Actor Types - Who Reminds You Of Someone Else

[MrMon]

Hollywood is very good at creating actor types, so when someone says that a role is a John Wayne- type, you instantly know what it means. If you start to think about it, most actors are a particular type, and they rarely cross out of it. Since actors get old and die, they need replacements, actors who fill the role the original is no longer able to fill. The most obvious example that everyone uses is Tom Hanks, he fits the role of Jimmy Stewart. You can easily imagine Hanks in Stewart's role in "It's A Wonderful Life" without too much imagination. Now Hanks seems to have more range than Stewart, he plays darker roles better, but at his core, he seems like the All-American everyday guy.

One unusual one I just picked up on is Anne Heche. She's Katherine Hepburn. I'm going through Men In Trees right now, and there are quite a few scenes where you could easily drop Heche into Hepburn's roles in Bringing Up Baby or The Philadelphia Story without missing a beat. Give her Hepburn's accent and tint the hair from blonde to brunette, and she would be scary, even better than Kate Blanchett in The Aviator.

So, which modern actors do you think fill the older star's roles? Is any modern actor a new type? (Schwarzenegger
maybe?) Are any old stars no longer in fashion, with no one really representing them? (I'm not coming up with any modern Clark Gable's, for example.)

[Dominic]

Matt Damon = Henry Fonda

[MrMon]

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Matt Damon = Henry Fonda

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I can kind of see that, but Henry Fonda always seems old to me, and Damon isn't up to that age yet. Even young Henry Fonda was old. But other than that, that one might work.

Edit: I wonder if this lineage works: Henry Fonda = Mel Gibson = Matt Damon. If you think back to Gibson's early work, I think it's pretty like Fonda, and Damon is easier to imagine as Gibson rather than as Fonda directly. At least for me.

[MrMon]

Russell Crowe = William Holden

Think about it, couldn't Crowe play Stalag 17, Born Yesterday, Sabrina, Bridge on The River Kwai, completely fit in in all those roles, and make everyone else in the picture look good too?

[Blarg]

[ QUOTE ]
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Matt Damon = Henry Fonda

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I can kind of see that, but Henry Fonda always seems old to me, and Damon isn't up to that age yet. Even young Henry Fonda was old. But other than that, that one might work.

Edit: I wonder if this lineage works: Henry Fonda = Mel Gibson = Matt Damon. If you think back to Gibson's early work, I think it's pretty like Fonda, and Damon is easier to imagine as Gibson rather than as Fonda directly. At least for me.

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Fonda was always more severe, drawn, thoughtful. And, as you noted, when young, too. Damon is kind of apple-cheeked, robustly healthy and vigorous. Fonda may have been strong, but vigorous, I didn't feel. He's the kind of guy who would always play the leader in a film like Mr. Roberts, not one of the clowns around him, or one of the clowns in Oceans 11.

I could, however, see Fonda saying, "How do ya like them apples?"

[Blarg]

[ QUOTE ]
Russell Crowe = William Holden

Think about it, couldn't Crowe play Stalag 17, Born Yesterday, Sabrina, Bridge on The River Kwai, completely fit in in all those roles, and make everyone else in the picture look good too?

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I dunno. Could he play in Network, or The Christmas Tree? Or Sunset Boulevard.

Holden had some sophistication about him. He could be a scoundrel and wastrel, but my, what a polished and elegant one. It's a stretch to see him play truly downscale.

Crowe is a ruffian, and has to stretch to go upscale and play anything like a normal fellow or one with some sort of restraint and composure and familiarity with a comb and a razor and a haircut that doesn't look like one he did himself while black-out drunk. He's the kind of guy who could make even a fresh tux look less than top notch and even a Royal Navy officer look like a cabin boy caught playing dress-up.

[CharlieDontSurf]

Kevin Costner - Steve McQueen

[MrMon]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Russell Crowe = William Holden

Think about it, couldn't Crowe play Stalag 17, Born Yesterday, Sabrina, Bridge on The River Kwai, completely fit in in all those roles, and make everyone else in the picture look good too?

[/ QUOTE ]

I dunno. Could he play in Network, or The Christmas Tree? Or Sunset Boulevard.

Holden had some sophistication about him. He could be a scoundrel and wastrel, but my, what a polished and elegant one. It's a stretch to see him play truly downscale.

Crowe is a ruffian, and has to stretch to go upscale and play anything like a normal fellow or one with some sort of restraint and composure and familiarity with a comb and a razor and a haircut that doesn't look like one he did himself while black-out drunk. He's the kind of guy who could make even a fresh tux look less than top notch and even a Royal Navy officer look like a cabin boy caught playing dress-up.

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Crowe is young for his age and Holden was old for his, but I think that's in large part due to the times they live in. Like I said earlier, Fonda was always old, at least by our standards, but everyone back in those days was. The world revolved around old people back then, so you grew up and became old to become part of that world. Today, youth is served and you hang on to that as long as you can.

That said, yes, I do think that as Crowe can no longer get away with being young, he'll round off and be that sophisticated guy that was once a ruffian. But you're probably right, Holden will alweays have the edge of sophistication, like someone born to it, because that's who he really was. Crowe will have to learn it. So they're close, but not clones. Think of Crowe as the modern version of Holden.

[MrMon]

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Kevin Costner - Steve McQueen

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Only in Costner's wildest dreams. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

I can see them wanting this to be true, but I don't think it works. Costner's too pretty.

[diebitter]

Clark Gable == George Clooney maybe?

It's difficult, the sensibilities that Gable embodied are sort of archaic in places for modern comparisons.