Lee Van Cleef, for whom without westerns would not have anywhere near their notoriety they do today, was but a humble accountant. What I like about Lee is that he was an accountant first, and an actor second. Unlike the modern day "actors" who study theater and major in theater, which belies their ulterior motives and arrogance (read - "I don't want a real job, I want to be a superstar"), Lee was just a regular guy who took acting as essentially a hobby. He was a real man who had a real job and supported himself and his wife.
Sadly, today, Hollywood has no such real people-come-actors in their ranks;
I wouldn't say that Hollywood is entirely lacking in such people. Christopher Lee was a commando in WW2. Harrison Ford is a pilot who assists the local search and rescue team with his own helicopter. Pretty manly "real people" jobs if you ask me.
ReplyDeleteA lot of conservative film buffs have noticed that the early "BIG STAHS!" came from the middle class, and even when they started coming in as trained elites, the rest of the crew in hollywood used to be staunchly middle class so they were tuned into what the audience wanted.
ReplyDeleteBruckheimer does that best today, though he's given up on ever hiring decent dialogue guys.
I think Ford truly doesn't give a shit anymore, which is why he'll go for the boring indie-cred type movie as much as the boring pop movie.
Brando also had that disdain for the celebrity culture, he never thought much about acting as a profession. Probably because his dad shit constantly on him through his childhood and Brando knew his career choice would have never satisfied him.
Cleef was forever indebted to Sergio Leone, because Leone liked to hire "interesting faces" in his films and he had remembered Cleef from High Noon. Leone showed up at Cleef's motel room one day with a suitcase full of money and that was that.