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Greatest American actor, actress, and film director of last 50 years ? (MERGED)

tibor75 said:
Was Johnny Fontane based on Frank Sinatra. "You can act like a man!!"
Yup...Vito Corleone was based on a variety of bosses but mostly Tony "The Big Tuna" Accardo...grandfather of former Buckeye Eric Kumerow

Puzo Interview with Larry King


LARRY KING: Was it true or not Sinatra was very upset that he thought you were patterning the singer after him?

MARIO PUZO: Yeah, I guess he was. I - I guess so. I mean -

LARRY KING: Were you not patterning it after him?
MARIO PUZO: Not really. I mean, the superficial aspect, but I was trying to catch what does a man as famous and who has done so much as Sinatra, what does he really feel, you know, like you try and imagine how a guy like that really feels inside and that - that's what I was trying to do.

That is a good interview...I wasn't aware Brando was taboo by the time of filming and Puzo had to insist on him...imagine Danny Thomas as Vito--ugh
 
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Director - Speilberg for a wider body of work over Kubrick

(If you don't appreciate Eyes Wide Shut you must not have a DVD player that allows you to pause and zoom in on Nicole's ass - he deserves an Academey Award for getting that shot alone).

Also gotta give some props to Woody Allen since nobody else is mentioning him.

Actor - I'll go with Nicholson, with Duvall, Hopkins and De Niro not far behind. My all time fav may be Burt Lancaster, but he is partially outside the described window.

Actress - I love Uma Thurman and can't believe nobody has mentioned Jody Foster let alone Katherine Hepburn - who has a great body of work during the past 50. But I can't put any of them ahead of Streep.
 
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Pacino is good, but overrated.
I can't believe that I'm agreeing with Tibor....

Guys - Nicole Kidman is Australian, not American (actually, she was born in Hawaii to Australian parents and was raised in Australia - no technicalities, please!).

DiHard - Hitchcock is English, but he came to Hollywood in 1939, and remained there for the rest of his career; at best, he can be considered "semi-American". The best of his many great movies are The 39 Steps (1935), Sabotage (1936), The Lady Vanishes (1938), Rebecca (1940), Foreign Correspondent (1940), Rope (1948), Strangers on a Train (1951), Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), Psycho (1960), and Frenzy (1972); most are before the 50-year window, some are after, and Rear Window is on the cusp. If the question had been best director of all time, regardless of country of origin, Hitch might have gotten my vote (although Kubrick, Wilder, Herzog, Kurosawa, and a very few others would have gotten serious consideration as well).

Oh - I was going to go with Hepburn, but almost all of her best performances (her Oscar-winning work in The Lion in Winter notwithstanding) was before 1954.

Brutus1 - A Clockwork Orange is an absolutely phenomenal movie - one of the most beautifully photographed films ever, a great lead performance from Malcolm McDowell, and a poetic dissertation on the value of free will over state control; what more could you want? I agree, however, that despite the great skin scenes, Eyes Wide Shut is dense and murky, and Cruise is clueless (as usual).

StX - Ben Kingsley is great, but alas, he is British (actually, his father was Indian, and his mother British; he was born in England).

Hey, it's great to talk movies on this board - finally!
 
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Oh8ch said:
(If you don't appreciate Eyes Wide Shut you must not have a DVD player that allows you to pause and zoom in on Nicole's ass - he deserves an Academey Award for getting that shot alone).


Actually, her ass shot in 'Dead Calm' was much nicer.
 
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Kubrick is far too complex and strange for my taste.

Man there are so many great directors.
Hitchcock
Huston
J. Ford
Preminger
Wilder
Scorsese

I'd say Hitchcock is my pick, followed closely by Ford and Preminger

My favorite actor is Carey Grant. There again, there are too many too ever say who may be the greatest.
Nicholson
Stewart
Newman
Hepburn
Bergman
Bogart
Brando
DeNiro
Curly Howard

There's just so many
 
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Stripes - nice call on Depp.

Brutus - nice call on Dead Calm. I had no idea who Nicole Kidman was when I saw that film, but from that scene instantly knew she was destined to be a star - Aussie or not.

BTW - Anybody know who the 5th highest paid entertainer/group in Australia is?
 
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