Lee Remick Appreciation Thread

She had this interesting late career of cheesy TV movie roles like “Torn Between Two Lovers” and Merchant-Ivory art films like “The Europeans.”

I love her. I first knew of her when I was a child of 70s TV: she was making a lot of guest-spots and made-for-TV movies, some of them rather cheesy, some not. I also (kind of) recall THE OMEN.

I only found out about her work on Bway and in major films later on. She always projected a blend of American freshness and innate sophistication, even when she was playing bad girls or villainesses.

She wasn't the best or brightest actor of her generation, but Lee had IT in spades.

Love love love her.

She could really sing.

The title song to Anyone Can Whistle is very difficult, and she did a lovely job.

The Follies: In Concert performance.

Lee had old-school glamour.

And a lovely head of hair. So important for a lead actress.

This is always how I’ll think of her, hanging on by her fingertips.

I never quite appreciated how gorgeous she was until I saw her in one of those Roddy McDowell Malibu home movies from 1965. With little makeup and just natural sunlight, she is absolutely stunning.

IMDB bio:

Lee Remick was born in Quincy, Massachusetts, to Gertrude Margaret (Waldo), an actress, and Francis Remick, a department store owner. She had Irish and English ancestry. Remick was educated at Barnard College, studied dance and worked on stage and TV, before making her film debut as a sexy Southern majorette in Elia Kazan's A Face in the Crowd (1957). Her next role was also southern: Eula Varner in The Long, Hot Summer (1958). She emerged as a real star in the role of an apparent rape victim in Anatomy of a Murder (1959). And she won an Academy Award nomination for her role as the alcoholic wife of Jack Lemmon in Days of Wine and Roses (1962). After more work in TV and movies, she moved to England in 1970, making more movies there. In 1988 she formed a production company with partners James Garner and Peter K. Duchow.

Was originally cast in the role ultimately played by Mary Tyler Moore in Ordinary People (1980).

Her role in Anatomy of a Murder (1959) was intended for Lana Turner, who got fired when she insisted that her off-the-rack costumes, (suitable for the part of an Army wife), be designed by splashy Jean Louis. Later, Remick was announced to replace Marilyn Monroe in the unfinished Something's Got to Give (1962), but loyal co-star Dean Martin demanded that the studio reinstate the fired Monroe.

Katharine Hepburn befriended Remick after A Face in the Crowd (1957) and wanted her to be in Desk Set (1957), in which she would star with Spencer Tracy. Tracy thought that the part wasn't good enough for Remick and advised her not to play it. She didn't and the part went to Dina Merrill. Remick later co-starred with Hepburn in A Delicate Balance (1973).

She has appeared in four films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: A Face in the Crowd (1957), Anatomy of a Murder (1959), Wild River (1960) and Days of Wine and Roses (1962).

She wasn't originally cast as Beth in Ordinary People.

The three finalists for the part were MTM, Lee, and Ann-Margret.

Apparently, Lee felt so good about her audition that she told friends she had finally found the part that would get her an Oscar.

When she lost it to MTM, she was so upset she escaped to Europe for a while.

Can you imagine Ann-Margret as the emotionally repressed tight-ass Beth in ORDINARY PEOPLE?

A-M is a decent actress, but she'd have brought a weirdly inappropriate sexual component to her strained relationship with her son, I think. You can't fight the sex kitten within.

She was good in Anatomy of a Murder.

R12 yeah especially since we all know the real sexual tension was between Beth and Buck...

Lee was hotter than hot in a 1967 TV production of Damn Yankees. Much more believable than Gwen Verdon as a devilish seductress.

This production is semi-reviled because they replaced most of the choreography with collage-like animation—later known as the Monty Python style—which was cooler than cool at the time. My parents' college yearbooks of that era look like collage artists barfed all over them.

Lee wasn't a dancer and wasn't going to outdo Verdon even if she was, but they give her some choreography for "Whatever Lola Wants" and she looks great. She could have handled a traditional production.

I loved Lee as Phyllis in the 1985 Follies in Concert. She wasn't the best singer to ever do a rendition of "Could I Leave You" (Dee Hoty remains my favorite), but she acted the hell out of it.

I'm so sorry she didn't get to sing "Ah, but Underneath!" for that production (had Sondheim even written it yet?). It's a much better song for acting than "The Story of Lucy and Jesse."

Lee would've nailed Beth Jarrett in Ordinary People. If Mary Tyler Moore hadn't been up for the part, she might have gotten it.

And the box office would have been 1/10 of what it was. Everyone knew Lee Remick was capable of a part like that ... that's where her TV movie work may have hurt her.

Redford went for the shock factor by choosing Mary. Who was perfect. And put butts in seats because people couldn't believe America's Sweetheart could be so ice-cold.

In 1987, there were two TV versions of the Frances Schreuder murders: the TV movie "At Mother's Request" with Stefanie Powers and Doug McKeon as her son Marc, and "Nutcracker: Money, Madness, & Murder" with Lee Remick as Schreuder.

It was fascinating to compare the two. Stefanie Powers was of course incapable of giving a serious dramatic performance, so it was campy as all get out from word "go. "Remick was superbly chilling, and made you genuinely understand why Schreuder could have forced her son to murder her father.

Ann Margret was negotiating to play John Carter’s (Noah Wyle) Mother in ER in a storyline where she would have a debilitating disease and Carter would have to decide to secretly get her morphine. But they could not come to terms so Carter never had an on screen mother and they went with a wealthy father, and that didn’t work either.

I still think Lucille Ball (the original choice) would have made the best Beth Jarrett.

"Con, you say you want to hug me goodnight?? EUUUGGGH!"

***makes the "spider" ***

Damn that Gary Morton for talking her out of it.

Lee wasn't the best singer, but in every musical performance, she looks like she's having the time of her life, which is infectious.

She and Robert Duvall opened "Wait until Dark" on Broadway in 1966, and she scored a Tony nomination.

[quote] I'm so sorry she didn't get to sing "Ah, but Underneath!" for that production (had Sondheim even written it yet?)

That was written for Diana Rigg in the '87 London revival.

Seems unnecessary to me. Who couldn't handle the original "Lucy & Jessie" choreography? It was beyond basic.

She was cast as Desiree in A Little Night Music twice but, sadly, it just wasn’t meant to be. She also left Agnes of God after the out of town tryout saying ‘they didn’t want me and I didn’t want them.’

I don't see her being right for the psychiatrist in Agnes of God. There was a spooky reserve to Lee in everything she did, and in Agnes, the psychiatrist can't pull focus that way — you need someone more vanilla, who can be like an interrogating cop in moving the story along. That's why Elizabeth Ashley and Jane Fonda worked on B'way and the film.

Have always had a soft spot for Lee Remick.

Only knew her when young from The Omen, then one night a older family member sat me down to watch "Days of Wine and Roses" on television. I was hooked! Lee Remick goes from a nice girl to lush and unfit mother in ways that break your heart.

Great thread OP! Lee Remick was a wonderful talent and great lady who left us far to soon.

Best god damn Phyllis Follies ever saw.....

Lee Remick just fit the part, a blonde patrician beauty who paid her dues who finally was fed up with her husband, and let him know it.

I remember a CBS Movie of the week where she played a NYC children's casting director, and her 18 yr old son goes missing in Germany. She finds out she, and her son, are unwittingly part of some twisted Nazi experiment. It was really chilling, and she was great!

Anybody recall seeing that?

Beautiful Lee Remick in "No Way To Treat A Lady"...

Fellow New Yorkers, if you look carefully over Lee's shoulders as bus travels you'll notice it's north along Third Avenue.

You can make out corner of East 66th (200 to be exact) which is the Manhattan House. Few seconds later (1:36) they reach East 68th and Third where East River Savings Bank branch is located. That bank was last HSBC, but they're selling up US operations, and east coast branches will become part of Citizens Bank.

As bus crosses 68th you can see the buildings that were along Third between 68th and 69th until Trump knocked them down for "Trump Palace" which sits on property today.

From there I'm drawing blanks. That Gray's Papaya bus passes looks like location of West 72nd and Broadway. When George Segal and Lee Remick get off bus and start walking towards her apartment it looks very much like West 79th (they pass 132 and 140 which still look same IMHO.)

I think she would have been great as Beth, too. But MTM was perfect. But I could totally see Lee playing the cold, detached Beth.

Lee Remick was apparently a great cook, as her first cousin NYT columnist Jonathan Reynolds relates.

Lee Remick's Barbecued Chinese Duck

Lee and MTM would have been equally perfect as Beth in Ordinary People.

Lee would have disappeared into the part and been brilliant.

But MTM's casting really underlined the difference between the facade and the reality, which was the point of the movie.

I would LOVE to see tape of Lee reading Beth.

The epitome of beauty and sophistication in that clip, R29.

And as with everything she did, there were layers. She seemed to have an innate depth—compare that scene to so many we've seen of starlets in the '60s and '70s.

R34

When first watched "No Way To Treat A Lady" on television (PBS) found it hard to believe such a classy and beautiful lady would take the bus in 1970's NYC. You can see she just looks so out of place compared to everyone else.

Now walking home along (what I think) is West 79th Lee Remick looked more in her element. Though would have had her down as an Upper East Side sort...

[quote]R10 Katharine Hepburn befriended Remick after A Face in the Crowd (1957) and wanted her to be in Desk Set (1957), in which she would star with Spencer Tracy.

We know what that bull dagger Kate really wanted.

Lee was wise to keep her at arm’s length.

Totally got it wrong in R29, Lee Remick and George Segal were walking along East 72nd off Park Avenue to her building .

It all makes sense now, Brummel and Kate get off at corner of East 72nd Third, then walk east towards Park avenue.

"Annie Get Your Gun"

R25 Lee Remick played a psychiatrist in THE MEDUSA TOUCH...

Yes, that classic, R40.

That may have helped get her cast in Agnes of God—maybe?—but I maintain that within the dynamic of Agnes of God, her special and very effective nature was just wrong for that part.

I could easily see Lee Remick as Beth Jarrett

Yes MTM, known as loveable Mary Richards, was shocking in the part because it was against type.

But Lee might have won the Oscar for her performance. She had put years and years in as a film actress; Mary had been raking in Emmys for her TV work so voters didn't want to reward her for this one film.

I didn't see Sissy Spacek in Coal Miner's Daughter; I did think that MTM was brilliant in OP.

she's a darling

[quote]Can you imagine Ann-Margret as the emotionally repressed tight-ass Beth in ORDINARY PEOPLE?

I can yet can't, R12, but Timothy Hutton said in multiple interviews that he auditioned with Ann-Margret reading Beth.

R28 - that is Of Pure Blood.

R42 brings up a good point: Lee might have won a career award for Ordinary People.

The Academy loves to award its own: Redford won Best Director and Best Picture for the film on his first try.

Nobody would have been better than MTM as Beth, but Ann-Margret would definitely have been an inspired choice. She would most definitely have nabbed a nomination as well, (and possible win after losing for Tommy a few years before).

I could even see Jane Fonda and Ellen burstyn in the role of Beth not sure if either were considered. The one I couldn’t is Natalie wood who allegedly also wanted the role.

I've also read that Natalie Wood was considered, R48. But I can see her not having enough gravitas for the role.

Jane Fonda and Ellen Burstyn were not in the mix.

Redford had a casting coup in MTM — it was a very lucky thing, because he could have easily gotten a $6 million gross at the box office (the film's budget) instead of $90 million (its actual gross, the equivalent of $290 million today).

Loved her in A Delicate Balance. She held her own against a stellar cast.

Natalie Wood might have surprised everyone as Beth. Director Redford might have dragged a great performance out of her.

Doubtful, r51.

OP, you have it backwards about Sondheim proposing to Remick. In the 80s, they became BFFs and went out together socially often. But it was she who suggested they get married. He considered it carefully before deciding to remain single. They remained extremely close friends.

Anyone Can Whistle seems to be another one of those early Sondheim musicals that just didn't work out. Looking it up there seems to have been odd revivals here and there, but the book just doesn't seem to come together enough for another major Broadway or elsewhere production.

Ann-Margaret would have been dreadful in "Ordinary People". Remick would have been a bit more subtle than MTM.

[quote]Her role in Anatomy of a Murder (1959) was intended for Lana Turner

Seriously? Lana Turner was WAY too old for that part.

The first thing I remember seeing her in (in the theater, as a youngster) was "Experiment in Terror," which scared the shit out of me.

Lee and Hal

[quote] Nobody would have been better than MTM as Beth, but Ann-Margret would definitely have been an inspired choice.

Let's make this happen!

R56 I agree. They must have changed the character somewhat.

I always get her confused with Lee Meriwether.

R61

Don't see how...

Lee Meriwether is (or was in her day) a beauty (former Miss USA 1955), and certainly was stacked. But her sort of beauty was more earthy or "dark" compared to Lee Remick.

Will give you like Elizabeth Montgomery and many other actresses Lee Remick started out natural brunette but went to blonde.

Always thought Lee Meriweather was the best Cat Woman on Batman television series. God knows she filled out that costume in ways Eartha Kitt never could.

I am old, but I mostly remember Lee Remick from Torn Between Two Lovers where she was wed to Joe Bologna and had a fling with George Peppard.

The movie was based on a song by Mary MacGregor.

A subplot in the film was Lee's character's brother in law going through a midlife crisis; he split from his wife and took up with a young girl. Lee's talking to the young girl who says: "everyone says I'm dating this guy b/c I see him as a 'father figure.' That's crazy; I never even KNEW my father.'"

R62 she and Elizabeth Montgomery pretty much dominated the quality TV movies of 70s and 80s and both had that pretty in a classy East Coast vibe (I hate using the word classy but whatever). And both were great actresses and died way too young.

here's the promo for the movie; it's from 1979.

r61, I get them both confused with Lee Majors and Lee Greenwood.

R61, Meriwether's Catwoman was on the big screen, but I thought she was great.

Remick lives on in Keri Russell

Take that back, R68.

According to Lee, she was perplexed when 20th Century Fox suddenly told her she was replacing Marilyn in "Something's Got to Give." She wasn't interested and had just signed to do "The Running Man" for Columbia Pictures, but Fox told her she owed them one more picture and she had better do it. They whisked her to the studio, pinned her to Marilyn's costumes and snapped photos with George Cukor, and released unsympathetic statements to the press attributed to her that she never made ("I feel Marilyn should have been replaced. I don't believe actors should be allowed to get away with that type of behavior.")

Lee sensed that this was just a publicity stunt and that she was being used as a pawn in Fox's power games. She never really thought Fox would go through with putting her in the picture. When told later that Dean Martin wouldn't do the movie without Marilyn, Lee was relieved.

Watch Barnaby Jones on MeTV each night only really to see young Mark Shera, as the stories suck (Buddy Ebsen was a bit long in the tooth to be playing a private investigator). Lee Merriweather's character began expanding as series went on which was sort of a good thing. Then they brought in Jedediah Romano "J.R." Jones (Mark Shera) and LM started to get pushed back onto sidelines.

Lee Merriweather like many other actors and actresses had misfortune to arrive in Hollywood as the studio system was on the way out, and other upheavals were shaking the industry. She landed on television (like many other former film actors great and not), which comprises a bulk of her work.

R62, Meriwether was an okay Catwoman (in the Batman movie), but Julie Newmar was the best. Eartha Kitt just seemed odd to me as a kid.

[quote]Lee Meriwether is (or was in her day) a beauty (former Miss USA 1955)

I was fucking Miss AMERICA, bitch! Not some second-rate "MIss USA" shit. That's just one step up from Miss Valdosta Feed and Grain.

I wonder if someone older than Ben Gazzara played the cuckolded husband in ANATOMY OF A MURDER when Lana Turner was playing the promiscuous wife?

R74, Otto Preminger wanted Richard Widmark for Lt. Manion. And Gregory Peck for the Jimmy Stewart role.

"I don't think you MEAN that, Batman! Take one more step and Miss Kitka DIES!""

You BITCH, YOU are Miss Kitka; you're using Bats' feelings for you against him.

THAT is why you are, in many ways, the BEST Catwoman!

Julie Newmar was the best Catwoman. Kitt was too hammy. Merriweather wasn't quite there in terms of the heart of the part.

Thank you for that, r43. Took me back to my teens.

R75, thank god Otto didn’t get his way. That movie is perfection. The cast is rounded out by Eve Arden and Arthur O’Connell. The Ellington soundtrack is fabulous.

Lana Turner bailed on ANATOMY OF A MURDER because she hated the wardrobe. Clearly she wanted to look like a movie star even though the character was the wife of a soldier who couldn't afford those kind of clothes. Just as well as Remick is perfect in the part.

I was glad that Remick did "Lucy and Jessie" in the concert version of FOLLIES, as I never thought "Ah, But Underneath" was a particularly good song.

Regarding ORDINARY PEOPLE, Remick would have been wonderful as Beth. MTM certainly played the part well with her brittle chilliness. Ann-Margret would have been a very different Beth, probably making her a bit more sympathetic, but that could have worked and made the drama more complex in terms of audience empathy. But that clearly wasn't what Redford had in mind. Both MTM and Remick had the kind of suburban upper-class hauteur that suited Beth well.

I wanted Jean Louis to custom design my wardrobe for ANATOMY, R80. Some of us are slim but have womanly curves and can't just wear any old schmatta off the rack. Jean Louis really understood an actual woman's body.

They ended up using Lee, a coat hangar who didn't mind wearing dishrags. So there you are.

R64

Catch Elizabeth Montgomery in some of her early work (largely television) while she was still a brunette. She gives a totally different vibe than the cool but cute blonde of later Bewitched and other work fame.

With a young Charles Bronson in Twilight Zone episode "Two".

Ms. Montgomery teamed with a young (and rather good looking) Tom Poston in Thriller episode "Masquerade".

Was Lee Remick related to Betty Grable's Bob Remick?

I forgot about her. I would have added her to my choices for the “most beautiful actress ever” thread.

One of my all-time favorites, but who didn't like Lee Remick? A truly pretty woman. I always thought she and Sue Simmons shared a remarkable facial resemblance. (I'll just ignore the inevitable comments noting their being of different races.)

I grew up with my mom watching The Long, Hot Summer. I quote Lee (as Eula) on the regular:

“I don’t care though, I got my moral to keep up.”

R86, that is wild — now that you mention it, I totally see the resemblance.

R83 I think Liz had more warmth and a kind of wry sense of humor - Lee may have been a somewhat better actress. Maybe.

Liz has a more accessible beauty, too.

Omg there is a resemblance to Sue Simmons! I always liked Sue. Sweet but no nonsense.

R81. Lana dear, you forgot another important difference—Miss Remick could act.

I’ve always thought there was a lot of similarities between Elizabeth Montgomery and Lee Remick.

Elizabeth Montgomery and Lee Remick in "Kraft Theater: The Diamond as Big as the Ritz" (1955).

Liz served as Lee's matron of honor at Lee's wedding to producer Bill Colleran in 1962.

I love her singing, her phrasing is so natural and she has a lovely vibrato.

She’d have been good as Beth Jarrett.

Wow, they really could be sisters at R93.

R95 They shared a certain quality.

She was miscast in Experiment in Terror. Kim Novak would have been much better in the role.

Lee looks amazing in that Damn Yankee's video (with Linda Lavin!). What a strange production - the cast is pretty talented and do a good job with the numbers, but the Flying Circus type animation is a bit bizarre. I swear there were a few cartoons that were later lifted directly for Yellow Submarine.

I remember at the time thinking she was young when she died -- but now -- it seems really young. Same with Elizabeth Montgomery.

No doubt, Liz was lightening or at least highlighting her hair by the time she started Bewitched, but the Twilight Zone color also looks like it was artificially darkened (not a huge Charles Bronson fan, but he always caught my eye in that episode). I am guessing she was a natural blonde whose hair had darkened to dishwater blonde or mousy brown by the time she was in her mid-twenties and she alternated darkening it or lightening it early in her career before settling on blonde. I liked how spirited she was with Bronson. Samantha had some of that in the early Bewitched seasons, but by the time Dick Sargent came along, while Sam was still warm and charming, she really was a boring suburban housewife who did not have the impishness of the early years (Endora was right about what being married to Darrin would do to her!).

I watched a lot of old movies at the kid (at the time pre-TCM they were on in the mornings on TBS) and she always did remind me a bit of the older movie starts. She had a decent career throughout her life, but it seems like it tapered off a bit more than it should have, at least the non-TV portion.

Montgomery really never had a big movie career. Even other tv-movie queens like Suzanne Pleshette could be described the same way, even if (like Plehette) they had done more films.

Lee and the late Jill Clayburgh in [italic]Hustling[/italic]. Lee is a reporter for a newspaper and she interviews a prostitute (Jill), who almost gets beaten to death by her pimp. There’s also a obligatory drag queen.

I was not very clear in my rambling -- my last paragraph is in reference to Remick not Montgomery. R98

Hustling

"... really was a boring suburban housewife who did not have the impishness of the early years..."

That's because in great part Elizabeth Montgomery had *it* with Bewitched and wanted to leave show to pursue other things. She remained because network kept throwing money and other incentives at Ms. Montgomery and her husband Asher to keep things going. Bewitched was still very high in ratings and no one wanted a good thing to come to an end.

Later seasons they were reusing old scripts, had replaced Dick York (which caused some tension among other actors including at least one departure) with Dick Sargent.... You could see by last few seasons Elizabeth was almost just phoning it in, that and engaging in some passive aggressive things like not even wearing a bra.

Agnes Moorehead wanted to taper things down for her own reasons so there was less Endora. To counter this other members of Sam's family were used more (Serena), or a host of other witches and other creatures (Esmeralda, Loch Ness Monster, various intimate objects that were once witches or warlocks.....).

What really did Bewitched in for final seasons was when Dick York left, and was replaced by Dick Sargent. There just wasn't same chemistry between Sam and the new Darrin, something audiences picked up at once.

R99

No, Elizabeth Montgomery despite her famous from stage and screen father (Robert Montgomery) began her career on television, and aside from a few films that is largely where she remained.

Then again so did many other actors and actresses who were her peers....They came along just as old studio system was dying or dead and thus not all previous options were available. That you had former studio system film stars from Bette Davis on down to John Gavin doing television anyway shows how the medium was growing, or at least provided work.

You also have to remember that by the mid-1960s, there were very few Hollywood feature films with female leads. The days of Bette Davis/Joan Crawford/Lana Turner Women's Pictures came to an end with the collapse of the studio system.

Elizabeth Taylor and Natalie Wood were the rare women stars who could carry a film and even they were considered passe by the end of the decade. Were there others? I don't think so. Lee Remick and Elizabeth Montgomery had little choice but to devote their careers to television movies in the 1970s.

Her name always seemed perfect for a makeup line.

Lee Remick for l’Oreal

Lee Remick for Max Factor

Lee Remick for Este Lauder

Even discount Lee Remick for Revlon sounds great.

R104

Quite right....

Actresses like Hope Lange managed to nab film roles here and there post 1950's, but a bulk of her work was television.

Women's pictures lasted into the 60s--all those Ross Hunter films, even more sudsy than the old Hollywood stuff. But, you're forgetting Jane Fonda who played a more contemporary kind of woman, not to mention Jill Clayburgh and any number of other actresses. It wasn't that silly nonsense from the past. Occasionally, there was somethng soapy but contemporary like "The Turning Point". But the point is, good roles fro women whoc could act never went away, the world changed and so did audiences.

[quote]I've also read that Natalie Wood was considered, [R48]. But I can see her not having enough gravitas for the role.

I can see her being quite convincing as the mother of a young man who drowns.

Speaking of "old" actresses from studio system, caught Estelle Winwood on an episode of Cannon last night.

Poor dear was in wheelchair for all her screen time, decent fitting wig, somewhat heavy make-up, but never the less the old gal was still working.

In fact Ms. Winwood worked basically right up to the end, dying at 101. Think she "retired" at 96 or something.

R108 Oh my can you imagine if she had played that role and then…

R110 you mean like how MTM’s son “accidentally shot himself” a week after the film’s release?

Weird shit.

Winwood supposedly was one of the many lovers of Tallulah Bankhead.

Estelle Winwood a lesbian? Just can't wrap my head around that one....

[quote]R111 you mean like how MTM’s son “accidentally shot himself” a week after the film’s release?

That type of gun was notorious for having a [italic]hair trigger ! !

Like Bankhead, she might have been fond of anything that moved. She also had a bunch of husbands. As a character actress who always played old ladies, her personal life probably didn't attract that much attention.

Is the ‘wheeler dealers’ any good anyone? Love James garner love lee remick but this film has eluded me.

I remember seeing Lee in The Hallelujah Trail, a great comic western, at Radio City Music Hall. Burt Lancaster naked in a hip bath turned me on as a little gayling.

Ordinary People is on TV. I always “couldn’t help but wonder” why of all the places Keeping up with the Joneses Beth was busy traveling - why “fucking Spain & fucking Portugal?” Isn’t that where people went when they couldn’t afford Paris/London/Italy/Greece? Were the Jarrets really just poor?

I’m kidding here but Portugal especially was (and still to some extent is) known for being dirt cheap.

If MTM could surprise us with a complete change of demeanor in ORDINARY PEOPLE, how do we know Ann-Margret couldn't have accomplished the same turnabout and been equally, or even more, surprising?

Dearest Xennial,

Calvin and I were planning on Christmas in London (like something out of Dickens!) and have been to Italy and Greece together a number of times. Paris is like a second home to me, having spent my junior year at Bryn Mawr there.

Buck would have realized that.

MTM basically was Beth Jarrett by that point. Ann-Margaret never gave any indication of that.

Maybe in the future there’ll be some sort of app where you can plug any actor into any role and watch them play it.

[quote]R117 I remember seeing Lee in The Hallelujah Trail... Burt Lancaster naked in a hip bath turned me on as a little gayling.

R4, if only she could've sung that in tune. The first 10-15 seconds are at least one key sharp!

R103, "You could see by last few seasons Elizabeth was almost just phoning it in..."

What else did one need to do on BEWITCHED?

Lee, Lee, Lee...

Another nicky addict, albeit a beautiful one. Perhaps because she APPEARED so healthy, she thought she was impervious to such a vile habit.

R125 I just can’t hear that. Don’t have finely tuned ears, I guess. She sounds great to me.

r128, I'm with you. Her voice reminds me of a young Judy Garland, singing Dear Mr. Gable....

Miss Lee Remick, as styled by DataLounge

R128, R129 -- it's really just noticeable for the first 20-30 seconds of the song. Then she finds her pitch, and the rest is fine. No where even remotely close to Judy Garland, but fine.

There will never be another like Lee Remick!

Carla Gugino has always reminded me a bit of Remick. Maybe it's the steely inner reserve camouflaged by soft outer beauty.

I heard she had a pretty pussy but that big clit was a shock.

Nevertheless, as OP wished, she is appreciated.

Yawn for me, but I’m generally biased against patrician blondes. Pretty and decently talented, hundreds of ‘em. She’s in that Claire Bloom/Jean Simmons class. I liked her in Wild River and Days of Wine and Roses, found her miscast in Anatomy of a Murder and A Face in the Crowd - those roles needed someone more vital and sultry. I haven’t watched her TV movies.

I don’t even like Pauline Kael but she had pretty great put-downs - hers about Lee Remick was that she was someone that the industry tried very hard to sell as star but no audiences bought it.

I was reading the Wikipedia entry for “Days of Wine and Roses” and saw this:

“Director Blake Edwards became a non-drinker a year after completing the film and went into substance-abuse recovery. He said that he and Jack Lemmon were heavy drinkers while making the film.[8] Edwards used the theme of alcohol abuse often in his films, including 10 (1979), Blind Date (1987) and Skin Deep (1989). Both Lemmon and Remick sought help from Alcoholics Anonymous long after they had completed the film. Lemmon revealed to James Lipton on Inside the Actors Studio his past drinking problems and his recovery. The film had a lasting effect in reinforcing the growing social acceptance of Alcoholics Anonymous.”

I didn’t know she was a member of AA.

[quote]The title song to Anyone Can Whistle is very difficult, and she did a lovely job.

Totally agree r3. The only person who sang it better was Sondheim himself.

Stunning, classy, talented.

I'd have turned for her.

Lovely Lee had a fling with JFK. I'm amazed nobody has mentioned it yet.

I'll never forget seeing her walking in Times Square on a Saturday afternoon between shows when she was starring on Broadway in Wait Until Dark. I was a teenager and she was stunning in person.

Lee Remick. Squee!