Thursday, July 07, 2005

Billy, Duvall, & The King

Happy Birthday to...

Shelley Duvall 56 today
Crazy looking fine actress. If Shelley weren't so perfect at exhibiting sanity-lost fear in The Shining nobody would remember the character or mock her for her nutso screaming. But the truly indispensable Duvall performance is in Robert Altman's Three Women. If you haven't seen it, rectify that situation immediately. She's Oscar worthy in it...in ways that the unimaginative Academy would never be able to pick up on, since they often base their decisions on the character being played (annoying in this case) rather than what the actor is actually doing with the role (exhibiting genius in this case).

Yul Brynner
He died 20 years ago but he will always thrill movie audiences as the King of Siam in The King and I. "Etcetera. Etcetera. Etcetera." I have sadly never seen him in anything else. Any suggestions?

Billy Campbell 46 today...
Billy will always be "Rick Sammler" to me since I am a diehard Once & Again loyalist. He's currently on TV in "The 4400" which seems to be about hot guys who were abducted by aliens. Er, well, that's what the print ads in the NYC subway lead me to believe it's about. But that can't be right. Gay aliens snatching them up for sex experiments? I gotta watch this show.

I first loved Billy in the mid 80s when he made his debut on Dynasty as Steven Carrington's last boyfriend. This was WAY before I realized why I was loving me some Dynasty, mind you. But every Wednesday night I was obsessively there in my living room waiting. waiting. waiting. (Much to my parents horror apparently -though my Mom eventually got hooked too on the camp melodramatics).

For a few milliseconds in the early 90s --around the time of The Rocketeer premiere it looked like Billy might become a movie star. Than he hooked up with Jennifer Connelly. It was all downhill from there. Ha ha. Seriously though, how many men dating Jennifer Connelly can claim to be prettier than she?

11 comments:

Joe R. said...

Paul Bettany.

NATHANIEL R said...

oh... you mean prettier than she rather than birthday! For a second there I was like --oops.

JConn likes the pretty boys methinks. So does Virginia Madsen who has Billy also as a former beau. She sees Jennifer's Paul and plays her Antonio Sabbato Jr hand.

Joe R. said...

Okay, Jennifer needs to do more movies just so I can utilize the JConn moniker. That's too delicious to let go to waste.

Anonymous said...

Great to see some Shelley love! <3

In a weird 6-degrees situation, Shelley was apparently going to be in the new Connelly horror flick Dark Water, though I'm not sure whether it is that she dropped out or that it was an imdb error and she was never really connected in the first place. It's really unfortunate considering we basically never see her on screen anymore.

Anonymous said...

This summer Billy Campbell is sailing on the tallship Picton Castle. You can follow her voyage at this website: www.picton-castle.com/index2.html

I saw him on the wharf at Lunenburg, Nova Scotia this spring as the crew prepared to set sail. They are now through the Panama Canal and are headed for the Galapogos Islands.

He was looking very rough and ready. And he's HUGE (taller and burlier than expected). From seeing him on screen, I'd always thought of him as a bit of a pretty boy but his size in person creates a very different impression. He's no boy.

Not sure how long he is staying with the vessel. Maybe just till his alien abduction.

Anonymous said...

Let's not forget his craptacularly cornball but nonetheless watchable role on "The O.C" this year.

Anonymous said...

Don't tell me you've never seen The Magnificent Seven or Westworld?!

What have you been doing?

So, for good Yul films I'd recommend the above or any of his early stuff. Watch Anastasia to see what else he was doing in 1956 - his performance is suitably guileful but it's Ingrid Bergman's film all the way. He's also good in the Brothers Karamazov but the film drags for most of the time.

NicksFlickPicks said...

Today is Sela Ward's 49th birthday... let's see some more love on the Once & Again tip. She's as foxy as Billy (no mean feat).

Anonymous said...

I believe Shelley Duvall did win Best Actress at Cannes for "Three Women"- she definitely picked up one award for her work in the film. I agree she's sublime in both "Women" and "The Shining"; I'd also add her work in "Popeye" to the list of top Duvall performances- Duvall as Olive Oyl is one of the most perfect casting choices Hollywood (or, I should say, Robert Altman) has ever made.

Shawn

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