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John Wayne was not, to put it mildly, a precious actor. According to Scott Eyre's biography "John Wayne: The Life and Legend," Howard Hawks once said, "Wayne never read a script that I had. He'd say, 'What am I supposed to do in this?'... He'd never learn lines before I talked to him, because he said that threw him off. He could memorize two pages of dialogue in three or four minutes, and then he just goes and does it."

So, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the introspective process of method acting exemplified by new breed stars like Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, and Julie Harris irritated a straightforward star like Wayne. Aside from the skills he'd cultivated through study and repetition, he wasn't big on interiority. With very few exceptions, he took on roles that showcased his rugged,...

Jane Morgan, the elegant American singer who dazzled audiences in Paris nightclubs, on just about every TV variety show of her era and at the Oscars and had a hit record with the lovely standard “Fascination,” has died. She was 101.

Morgan was in hospice care and died Monday in her sleep of natural causes in Naples, Florida, her family announced.

A classy performer known for her silky smooth phrasing, Morgan moved from New York to France in the late 1940s to build her career before returning the U.S. and becoming a very popular singer through the mid-1960s.

She recorded about 40 albums around the world and sang in five languages, making her a true international star.

Morgan appeared dozens of times on The Ed Sullivan Show and was a welcomed recurring guest on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show, Perry Como’s Kraft Music Hall and The Hollywood Palace and...

This article contains spoilers for "Eddington."

Although he's only four films deep into his career, filmmaker Ari Aster has already gained a notorious reputation for the way his work includes a heaping helping of ambiguity. From the mysteries surrounding the Graham family's past in "Hereditary" to the question of what (if anything) is real in "Beau Is Afraid," Aster's movies leave a lot of aspects unexplained by their conclusion. His latest film, "Eddington," is no different in this department. Even though it's set in a more recognizably grounded world than his prior films, it's not for lack of any paranoia-inducing (or paranoia-induced) elements. Aster's earlier films follow a protagonist as they are inexorably drawn into an increasingly hostile and surreal world, and the biggest difference with "Eddington" is that this surreal world just happens to closely resemble our reality from the year 2020 and beyond.

Despite deliberately playing with this political and sociological fire,...

There's nothing better than a good romcom. It's a genre that took root pretty much as soon as movies could talk, and, for all its accused repetitiveness, has been going strong ever since, always finding fresh new ways to assert its worth.

In the past century of film history, we've seen great romantic comedies ranging from the sweet to the wild to the darkly hilarious to the slyly subversive; the only thing that hasn't changed is the enduring appeal of watching charismatic stars flirt, trade barbs, field misunderstandings, and ultimately fall — or not — into each other's arms.

To create this ranking of the best romantic comedies ever, we've looked over the genre's entire chronology, and carefully plucked classics from all eras. Every single one of these films is essential viewing, to be clear; there's no going wrong here if you're looking for recs.

Read more: The 10 Best Movies Of All Time,...

Al Pacino is known as one of the all-time greats in Hollywood, with legendary roles in films like The Godfather, Scarface, and Dog Day Afternoon. He’s been part of some of the most important movies in American cinema. So, when someone like him gives their opinion on acting, people tend to listen.

While many fans and critics would say Pacino himself is one of the best to ever do it, the actor has his own list of favorites. In an interview with Playboy back in 1979, Pacino talked about the actors he looked up to the most. He mentioned names like Gary Cooper, Charles Laughton, Jack Nicholson, Robert Mitchum, and Lee Marvin. About Cooper, Pacino said, “Gary Cooper was kind of a phenomenon… his ability to take something and elevate it, give it such dignity. One of the great presences.”

But when he was asked who he believed was the best actor in America,...

Al Pacino has played some of the most iconic roles in American film history. From The Godfather to Scarface and Dog Day Afternoon, his name is carved into the foundation of modern Hollywood. But while many people see Pacino himself as one of the greatest actors of all time, he once pointed to someone else when asked who truly deserves that title.

In an interview with Playboy back in 1979, Pacino shared his thoughts on the actors he admires most. He mentioned names like Gary Cooper, Charles Laughton, Jack Nicholson, Lee Marvin, and Robert Mitchum. He praised Cooper in particular for his quiet strength, saying, “Gary Cooper was kind of a phenomenon… his ability to take something and elevate it, give it such dignity. One of the great presences.”

But when the question came up about who he believed was the best American actor, Pacino didn’t name Brando, Nicholson, or De Niro.

In the early days of Hollywood, Westerns dominated the box office. Shootouts and horse chases were exciting to watch and easy to understand without dialogue during the silent movie era. Audiences were drawn to stories of brave cowboys and mustache-twirling villains because, in times like the Great Depression when hope was hard to find, they could escape into uplifting tales of a hero winning the day. Then, after World War II, in the 1950s, the U.S. emerged as a mighty force to be reckoned with. We had conquered the frontier and helped defeat the Nazis. As such, Westerns became more popular than ever because they reflected our national identity, which was built on a clear good versus evil narrative.

However, the Western genre took a different path when Americans no longer felt that swell of pride in their country. While there are some exceptions, in the 1960s and 1970s...

After "Gunsmoke" paved the way for adult westerns on television, the floodgates opened up with every network trying to ride the success wave with oaters of their own like "Rawhide," "Bonanza," and "Wagon Train." Chief among them was "The Virginian," which holds the honor of being the third longest-running network western of all time. The NBC series ran for nine seasons and 249 episodes from 1962 to 1971. The distinction it holds over most of its cowboy television counterparts is that it was the first 90-minute Western series, with episodes running for 75 minutes plus commercials.

Loosely based on Owen Wister's 1902 novel "The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains," "The Virginian" had been adapted four times into feature films, with the version starring Gary Cooper considered among his best movies. Almost three decades later, James Drury performed a test drive for the character in a 1958 episode of the half-hour anthology series "Decision." Considerable...

While Scream is regarded as Drew Barrymore’s first slasher movie, there should be some consideration for Far from Home as well. This largely unremembered blip in Barrymore’s acting career has the looks of a mere coming-of-age drama; the posters and promo photos alone sell it as such. However, upon actually watching this obscurity from 1989, signs of genre eventually show. In particular when Barrymore’s character becomes the center of a killing spree and the unseen assailant is closer than she realizes.

After Burning Man and gypsum mining, Far from Home is perhaps the most notable thing about Gerlach, Nevada. Technically, it wasn’t the first movie to be shot there; the Gary Cooper-starring western The Winning of Barbara Worth was partly filmed in Gerlach. Yet at the time, Far from Home was a big deal for the town. Not only was the girl from E.T. now staying there,...

The world of sports is often filled with stories that will either inspire you or bring a few tears to your eyes. What better way to support this claim than by talking about Lou Gehrig, the baseball legend, who had a movie made about his life. The movie in question is The Pride of the Yankees, starring Gary Cooper as the sportsman, along with his Yankee teammates, Babe Ruth, Bob Meusel, and others.

Lou Gehrig began his New York Yankees journey in 1923 and quickly became one of the most respected players in the game. One of the 19 players to hit four home runs in a single game, he had many feats to his name. Unfortunately, it was all short-lived as he passed away in 1941 after being diagnosed with Als.

Lou Gehrig – the true pride of the New York Yankees Baseball player, Lou Gehrig | Credits: Image by – Pacific & Atlantic Photos, Inc,...

In Sam Wood's Oscar darling "The Pride of the Yankees," Hollywood's golden retriever, Gary Cooper, plays Lou Gehrig, a famous first baseman for the New York Yankees from 1923 to 1939. Gehrig was considered one of the more powerful hitters of his generation, earning him the on-field nickname of The Iron Horse. Tragically, Gehrig's baseball career began to suffer in the late '30s because of a strange, undiagnosed illness. It would later be revealed to be amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Als ended up taking his life in 1941, and it is still known colloquially in the United States as Lou Gehrig's Disease. 

"The Pride of the Yankees" follows Gehrig's life from his days at Columbia University through his retirement from the Yankees in 1939. It traces his rise to baseball fame, taking a job for the New York Yankees, a job he keeps secret from his ailing mother; she would prefer he be an engineer.

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Clint Eastwood began his career playing bit parts in monster movies, at least two of them for director Jack Arnold. He played an amusing lab technician in the "Creature from the Black Lagoon" sequel "Revenge of the Creature" in 1955, and he was a masked pilot in Arnold's "Tarantula" the same year. He was in comedy films, war pictures, and globe-trotting adventures, establishing his career and proving his versatility. He also worked, very briefly, for Universal TV, and had bit parts in a few hit shows of the mid-'50s.

It wouldn't be until 1959, when he landed the role of Rowdy Yates in the hit series "Rawhide," that he would become associated with Westerns. While "Rawhide" was in its penultimate seventh season in 1965, Eastwood was cast by Sergio Leone in his Italian Western "A Fistful of Dollars," which would go...

Ridley Scott is known for being the visionary behind science fiction franchises like Alien and Blade Runner, but the director is ready to explore some new genres. He opened up about a particularly interesting project he's excited to do in the future: a Western.

Speaking with Collider, Scott teased a Western film script that he secured the rights to recently, expressing his excitement to work on it when the time is right. "I have a Western, which is the best Western I’ve ever read. It was on a shelf of an author who had died. It’s from his estate. We tracked it. I bought the script, so I own it, and the moment will come to make it," he shared.

He also talked about having patience when it comes to his storytelling, saying, "If they're good enough, and you know it’s not the moment because everyone’s afraid of it,...

A scene from The Prosecutor. Courtesy of Well Go USA Entertainment

I’ve previously described Donnie Yen as a Chinese Gary Cooper, projecting a calm, unshakable integrity that endures in the midst of chaos. His outings as Ip Man, and more recently as John’s blind, but still lethal, frenemy in John Wick 4 make the point solidly. In The Prosecutor, Yen stars as a tough cop who grows frustrated with a legal system that lets too many violent perps elude the consequences of their crimes, despite all the cops endure to get them arrested and indicted. After a particularly aggravating enforcement failure, he quits the force and spends seven years in school to qualify for joining the ranks of the eponymous part of the system.

The premise cuts down on the usual amount of action in Yen’s movies, but still leaves room for a few particularly gratifying fight sequences.

Before all the modern day movie stars that fans obsess over on a daily basis, there was Gary Cooper. Tall, handsome, and with an (*ahem*) reputation in Hollywood for romancing starlets, he dominated the silver screen for decades. Cooper got his start during the silent era, when he made a name for himself as a romantic lead, before being one of the lucky male stars to transition successfully into talkies. Beginning in the 1930s, he hopped from genre to genre, starring in action adventure pictures and Westerns as well as showcasing a natural affinity for comedy.

During his time in Hollywood, he was nominated for five Academy Awards and took home two, in addition to earning an Academy Honorary Award just weeks before he died from cancer in 1961. His work as an actor was impressive, but his reputation and legacy are larger-than-life. There were rumors of romances between him and...

When it comes to ranking the best Western movie actors, Paul Newman rarely troubles the likes of John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, and Gary Cooper at the top of all-time lists. Sure,  one of his most beloved movies was starring alongside Robert Redford in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," but arguably his most iconic roles were brooding outsiders like Eddie Felson in "The Hustler" and Luke Jackson in "Cool Hand Luke." Even so, Newman starred in his fair share of Westerns over the course of his career, putting in big performances for Arthur Penn in "The Left-Handed Gun," John Huston in "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean," and Robert Altman in "Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson." He also made two of the greatest Westerns ever with one particularly underrated director, Martin Ritt.

Ritt is arguably one of the most unsung Hollywood filmmakers, working...

It is difficult to think of a movie star who did more to dictate the course of motion pictures in the United States during the 20th century than John Wayne. The Iowa native, who owes his acting career to John Ford and Tom Mix doing legendary USC football coach Howard Jones a minor favor, slugged it out as a contract player throughout the 1930s until, at tail end of the decade, he twirl-cocked a Winchester rifle as the Ringo Kid in "Stagecoach." That moment, that movie, changed the Western forever. Before Ford's masterpiece, the genre was basically pulp cinema; after it became a massive hit, Westerns acquired the power of myth.

Wayne firmly believed Westerns existed to tell tales about the pursuit of America's manifest destiny. Wayne was so serious about this that, late in his career, when Clint Eastwood approached him about co-starring in a Western together, he...

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Billy Wilder is in contention for the best-director screenwriter to ever come out of Hollywood. That's not to say that every film he made sprung only from his own head -- for all the original screenplays Wilder filmed, from "Sunset Boulevard" to "Ace in the Hole," he adapted a fair few of other writers' stories as well. Wilder adapted crime novelist James M. Cain's "Double Indemnity" (itself based on a real-life murder) in 1944, and then Cain's "The Postman Always Rings Twice" in 1946. One of Wilder's later movies was 1970's "The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes" (co-written with regular collaborator I. A. L. Diamond). But years before turning his attention to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Wilder adapted a different icon of the British mystery novel, Agatha Christie, when he brought her work to the silver screen in 1957's "Witness for the Prosecution.

Warning: There will be spoilers for "Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld".

The second half of "Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld" concerns itself with the origins of Cad Bane, the Duros bounty hunter who became one of the most ruthless and notorious guns for hire in that galaxy far, far away.

In the first installment we see him and his friend Niro scratching out a living on the street. Orphaned before they could remember their parents, Cad (then going by the name Colby) and Niro would pull small con jobs and steal food where they could. This drew the attention of a gangster who thought the kids might be useful, and he immediately put them to work as a distraction while he pulled off a mafia-style hit. In fact, the first episode of Cad Bane's arc has all the feeling of the Robert DeNiro scenes in "The Godfather Part II."

Unfortunately,...

Gary Cooper was a two-time Oscar winner who starred in dozens of movies before his death in 1961, but how many of those titles remain classics? Let's take a look back at 15 of his greatest films, ranked worst to best.

Born in 1901, Cooper got his start in silent movies, most notably the aerial drama "Wings" (1927), which won the very first Academy Award as Best Picture. He would collect his own statuette as Best Actor for another WWI film: the biographical drama "Sergeant York" (1941). Directed by Howard Hawks, it helped create Cooper's screen persona of an ordinary man capable of extraordinary courage in the face of adversity.

He won a second Best Actor trophy for playing a similar character in Fred Zinnemann's western "High Noon" (1952), which cast him as a retired marshal who must stand up to a gang of killers arriving on the noon train. Cooper earned additional nominations for similarly idealistic,...

Gary Cooper is now the pride of the Southampton Playhouse. The iconic actor, whose career spanned roles in “The Pride of the Yankees,” “Ball of Fire,” and “High Noon,” will now posthumously receive the honor of having an annual film festival in his name.

IndieWire can announce that the recently reopened Southampton Playhouse will have its inaugural Gary Cooper Festival from May 9 to May 11. The first annual Gary Cooper Festival takes place on the actor’s birthday week, celebrating Cooper’s history in Southampton. The late two-time Academy Award-winning actor rests at Southampton Cemetery since his death in 1961.

“Cooper’s filmography provides a template not only for first-rate screen acting, but the enduring power of the movies themselves,” Southampton Playhouse Artistic Director (and former IndieWire editor) Eric Kohn said. “Cinema is a portal to learn more about the world around us, and Gary Cooper’s rich filmography will provide us...

Technically, there were two Best Picture winners at the first Oscars ceremony. The event was held on May 16, 1929, in the Blossom Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, and it only took 15 minutes to hand out all the awards. This was because, unlike modern-day Oscars telecasts, the winners had already been announced a few months before; the ceremony was only held as a way to provide a "prom" for the winners (one in which Douglas Fairbanks handed them their statuettes).

The two Best Picture categories were divided by "vibe." One category was called Outstanding Picture, while the other was called Best Unique and Artistic Picture. William Wellman's war epic "Wings" took home the former, with F.W. Murnau's "Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans" winning the latter. There were also two Best Director categories that year, with Best Directing (Comedy Picture) going to Lewis Milestone for his film "Two Arabian...

At the outset of the 1960s, the United States felt poised for its greatest decade yet or armageddon. The Soviet Union's launch of the Earth satellite Sputnik in 1957 had placed many Americans on edge. How had the Russkies beaten the most prosperous country on the planet into space, and what were our leaders doing to counteract this disaster? This led to one of the most contentious and closest Presidential elections in U.S. history, which found Democrat John F. Kennedy narrowly prevailing over Republican Richard M. Nixon. Many were hopeful that the country was in the right, aspirational hands; almost just as many were convinced we'd consigned the country to certain doom.

In times like these, people used to go to their local movie theater to escape the fresh hell of the outside world. They'd line for any entertainment that promised some kind of catharsis. Romances, comedies, romantic comedies, horror flicks,...

Sometimes it takes ages for an actor to finally get their due -- they spend years grinding until they're considered to have waited long enough to earn themselves an Oscar (often for a bewilderingly subpar film that's far from their best work). But every once in a while, they end up knocking it out of the park and bowling over the Academy so thoroughly that they win an Oscar for their first feature film. 

You see it more often with women, for whom writing -- until relatively recently -- tended to be stronger in younger roles and in supporting performances, but these first-time Oscars crop up for all different types of characters. And unfortunately, winning an Oscar for your first movie can be as much of a curse as it is a blessing -- after all, how can you possibly top that? Here are each and every actor who earned...

Television westerns used to skew towards a younger demographic with kid-friendly cowboys like Roy Rogers and Hopalong Cassidy dominating that frontier, but everything changed in 1955. Only a few days after "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp" premiered on ABC, it was CBS that truly changed the landscape in the form of the western drama "Gunsmoke" (via MeTV). The series was a risky gamble with the network but proved to be one of its greatest success stories, running for a then-unprecedented 635 episode run across 20 seasons.

For over two decades, "The Thing from Another World" star James Arness made a name for himself as Marshal Matt Dillion, the protector of Dodge City. The role would go on to become the touchstone of his career, but it's easy to forget that there was initially some resistance on account of the popularity of the show's auditory predecessor.

About three years earlier, "Gunsmoke" had...

When you think of old-fashioned movie stars, few people are more apt to come to mind than Gary Cooper. Cooper was the embodiment of his name: a solid, straightforward presence who captured audience attention for decades. His career spanned from 1925 to 1961, and his legacy lives on more than sixty years later through his roles in classics like "The Pride of the Yankees," "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town," and other Old Hollywood titles. Though he passed in 1961, Cooper's legend is such that he's never really left our minds, even as an avatar of old-fashioned masculinity without seeming a bit outsized or exaggerated. Cooper was a quintessentially American star, having won two Best Actor Oscars during his life as well. One of those Oscars was for the early-1940s title "Sergeant York," but it's the other film he won for that we'll discuss today.

As many classics as Cooper has, just one...

Between 1939 and 1964, John Wayne was the face of the Hollywood Western. There were major stars who thrived within the genre at the same time, but they were too artistically ambitious to keep making the same kinds of movies over and over again. Wayne didn't mind playing outright bastards (see "Red River" or "The Searchers"), but he never would've played a disturbingly obsessed protagonist like Scottie Ferguson in "Vertigo," nor would he have allowed himself to be putty in the hands of Barbara Stanwyck in "The Lady Eve" or "Ball of Fire" (though she did make quick work of a pre-stardom Duke in "Baby Face"). When Wayne wanted to stretch, he made a war movie. And on the off-chance he did step outside of his comfort zone, he paid for it (possibly in more ways than one with "The Conqueror").

Basically, for two decades and change, when people thought of Westerns,...

As they get more expensive, widely seen and complicatedly filmed, movie milestones are getting hit all the time. Usually, they’re the movies you’d expect: the blockbusters that sweep all the awards and land on top 10 lists for years to come. Sometimes, though, a little nothing movie can show up, make history and leave before anyone notices.

5 Rock & Rule

1983’s Rock & Rule was notable for two things: 1) somehow snagging voice talents like Lou Reed, Iggy Pop and Debbie Harry; and 2) having suspiciously good animation for a low-budget Canadian cartoon. In fact, the tale of nuclear rat-like creatures using rock music to summon the forces of evil was the first animated movie to use CGI. Unfortunately, none of that helped it to recoup even a fraction of its budget at the box office.

4 Able Edwards

By 2004, we had an entire Lord of the Rings series, so it’s...

There are many things to revere about the phenomenon that changed television forever, The Sopranos. It is one of the most memorable shows in history for so many reasons. Whether it's characters like Tony Soprano, Paulie Walnuts or Silvio Dante, the clothes, the cultural accuracy or the shocking moments, The Sopranos will remain a talking point until the end of time. While some elements of the show are more iconic than others, the myriad of quotes and one-liners continue to stand out most.

In social situations, fans will quote some of their favorite lines from The Sopranos, but they're usually some of the more well-known sayings, like "Whatever happened to Gary Cooper" or "You're only as good as your last envelope." However, diehard fans will recall some of the more unique quotes like "Fear knocked on the door, faith answered, there was no one there." Each one-liner is as equally distinct as the next,...

Best Actor Oscar Winners List (Photo Credit – Instagram/Wikipedia)

The Academy Awards have long vaunted acting titans, and a rare few male actors have commandeered the Best Actor statuette more than once, with Daniel Day-Lewis scaling the peak thrice. From living legends like Tom Hanks to recent winners such as Adrien Brody, 10 men are trailing Day-Lewis’ record. Here is every name with two or more wins in this hallowed category.

1. Daniel Day-Lewis

Sir Daniel Day-Lewis stands alone with three Best Actor Oscars, a feat no other man has matched. His wins were facilitated thanks to dramatic transformations for My Left Foot, There Will Be Blood, and Lincoln—roles that exhibit him as an unforgettable chameleon. The Irish actor has retired since 2017’s Phantom Thread, but his five nominations out of fewer than a couple dozen movies certainly make us wonder whether Day-Lewis could come back for that gold once again...

Adrien Brody has won his second Oscar for best actor, for his role in Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist.”

He beat out Timothée Chalamet (“A Complete Unknown”), Colman Domingo (“Sing Sing”), Ralph Fiennes (“Conclave”) and Sebastian Stan (“The Apprentice”) for the statuette.

Walking on stage to accept the trophy, Brody spit his chewing gum into his hand and threw it to his partner, Georgina Chapman. Toward the end of his lengthy and passionate speech, the Academy began to play Brody off with music.

“I’m wrapping up, please turn the music off,” Brody said. “I’ve done this before. Thank you. It’s not my first rodeo, but I will will be brief.”

Brody began his five-minute speech by expressing his gratitude for the life and career he has been afforded.

“Acting is a very fragile profession. It looks very glamorous, and at certain moments it is,” Brody said. “But...

Earning his second Best Actor Oscar 22 years after his first, Adrien Brody entered the history books as the first leading actor to win two statuettes on his first two attempts on Sunday.

He won for his role as an ingenious, haunted architect in Brady Corbet’s epic, following his win in 2003 for Roman Polanski’s biographical World War II drama “The Pianist.”

And by wining Best Actor on Sunday, Brody not only made history but also preserved his place among Oscar milestones. Had 29-year-old Timothée Chalamet won in the category for “A Complete Unknown,” he would have become the youngest Best Actor victor ever, beating Brody’s own record from 2003.

Brody is the 11th leading actor to win twice in the top category.

“Acting is a very fragile profession,” Brody opened his acceptance speech. “It looks very glamorous, and certain moments it is, but the one thing that I’ve...

Adrien Brody took home his second Oscar on Sunday — Best Actor for The Brutalist — putting him in rarefied air: He is the eighth performer to boast a perfect 2-for-2 record at the Oscars.

The first seven to achieve this are:

1. Luise Rainer: Best Actress for The Great Ziegfeld (1936) and The Good Earth (1937)

2. Vivien Leigh: Best Actress for Gone with the Wind (1939) and A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

3. Helen Hayes: Best Actress for The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1932) and Best Supporting Actress for Airport (1970)

4. Kevin Spacey: Best Supporting Actor for The Usual Suspects (1995) and Best Actor for American Beauty (1999)

5. Hilary Swank: Best Actress for Boys Don’t Cry (1999) and Million Dollar Baby (2004)

6. Christoph Waltz: Best Supporting Actor for Inglourious Basterds (2009) and Django Unchained (2012)

7. Mahershala Ali: Best Supporting Actor for Moonlight (2016) and Green Book (2018)

See The complete list of Oscar winners

Brody nabbed his first Best Actor Oscar for...

Courtesy of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

The 97th Academy Awards ceremony was held Sunday, 2 March at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood. Emmy Award-winning television host, writer, producer and comedian Conan O’Brien hosted the ceremony for the first time. The official live red carpet pre-show led into the live televised broadcast on ABC and in more than 200 territories worldwide For the first time, the ceremony was also available to stream live on Hulu.

A number of records were broken at the ceremony. Flow became the first Latvian film and the first independent film to win Best Animated Feature. Paul Tazewell became the first Black man to win an Oscar for costume design. Zoe Saldaña is the first Dominican to win an Oscar for acting. I’m Still Here became Brazil’s first Oscar win. Adrien Brody broke a record by winning both his first and his second...

Quick! Who directed the 1950 animated version of "Cinderella?" Did they direct any other movies? Who played the voice of Peter Pan in Disney's 1953 film version? Who played Alice in "Alice in Wonderland?" Or Prince Philip in "Sleeping Beauty?" Who wrote "One Hundred and One Dalmatians?" 

Some readers may have been able to recall that famed children's book author Bill Peet wrote "Dalmatians," and other hardcore Disney Nerds might know that famed child star Bobby Driscoll played Peter Pan, but many of the actual filmmakers of early Disney-released animated features have remained obscure. One would have to look up that Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, and Hamilton Luske served as the supervising directors of "Cinderella," and that they also helmed "Alice in Wonderland," "Peter Pan," and "Lady and the Tramp." Heck, they should be better known, as "Cinderella" kind of saved the company.

These people are, of course, all celebrities in the animation world,...

Into the fifties, a trinity of electric young performers—Montgomery Clift, Marlon Brando and James Dean, in that order—emerged as major players in the movie industry. All students trained in The Actors’ Studio, the trio greatly popularized Method Acting. Not what we have come to know today of going extreme, sometimes wild, lengths for immersing into a role, but truthfully, it means exploring and exteriorizing the inner complexity of the human condition by way of your own personal experience.

This introduced a new type of leading man, who, unlike its precursors—the dashing and suave casanovas of Gary Cooper and Errol Flynn; the dorky and sweet charmers of Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart; or the cynical and unbeatable tough guys of John Wayne and Humphrey Bogart—showcased a deeply nuanced and conflicted emotional spectrum, offering more wounded and vulnerable representations of masculinity on screen. Their protagonists could cry just...

Winning an Oscar is supposed to be the pinnacle, right? The ultimate stamp of approval, the golden ticket to prestige projects and paychecks. But how could it ever be that simple? There’s a long history of actors who, after basking in the glow of their Academy Award moment, have suddenly found themselves struggling to land roles, battling weird industry backlash, or – if they happen to be a woman – being deemed “too difficult” overnight.

Some just call it the Oscar curse, because Hollywood loves to anoint a star, but it also loves to tear one down. Having said that, there’s a rare breed of actors who not only win an Oscar but do it again. And again. So who are these titans of the Academy, the actors who didn’t just win but kept winning?

Robert De Niro in a still from Taxi Driver | Credits: Columbia Pictures 25. Elizabeth Taylor...

We’re exactly one week away from the 97th Oscars, and, unlike most years at this point in the season, three of the highest-profile Oscars — best picture, best actor and best actress — still feel very much up for grabs. That’s in large part because the SAG Awards — which, over the last 30 years, has fairly consistently predicted the acting Oscar winners, as well as almost every major best picture Oscar surprise — featured some pretty striking selections Sunday night, when its 31st edition took place at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.

It’s important to note up front that Academy members’ final ballots were due back last Tuesday, so the results of the SAG Awards — which were handed out later this year due to the Los Angeles wildfires — will not impact Oscar voting … but they could offer hints of what to expect from it.

The roughly 160,000 members of SAG-AFTRA, the...

Although he wasn't as revered in his time as his contemporaries John Ford and Howard Hawks, Anthony Mann was king of the metaphorical Western. After making a name for himself in low-budget film noir, Mann moved to Westerns in the 1950s, using the genre as a means to explore the same psychologically complex and darkly cynical terrain as he had in his noirs. One of the best of these is The Furies, his only western to center on a woman, which completely upends the genre of John Wayne and Gary Cooper with Freudian symbolism and feminist ideology.

One of the key reasons that the Western genre became such a prominent aspect of the cinematic landscape during the “Golden Age of Hollywood”was that it was built off the backs of iconic stars who audiences became well acquainted with over the course of many films. While traditional Western sequels were actually rather few and far between, audiences could walk into a new film starring Gary Cooper, Yul Brennar, James Stewart, John Wayne, or Steve McQueen, expecting them to play some sort of ruthless gunslinger with a heart of gold. There’s certainly value in actors knowing what they are good at, but it’s also interesting to see films that feature less traditional stars in the leading roles. Among its many underrated qualities, the 1981 WesternBarbarosa featured a star-making performance from the legendary musician Willie Nelson.

At the outset of 1993, there wasn't a more bankable movie star than Kevin Costner. Dating back to Brian De Palma's "The Untouchables" in 1987, Costner had starred in at least one blockbuster every year. He possessed an earnestness and practical facility that recalled Gary Cooper, but he could place a sexy, ornery spin on the ball if need be (particularly as minor league catcher Crash Davis in Ron Shelton's masterful "Bull Durham"). He was such a winning presence onscreen and as a Hollywood concept in general that his Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences peers enthusiastically declared his "Dances with Wolves" the Best Picture of 1990 over Martin Scorsese's undeniable "Goodfellas." He also snagged the Best Director trophy, which felt like a statement of principle from the Oscars: let's make movies big and sweeping and morally upright again.

After the success of "The Bodyguard" in the fall of 1992, Costner had it all,...

Western films and television shows have been staples of the film industry for over a century. For a long time, they were the most popular genre in American cinema. Today, they exist in a more niche environment where the genre can be reinvented for entertainment's sake. One thing that made Westerns great was their ability to adapt real-life moments from the American West with such authentic detail that the audience feels transported back to that time.

One popular real-life character who was depicted in Western cinema is Wild Bill Hickok. James Butler Hickok, commonly known as Wild Bill Hickok, lived many lives during his 39 years on Earth. To name a few of his trades, he was a gunslinger, lawman, cattle rustler, and gambler. Due to his versatile way of life, his story has been retold in numerous shows and movies. Each show or movie has created striking Westerns about him,...

The SAG-AFTRA Foundation kicked off Black History Month by launching the fourth season of its Legacy Collection, a series of more than 200 never-before-seen career retrospective interviews.

This season focuses on trailblazing Black film and TV actors — beginning with the late Bill Walker, whose career spanned nearly 50 years and more than 100 films and TV shows, including “The Killers,” “The Long Hot Summer” and “Our Man Flint.” Remember Reverend Sykes, who urges Scout a.k.a. Jean Louise to “stand up, your father’s passin’” as Gregory Peck’s Atticus Finch leaves the courtroom near the end of “To Kill a Mockingbird”? That’s Walker in action.

The veteran actor, who also served on the board of directors of the Screen Actors Guild from 1952 to 1971 (only the third Black person to do so), was interviewed about his life and career just seven weeks before he died in January 1992. Then 95 years old, Walker...

Adrien Brody never looked like a leading man.

Casting agents and executives made that message clear over and over again throughout his three-plus decades as a working actor. “Overtly,” Brody, 51, says. “But, yeah, it was often told to my representatives, and my representatives would share that with me.”

Even after nabbing the best actor Oscar in 2003 at the age of 29 for “The Pianist” — making him the youngest winner ever in the category — he never quite maintained A-list status.

While a few directors came calling with the occasional studio lead role, like Peter Jackson for his $200 million 2005 tentpole “King Kong” and Nimród Antal for the 2010 “Predators” sequel, those were the exceptions. Yes, he’s booked five movies with Wes Anderson since joining the director’s repertory company in 2007’s “The Darjeeling Limited,” but other major roles have eluded him, even while peers such as Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Leonardo DiCaprio...

Robert De Niro won his second Oscar in 1981 for playing a boxing champ in Raging Bull. And now he has been chosen as the acting champ when it comes to Academy Awards.

His performance for the Martin Scorsese film from 1980 has been voted the greatest Oscar Best Actor winner ever, according to a Gold Derby ballot cast by 21 of our film experts, critics, and editors, who ranked all 97 male leading actors.

Anthony Hopkins finished second for The Silence of the Lambs (1991), with Marlon Brando following in third for The Godfather (1972). Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood (2007), and Gregory Peck for To Kill a Mockingbird (1961) rounded out the top five.

At the bottom of the list of the Best Actor winners is Warner Baxter for In Old Arizona (1928). George Arliss in Disraeli (1929), Lionel Barrymore for A Free Soul (1930), Paul Lukas for Watch on the Rhine (1942), and Paul Muni for The Story of Louis Pasteur...

Robert De Niro won his second Oscar in 1981 for playing a boxing champ in Raging Bull. And now he has been chosen as the champ of all actors.

His performance for the Martin Scorsese film from 1980 has been voted the greatest Oscar Best Actor winner ever, according to a Gold Derby ballot cast by 21 of our film experts, critics, and editors, who ranked all 97 male leading actors.

Anthony Hopkins ranked second for The Silence of the Lambs (1991), with Marlon Brando following in third for The Godfather (1972). Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood (2007), and Gregory Peck for To Kill a Mockingbird (1961) rounded out the top five.

At the bottom of the list of the Best Actor winners is Warner Baxter for In Old Arizona (1928). Just above that film performance in the rankings are George Arliss in Disraeli (1929), Lionel Barrymore for A Free Soul (1930), Paul Lukas for Watch on the Rhine...

Perhaps more than any other genre, the Western demands a specific, rugged essence from its actors to be believable. For example, character actors such as Ben Johnson, Jack Elam, Chill Willis, and John Ireland possessed a certain aesthetic that allowed them to become part of the iconography of the genre as a whole. However, some Western stars can manage the aesthetics of the genre without the acting chops of character actors.

Cinema's greatest Western stars embody toughness, grit, and self-reliance. They also are able to transcend time, shedding their modern sensibilities and encompassing the spirit of the Old West. Actors such as Clint Eastwood, John Wayne, and James Stewart rank among the best Western stars of all time.

This article was updated on February 4, 2025, by Christopher Raley: The Western is one of the greatest genres in cinema. It straddles the line between fantasy and reality, and the Golden Age of...

The Western genre has been a defining hallmark of cinema ever since it first rose to prominence as far back as the 1930s. Reaching its pinnacle in the 50s and 60s, it became emblematic of American film, with screen icons like John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, and Gary Cooper being prolific stars of the genre. However, with the advent of Italy's spaghetti Westerns, which surged in popularity through the 60s, the Western has become a cherished pillar of cinema's identity on the global stage.

Jan Shepard, who guest-starred on Rawhide, The Virginian, Gunsmoke and two dozen other TV Westerns and played opposite Elvis Presley in movies eight years apart, has died. She was 96.

Shepard died Jan. 17 at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank of pneumonia brought on by respiratory failure, her son, Hollywood prop master, Brandon Boyle, told The Hollywood Reporter. “She was a good one and will be dearly missed,” he said.

Shepard portrayed Mimi, the sister of Presley’s Danny Fisher, in the Michael Curtiz-directed King Creole (1958) and the wife of Danny Kohana (James Shigeta), who partners with Presley’s Rick Richards in a helicopter business, in Paradise, Hawaiian Style (1966).

“The first time, I found him to be just the cutest kid around, a big teddy bear, a lot of fun,” she said in an interview for Boyd Magers and Michael G. Fitzgerald’s 1999 book, Westerns Women. But on their next movie,...

The Turner Classic Movies (TCM) network unveiled themes, spotlights, and stars it will feature in 2025, as well as the year’s tentpole events and returning podcasts. Last year the network celebrated its 30th anniversary.

Among offerings this year will be 31 Days of Oscar, the second iteration of Two-for-One films, Summer Under the Stars and monthly birthday celebrations of the legends who made their mark on the industry. Also announced during the festival was the renewal of Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg and Paul Thomas Anderson’s stewardship to TCM through 2025.

TCM will celebrate a different star every month, including Elvis Presley on what would have been his 90th birthday, Peter Sellers, Angela Lansbury, Rock Hudson, Paul Newman, Tony Curtis and Donald O’Connor on what would be their 100th birthdays, as well as Dick Van Dyke, on his 100th birthday in December. Other stars featured throughout the year include George Raft, Barbara Stanwyck,...