Reel Characters: Great Movie Character Actors - Softcover

Young, Jordan R.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0940410796 ISBN 13: 9780940410794

Publisher: Past Times Pub Co, 1986

Synopsis

Home video and cable TV have brought these unforgettable faces from Hollywood's Golden Era into millions of living rooms. Interview-profiles with 12 of the movies' best-loved supporting players, including Elisha Cook (the baby-faced gunman in "The Maltese Falcon"), Sam Jaffe (the High Lama in "Lost Horizon"), Beulah Bondi (Jimmy Stewart's mother in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington"), Fritz Feld (the perennial maitre d'), John Qualen, Charles Lane, Iris Adrian, John Carradine and Anita Garvin (the scorned wife or girlfriend in many Laurel and Hardy comedies). Together they offer a fresh perspective on the stars and directors of the past. They reveal what it was really like to work alongside such legends as Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable, Carole Lombard and W.C. Fields; how they were treated by superstar directors like Frank Capra, John Ford and Orson Welles. The book includes over 100 rare photos and extensive filmographies, plus a foreword by Fritz Feld.

About this title

About the Author:

Jordan R. Young is a show business historian whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor and other publications. He is the author of 12 books and 600 articles. His original plays include "Hollywood Is a State of Mind," a trilogy of one-acts produced by California Artists Radio Theatre. He has worked as a writer or consultant on documentary films, radio and TV shows, stage productions, CDs, websites and online publications.

Review:

"A fastidiously researched book. Young is an affectionate chronicler with a good instinct for the revealing anecdotes and thoughtful reflections of these individuals who were, after all, serious actors in their own right... A special dividend is the scrupulousness of Young's filmographies, the lists of each actor's film appearances. The lists strive to include every single film credit, including short subjects and movies-for-television." -- Palo Alto Times Tribune, 10/19/86.

"A feast for any old-movie buff. I couldn't put it down." -- Leonard Maltin, Entertainment Tonight, 8/24/86

They had familiar faces, and now and again you are able to put together the face and the name, but not all that often. They were more than mere background, they were vital always to the story, these actors and actresses, and you grew to recognize them and to cherish their presence... Now we have a dozen of Hollywood's character actors starring in a lively, altogether delightful book called 'Reel Characters.' " -- San Diego Union, 10/19/86

About this edition

• Publisher: Past Times Pub Co
• Publication date: 1986
• ISBN 10: 0940410796
• ISBN 13: 9780940410794
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 206