One of the finest bits at the annual Academy Awards ceremony is the montage of movie folk who have died in the previous year. These days, the Oscars don’t do a great job of honoring film history (the honorary lifetime awards aren’t even given during the show itself), so it’s a chance to remember, briefly, the past.
Let’s not wait for the Oscars. Instead, here are appreciations of actors and actresses who left us this year — some famous, some not so much. Each played a role in the great, mad panorama of the movies.
Maureen O’Hara. Perhaps the most famous image of this red-haired, Irish-born actress is the moment she’s drawn into a tempestuous kiss with John Wayne (her frequent co-star) in “The Quiet Man.” For something to be remembered by, that’s pretty awesome. Blessed with fierce bone structure and a will to match, O’Hara was a strong presence, from her early appearances in “Hunchback of Notre Dame” and “How Green Was My Valley” to later matronly roles. In “Miracle on 34th Street,” the holiday perennial, her gradually melting skeptic is a study in professionalism.
Leonard Nimoy. Although he proved himself a steady hand at directing, here’s an example of someone known almost entirely for a single role. And yet the cultural impact of “Star Trek” was unique enough that the outpouring of warmth at his death was completely understandable. And he really was terrific as Mr. Spock — cerebral, dignified, but always knowing where the joke was. Incidentally, he’s cleverly cast in the 1978 remake of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” and he also made music. You say you haven’t heard Leonard Nimoy sing “Proud Mary”? Oh, have you got a treat in store….
Omar Sharif. A star in Egyptian movies, Sharif became internationally famous in two films by David Lean: “Lawrence of Arabia” and “Doctor Zhivago.” Hard act to follow, but Sharif knocked around as a leading man for a long time. He also gambled away lots of money, raised racehorses, and had a newspaper column about how to play bridge. (Take that, James Franco.) How is it possible he never played a James Bond villain?
Louis Jourdan. He actually did play a Bond villain, gloriously, in “Octopussy.” Before that, Jourdan was an elegant aristocrat on screen: The caddish lover in “Letter from an Unknown Woman” and the wealthy playboy in “Gigi.” He must’ve had a sense of humor to go with the sophisticated French style, because he also did two “Swamp Thing” pictures.
Jean Darling and Dickie Moore. Two members of the “Our Gang” (aka “Little Rascals”) short comedies, movies that have delighted many generations of kids since the 1920s. I met Dick Moore at the 2004 Port Townsend Film Festival — a completely lovely guy — and was fascinated to hear how he had interviewed many former child stars in order to convey the difficulties young actors had after their stardom faded. (His book on the subject is called “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”)
George “Foghorn” Winslow. Speaking of child actors, Winslow had a brief, youthful career based on his low, frog-like voice and deadpan delivery. He’s hilarious in “Gentleman Prefer Blondes,” telling Marilyn Monroe she has “a lot of animal magnetism.” His stardom was brief and he disappeared into private life. Fifteen years ago I was at a press screening in Seattle when a man came up and introduced himself as George Winslow, telling tales of working with Monroe and Cary Grant. I never did figure out whether it was really him; his voice had changed.
Rod Taylor. The Australian-born star of “The Time Machine” and “The Birds” had a rugged believability. He was the kind of actor who projected cool because you had the feeling he didn’t particularly care about acting. Taylor lasted long enough to be in a Tarantino movie — he played Winston Churchill in “Inglourious Basterds.”
Setsuko Hara. This actress hadn’t made a movie since 1962, but was revered by lovers of Japanese film. She has a heartbreaking role in “Tokyo Story,” one of those titles that ends up on lists of 10 Best Films Ever Made when critics vote on such things. Her quietly heroic style of acting involved maintaining a brave face through all manner of adversity.
Christopher Lee. It’s probably impossible to get an accurate count of how many movies and TV shows this tall, stentorian actor did. He was splendidly villainous in most of them, playing Dracula (multiple times for Hammer Films), Saruman (“The Lord of the Rings”), and Count Dooku (the “Star Wars” saga). And yup, Lee played a Bond adversary: “The Man with the Golden Gun.” But also check out his turn as Mycroft Holmes, the intellectual equal (if not superior) of his brother Sherlock, in “The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes.”
Lizabeth Scott. Do you like film noir? Then you know Ms. Scott, a throaty blonde with a knack for trouble. See her in “Pitfall,” where instead of playing a femme fatale she gives a real human dimension to a woman trapped in a man’s world. Scott did a pretty good Elvis picture (“Loving You”), but dropped out of Hollywood decades before she died.
Roddy Piper. His fame was in the preposterous world of professional wrestling, but in one single movie, this guy was ideal. John Carpenter’s “They Live” is a look at what happens when a regular schlub suddenly (thanks to some sci-fi sunglasses) sees the world the way it really is. Piper was just right for the B-movie approach — a more talented actor wouldn’t have worked. “I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass,” he declares in the film’s most famous line, “and I’m all out of bubblegum.” Nailed it.
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