Geraldine Page

Which Oscar was that, the Color Purple?

We've talked about here here many times....

The hammiest.

She is the Thelma Ritter for snobs with an equally unappealing voice.

She looked like a dog playing opposite Paul Newman in 'Sweet Bird'.

Anyone who appeared in that appalling Ingmar Bergman pastiche called 'Interiors' deserves out utter opprobrium.

Didn’t she beat out Streep in Out of Africa that year?

Page and Sandy Dennis were extraordinary on stage. You couldn't take your eyes off them.

I loved her in "Dear Heart" and tweet years later in "Trip to Bountiful"

Way to theatrical for my taste. But I imagine she must have been fascinating to watch on Broadway. Did she ever win any Tonys?

R3 I thought Maureen Stapleton was fucking amazing in that one.

R7, Geraldine Page and Kim Stanley are among the legendary stage actresses who never won a Tony.

With Page, it's especially strange because she won an Oscar and Emmys despite being most known for her stage work. You would think the Tony would have been the first thing she won, but she went 0-4. She passed away about a week after her loss for 'Blithe Spirit.'

[quote] Did she ever win any Tonys?

4 nominations, 0 wins. In 1960, when she was nominated for Sweet Bird of Youth, Anne Bancroft won for The Miracle Worker. Anne also won an Oscar two years later, when they were both nominated for the same roles.

R3, Bergman, Interiors? No dude, Woody Allen. So much for opprobrium.

I was quite young when I saw a TV version of Truman Capote's short story"A Christmas Memory." I had already read the story and was so touched by Geraldine Page's performance . She won an Emmy for that role.

She was doing Blithe Spirit at the time of her death. Didn't show up for Saturday matinee and stage manager sent someone over to her apartment. Found her dead. Heart attack. Sad that she was only missed because she didn't show up for work.

She was very good as the maniacal serial killer in What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice.

Geraldine earned that Oscar for TTB and all of her years of wonderful work. Whoopi won for Ghost so stop whining op.

R10 He wrote "Bergman pastiche".

Between the stagey material and her mannered performance, "Trip to Bountiful" is unwatchable as a film--sentimental slush. Much better on Broadway with Cicely Tyson.

I think of her as being part of a cohort of actresses who were considered prestige players when they did something on tv or in film because of their stage reputations--Julie Harris was another, although I think she was better in her non-stage roles than Page.

r3 is a VULGARIAN!!!!!

Much more mannered than Streep. Not a technical actress like Streep.

Brick house on the right is the Chelsea townhouse where she was found dead as a doornail. Looks like a nice street.

She was great in Sweet Bird of Youth with Paul Newman

Whoopi gave a more nuanced performance in The Color Purple over her performance in Ghost. So you shut the fuck up, r14.

She unfortunately will be forever linked with F. Murray Abraham’s nauseatingly pretentious obsequiousness when presenting her with the Oscar. Half the Academy is still vomiting from his appalling display of faux humility.

I know I am.

Yes you are a ham R23 but at least you could share your roles around to the other old ladies such as Chupa-Chupa-cheeked Geraldine Page

There's another thread here which says the great Vanessa Redgrave is "The greatest actress in English language".

Vanessa is genuine English.

This American woman named Page is a vulgarian compared to Vanessa!

There’s a Whoopi-losing-the -Oscar troll here today, I see.

There were more tics in her performance in THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL than at an orgy full of people with Tourette’s.

Geraldine was a goddess, in any role she appeared in. Incapable of giving a bad performance, no matter how bad the movie was otherwise. She came close to saving the the unintentional comedy "I'm Dancing As Fast As Fast As I Can" for example. All praise to the great Geraldine Page!!!!

Joan Crawford steamrolls Geraldine Page into letting her accept her Oscar should she win.

I think people are being a bit too harsh on poor F. Murray - he was just having a major fanboy moment there. It was super cringe-worthy, but he didn't mean anything bad.

One week after he won his Amadeus Oscar, and when he could probably snag any film role he wanted to, he instead decided to join the Mirror Repertory Company, only so he could work with Geraldine. He was probably still under her spell when he had to hand her that Oscar a few months later. There was something about her that made all of her co-workers go crazy for her. James Dean also had a major diva-worshipping thing going on with her.

Dear R30 you couldn't have chosen a more unflattering picture of either of them!

R31 That's from a production of "The Madwoman of Chaillot" - they're supposed to look scary.

R30, isn't that Exene with John Doe?

R32 The characters in "The Madwoman of Chaillot" are supposed to be sympathetic.

Girardoux wanted them to be innocent, honest and naive characters in a modern, venal world.

Looks like hammy Geraldine wanted another excuse to go all Grand Guignol and chew the scenery.

The wonderful Martita Hunt starred in the 1948 production of 'The Madwoman of Chaillot'.

She won the New York prize for Best Actress in the role and, I think, Marlon Brando got Best Actor for 'Streetcar'.

The scene in Pope of Greenwich Village that OP posted a photo of is one of my favorite movie scenes ever. She was the grieving Irish Catholic mother talking to the cops about her dead son. Brilliant! If you have never seen that movie you have to find it and watch it immediately. Do not deny yourself the chance to see some brilliant acting. Eric Roberts, Mickey Rourke, Darryl Hannah, and some amazing acting. Funny too.

[quote] Between the stagey material and her mannered performance, "Trip to Bountiful" is unwatchable as a film--sentimental slush. Much better on Broadway with Cicely Tyson.

I much prefer the porn version, "The Trip to Plentiful" starring Jeff Stryker.

Geraldine Page blew me away in Trip to Bountiful. One of the greatest screen performances I’ve ever seen. Saw her onstage in Agnes of God. She was simply extraordinary.

Page on George C Scott: "Great actor, alcoholic, wife beater. What else do you want to know?"

R21 fuck you cunt. Try making me shut up. Whoopi is not a quarter the actress Geraldine is , troll.

Was ^^^

Whoopi = Fart.

I loved her in "The Beguiled". Bit of trivia: Elizabeth Hartman, who also starred in "The Beguiled" died in June of 1987, the same as Page.

Page won an Oscar nomination for this scene alone from Pete N Tillie. Note Carol Burnett starting using the climax of the scene as her own.

R44 As her own what?

R45, her own schtick.

Woody Allen wrote a great part for her in "Interiors."

R47 No American family is as blind as the characters in that ridiculous grovelling homage "Interiors ".

Ingmar Bergman laughed at it. He thought it was meant as a joke.

OMG, I love this scene!!! I don't care if she's hammy. It works. She is fabulous!

There's a painful clip on Youtube of her trying to sing a duet with the late Gladys Cooper.

R29 Is that a factionalized account? It seems implausible.

R44 Pete N Tillie was one of her more unnecessary Oscar nominations. That and You’re A Big Boy Now.

Man, Interiors was a pretentious, affected slog. Maureen Stapleton's character was the vulgar interloper, but she was the only good thing in the movie.

I did really like her in movie, The Trip To Bountiful. She is compelling to watch.

Sweet Bird Of Youth was shown recently, and she plays a man using drunk to the hilt.

R29 Joan accepted the Oscar on behalf of Anne Bancroft, not Page.

Her husband, the great Rip Torn, is still with us.

they had a very strange marriage. Torn had a baby with actress Amy Wright during the marriage.

yes r56 we know. Maybe you should reread the post or watch Feud.

She was Sissy Spacek's cousin.

I think Torn is Spacek's cousin.

Hondo happened to be on TV this weekend. It's hard to believe she was 28 when that film was made - that's one rough looking 20-something.

The topper to F's comment about Geraldine is Anne Bancroft's eye roll reaction.

I don't think Bancroft rolls her eyes negatively. I think she is just confused as to what is going on and glances at the monitor. Whoopi is too happy. She's overcompensating. Jess is cool is ice and figures out who won and says it to Sam. (Geraldine had just done or was still doing his play A Lie of the Mind.) My skin looks luminous. Very peaches and cream.

Funny who Bancroft was nominated for a role Page created on Broadway.

Whoopi said on the View that she only saw the Trip to Bountiful recently. (like within the last 5 years or so.)

I guess it was painful for her. I would have thought she'd be curious to see what beat her. (and Whoopi is a movie fan, I used to work in a video store she frequented. She rented a lot and was a big fan and would get quite excited when classics would be released finally.)

I played in African this year. My native heritage.

I always loved her.

[quote]I think Torn is Spacek's cousin.

It's Rip Taylor who is Spacek's cousin.

Anne Bancroft may have been nominated for a role Geraldine Page originated, but I wonder how Lillian Gish felt about someone else winning an Oscar for a role she originated.

Does the 1953 TV version with Gish, Eva Marie Saint and Eileen Heckart still exist? Has anyone seen it?

R70 It has been shown at MOMA, but I haven't seen it.

Geraldine was fantastic. One of my faves along with Sandy Dennis, Kim Stanley, Tuesday Weld, Meryl Streep and, of course, Jessica Lange.

[quote]I still hate her for stealing Whoopi's Oscar, though.

Oh, DEAR, no.

I saw Page on Broadway in "Agnes of God" where she was freaking brilliant, also in her final role in "Blithe Spirit" where she was an incredibly scene-stealing ham, but the role is written that way. Angela Lansbury was also shameless in her Tony-winning performance of Madame Arcati a few years ago.

At Mirror Repertory Company Off-Broadway Page was at her very peak in Clifford Odets' "Paradise Lost" opposite the then unknown Steven Weber, who held his own opposite Gerry, and launched his career (where is he now?) At Mirror Rep Page also SHAMELESSLY played a small role as the Polynesian Servant Girl in W. Somerset Maugham's "Rain" in "light Egyptian" make-up. She got huge laughs as her leading lady Sabra Jones was a lousy actress, and Geraldine just decided her nothing role was comic relief. She NEVER would get away with it today, of course!

Much like her sisters in tic-acting (Kim Stanley, Sandy Dennis, Jess Lange, sometimes Lee Grant), I think she fluctuates between fascinatingly brilliant work, and hysterical forced hamming. I can think of so many of her performances that would be better if she just kept her fucking hands still. Did Lee Strasberg give them this constant need to be fidgeting? Fidgeting with your fingers is not acting!! I've never seen any of them on stage but i'm assuming it works better in that context. She still does have some impressive screen performances, and I actually liked her in 'I'm Dancing As Fast As I Can', still a manic performance but it felt less 'acted' and more 'felt'.

R76 Based on your definition of "tics", Meryl should be on your list...

[quote]Did Lee Strasberg give them this constant need to be fidgeting?

Right? Uta Hagen, a very affected actress, was like this too. She was incredibly distracting onstage, as she was always TOUCHING EVERYTHING, obviously looking to endow each gewgaw with her "sense memory", and "substitution" folderol.

I'm an actor and after hundreds of classes and drama school I can report all that Method/Meisner/Stanislavski stuff is embarrassingly outdated crapola! If there were famous talented actors who studied, I have to say they would have been talented and famous WITHOUT IT!

This fidgeting it meant to show Realism, as opposed to Just Stand There and Speak. Joanne Woodward is another one who does it. That and over-gesturing though Woodward added a bizarre mouth twisting to her repertoire. Sandy Dennis was most famous for a pointing mannerism which I believe she picked up from Eileen Heckart. But Page is the most irritating exponent of the Method fidgets.

I love the fidgeting, goddammit!

One of the most talented actresses ever. Like all performers, the quality of her work varied from project to project but unless you have an axe to grind, even her appearance on "Night Gallery" put you on notice that you were watching a major talent. People don't realize that an actor doesn't get much if any rehearsal on fim and tv sets, so they tend to resort to mannerisms that have gottem them through other things.

bitch

Mannered to death. Her Academy Award was definitely a gift. Watch her in [italic]Summer & Smoke [/italic].

More tic laden than a stray dog.