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Post by hermanbricks on Jan 12, 2023 17:45:50 GMT
Watching Edge of Darkness now on TCM. Henry Brandon is awesome! Good-looking, physically imposing, fine actor. Why did he not have a greater career? Or maybe he was more successful than I perceive.
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Post by Fading Fast on Jan 12, 2023 17:59:33 GMT
Watching Edge of Darkness now on TCM. Henry Brandon is awesome! Good-looking, physically imposing, fine actor. Why did he not have a greater career? Or maybe he was more successful than I perceive. |
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Post by sepiatone on Jan 12, 2023 18:10:39 GMT
He had fairly good success as a character actor both in movies and on television.
You must have gone to WIKI to find out who he was because in IMDb he's listed as uncredited in EDGE OF DARKNESS. And I've seen that movie several times without ever knowing who the hell he was. So apparently, he didn't make that much of an impression on me.
Sepiatone
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Post by Fading Fast on Jan 12, 2023 18:29:28 GMT
Awesome scene with Flynn bonking Nazis on the head with a shovel - just awesome.
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Post by jamesjazzguitar on Jan 12, 2023 20:51:27 GMT
Watching Edge of Darkness now on TCM. Henry Brandon is awesome! Good-looking, physically imposing, fine actor. Why did he not have a greater career? Or maybe he was more successful than I perceive. Brandon was successful as a credited character actor for over 20 years often being in multiple films each year over this period. He appears to not have signed any long term contract with any studio and during the studio era that often limits an actor. E.g. take Frank McHugh; he was under contract with Warner Bros. for decades with a fixed weekly salary. Therefor since the studio was paying him, regardless of if he was assigned to a film or not, producers at the studio would assign him to film. I.e. why pay someone for doing nothing. In fact Olivia DeHavilland a much better star than McHugh, was being paid less than McHugh and that became a sore point for her (Jack Warner did change that after Olivia went on strike). The bottom line is that there were only so many roles for leading actors and once the studio signed someone to a fixed term (mostly 7 years), weekly salary contract, they used them, even if they were not the best actor fit for the role. |
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Post by Fading Fast on Jan 12, 2023 21:53:19 GMT
Watching Edge of Darkness now on TCM. Henry Brandon is awesome! Good-looking, physically imposing, fine actor. Why did he not have a greater career? Or maybe he was more successful than I perceive. Brandon was successful as a credited character actor for over 20 years often being in multiple films each year over this period. He appears to not have signed any long term contract with any studio and during the studio era that often limits an actor. E.g. take Frank McHugh; he was under contract with Warner Bros. for decades with a fixed weekly salary. Therefor since the studio was paying him, regardless of if he was assigned to a film or not, producers at the studio would assign him to film. I.e. why pay someone for doing nothing. In fact Olivia DeHavilland a much better star than McHugh, was being paid less than McHugh and that became a sore point for her (Jack Warner did change that after Olivia went on strike). The bottom line is that there were only so many roles for leading actors and once the studio signed someone to a fixed term (mostly 7 years), weekly salary contract, they used them, even if they were not the best actor fit for the role. |
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Post by Lucky Dan on Jan 12, 2023 22:40:18 GMT
E.g. take Frank McHugh; he was under contract with Warner Bros. for decades with a fixed weekly salary. Therefor since the studio was paying him, regardless of if he was assigned to a film or not, producers at the studio would assign him to film. I.e. why pay someone for doing nothing. |
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Post by jamesjazzguitar on Jan 13, 2023 0:24:39 GMT
Brandon was successful as a credited character actor for over 20 years often being in multiple films each year over this period. He appears to not have signed any long term contract with any studio and during the studio era that often limits an actor. E.g. take Frank McHugh; he was under contract with Warner Bros. for decades with a fixed weekly salary. Therefor since the studio was paying him, regardless of if he was assigned to a film or not, producers at the studio would assign him to film. I.e. why pay someone for doing nothing. In fact Olivia DeHavilland a much better star than McHugh, was being paid less than McHugh and that became a sore point for her (Jack Warner did change that after Olivia went on strike). The bottom line is that there were only so many roles for leading actors and once the studio signed someone to a fixed term (mostly 7 years), weekly salary contract, they used them, even if they were not the best actor fit for the role. With the studio-era fixed term contracts one got paid, period. What they had to do with their time depended on how they were viewed by the producers and the suits. I don't know how McHugh was treated but I assume he was treated well by the studio so if there wasn't something he had to do related to a film, he didn't have to show up at the studio. But Kay Francis is a good example of someone that Jack Warner wanted to break down since he signed her to a very good fixed term contract. Starting around 1938 Kay box office draw was fading and Warner didn't wish to put her into any films. Thus he required her to show up at a fixed time and do her 8 hours, training young actresses, hoping Kay would hate that so much she wouldn't come in and thus he could not pay her. Kay didn't like this type of work, but Kay keep coming in. WB did loan her out to try to recoup some of what they were paying her. Kay stayed on until the contract ended. Note that from Kay's POV her box office draw was fading because WB was putting her into films with poor scripts. Warner's POV was why waste a good scripts and "A" production values on a fading star. My view is that Warner made his own bed; I.e. the poor scripts did lead to Kay's career downturn, and Warner got what he didn't want; a diminished commodity he was paying top dollar for. |
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Post by Swithin on Jan 13, 2023 2:25:31 GMT
Henry Brandon was indeed great. Two of my favorite Brandon roles:  \\ 
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Post by topbilled on Jan 13, 2023 3:03:33 GMT
Brandon was successful as a credited character actor for over 20 years often being in multiple films each year over this period. He appears to not have signed any long term contract with any studio and during the studio era that often limits an actor. E.g. take Frank McHugh; he was under contract with Warner Bros. for decades with a fixed weekly salary. Therefor since the studio was paying him, regardless of if he was assigned to a film or not, producers at the studio would assign him to film. I.e. why pay someone for doing nothing. In fact Olivia DeHavilland a much better star than McHugh, was being paid less than McHugh and that became a sore point for her (Jack Warner did change that after Olivia went on strike). The bottom line is that there were only so many roles for leading actors and once the studio signed someone to a fixed term (mostly 7 years), weekly salary contract, they used them, even if they were not the best actor fit for the role.
In an interview that Lizabeth Scott gave, she said when she was under contract with Hal Wallis at Paramount, she spent time when she wasn't filming scenes being sent by Wallis to Edith Head to do fittings for costumes for a current film or an upcoming film. Sometimes she had to meet with Edith Head after a long day of shooting to finalize a costume. She also said she and fellow contract player Burt Lancaster would be sent to New York between films to attend conventions with the exhibitors to drum up support for a film they just finished that was being edited and getting ready for release. They would have to attend the premieres of course, and also spend time with reporters for articles in newspapers and magazines. So there was quite a lot to keep them busy.
At Universal, Tony Curtis writes in his memoir that he and Audie Murphy who joined the studio at the same time with Rock Hudson, would be required to take fencing lessons, horseback riding lessons and whatever else was needed to do well in westerns and action pictures.
At RKO in the late 30s and early 40s, Leila Rogers mother of Ginger Rogers, ran a stock company to train the younger stars. They would develop skills on how to perform certain types of scenes. So when they were between film roles, they were learning how to improve their performances.
These people were not just sitting at home waiting to report to the studio. They were under constant supervision and guidance, because the studios were hoping to make them more successful with audiences. But during all this time, they were still receiving a weekly salary.
In the case of Kay Francis, which James referenced, she was used to help train the newer stars at Warner Brothers...and she was also required to be a prompter...like when there were retakes and an actor had to be fed a line to give a certain facial expression in close-up. |
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Post by Fading Fast on Jan 13, 2023 8:45:12 GMT
James and Topbilled, thank you so much for the color That makes it much-more clear what they did.
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Post by topbilled on Jan 13, 2023 14:32:14 GMT
James and Topbilled, thank you so much for the color That makes it much-more clear what they did.
They also had to learn how to do fight scenes, during the medium or close shots where no stunt double was being used. So there was extensive training that was going on, just to make them ready for filming.
Probably the only time a contracted actor stayed home was when he/she was fighting with the studio and placed on suspension.
Victor Mature said he often argued with his home studio 20th Century Fox about his roles. He'd get placed on suspension without pay. But Howard Hughes liked him...and when Hughes found out he was sitting at home available for work, he hired Mature at RKO. That was one way you could get around suspension, if you were requested for a loan out from another studio. The home studio would typically agree to this, because they made a lot of money renting a star out to another studio...and it would get the difficult star out of their hair for three months...plus it would fulfill the number of films specified in the contract so the studio was one step closer to cutting that person loose. |
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Post by Fading Fast on Jan 13, 2023 14:41:52 GMT
James and Topbilled, thank you so much for the color That makes it much-more clear what they did.
They also had to learn how to do fight scenes, during the medium or close shots where no stunt double was being used. So there was extensive training that was going on, just to make them ready for filming.
Probably the only time a contracted actor stayed home was when he/she was fighting with the studio and placed on suspension.
Victor Mature said he often argued with his home studio 20th Century Fox about his roles. He'd get placed on suspension without pay. But Howard Hughes liked him...and when Hughes found out he was sitting at home available for work, he hired Mature at RKO. That was one way you could get around suspension, if you were requested for a loan out from another studio. The home studio would typically agree to this, because they made a lot of money renting a star out to another studio...and it would get the difficult star out of their hair for three months...plus it would fulfill the number of films specified in the contract so the studio was one step closer to cutting that person loose. |
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Post by topbilled on Jan 13, 2023 15:08:54 GMT
Another thing that sometimes happened, which Tony Curtis mentioned, is they'd be required to attend workshops at the studio on the art of kissing or effectively doing love scenes. I suppose it came in handy for closeted gay actors who may not have had much experience kissing females and would be expected to play a straight love scene convincingly on camera.
They also had to learn how to do fight scenes, during the medium or close shots where no stunt double was being used. So there was extensive training that was going on, just to make them ready for filming.
Probably the only time a contracted actor stayed home was when he/she was fighting with the studio and placed on suspension.
Victor Mature said he often argued with his home studio 20th Century Fox about his roles. He'd get placed on suspension without pay. But Howard Hughes liked him...and when Hughes found out he was sitting at home available for work, he hired Mature at RKO. That was one way you could get around suspension, if you were requested for a loan out from another studio. The home studio would typically agree to this, because they made a lot of money renting a star out to another studio...and it would get the difficult star out of their hair for three months...plus it would fulfill the number of films specified in the contract so the studio was one step closer to cutting that person loose.
They also belong to esteemed groups/organizations that have workshops. When I lived in West Hollywood from 2003 to 2004, there was an old house down the street from me that had once belonged to a long-dead silent film star. The Actors Studio group had taken it over, and they converted what I presume was an old garage/stable into a theater.
One of my neighbors was a member of the Actors Studio, and he'd invite me to go along and attend workshops with him, which was a lot of fun. Special guests would show up to coach us on how to do certain types of scenes. These guests included well-known method actors like Sally Field, Salome Jens and Martin Landau. In fact, Landau was sort of the lead teacher during that time since he also lived in the neighborhood.
Two to three times a year, there would be a play staged in the theater, that was open to members and select public with a reception afterward inside the main house.
I would see a lot of young actors, people like my neighbor, that were getting bit parts in movies or on TV shows, but hadn't broken through to stardom or at least more substantial roles.
Interestingly, there were also people I recognized from old television shows or movies, people that hadn't worked in front of the camera for awhile, that were trying to make a comeback...they sought to improve their techniques in order to get cast in stuff they were auditioning for. One weekend when I went over there, I was surprised to see a former soap star whose character had recently been killed of 'Days of Our Lives.' It was just a way for actors, old and new, to get together and brush up on their techniques.
Around the corner from this Actors Studio location, was a gym on Sunset Boulevard...and when I went in there I saw a lot of current TV stars who were working out with their trainers. So I'd say the focus these days is probably spent on improving dramatic techniques but also maintaining a certain physique or alluring physical quality, because usually they are expected to have attractive bodies...or at least to be able to photograph well, even if they are playing a character part.
So without the guidance of a studio, or the benefit of a studio system like Hollywood had in the 1920s to the 1970s, it's evolved...but these people still spend a lot of time preparing themselves to be ready for filming. Of course, if they are not able to fully make their living from acting jobs, they must spend time working odd jobs like picking up part time office work through temp agencies or doing shifts waiting on customers in bars, coffee shops or restaurants. |
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Post by jamesjazzguitar on Jan 13, 2023 17:41:52 GMT
I believe a well known actor was asked what was the worst thing about acting and he\she said the waiting.
Does anyone recall who said something like that?
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