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The Museum of Modern Art is spring cleaning its archives for a special ode to Old Hollywood. The exhibit “Face Value: Celebrity Press Photography,” which will open June 28, 2025 and be on display through June 21, 2026, features the best studio shots of iconic stars such as Clara Bow, Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn, Barbara Stanwyck, Elizabeth Taylor, Harry Belafonte, and more.

This is the first major exhibition of Hollywood studio portraiture to be showcased from the Museum Department of Film’s film stills archive since 1993. “Face Value” will feature over 200 works from 1921 to 1996, with studio photography of Joan Crawford, Louis Armstrong, Carole Lombard, Louise Brooks, Mia Farrow, Dennis Hopper, Lena Horne, Buster Keaton, Anna May Wong, W. C. Fields, Hattie McDaniel, Lupe Velez, Mae West, Bela Lugosi, Carmen Miranda, Elvis Presley, Diana Ross, Spencer Tracy, and Oprah Winfrey, in addition to the aforementioned stars. Historical figures such as Jackie Robinson, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis,...

One of the best parts of "Frasier," the Kelsey Grammer-led sitcom that began in 1993, was Peri Gilpin's Roz Doyle. Unlike Frasier, Doyle was a completely new character disconnected from the show's parent series, "Cheers," so the writers had total freedom with what to do with her. They made her Frasier's sarcastic radio show producer, who slowly became one of his best friends.

Few fans have any complaints about Peri Gilpin's performance in the role, which makes it harder to imagine that Roz Doyle was originally supposed to be played by Lisa Kudrow instead. Kudrow was cast as Doyle but fired before she could film the pilot, an event the actress described as "devastating" in a recent interview on the Smartless podcast. She talked about how, during an early run-through of the pilot, the director James Burrows told Kudrow "This isn't working," and that was it.

Kudrow believed it...

Lisa Kudrow is obviously doing quite well right now, considering that she’s starring in the new Time Bandits show on Apple TV+ and presumably has a Scrooge McDuck-esque vault full of Friends royalty checks.

But there was a time when Kudrow was still a struggling young actor, and had to grapple with the pain of losing out on a role in one of the ‘90s most successful sitcoms that in no way involved singing about malodorous cats.

While guesting on the SmartLess podcast, Kudrow chatted about how she was hired, and promptly fired, from Frasier after being cast as Frasier’s sassy, relentlessly-shamed producer Roz Doyle. “It was devastating to get fired,” Kudrow revealed, recalling that she was told by director James Burrows “this isn’t working,” while performing the pilot’s run-through, and let go shortly afterwards.

“I think they did make a casting mistake,” the Friends star reasoned,...

Lisa Kudrow was fired from Frasier and replaced by Peri Gilpin after producers realized she wasn't right for the part during filming. Alex Borstein filmed the pilot of Gilmore Girls but had to exit the show due to contractual issues; she later returned to play different characters. John Posey initially played Danny Tanner in Full House but was fired when Bob Saget became available; Saget was the producers' original choice for the role.

Oftentimes, television show producers, writers, and directors cannot know if an actor is right for a part until they see them on set, acting out the episodes. Unfortunately, for most of these ten performers, the filmmakers didn't like what they saw, leading to actors getting fired and roles being recast. Numerous specific reasons led to the star losing their jobs, including a lack of chemistry with costars and the producers wanting to take the character in another direction.

The article contains a quote mentioning suicide.

Lisa Kudrow was initially cast as Roz Doyle in Frasier but was fired due to the pivotal Lupe Velez scene not working with her ethereal acting style. Kudrow's firing turned out for the best as she later auditioned for the role of Phoebe in Friends, which was a perfect fit for her. Peri Gilpin was perfect as Roz, as she was a fierce and feminine counterpart to Frasier, which made their dynamic interesting.

Frasier director James Burrows reveals which scene got Lisa Kudrow fired. Before joining Friends as the bubbly and eccentric Phoebe, the actor was previously up to be in the famed Cheers spin-off. Kudrow was meant to play Roz Doyle — Frasier's Kacl producer. The actor has talked about being booted out of the role, but she never got into the specifics of why she was removed from the Seattle-based sitcom.

Now,...

Liam Neeson in Marlowe Photo: Open Road Films The dark and violent world of Raymond Chandler’s durable hard-boiled private detective Philip Marlowe brings many descriptors to mind. Tough. Two-fisted. Cynical. “Elegant” comes far down that list. But a small elegance, expressed in decent production values, terse pacing and long lateral camera takes,...

By the time she was 21, actress Lupe Velez had worked with nearly all the top directors of the silent era, including D.W. Griffith (“Lady of the Pavements”), Lon Chaney (“Where East Is East”), and Cecil B. DeMille (“The Squaw Man”). Her first big break came from the King of Hollywood himself, Douglas Fairbanks, in 1927’s “The Gaucho.” She was star of an eight-film series at Rko Studios.

And yet, for most, the image they have of the classic screen star is a fake one, one not at all in line with her prodigious talents and incredible filmography.

In 1965, when “Hollywood Babylon” was published, author Kenneth Anger claimed that his tell-all would unpack the sleazy and sordid lives of numerous stars of the silent and early sound film era, with many of his tawdry tales involving sex, drugs, and death. In several instances, Anger included photos of dead celebrities, like infamous...

Gary Cooper is a fascinating figure. From the 1930s to the 1950s, he was one of the quintessential American actors. He had the good looks and authentic charm to play the everyman, working-class hero, but also slip into biographical roles contemporaries such as John Wayne or Jimmy Stewart couldn't or wouldn't pull off.

Related: 10 Most Memorable John Wayne Movies

Off-screen, Cooper had a wild love life, marrying Veronica Balfe and having romantic relationships with Ingrid Bergman, Patricia Neal, Lupe Velez and Clara Bow. He was an avowed conservative and deeply involved in politics; despite his beliefs, he defended communist and High Noon screenwriter Carl Foreman when Foreman was subpoenaed by Huac. That dichotomy is evident in many of Cooper's later films. Here are Cooper's 10 best films, according to IMDb.

on this day in history as it relates to the movies...

Dolores Del Río auditioning for Catwoman. No wait that's not right. Dolores Del Rio in Journey Into Fear (1943)1885 Carlo Montuori, famed cinematographer of Italian neorealism is born. He went on to lens the essential Bicycle Thief (1948)

1904 Dolores del Río, one of the first three Mexican actors to become movie stars in Hollywood (the others being her cousin Ramon Novarro and Lupe Vélez - they all started in silent films and moved into talkies), after which she used her fame and beauty as part of Mexican cinema's Golden Age with the occasional Hollywood film thrown in. Credits include: Bird of Paradise (1932), Flying Down To Rio (1933), Journey Into Fear (1943), Cheyenne Autumn (1964) and multiple Best Actress winning films in Mexico:  Las Abandonadas (1944), El Niño y la Niebla (1953), and Doña Perfecta (1951).

1906 Alexandre Trauner, Oscar winning production designer. His credits include The Nun's Story...

Attention classic movie freaks – Set your DVR for this Monday!!!!

Tod Browning (1880-1962) was a pioneering director who helped establish the horror film genre. Born in Louisville Kentucky, Browning ran away to join the circus at an early age which influenced his later career in Hollywood and echoes of those years can be found in many of his films. Though best known as the director of the first sound version of Dracula starring Bela Lugosi in 1931, Browning made his mark on cinema in the silent era with his extraordinary 10-film collaboration with actor Lon Chaney, the ‘Man of a Thousand Faces’. Despite the success of Dracula, and the boost it gave his career, Browning’s chief interest continued to lie not in films dealing with the supernatural but in films that dealt with the grotesque and strange, earning him the reputation as “the Edgar Allan Poe of the cinema”. Browning...

Virginia Bruce: MGM actress ca. 1935. Virginia Bruce movies on TCM: Actress was the cherry on 'The Great Ziegfeld' wedding cake Unfortunately, Turner Classic Movies has chosen not to feature any non-Hollywood stars – or any out-and-out silent film stars – in its 2015 “Summer Under the Stars” series.* On the other hand, TCM has come up with several unusual inclusions, e.g., Lee J. Cobb, Warren Oates, Mae Clarke, and today, Aug. 25, Virginia Bruce. A second-rank MGM leading lady in the 1930s, the Minneapolis-born Virginia Bruce is little remembered today despite her more than 70 feature films in a career that spanned two decades, from the dawn of the talkie era to the dawn of the TV era, in addition to a handful of comebacks going all the way to 1981 – the dawn of the personal computer era. Career highlights were few and not all that bright. Examples range from playing the...

The superheroes started the Summer with a bang (and a pow and lotsa’ crashes) last Friday, so it’s now time for what is turning out to be another warm weather cinema staple: the female-driven, often raunchy comedy, which can probably be traced back to the surprise smash of 2011, Bridesmaids. Its breakout star, Melissa McCarthy, then became the unofficial queen of Summer R-rated gagfests with The Heat and Tammy. So, is this the 2015 model Mm comedy? Nope, we’ve got a few weeks to go before she reteams with director Paul Feig for Spy (also to premiere shortly is the feature film debut of cable TV firebrand Amy Schumer). This is an attempted funny flick that riffs on one of her previous hits. It’s an action-cop-buddy-comedy which pairs an Oscar-winning actress (like Sandra Bullock in The Heat) with funny lady mostly known for her broadcast TV work (Melissa still...

Los Angeles -- For a city that has argued for decades over what its official song ought to be, Los Angeles has never lacked for serious contenders.

Anyone who has spent time here knows the city already has at least one unofficial tune: Randy Newman's "I Love La" is played after every home game the Los Angeles Lakers or Dodgers win.

But have you heard Bing Crosby warble about how he once planned to "settle down and nevermore roam, and make the San Fernando Valley my home?" Or songwriter George G.W. Morgan's tuneful boast in 1876 that if you really wanted great wine, forget the fancy European stuff, just open a bottle of La's best and drink up.

Crosby's "San Fernando Valley," a hit in 1943, and Morgan's "The Wines of Los Angeles County" are just two of nearly 200 songs that promote, mystify, glamorize and, let's be honest, often exaggerate...

All About Meat (The Garcias)

Written and Directed by Michelangelo Alasá Duo Multicultural Arts Center

Through December 15, 2012

All About Meat (The Garcias) is by turns hilarious, over-the-top irreverent, grotesque, and exasperating -- and it has uniformly fine performances by a relentlessly spirited cast. Writer/director/player Michelangelo Alasá might be said to be attempting to meld the style of Pedro Almodovar with that of John Waters (with a good helping of vaudeville slapstick). First and foremost, this is a sex comedy about a family of Cuban origin, the wealthy Garcias, whose chorizo factory in New Jersey is the largest in the world.

At the pork-sausage-making family's helm is matriarch Dolores, who is dramatic, emotional, knifing, and manipulative, and whose thick Spanish accent seems at times to require subtitles when she is emoting (and she hardly ceases her emoting).

In fact, just about all the action of the play prompts Dolores to "emote.

Silent film star Lupe Velez was one of the first Mexican actresses to succeed in Hollywood. Beautiful and exotic, she starred in a long string of moving pictures alongside leading men like Douglas Fairbanks and Gary Cooper. Unfortunately, her legacy has become overshadowed by her legendary death, a dramatic suicide that allegedly ended with her drowning in a toilet.

But a new biopic could make her more than another Tinseltown tragedy. According to Variety, actress Ana de la Reguera (Cowboys and Aliens, Nacho Libre) will produce and star as Velez in the tentatively titled Lupe. The film will chronicle the starlet’s “tumultuous yet incredible life and career”, from her fiery reputation to her off-screen relationships with men such as Cooper and Johnny Weissmuller.

It was also reported that director Carlos Carrera (The Crime of Father Amaro) will write the treatment and helm the project, which will be a co-production between the U.

William Wyler was one of the greatest film directors Hollywood — or any other film industry — has ever produced. Today, Wyler lacks the following of Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, Frank Capra, or even Howard Hawks most likely because, unlike Hitchcock, Ford, or Capra (and to a lesser extent Hawks), Wyler never focused on a particular genre, while his films were hardly as male-centered as those of the aforementioned four directors. Dumb but true: Films about women and their issues tend to be perceived as inferior to those about men — especially tough men — and their issues. The German-born Wyler (1902, in Alsace, now part of France) immigrated to the United States in his late teens. Following a stint at Universal's New York office, he moved to Hollywood and by the mid-'20s was directing Western shorts. His ascent was quick; by 1929 Wyler was directing Universal's top female star, Laura La Plante in the...

Lon Chaney on TCM: He Who Gets Slapped, The Unknown, Mr. Wu Get ready for more extreme perversity in West of Zanzibar (1928), as Chaney abuses both Warner Baxter and Mary Nolan, while the great-looking Mr. Wu (1927) offers Chaney as a Chinese creep about to destroy the life of lovely Renée Adorée — one of the best and prettiest actresses of the 1920s. Adorée — who was just as effective in her few early talkies — died of tuberculosis in 1933. Also worth mentioning, the great John Arnold was Mr. Wu's cinematographer. I'm no fan of Laugh, Clown, Laugh (1928), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923), or The Phantom of the Opera (1925), but Chaney's work in them — especially in Hunchback — is quite remarkable. I mean, his performances aren't necessarily great, but they're certainly unforgettable. Chaney's leading ladies — all of whom are in love with younger, better-looking men — are Loretta Young (Laugh, Clown, Laugh), Patsy Ruth Miller...

The St. Louis Globe-Democrat is a monthly newspaper run by Steve DeBellis, a well know St. Louis historian, and it’s the largest one-man newspaper in the world. The concept of The Globe is that there is an old historic headline, then all the articles in that issue are written as though it’s the year that the headline is from. It’s an unusual concept but the paper is now in its 25th successful year! Steve and I collaborated recently on an all-Vincent Price issue of The Globe and he has asked me to write a regular monthly movie-related column. Since there is no on-line version of The Globe, I will be posting all of my articles here at We Are Movie Geeks. This month’s St. Louis Globe-Democrat is written as if it’s 1946.

Motion picture audiences may be curious who this odd-looking new horror star by...

Are you celebrating Mexico today?

Happy Cinco De Mayo!

I'm eating tacos for dinner because it's the least I can do. And I'm also perusing amazing photos of Mexican film stars of yore like the deliriously sexy Lupe Vélez and one star of the right now... Señor Bernal of course. Also deliriously sexy. Especially in closeups.

So I thought we'd drool on six of the earliest crossover sensations tonight with a few films of note (for one reason or another) for each of their careers. If you'd like to investigate further, click on the links. Enjoy!

Lupe Vélez The Gaucho, 1927 | Hot Pepper, 1933 | The Girl From Mexico, 1939

Ramon Novarro Scaramouche 1923 | Ben-Hur 1925 | The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg, 1927

These silent stars had volatile lives and careers, both ending with tragic deaths. Vélez career was a series of ups and downs and some say she was bipolar. She had several movie star affairs...

Introducing the opening night film of the 14th edition of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, Jeffrey Vance—author of Douglas Fairbanks (University of California Press, 2008)—offered: “Judging by this enormous turnout tonight, I’m inclined to think that talking films are just a passing fad.”

One of the great pleasures of Douglas Fairbanks’ career, Vance specified, were the action-adventure films of the 1920s; one of his finest being The Gaucho. “It’s also one of the most unusual of his features,” Vance qualified. “It’s dark in tone and it leaps frequently from comedy to tragedy to self-parody. Like the other great Fairbanks films, it has spectacular opportunities for him to showcase his wonderful athletic prowess and it also contains superb production values.” Characterizing The Gaucho as “a near masterwork”, Vance claimed it’s a pity that the film is rarely revived because—of all of Fairbanks’ films—it...