Today’s actors who could never happen in the Golden Age of Hollywood.

1930s-40s Timothee Chalamet would have been cast as hotel bellhops or telegram delivery boys.

Billy Porter

Laverne Cox

Lena Dunham

Most non-White actors, OP, would not make it by the narrow standards of the "Golden Age of Hollywood".

Ahem.

Brie Larson

I get that people fetishize the things they associate with themselves but holy hell, you people are utterly insane when it comes to this golden age of hollywood crap. On the rare occasion I've been forced to watch a piece of one of these movies (and I can only stomach pieces), I always come away baffled that anyone looks at those "performances" as acting. No talent. The dialogue revolving around words no one has ever used in that way. Reactions that make absolutely no sense. And above all the absolutely, stunningly blinding utter whiteness of it all.

I tried to watch Guess Who's Coming to Dinner for a class in college and had three reactions: 1) Did Katherine Hepburn have a stroke? 2) Why is Spencer Tracy clearly drunk and no one saying anything? and 3) On what planet would a doctor who is apparently considered one of the best in his field in the entire world give some not-even-a-college-graduate chippy the time of day, let alone go home to her boring, ordinary family and tolerate them going over him as if they're doing him the favor? I'm 40 and I admit I grew up very sheltered (in a Jack and Jill type black family), but watching that load of bs and realizing that that was considered a reasonable plot at all put the spectre of how bad racism truly was. I hate that movie.

Anyway, the golden age of hollywood sucked.

Op, the effete, untalented wet rag Leslie Howard was cast as Scarlet O’Hara real love in Gone With The Wind. Maybe you should see more older movies, there are many other examples.

Isn't Timothee the modern day Anthony Perkins?

LOL

I have to give credit for the inventive ways various trolls who hate specific celebrities have to start stealth threads.

I mean, why be obvious like the Janet troll when you can slip a hate thread in without raising suspicion - I admit I got sucked into this thread thinking it would be interesting.

I could see Timothee Chalamet in Farley Granger or Montgomery Clift roles.

Timothee still wouldn't have fucked you during the golden age of movies and I assume you were in you early 20s back then OP

R2 I disagree about Billy Porter. He would’ve loved shucking and jiving for America. He might’ve even had a bigger career because he would’ve gotten leading man roles, too because no one would’ve known he was gay because he would’ve had to hide it and butch it up.

R10 who even uses “LOL” these days?

This is the stupidest thread idea for some time.

Of course standards and tastes are different now. OP, do you think Golden Age stars John Hodiak and June Allyson and Sonja Henie would have been headline stars today? Do you think they somehow would deserve to be?

[quote] [R10] who even uses “LOL” these days?

You're totally on the wrong forum, hon.

r7 is an intellectually torpid pretentious twat.

I am, R16.

[quote] I could see Timothee Chalamet in Farley Granger or Montgomery Clift roles.

It’s not about his acting, it’s about his physicality. Hollywood didn’t cast skinny cute boy-men as leads back then. The men looked like mature men even if they were young. On the rare occasions you do see someone twinky in an old movie it looks jarring.

[quote]Hollywood didn’t cast skinny cute boy-men as leads back then.

No, just fat cute boy-men, like Mickey Rooney.

What about Lon McCallister? He was basically a twink.

Huge Golden Age box office stars who would not make it today (thank God):

Shirley Temple

Dick Powell

Jeanette MacDonald

Gene Autry

Mickey Rooney

Bob Hope

Esther Williams

Mary Pickford

Rin-Tin-Tin

[quote]And above all the absolutely, stunningly blinding utter whiteness of it all.

Bless your little racist socks, R7. Yes, it was all horrid pap, and every last celluloid of it should be burnt. And as for black critics who respect and adore it: those Uncle Toms should be tarred and feathered!

G is today's Marjorie Main

George Burns) You don't have a date?

Rita Hayworth) It's true, the studio has built me into such a glamour girl, every man thinks my datebook must be full, so I don't get asked out. I tell you it's depressing.

Gracie Allen) Aw, cheer up Rita, maybe that isn't the reason at all. Maybe it's your looks.

[quote]And above all the absolutely, stunningly blinding utter whiteness of it all.

And what would you expect? White men invented the technology and created the industry. They created Hollywood.

OP, there were plenty of crappy actors in the golden age. I don't even like Timothee but I'd take him over, say, Mickey Rooney any day

This is another "Everything was better in MY day" thread from the eldergays

R19, Chalmet doesn't really play traditional leading man roles, though

I'm fixated on R7's using Guess Who's Coming to Dinner as an example of the Golden Age of Hollywood.

James Dean acting was whiny and he had an anus mouth.

That's no more different than Ratboy Timootay in 2021.

^ I truly don't comprehend why James Dean is so much more well known and revered than Montgomery Clift outside of dying while he was young and arguably pretty. The guy was in three movies! Marilyn Monroe, who also gets the deifying treatment, was in over a decade of films.

[quote]OP, there were plenty of crappy actors in the golden age. I don't even like Timothee but I'd take him over, say, Mickey Rooney any day

You are so wrong about that.

Micky Rooney was an excellent young actor. Highly regarded. Excellent in dramas (The Human Comedy) and sensational in his musical numbers with Judy Garland.

Leslie Howard

Danny Kaye

Van Johnson

Mickey Rooney

What's so Golden about these actors?

Chalamet would have had his name changed to something like Timothy Marlowe. The studio would have put him in teenager roles at first, and he would have basically stayed in the juvenile roles until he was pushing 30. At that point he would have segued into Farley Granger types of parts, the studio would have beefed him up a little and given him shoulder pads to make him look less whispy.

Roddy McDowell had Chalamet's body type but he was a much better actor. Well, so was Granger, to be honest.

Melissa McCarthy. Don’t recall any fat women in the “Golden Age”.

Timothee IS Cornelius in the Planet of the Apes.

r35, although pretty much forgotten today, Marie Dressler was one of the biggest stars of the early 30s:

Not a Chalamet fan because he can only play himself and he's a narcissist... BUT Rudolph Valentino was said to have a whiff of a "feminine style" and it didn't hurt his career either. And was Charlie Chaplin masculine? I think not.

If Jimmy Stewart could be a movie star back then, Chalamet might have succeeded as well. I happen to despise both of them.

There were but not a lot, r35. Marie Dressler, Hattie McDaniel, I guess Kate Smith would count. There were character actresses who played small roles, often billed as "fat woman."

There were a few men like Raymond Burr, Sydney Greenstreet, Laird Cregar, and William Conrad.

Dwayne Johnson

Lady Gaga

[quote]Dwayne Johnson

Mike Mazurki!

[quote]Lady Gaga

She'd be one of those gimmicky character actresses who played exotic characters, like Maria Ouspenskaya.

[quote] 1930s-40s Timothee Chalamet would have been cast as hotel bellhops or telegram delivery boys

He would have been hot as a bellhop.

Remember in "Radioland Murders" when they had 250-pound, 6-foot-2 Scott Michael Campbell as the bellhop? What a mess. Bellhops are twinks! This is scientific fact!

The comparison of Timothee Chalamet to Roddy McDowell is spot-on. Another Golden Age analogue for him would be Tony Perkins.

Gracie Allen) You know Marie, Tootsie is at the end of a seven day beauty treatment, afterwich she'll look just like you

Tootsie Sagwell) Then you and I can swap beauty secrets

Marie MacDonald) Let's not swap, I'll just tell you what I know

Lady Gaga would have been a telephone operator in several Warner Bros. movies in the early 30s.

Chalamet might have had a solid career back in the day, because people forget that men were not expected to be as muscular and beefed up as they are now. The comparisons to Monty Clift, Roddy McDowell, and Tony Perkins are apt.

I don't think Ryan Gosling would make it during the Golden Age of Hollywood. He's basically ugly.

There were male stars uglier than Ryan Gosling in the Golden Age of Hollywood, like Humphrey Bogart and Edward G. Robinson and George Raft.

Jack Palance.

Bogart has more presence in his ugly nose than Gosling does in his entire body. It's not so much a question of looks as it is charisma and vibe.

R26 don't understand why people don't get this. Hollywood was founded by Jews from Europe, they can cast and hire whoever they damn well please. Don't watch it if you don't like it, in fact it's precisely the reason I can't stand most Hollywood films. But I'm not going to accuse execs of racism over it, I'll just do the logical thing and watch a foreign film or pick up a hobby.

Jessica Lange would have been Barbara Stanwick, basically, so she'd fit right in.

Vin Diesel and all those muscle bound superhero actors would not work at all, except for Chris Evans because he's not bulky and he also looks a bit like someone from the golden age of Hollywood.

I might revisit this thread later. As of yet, I'm undecided but the topic is good, OP.

R47, actually Lady Gaga would’ve been cast as the manicurist in The Women were not for the fact that the make up was a little expensive.

R24

More like Marjorie Main horse in "The Women"

R55

You are totally right: Stephanie does look like the EA 5th av. manicurist.

[quote] Bogart has more presence in his ugly nose than Gosling does in his entire body. It's not so much a question of looks as it is charisma and vibe.

Fine. But then you're contradicting r49, who implied it was all about looks, and I don't think that's true.

Some of you have this strange and inaccurate idea that Golden Age Hollywood was only about perfect faces. It was not: as shown in the posts above, there were indeed several huge stars who were not technically beautiful or who had non-standard body shapes, from Marie Dressler to Wallace Beery to Mickey Rooney to Spencer Tracy to Humphrey Bogart to June Allyson.

The idea that they all had to look like Robert Taylor and Rita Hayworth has been fully and thoroughly disproved, yet some of you for some reason keep arguing as if it were true.

[quote]Isn't Timothee the modern day Anthony Perkins?

No, that would be Andrew Garfield. Timothee would've been more of a Richard O'Sullivan type (the actor who played Liz Taylor's little brother in 'Cleopatra')

I watch my old movies and cringe at what a bad actress I was. I guess back then it was all about the glamour

As older than dirt some of us DLers are even we weren't going to the movies during the Golden age of Hollywood. We hadn't been born yet. Strange but true.

I could see Farley Granger IN Timothee.

But not in one of Granger's roles.

Farley was a top?

R28, what are traditional leading roles nowadays, do they exist??

Denzel Washington & Viola Davis.

Though Octavia Spencer would have snapped up a lot of Hattie McDaniel's parts.

Now the top movies are largely just banal superhero stuff. The state of the movie industry is depressing. Plus, actors lack class and that elusive quality they had in the era before social media made everyone a narcissistic bore.

R67 We agree.

[quote]Hollywood was founded by Jews from Europe...in fact it's precisely the reason I can't stand most Hollywood films.

Huh.

Perkins and McDowell were cute/hot...Timotee is not.

You're just blind, r70.

R26, r23, it may be true, but that doesn’t make it right.

R69 what I meant to say was that the white men casting nothing but white men in all racial roles is why I can't stand most old Hollywood films. Obviously modern films are different but it takes me out of a film when an Italian is playing a native American or Mikey Rooney is playing a Japanese man. I have nothing against Jewish men producing directing and casting films.

I can totally see Tyler Hoechlin in a Golden Age movie - a pretty boy like Robert Taylor.

I think some actors like Chris Pine and James Marsden might have been even more successful in the "golden age." The studios would have known what to do with them. They can sing a little, so they'd stick them in more musicals.

Jessica Lange had nothing like the range of Stanwyck, who literally played everything.

John Hodiak was never a "star". he was a contract player, mostly featured in B-pictures who wound up in supporting roles. he died rather young.

Jennifer Aniston.

She’d have ripped apart by movie studios for her looks.

Marsden actually has a really good voice, best shown up thus far in "Hairspray".

Ann Sothern was great as "Maisie" and she had a really good voice. Try watching her tv version of "Lady in the Dark" - quite excellent in all respects

Robert Taylor for some reason doesn't look all that handsome to me; he's a pretty bad actor, and supposedly that didn't matter because of his looks, but I just don't see him as being all that -- now Errol Flynn certainly was great looking, and he had presence, could act in those heroic and action role well enough. Even Bette Davis, who didn't think he could act that well, later saw one of his films and finally said that he was a better actor than she gave him credit for at the time.

Jennifer Aniston's looks are highly over-rated. The really pretty one on "Friends" was Courtney Cox and the talented one was Lisa Kudrow. Pretty crappy show -- just saw some episodes here and there.

Mickey Rooney didn't age well, and his casting in "Breakfast at Tiffany's" was a horrible decision, but he was very cute when he was younger, and he fucked some of the biggest female stars (and lesser known starlets) during his youth, including the widow of the head of the studio, Norma Shearer.

Robert Taylor's best performance is probably Undercurrent (1946), where he plays the villain terrorizing Katharine Hepburn.

Katharine Hepburn probably deserved being bullied around sometimes. Didn't Spencer Tracy, before they became "friends" once say about Hepburn that she talked like she "had a feather in her ass"?

1930s-1940s Bradley Cooper would have been typecast as a hotel desk clerk, ringing the bell for Timothee Chalamet.

Taylor’s best performance and one of Hepburn’s worst.

LOL is better than the hehehehe ???? Thats just creepy !

‘Despise‘ R39? What a strange choice of word for actors you don’t like. What’s to despise? James Stewart is one of the all-time great male stars. He had Republican views but he also was a hero in the war against the Nazis. I happen to think that’s more important than whatever politically incorrect language he may have used. And Chalamet is at the start of his career and seems fairly inoffensive. Save ‘despise’ for bad people.

Old movies (1920's-50"s) were so poorly acted, it's actually comical. Katherine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford were all so hideously ugly and robotic, I can't imagine how they were ever cast in anything. Eldergays live in a fantasy world about old actors, which has nothing to do with reality. None of the old school actors except maybe Marilyn, Liz, Cary Grant, and Marlon Brando would make it today. Sorry, I guess the truth hurts.

I can’t take people like r85 seriously.

R86, don’t take the bait.

[Quote] Golden Age executives would laugh Timothee Chalamet out of the room. An androgynous, gay baiting, devoid of masculinity actor would be unfathomable.

Quite.

[Quote] On what planet would a doctor who is apparently considered one of the best in his field in the entire world give some not-even-a-college-graduate chippy the time of day, let alone go home to her boring, ordinary family and tolerate them going over him as if they're doing him the favor?

Why would Sidney Poitier (or Harry Belafonte) think White Is Right?

This is an interesting subject but goes either way. Some concepts of beauty vary with time. Jennifer Aniston would never have made it earlier in the century but Olivia de Havilland baffles me (ugly, short and histrionic). Norma Sheridan looks ludicrous. Bette Davis, Katherine Hepbrun, stanwick, Streep, Grace Kelly, Ingrid Bergman, Dunaway and Michelle Pfeiffer would always be stars, whatever the time.

And Cate Blantchett

Jean Harlow is not beautiful by today's standards. Mae West was thick bodied. Star quality shines through.

[quote]Norma Sheridan looks ludicrous.

She couldn't hold a candle to me!

Hamish Linklator

Was Ann Sheridan lesbeterian?

R92 If Reese and Aniston can be considered beautiful, Jean Harlow would be considered beautiful. If you changed her hair and makeup, especially her eyebrows, to today’s look, she’d fit in.

R96, i am r90 dissing Jennifer Aniston, but Reese whatever her name does not compare. She is neither beautiful nor talented nor has star presence. She’s been very lucky and clever, both main factors in this discussion. I also suspect she threatens people with her chin.

By the same logic, JenAn and Witherspoon could be made 30s glamour gals.

Reese is great in ELECTION. If you can't see that, you're a dunce.

R99 Reese is great in Legally Blonde, which is one of my guilty pleasures. Luke Wilson was so fuckable.

Nearly all of them, I'm sure there are some exceptions but I can't think of them right now.

I'm talking about the actors that are Gen X and after.

Harlow wasn’t a great beauty by any standard. But she photographed well and she had a divine figure.

That Sandra Bulldyke someone or other. Leading ladies were not made to look like lesbians in those days.

Golden-Age movie stars could walk in heels gracefully, Miss Roberts.

Jessica Lange could not sustain a movie career, so why would she be a success in the past? She has a strange affect.

Movie stars reflect their time. Audiences adopt them and decide who is a star.

Ryan Gosling had plastic surgery. So did Saoirse Ronan. I can’t think of a single movie star under 40 who is good. It’s all about branding now.

She looked the part at least. Like Julia Roberts and Michelle Pfieffer, They looked the part. Demi Moore doesn't look like a movie star. Neither does Sandra Bullock.

[Quote] Jessica Lange could not sustain a movie career

Any actor would love to have had Lange's unsustainable career in the 80s and 90s.

I'm not the Lange Loon, but I do acknowledge facts and reality.

[Quote] Demi Moore doesn't look like a movie star.

Get the fuck out of here.

This is the definition of a movie star:

"people fetishize"

R7 You are slightly off in the use of fetishize.

R107 Nor does Melissa McCarthy of Jennifer Hudson

Adam Driver

R98 I think there are less aesthetic issues with Jean’s face than there are with Reese and Aniston.

Aniston wouldn’t be a 1930’s glamour girl with that nose.

Demi Moore does not look like a traditional movie star. I think she's beautiful but not like i could plug her into everything. I noticed her career stalled when Julia Roberts was ascending. You can't plug a Demi Moore in. You can plug a young nubile ingenue into anything. Especially if the world just fell in love with her. And the world was in love with Julia Roberts for 10 years.

I think Demi would have fit right into the actresses of the 1940’s.

R112, Barbara Stanwyck was no beauty.

Demi and Julia were at their peak fame as movie stars at exactly the same time, the 1990s: Pretty Woman was released six months prior to Ghost.

Agree with r114: Demi would have been totally at home in the film noir of the 1940s.

I don't think I ever viewed Moore as an ingenue. She always registered as butch or best friend. She was not a princess Julia Roberts type Ever.

I feel like Julia would have been able to be a vaudeville or early silent film star with her looks.

Some of those old stars were kinda ugly. Eva Tanguay was absolutely hideous but she was really popular. I guess we have Miley Cyrus.

No actress inn 20 years looks quite like a movie star as Julia Roberts. Lawrence is a bit rough for plug in heroine.

Speaking of all this, when DID Hollywood stars have to meet harsh beauty criteria? Because a lot of vaudeville and silent film stars were kind of ugly now that I think about it.

Theda Bada was ugly too. Almost scary.

And then you’ve got Clara Bow and Louise Brooks who I would consider attractive.

Clara Bow's entire thing was personality. She was vivacious and sexy.

R121 Well I agree with that and I think Clara was pretty. She made sense being popular.

But someone like Theda Bara is scary looking and she was considered very sexy.

I think only a handful of actresses are box office stars like a Julia Roberts. They are all in the Golden Age. In the modern era not one comes close.

I think Charlize Theron would have been considered beautiful even in the past.

Owen Wilson

Being pretty is not enough. They needed some kind of moxie or sparkle.

Julia would be hideous in the old hair styles.

Julia Roberts would NOT have had the looks for Hollywood 30s to 50s. Even her her prime.

^Even in her prime.

Demi Moore in her prime could have fit right into the 1940s as a leading lady star.

Julia was gorgeous s a young star. You are full of shit.

Julia has old movie start beauty. Not Demi.

Amy Schumer

R90 Norma Sheridan?

Really?

Are you paid by this Lucille LeSueur harlot?

The actors of the so-called Golden Age of Hollywood were not actors, they were cartoon characters. No one spoke like that. Even Bette Davis admitted this.

Marie Dressler!

Sean Young could have been a film noir actress.

Sean Young, quite beautiful and also very good in comedy.

As a golden age actress (de Havilland? I'm not sure) once said, some actors would have been far better off under the old studio system. Sure, they're free to build their own careers nowadays, but perhaps they're ill-equipped to do so.

A beautiful woman like Sean Young, Sharon Stone, or Jessica Lange would have had an army of producers and especially, writers creating properties for them, to showcase their specific talents (comic, musical, pure eye candy, etc.) to best advantage. The actors would have succeeded, the films would have succeeded, and they would have built a loyal audience, as a result. That's how it worked for de Havilland and her peers.

Sure, whatever.

Sandra Bullock

R139, The studios also owned the movie theaters, so they had effective control of the distribution and exhibition of their own films. An untested starlet could be put in movie after movie, going from walk-on parts to supporting roles until she built up an audience willing to pay to see her headline a picture.

If only.

If those women had their same personalities, they would not succeed in the studio system. They all were unbankable, difficult and blamed others for their failures.

R142 That's how I started, and I ended up owning the studio

R30 R31

Dean may have only starred in three movies but he did a substantial amount of television work, which you probably haven’t even bothered to watch.

Bullshit. Chalamet could have been Roddy McDowell or any number of exotic star boys.

Julia Roberts huge mouth, low eyebrows, large nose and lopsided face would not have worked in Golden Age Hollywood.

R148 isn't she supposed to be the dame of the current crop? She does look good on a large screen. I don't know if its standard "old" Hollywood beauty but i do see the extra special there.

Just like Gene Tierney's overbite didn't work?

R149 She looks perfectly fine for the modern era. But that's not a 1930-to-1950s Hollywood face.

R150 Overbite or not, THIS is a Golden Age Hollywood face:

This is also a Golden Age Hollywood face.

Another Golden Age Hollywood face.

ZaSu Pitts!

I think Chalomet could have slotted into a juvenile (Monty Clift type) role in his twenties and then graduated into Robert Taylor stuff.

So many golden age stars shouldn't have made it either. While when I look back, they were all good looking, but compared to their contemporaries, not so much in some cases. Jean Arthur. Irene Dunne for example. Hard mouths. A dowdy vibe.

I find neither one attractive on film but I've seen candids of them when I'm like - who is that? And it's Jean Arthur or Irene Dunne. Their mouths messed them up on celluloid more than in person. Norma Shearer actually had a modeling contract before getting into films. There's such a huge gap sometimes between what is good looking vis a vis real life people and what is good looking vis a vis other stars. I've seen chorus line photos of a young Barbara Stanwyk where I'm like - wow, she's exceptionally pretty. It wasn't just her talent that got her attention. But then put her in Hwood and she needs the acting edge to stay afloat, whereas on Broadway her looks also gave her an edge. In Hwood her looks barely got her in the door.

Bette Davis. Come now. She was a successful Broadway ingenue and if she weren't considered good looking nobody would have signed her to a film contract. Sensational figure (petite, great rack, great waist, great legs, good proportions photogenitically). Huge eyes. Cheekbones. Jawline. Her nose was not as refined as many movie stars' and neither was her mouth. But when she was signed, she, Carole Lombard and Constance Bennet were considered interchangeable facially. Articles were done on it. She was smart and figured out early that the "actress" niche was where her best chance stood of becoming a star.

It's not very believable that this old drunk is incredulous at Bette Davis' good looks.

R153 The camera loved Davis and Stanwyck. You are confusing beauty with the physical requirements of that era. Davis and Stanwyck had big expressive faces that worked under the extreme closeups of the day. They could convey paragraphs of script with just the look in their eyes.

Two very wrong concepts in this thread. That Chalemet wouldn't have been accepted in old Hollywood because he's physically wrong, is just stupid. Secondly, that somehow the talent in old Hollywood was greater (or far worse) than what we have today, is just stupid too. Timothee Chalemet is very, very talented. And so was Anthony Perkins. And so was William Holden, who played the geeky teenager when he was starting out.

And Mickey Rooney was an eyesore!

Man Chalamet is not that talented. Please stop.

Please stop yourself.

Who are these people who keep saying that he is so hot? And why? An underfed, one-note actor.

They had faces then . . .

[quote]It's not very believable that this old drunk is incredulous at Bette Davis' good looks.

And yet when Bette Davis is in a scene she's the one we're observing. All eyes are on her, on every move and expression she makes.

R163, Indeed they did.

R164 Not when I'm on-screen with her.

Interesting perspective

[quote]Movie stars reflect their time. Audiences adopt them and decide who is a star.

This is not true r105

At a certain point in time it became Hollywood shoving people at the public, putting one or two actors in everything whether we liked them or not. Gosling was one of those actors, so was Bradley Cooper.

Hollywood became so low risk they just won't look for real talent in writing or acting.

r119 Roberts is all teeth and hair with beady eyes and no figure.

While hair was very important in the Golden Age, so was a more womanly figure and no one had big horse teeth.

Maggie Gyllenhaal in the silent picture days. Her looks just scream roaring 20's.

Interesting, R168. Not sure I completely agree, but you are correct re: Ryan Gosling.

The powers that be determined that he would be a leading man and worked strenuously to do so (including that whole "Hey girl," sexy meme from years ago that felt incredibly manufactured). The reality is that he is yet another critically praised actor who doesn't connect with wide audiences in any meaningful way. For every LA LA LAND, he's headlined some epic (and forgotten) bombs, like the BLADE RUNNER reboot and FIRST MAN.

I do find him (unconventionally) attractive and talented but I think most audiences don't care for him.

My parents were always comparing contemporary stars (Circa 1970s and ‘80s, Dustin Hoffman etc.) to Lana and Ava and even Linda Darnell and Yvonne DeCarlo and Arlene Dahl. Same with men: Ty Power and Guy Madison and Rock Hudson. Stars were scouted based on their looks, then groomed. No comparison to the modern system.

According to this source, the Ryan "Hey Girl" started with... a guy. (Back around 2010!)

Then JEZEBEL hopped on board. Big surprise.

I def think Ryan's people had a hand in it, regardless. It's been years since I've seen one of these.

R170, he looks scream UGLAY.

I would even add Jude Law to that list r171. I remember him coming out of nowhere then, being everywhere only to fizzle out because the public wasn't interested.

Some people won't want to admit it but Julia was also part of the "shoved in our faces" campaign to make us love her. Her first big movies were Mystic Pizza then Steel Magnolia's. Steel Magnolia's was a huge movie but not because of Julia, if some other girl had played that part it would not have diminished the movie but it gave the studio a reason to keep pushing her and was followed by even more popular Pretty Woman. Legit hits, she lived on that popularity for a long long long time. Because it was followed by :

Flatliners

Sleeping With The Enemy

Dying Young

Hook

The Pelican Brief

I Love Trouble

Ready To Wear

Something To Talk About

Mary Reilly

A string of just okay to meh to just plain bad.

She got a lot of chances and it looked like no effort by the studios to develop better talent. She's not trash but she not so good that she deserved to be the only game in town.

Butch Julia.

Never noticed that she can/could be somewhat androgynous. She looks like a young boy.

Was it Chris Rock who called out Jude Law for being so over-exposed in some many films, with most of them tanking at the box-office, when he hosted the Oscars? Mr. Law did not look amused, and I don't think the joke went over very well, even though it was rather true.

Mind you, I didn't mind Jude Law exposing himself, and he's actually a talented actor, but it's not like the public was demanding to see him star in films.

Chris Rock hosted the 2005 Oscarcast, and Jude Law had starred in five movies in 2004 - leading roles in I ❤ Huckabees, Alfie, Closer, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, and a supporting role in The Aviator - only the last was moderately successful, all the others bombed.

George Clooney had the looks for classic Hollywood. Daniel Craig could have been a bad guy in 1930s flicks.

R177, Minutes later, an obviously angry Sean Penn came on to present and put Chris Rock in his place with a few choice remarks.

Jimmy Cagney was a bad guy, except when he wasn't.

Chalamet = Sabu

R182, Jimmy Cagney was hardly a handsome man.

Kathleen Turner, back in the 1980s especially, looked like an old-style Hollywood goddess.

[Quote] Jimmy Cagney was hardly a handsome man.

Neither is Daniel Craig. Bogart wasn't handsome in his Hollywood years either.

1940s Timothee Chalamet would have been one of the background Bowery Boys. He would have been called "Lenny" or "Morrie."

Craig isn't traditionally handsome, but he is sexy and has a very fit bod, which he hasn't been afraid to expose on occasion. But yes, he'd be a bad guy in the studio system. Maybe a sexy bad guy, too.

Would Billy Zane be a leading man?

Daniel Craig is definitely handsome.

R189, I envision a studio trying to make Billy Zane a star in the 40s (he'd be billed as William Zane) but soon dropping to B pictures and eventually Z pictures in the 50s like Attack of the Monster Earthworms.

Our current actors of color probably wouldn't have fared well back then.

[Quote] Our current actors of color probably wouldn't have fared well back then.

I think Brad Pitt would do just fine.

R192 Penelope Cruz as a Lupe Valez type. Certainly Benicio Del Toro and Edward James Olmos in 1960s westerns.

R187 Maybe even “raghead”— but in a joshing way.

Daniel Craig is handsome.

I mean how did Spencer Tracy become a leading man? I guess because he was seldom a conventional romantic lead. He was opposite Loretta Young in "A Man's Castle" where he was borderline abusive. Then he was in "Libeled Lady" where he had none of the charm Gable would have brought to the part of the incorrigible newspaperman.

I see Tracy as a solid character man still can't figure out how he got leading man chops. Maybe he just got to be lead playing priests and stuff.

Brad Pitt would have done just fine in the 1950s onward, when it kind of shifted from men to boys in leads (although there were still classic leading men). Not so sure about the 1930s.

Tracy seemed to be more of a leading man with Hepburn. They have amazing onscreen chemistry.

I wonder if Jason Momoa could have played Jon Hall sort of roles - without the long hair, of course.

True R198 but their first film together was in 1942. He was one of MGM's major leading men throughout the thirties - the other two were Gable and William Powell. Obviously others but those were the top three.

Robert Montgomery was quite a big star at MGM during the 1930s too, though I think some of his acting style hasn't aged that well. Spencer Tracy won two consecutive Oscars in the late 30s, so he was up there too, along with character leading star Wallace Beery.

George Raft?

George Raft I believe was mainly at Warner Brothers, known for gangster films and Busby Berkeley musicals in the 1930s.

All post-2000 S.A.G. members, perhaps?

[quote]I see Tracy as a solid character man still can't figure out how he got leading man chops. Maybe he just got to be lead playing priests and stuff.

See r196 there's this thing called acting and some people are really really good at it and that makes people want to watch them no matter what they look like.

Watched Tracy in "Tortilla Flat" and he was pretty bad, terrible accent. Of course, his character was pretty hateful. The usually wonderful John Garfield was miscast. The best performances were Hedy Lamarr (surprisingly) and not surprisingly, but very differently than his usual roles, Frank Morgan. Oh, his dogs, including the one who played Toto in "Wizard of Oz" are pretty terrific too. The movie play pretty badly nowadays though.

I went on an MGM watching binge a year or so ago, on youtube, so came across some lesser known Tracys. And that's characteristic. A lot of times he was pretty hateful. Maybe he was supposed to be in Tortilla Flats (didn't see it) but he didn't have charm.

Spencer Tracy in "Fury" was unforgettable.

Ezra Miller or Adam Driver. The latter may have been successful in horror films but not as a leading man.

Ethan Hawke and Cillian Murphy - I don't see their faces in a Golden Age movie.

I could see Josh Hartnett in old westerns.

What about Keanu? Could he have made it in Old Hollywood? Maybe with a haircut.

Perhaps in Robert Taylor roles. He couldn't act too well either. Taylor doesn't seem so handsome like they all go on about him though.

I can see Josh Hartnett as a teen sidekick like Dan in "The Lone Ranger" but that's about it.

I could see Ezra Miller playing Laurence Harvey parts.

R213, Robert Taylor's looks faded dramatically. Being a three pack a day smoker didn't help.

Ethan Hawke looks EXACTLY like an old Hollywood movie star.

R170, her looks scream radio.

R172, I actually think your parents were corrects, around the 70s a lot of the major leading men were not particularly good looking: Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino, Gene Hachman, even De Niro isn’t typically handsome. I guess it was an exceptional moment in time, different from before and after (think of the 90s with the emergence of Boyish looking guys as Di Caprio, Pitt, Reeves).

Awkwafina