Let's discuss Jill Clayburg

What about me?

I thought she was unattractive and overrated.

Love her in ABC's "Dirty, Sexy Money" -

The (short-lived) series was our summer guilty pleasure.

Ugh I forgot the H!!!

Why don't we have an edit button?

bump for the H-less

Love Jill in Starting Over, I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can, and It's My Turn.

I miss her.

I liked her. She was talented and was attractive but in a real person way. I love her daughter Lily Rabe, who I think is a hoot in everything she does.

I agree with OP’s comments about Jane and Coming Home. Saw it for the first time a few months ago. Quite disappointing. Jane’s character was curiously dull and passive.

Come to think of it Fonda may have got some votes for Coming Home because she had been somewhat of a favorite to win the year before for Julia, and she didn't get it.

Jane Fonda was never boring for a minute in her life.

in Coming Home she was r10

(well, maybe in “9 to 5” she was. But she also produced it, so all is forgiven)

and in Rollover and Old Gringo and Stanley and Iris........she's had her flops too.

If anyone hasn't seen Clayburgh in An Unmarried Woman, see it this weekend. It's a love letter to her and NYC, c.1977.

She says "cunt" in Luna

Don't forget "Pippin."

I'm still watching Luna. Not very good. I swear Roberto Benignini was in it. I'll see at the end credits.

I like the way she sings "Kind of Woman." from Pippin. She kind of swings the "Ki----ind" and makes it two syllables.

Saying "cunt" is the least of her sins in "Luna". She masturbates her drug addled son in the film. Rather prolonged and graphically. Many argue that was the film that killed her career actually (though I like it).

Jane and Voight were great in "Coming Home" and I love her having smaller moments (quiet but not dull) -- but that almost final scene with the three confronting each other is really badly directed (and Ashby was my favorite director ordinarily). Pauline Kael was right, especially about Fonda whom she said looked like "she is hanging mid-air" the whole scene.

(Clayburgh got killed for "Hannah K" too, one I have never seen).

Didn’t Clayburgh say she was offered Luna and Norma Rae and took Luna because of the chance to work with Bertolucci but said she knew early on that the movie was in trouble and she regretted pretty quickly not taking Norma Rae.

Nearly all Sally Field's fellow nominees in 1979 turned down Norma Rae. (Fonda, Clayburgh, Marsha Mason plus Diane Keaton.) Odd that no one saw the value of it and then Our Sally beat them all for the Oscar.

r2, I'm sure most people think the same about you.

Ellen Burstyn wrote in her autobiography that Jill Clayburgh gave a very good reading for the role of Sharon in “The Exorcist”, but Friedkin didn’t cast her because he thought she was too pretty to be a movie star’s assistant.

She did so many of those ‘Women’s Struggle’-type movies, the term “Jill Clayburgh Film Festival” was used as a punch-line on the cult sitcom, “Square Pegs”.

Very endearing in “Starting Over”.

Katie Hanley (from the OBC of “Grease” and the film version of “Godspell”) was originally going to be in “Pippin” but Fosse grew to like the idea of having an “actress” in the show and cast Clayburgh instead.

I've watched LUNA a few times over the years. I love the film. I think I saw NORMA RAE once.

Luna isn't a good movie, and Sally Field was a batter choice, anyway, for Norma Rae.

The way things go.

Betty Buckley replaced Clayburgh when she left. She tells the story of wanting to audition for Pippin and her agent told her there was no role for her. Then after it opened she went to see it and was confused since there was a role for her. She asked her agent and he said he was just being nice and that they really just didn't want her.

A while later she ran into somebody on the street who was working on Pippin. He asked her why she didn't audition and that she had been on the list of people they were interested in. She then went to her agent and asked what the deal was. He also represented Clayburgh and told her that I wanted Clayburgh to get it because she had a few film credits and he could get a hundred bucks a week (or some small amount) more for her than he could for Buckley. She then fired him as her agent.

Fosse supposedly didn't like Clayburgh (according to her. She felt Tom Stoppard didn't like her either.) I don't know if she was just insecure and paranoid or if they really just hated her.

Don't ask us, r1.

Jane Fonda? Why, Martin?

My favorite actress.

I can't see Clayburgh as Norma Rae, as much as I can't see Marsha Mason or Diane Keaton either. They are all too urban types. I can buy Fonda and Faye Dunaway because they had played those types before and probably had more range than the others. However I understand that Sally Field was chosen mainly because of budget since it wouldn't allow for an A at-the-time star.

[quote]Where did Jill Clayburgh throw up?

[quote]In "An Unmarried Woman". What corner, I mean. I'd like to make a pilgrimage.

[quote]—I miss you, 1977. I really, really do

Well she was only chosen after the others passed. Maybe they passed because of the budget and a low salary.

Faye is actually from a rural upbringing despite her patrician upper class demeanor in most of her films.

She drooled in I'm Dancing As Fast as I Can, another film that helped kill her A status.

In her book, Marsha Mason writes about how pissed she was at Neil Simon who was her husband at the time and refused to let her travel to do Norman Rae because he needed her so much.

^ Norma Rae!

That was wonderful, R31. And three years before I discovered Datalounge.

I gave most of you WWs. Did they go through?

I posted this in an earlier (better) thread. I love Jill C.

There were so many beautiful, interesting women (globally as well as in the US) with unique faces, voices, presences in the 60s and 70s. We're so diminished since then.

How lovely is Jill in this photo?

[quote]R13 and in Rollover and Old Gringo and Stanley and Iris........she's had her flops too.

Fonda wears a [italic]fantastic[/italic], bias cut white satin dress in ROLLOVER. It makes the movie worthwhile.

Food was at 121 Prince Street. I lived on Tenth Street, around the corner from One Fifth and Paul Mazursky at the time. My roommate and I walked down to Little Italy every Friday night for dinner. Then we'd drink at 162 Spring Street, the bar where Charlie picks up Erica. It was so nice to see my neighborhood in a movie.

[quote]For a while my parents rented an apt. in the building she lived in with the views, at 254 East 68 St. It was soon after the film came out. I was so thrilled.

John?

I never got "An Unmarried Woman." I mean I would have been Mrs. Alan Bates so fast that guy wouldn't have known what hit him.

[quote]Come to think of it Fonda may have got some votes for Coming Home because she had been somewhat of a favorite to win the year before for Julia, and she didn't get it.

Fonda was not a favorite to win for "Julia".

The Thief Who Came to Dinner (1973) with Ryan O'Neal.

It's a comedy thriller that is surprisingly good for such a forgotten movie.

who was then r42? Fonda had won the Golden Globe and other precursor awards. (I know Keaton wasn't a total surprise but she was not a shoo in. )

Someone on another thread posted about a made for TV film called Hustling that is on Youtube. It stars Lee Remick and Jill Clayburgh. So I watched the whole dated drab All in the Family orange colored thing. Clayburgh was touching in some small moments, but mostly she was cringeworthy AWFUL with the worst Noo Yawk accent I have ever heard. I had no idea she was that pretty, but in a white trash kind of underdeveloped features way. Like Mary Louise Parker. Remick was a beauty of course and I guess the was frank and progressive for it's time? It's long before my time but I've seen better things made for TV in that period. What's the deal? Clayburgh would have been fine, probably very good in Norma Rae. She's very blue collar looking.

I thought Faye was a military brat for a big part of her childhood and spent her teenage years in Tallahassee

her face so sub vanilla

evid had connections to the movie biz

sure don't git there on her beauty

Don't know exactly where but it was some rural part of Florida. Bonnie's life was close to her own.

I just watched PRIVATE BENJAMIN (1980?) again on HBO last night. A cute, rather formulaic middle-brow comedy. But Goldie is surprisingly good, in top comic form. and the film scores a few sharp feminist points, for its time.The title character is a spoiled princess, but for the most part, she merely wants to be engaged, useful, challenged, with or without a man.

There are also a couple of terrific supporting performances from the fabulous Eileen Brennan, Mary Kay Place, Barbara Barrie, and PJ Soles.

At any rate, Judy Benjamin references DL fave AN UNMARRIED WOMAN and the title character's complex relationship with the Alan Bates character early in the film.

I find it discouraging that this 38-year-old film had a more interesting female protagonist, a richer female ensemble, and a more interesting frame of reference than so many tiresome "important" current day films. WTF?

Just saying.

I think Clayburgh also said that the script to Luna wasn’t completed when the film started shooting.

And yes, jinx, R41.

Sigh.

Hardly, R45.

[quote]who was then? Fonda had won the Golden Globe and other precursor awards. (I know Keaton wasn't a total surprise but she was not a shoo in. )

Fonda won the GG for drama but Keaton also won the GG for comedy (actually tied with Marsha Mason). But Fonda did not win any critic awards. LA Film Critics Assn gave it to Shelly Duvall for 3 Women, and the National Board of Review gave it to Anne Bancroft for The Turning Point (and they also strangely gave Supporting Actress to Keaton for Annie Hall). Keaton took both the National Society of Film Critics and New York Film Critics Circle. So although it wasn't a slam dunk, Keaton was absolutely considered the front runner.

You would think that Fonda would have found Norma Rae a perfect vehicle considering her cry at the time she would only do political films. But then again she did another Neil Simon comedy - California Suite - so Jane still had her eye on more commercial projects.

ok r53 I thought Fonda was the front runner because I heard Keaton say she thought Fonda would win but then again she may have just been being self-deprecating as she often is.

Jane whittled the dolls and gave her kid a tracheotomy on the side of the fucking dirt road. Then she lost Cassie Lou under the train tracks. She didn't need no Norma Rae.

Everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end!

And she had to act opposite that hambone Geraldine Page.

So did Jill in I'm Dancing.

Clayburgh was robbed of the Oscar for An Unmarried Woman. Fonda's performance in Coming Home was, like so many of her performances, wooden and pretty flat. Between Coming Home and The Deer Hunter, the Vietnam war was front and center at the Oscars that year, and Fonda rode on those coattails and landed herself an undeserved Academy Award.

I always thought Clayburgh fell under that category of "Good Actress, bad Movie Star."

[quote]"Good Actress, bad Movie Star."

Whatever THAT means.

Her career was brief because the Lina Wertmuller film in An Unmarried Woman was flawed!

r63 = Phil

R62, someone like Joan Crawford was a great movie star, bad actress. Clayburgh was too much an everywoman and she had no star quality. She was on Maude as Walter's secretary and she was a very wimpy presence. Her nadir was when she tried to do Carole Lombard. A non-star trying to play a great star.

Yet, r65, I loved Jill Clayburgh and found Joan Crawford uttterly repulsive. I guess I like your "very wimpy presence."

I love 70's-era films that take place in NYC and Jill Clayburgh's performance in An Unmarried Woman is one of my favorites. Loved her in The Silver Streak as well.

Thanks, R65, couldn't have said it better myself. We could do a whole thread on "Great Actor, Bad Movie Star". Some have It, some just don't.

I remember reading an essay by John Waters; I can’t remember the subject, but he opined that there were Dolly Parton-lookalike contests where one person wins, there should be a Jill Clayburgh-lookalike contest where everyone would win!

I just re-watched Hanna K. Clayburgh has a lovely gentle quality in it.

R69, it was Marilyn Monroe look alike but the point is still valid.

Someone upthread mentioned that Clayburgh tried to portray Carole Lombard with James Brolin as Gable. It was a trainwreck. Two "B" level actors (at that time) trying to portray great stars. NO ONE could have portrayed Gable and Lombard any worse, in my opinion. Clayburgh did not have the square jaw or the voice or the mannerisms or the class of Carole. No amount of direction or costuming was going to fix that.

Jill Clayburgh, April 30, 1944-November 5, 2010; died at age 66.

Clayburgh had chronic lymphocytic leukemia for more than 20 years and dealt with it privately before dying from the disease at her home in Lakeville, Connecticut, on November 5, 2010. The movie Love & Other Drugs was dedicated to her memory. The 2011 film Bridesmaids was Clayburgh's final film appearance.

[quote]r72 Someone upthread mentioned that Clayburgh tried to portray Carole Lombard with James Brolin as Gable. It was a trainwreck.

The good thing about GABLE & LOMBARD is Edith Head did the clothes...and of course she had been working in that era. She didn't have as long to prepare for it as she'd have liked (I think just a month or so), but the clothes still look good.

Can someone explain to me what white trash underdeveloped features means? When I think white trash I think Jamie Pressley and Taryn Manning, who actually have rather harsh features (and no lips, also very WT). So I don't get this new theory.

Incidentally - as I'm sure many of you know - Clayburgh was Jewish and went to Brearley and Sarah Lawrence. I always kind of thought of her as the Blythe Donner type.

Clayburgh was the inverse of Danner. Danner, in fact, would have been far more suited to Lombard than Clayburgh. If anything, Clayburgh was sort of a precursor to Debra Winger.

[quote]Clayburgh was sort of a precursor to Debra Winger.

Then why could I not stand Winger?

R78, well, we're even because I love Winger but can't stand Clayburgh. They both have the same sort of rough hewn quality but always trying to show they had a soft side.

They're absolutely nothing alike.

Plus, Winger was fucking batshit.

r58, what are you talking about? Geraldine Page was nominated for "Interiors" the year Fonda undeservedly won (I agree with r60). Page was hardly hambone in "Interiors." If that's what you're even alluding to.

Who, r58, is the "she" in your sentence? Who "had to" act opposite Geraldine Page? Not Fonda and not Clayburgh.

Stay awake, please.

Maybe they are referring to "The Dollmaker"? Was Page in that? (TV movie I never saw).

Yes. Fonda won an Emmy for it. Great movie.

(P.S. Quick imdb check.... indeed referring to "Dollmaker").

Jesus r74. That's even more embarrassing than I remember it being.......

I have not liked Jane Fonda since 1979.

What does "The Dollmaker" and Geraldine Page have to do with a thread discussing Jill Clayburgh? There's some serious attention deficit disorder here.

^Or Jane Fonda, for that matter?

Oscar-stealer, R89. A fact that can never completely be ignored.

I agree Clayburgh deserved it over Fonda. Clayburgh would have gotten my vote; Geraldine Page would have been second among the nominees who deserved it. Fonda did deserve her win for "Klute," although for that particular year, practically every nominee competing was worthy (chiefly Julie Christie, Glenda Jackson, and Vanessa Redgrave).

We can debate the 1978 win for sure -- but nobody was going to beat Jane for "Klute". Still one of the all time best performances ever and she is rarely off screen in it. It was a totally new naturalism for her and perfect.

Jill Clayburg was a pinched nostril throughout An Unmarried Woman. Tuesday Weld or any other actress could have inhabited the role but Jill gave all the range of Meredith Baxter. Jane Fonda went all out in Coming Home. The scene where she and Jon Voight discuss how people see each other alone offered more range by Fonda or Voight than Clayburg achieved in her entire 'performace' of An Unmarried Woman. She's forgettable because there's never anything behind her performance.

Says r93, who can't even spell her name. Dismissed.

Clayburgh's name, like her face and acting are totally forgettable.

[quote]R92 We can debate the 1978 win for sure -- but nobody was going to beat Jane for "Klute". Still one of the all time best performances ever and she is rarely off screen in it. It was a totally new naturalism for her and perfect.

I agree. I would say it's the best acting job I've ever seen.

r95, you're just being a cunt and you know it. You're also a bore. What could be more forgettable than you, hiding behind your anonymity on a gay gossip blog? But yeah, she's the one who's forgettable. You silly twat.

r97 got triggered

More like a cunt a cunt, r98.

*like calling

[quote]R86 Jesus [R74]. That's even more embarrassing than I remember it being.......

[italic]"They had more than love...they had FUN!"

Had Bergman not won 4 years before, she would’ve won a third for autumn sonata, probably the best performance of her career.

What is Anastasia like? Was Bergman (and Helen Hayes) good in that?

They're professional. Bergman is always very good.

Jennifer Jones was the original choice for that, but I believe she was pregnant or something. She was also unavailable for THE COUNTRY GIRL.

Her career timing wasn't really the best..

Jill was great in Semi-Tough with Burt Reynolds, Kris Kristofferson and Robert Preston. It wasn't award worthy but was fun to watch.

R105 true, I liked that movie. She had a good flair for light comedy - and actually she usually added a lighter Flair to her dramatic performances so they didn’t come off as maudlin.

Her closest counterpart was really Diane Keaton, but kind of the runner up/plainer and more strictly East Coast version. Maybe there wasn’t room for both at the time?

Re La Luna. Doesn't Jill have a bit where she keeps repeating "Can I have a light?" to her son for her cigarette? I saw it a long time ago but it was so tough-going that I'm not sure I could watch it again.

She put in her time on the Lifetime Network.

A little RESPECT!

Yikes, that sums up the heartbreak of the movie business. From Mazursky and Bertolucci to second fiddle to Tracey Fucking Gold.

She died in 2010. Fucking hell! - I thought she died three years ago at most. My whole sense of time is fucked.

[quote]Jill Clayburgh/Died 5 November 2010, Lakeville, Salisbury, Connecticut, United States

Anyway, missin' ya, Jill.

Just saw her last week (or was it last year?) in Bridesmaids. She was OK. Nothing more. Nothing less. She wasn't much of a comedienne. She really lucked out with the "Unmarried Woman" role.

[quote]If anyone hasn't seen Clayburgh in An Unmarried Woman, see it this weekend. It's a love letter to her and NYC, c.1977.

Where can you see it?

At my house, r111.

Oh, it's you, gurlfriend.

[quote]That was wonderful, [R31]. And three years before I discovered Datalounge. I gave most of you WWs. Did they go through?

on an eight year old thread? I think not. But well meant, I'm sure.

Reason for Living: The Jill Ireland Story always used to be playing on TV.