Why Hasn't Barbara Hershey Gotten More Gay Love Over The Years, DL?

"Hannah" is genius.

Because she's totally uninteresting and not very attractive and hasn't been in interesting films - apart from Hannah which was not one of Woody's best, though she was good in it.

Barbara Hershey was born Barbara Lynn Herzstein in Hollywood, California, to Melrose (Moore) and Arnold Nathan Herzstein, a horse racing columnist. Her father, born in Manhattan, was from a Jewish family (from Hungary and Russia), and her mother, originally from Arkansas, had English and Scots-Irish ancestry. Hershey was raised in a small bungalow, and had aspirations of being an actress from her earliest memories.

Was considered for the role of an dangerous obsessive woman in Fatal Attraction (1987). She had played a similar role in The Natural (1984), where she stalks and shoots the hero, who loves a good woman, played by Glenn Close, who ironically, beat out Hershey for the role in Fatal Attraction (1987) in an against-type casting that made her a household name.

Black Swan should have made her a gay icon. TAKE OFF YOUR SHIRT. Still gives me chills.

[quote]Why Hasn't Barbara Hershey Gotten More Gay Love Over The Years, DL?

Because she was a Hershey that couldn't act her way out of a chocolate wrapper, but she refused to know it.

My favorite movie of hers is The Entity. The guy who played her eldest kid looked like he could be her Latino slam piece, not her son.

Whatever Hollywood success she's had is largely owed to her Jew status.

In 2016.

Well that's a change.

Not a good show, especially after the first year, but she was good as the evil Cora on Once Upon a Time.

It didn't help her credibility when she changed her name to Barbara Seagull for awhile.

She's a superb actress, but she had a weird freak-out in the Sixties involving the death of a seagull on one of her films (Last Summer), and she renamed herself "Barbara Seagull because she blamed herself for its death. That was a step too weird for Hollywood, and so she eventually changed it back--but the damage to her career had been done, and people in Hollywood thought of her as a weirdo.

She still continued to get work through her being championed by well-known directors like Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese. She should have won the Academy Award for BSA that went to Dianne Wiest for "Hannah and Her Sisters" and also for her superb performance in "Portrait of a Lady."

I'm glad she stayed away from the straight-porn parody of the Allen film, HANNAH DOES HER SISTERS.

She was great at being intensely evil in the TV movie A Killing in A Small Town. She also wore the fuck out of that hideous wig.

[quote] She also wore the fuck out of that hideous wig.

An important factor in judging the performances of beautiful actresses!

R14. Opposite Jane Alexander. A classic. And that wig deserved an Emmy.

She looks like sigourney in the Hannah photo.

She probably gets confused for the chocolate bar.

If anyone else changed their surname four times they'd be considered a psycho.

R16 I swear that wig deserves some kind of hall of fame status. Wasn’t she opposite Lee Garlington though?

God I love Hannah and Her Sisters. My favorite Woody Allen Film. She is so wonderful in it. But then who isn't?

The first time I really thought she was a fine actress was in Chris Menges' film A World Apart where she played an anti-apartheid activist who puts her mission ahead of her family. She had a perfect South African accent. The oldest daughter is played by the wonderful Jodhi May.

Another fine Hershey performance is in the excellent Australian film Lantana.

Essentially she looks very average. No specific star power or train wreck status.

She doesn’t have much intensity in most roles (not that the scripts allowed her much) , plus she doesn’t have an interesting off screen life.

So she’s fine, but others could do her roles just as well.

R13- There's also a straight porn parody of The Devil Wears Prada- it's called THE DEVIL WEARS NADA.

Beaches.

Always thought that was Sigourney Weaver in the middle.

She was the first mainstream accent to get collagen put in her lips just before she started filming Beaches. So you can blame her for the ducklips trend.

It was actually for THE LAST TEMPTATION OF CHRIST, shot before. She thought her Mary Magdalene should look more sensual.

She and David Carradine were hippy drippy anti-establishment couple, devoid of the requisite Hollywood glamour needed to be a Gay Icon. They always looked like they smelled bad.

I love Hershey, bar none.

I thought she was revelatory as Madame Merle in Portrait of a Lady. Arguably, she should have won the BSA for it, though Joan Allen was equally superb as Elizabeth Proctor in The Crucible. Juliette Binoche was not undeserving for The English Patient, but I would have been torn between Hershey and Allen. Marianne Jean-Baptiste was quite good in Secrets and Lies, but behind those three. In retrospect, Betty Bogart-Robards was a joke of a nomination.

R29 Her appearance in that film ruined its credibility.

[quote] Betty Bogart-Robards was a joke of a nomination.

Betty Backle-Bogart-Robards was a joke.

Good actress, but her appeal is pretty middle of the road and so are most of her films.

[quote]Why Hasn't Barbara Hershey Gotten More Gay Love Over The Years, DL?

Hey, I liked her!

She was trenchant and gripping in The Monroes...

You're a champ R37. Nicely done.

Too funny, I was just thinking this yesterday! I have always dug her! I even watched Defenseless on Amazon last night. It was a box office bomb, but she was fantastic in it! The movie was actually very fun and hella campy. I had never seen it before.

Met her at CHILLER, told her I really enjoy "With Six You Get Eggroll" and TCM plays it al the time and she literally rolled her eyes. She didn't seem to want to talk about working with Doris Day and George Carlin. But she was very pleasant to talk to. I have "Hannah And Her sisters signed and the steelbook of "The Entity". Inside the steelbook is a nude shot and as she signed I said..."Don't open it" and she laughed and said "Oh I've seen it".

click on dvd cover below for center photo

Terrible actress, wooden and deadpan. Annoying voice. Her desperate attempts to be sexy, be it bookish or whorish - sink every part she plays. Was okay as a campy monster in Black Swan. Terrible film.

I love the movie The Stuntman. Though Hershey is a terrible "leading" lady. Mercifully she's playing a bad actress and she doesn't have much to do but show off her pretty hair.

I remember Pauline Karl’s review of The Stunt Man. She didn’t think Hershey pulled off the role but acknowledged that friends thought there was something very special about her.

It's such a great movie R42. About THE movies and paranoia and unreality and the great, fey, charming and manipulative director character - Peter O'Toole. Plus some late in life magic from Dusty Springfield. Steve Railsback and a lovely Barbara Hershey.

For whatever reason, I really don't like her either as a person or as an actress. Every character she plays is unpleasant, even if they're not supposed to be.

LIP INJECTIONS = TRAMP!!!

The Stunt Man is beyond a classic. O'Toole's most fun performance. All the insanity of Lawrence of Arabia with a more menacing twist. Amazing score.

I agree with R44 that Hershey's characters often come across as "unpleasant even if they're not supposed to be." Thats actually some profound insight into her career, acting choices and the work she selected for herself (as well as the roles she ended up cast in). Maybe its that she doesn't naturally generate warmth on screen and was cast in cold, more analytical roles. But she doesn't come across as a one note ice queen either.

[quote] Always thought that was Sigourney Weaver in the middle.

Height wise, Mia and Dianne would probably only come up to Siggy’s tits.

I figured Sigourney was sitting in the photo and the other two were standing.

Utterly forgettable as an actress. She does look like Sigourney Weaver who could have made Hannah's sister more interesting but also would have made Farrow look even worse by comparison---Farrow's typical waifishness doesn't really fit the role of Hannah.

When it comes to early '70s brunette hippie actresses, give me Susan St. James over Barbara Seagull any day.

She was in an early Martin Scorsese called "Boxcar Bertha." I've never seen it but would like to. A co-star in the film was her then lover David Carradine. There was a photo spread in Playboy magazine that featured them in their sex scenes. Speaking of those scenes Hershey was quoted as saying "We sure didn't have to fake anything." I'm sure they didn't.

^I liked that film and contrary to what people such as R44 think, I don’t find her characters unpleasant.

I heard she squirts during orgasms!

I bet she does R53. Nothing wrong with that, but Hershey does give off a hyper sexual vibe. Like that Ryan Cummings guy. She has extra nerve endings in her entries. Maybe that's why she always sounds so hazy when she talks? She's in pre-orgasm.

R19 what on Earth are you talking about?

She stole Portrait Of A Lady. Messy and miscast film but she was great.

I've never heard of her.

I remember Tom Cruise was asked about the Lauren Bacall-Juliette Binoche Oscar moment and he said he would have voted for Barbara. Obviously he was a bit biased since his wife at the time was in the film but he did seem genuinely fond of her performance.

Bumping this after Babs got a callout in the Bette Midler thread.

She played the bitchy, knowing teen with an evil edge well in Last Summer.

Bump. Re-watching Hannah and Her Sisters. Amazing how bad Barbara was made to look – terrible hair, drab colors, baggy clothes, no makeup – and yet she's so sexy.

I like the scene where she reduces Von Sydow's world-weary bore to a blubbering schoolboy.

[quote] There was a photo spread in Playboy magazine that featured them in their sex scenes. Speaking of those scenes Hershey was quoted as saying "We sure didn't have to fake anything." I'm sure they didn't.

It was said at the time they actually had intercourse in the film. Not certain if it is true but as a couple they were the type who would have done so.

And she looked good in black pajamas.

You really have to consider the direction if you find Hershey’s characters unpleasant. It’s a director’s medium and some performances are the director’s choice.