Part one When her name was mentioned, every filmmaker of the last century froze in awe: her acting is considered groundbreaking for an entire generation …
Carole Lombard & Clark Gable: Love Beyond Death
“Will Carole Lombard’s marriage end her career?” read the headline of one of the most important U.S. film magazines in July 1939. For society at …
Carole Lombard: Between Screwball and Drama
“Carole, don’t take that plane,” Elizabeth Peters, Lombard’s mother, reportedly said to her daughter shortly before the fateful TWA Flight 3. Lombard decided by coin …
Walter Matthau: “I don’t look like an actor.”
The actor duo Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon went down in Hollywood history as one of the most legendary duos: critics even compared the duo …
Noël Coward: Dancing on the Edge of the Volcano
Noël Coward grew up at a time when British theater culture was experiencing its first ever upswing: in 1895, four years before Coward’s birth, Queen …
James Mason: The Classic Movie Actor (2.)
Continued from part one Although James Mason enjoyed some success in British cinemas in the mid-forties, he was anything but fond of the British film …
James Mason From Architect to Actor (1.)
When young James Mason began studying classical philology, who would have expected that he would one day become one of the most accomplished British character …
Louis de Funès: A Comedian on his Way to the Cinema (2.)
Continued from part one The comedian had a hard time leaving the theater stage behind: The theater had one great advantage. At every performance, a …
Louis de Funès: A Comedian is Born (1.)
He began his career not as an actor but as a pianist in various Parisian establishments: originally, de Funès was descended from Spanish immigrants who …
Alfred Hitchcock: Master of the Cinema
He went down in film history as the “master of suspense”: building suspense in a film that keeps the viewer glued to the cinema seat …