Times called this
Ryder’s “most penetrating screen performance,” but her
work was ultimately eclipsed by that of her costar, Angelina
Jolie, who won the Best Supporting Actress
ACADEMY
AWARD
, a Golden Globe, and the Screen Actors Guild
RYDER, WINONA
355
Winona Ryder in Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) (PHOTO
COURTESY COLUMBIA PICTURES)
Award. In 2000, Ryder starred with
RICHARD GERE
in
Autumn in New York, a romantic film directed by Joan Chen,
and in 2002, she extended her popularity by working with
Adam Sandler in Mr. Deeds.
In 2002, Ryder had some unwelcome publicity as a result
of a shoplifting incident in Beverly Hills that caused her arrest
and splashed her name across tabloid headlines. She was
released on bail and sported “Free Winona” T-shirts before
she was found guilty of vandalism and grand theft on Novem-
ber 6, 2002. A month later she was sentenced to 480 hours of
community service, three years’ probation, $3,700 in fines,
and $6,355 in restitution for her arrest on shoplifting charges.
RYDER, WINONA
356
Sanders, George (1906–1972) No one played cads,
scoundrels, and cynics more effectively than this actor, who
appeared in more than 100 films. With his acerbic and sar-
donic style, stylized snobbishness, and mellifluous voice,
Sanders played characters whom audiences loved to hate.
Though his reputation rests on his elegant characterizations
of heels, it should be noted that he was also quite capable of
playing heroes, as evidenced by his work in both the Saint
and the Falcon action/mystery series, in which he played the
debonair title characters.
Born in Russia to an English family, Sanders was educated
in Britain with the intention of becoming a businessman. It
wasn’t until he was well into his twenties that he was bitten by
the acting bug. He quickly found his way from the stage to the
screen, making his debut in Find the Lady (1936), an English
movie. Within a year, he shipped off to Hollywood, where he
first appeared in the
TWENTIETH CENTURY
–
FOX
hit Lloyds of
London (1937).
It wasn’t long before he settled into starring roles in “B”
mysteries, taking over for Louis Hayward in the second Saint
film, The Saint Strikes Back (1939). He played the Saint four
more times before playing the Falcon in The Gay Falcon
(1941), the first of three such films. In a brilliant gimmick,
Sanders turned the role over to his brother, Tom Conway,
who played the hero in nine more films, in a movie called The
Falcon’s Brother (1942).
When he wasn’t playing heroes, Sanders added his
waspish and evil characterizations to a substantial number of
very fine films, including Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939),
Rebecca (1940), Foreign Correspondent (1940), This Land Is
Mine (1943), and many others. But his quintessential per-
formance, for which he won an Oscar as Best Supporting
Actor, was as the vicious drama critic in All About Eve (1950).
Sanders worked steadily in leading villainous roles
throughout the 1950s and 1960s, though an increasingly
large number of his films were made overseas. Most of his
1950s movies were hardly memorable, exceptions being Ivan-
hoe (1952) and Death of a Scoundrel (1956). Age suited him
well in his later character parts during the 1960s, and he
flourished anew in films such as Village of the Damned (1960),
A Shot in the Dark (1964), The Amorous Adventures of Moll
Flanders (1965), The Quiller Memorandum (1966), and Wa rn -
ing Shot (1967).
Sanders was married four times, once each to Gabor sis-
ters Zsa Zsa (1949–57) and Magda (1970), and was the author
of an autobiography, Memoirs of a Professional Cad (1960). He
took his own life in 1972, claiming in his suicide note that he
was bored.
Sarandon, Susan (1946– ) Susan Sarandon, sexy and
intelligent, has emerged as one of Hollywood’s foremost
leading ladies like
MERYL STREEP
and
GLENN CLOSE
, con-
temporaries, she eschews matriarchal roles. One of the more
outspoken liberals in Hollywood, she has endured some crit-
icism from conservatives but, like
JANE FONDA
, has main-
tained her popularity with film audiences.
Born Susan Tomalin in 1946, she was raised in New Jer-
sey by a strict Catholic family and was educated at Catholic
schools. She attended Catholic University in Washington,
D.C., where she majored in drama. She married Chris Saran-
don, another drama student, in 1967, and the couple went to
New York City after graduation. She did some modeling and
got work in television and on the stage. Her first film role was
in the critically acclaimed Joe (1970), but aside from The Great
Waldo Pepper (1975) and The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975),
the latter now a cult classic, her next few films were not mem-
orable. The Other Side of Midnight (1977) was particularly bad.
Louis Malle gave her career a boost when he cast her as the
mother of a young prostitute played by Brooke Shields in
357
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