Search found 30 matches

by BiggieB
July 3rd, 2018, 5:43 am
Forum: Silents & PreCodes
Topic: James Cagney's pre-code films
Replies: 16
Views: 86269

Re: James Cagney's pre-code films

According to the suit-fitting scene, Cagney had a 37" waist and a 33" inseam! Given that he was 5'5, that gives him a very peculiar physique... :)
by BiggieB
December 6th, 2015, 10:08 pm
Forum: Archived Guest Stars
Topic: Q & A with James Bigwood about Alan Napier's Autobiography
Replies: 55
Views: 94359

Re: Q & A with James Bigwood about Alan Napier's Autobiography

Here's a few more Alan Napier links. Three television appearances, including his first: as Sherlock Holmes in "The Speckled Band" ("I expect it was terrible - we did the whole show in one day.") "Adventure Island" in which he plays a mad self-proclaimed island despot. T...
by BiggieB
December 6th, 2015, 6:58 pm
Forum: Archived Guest Stars
Topic: Q & A with James Bigwood about Alan Napier's Autobiography
Replies: 55
Views: 94359

Re: Q & A with James Bigwood about Alan Napier's Autobiography

Moira - How do I post other video links of Alan?
by BiggieB
December 6th, 2015, 6:57 pm
Forum: Archived Guest Stars
Topic: Q & A with James Bigwood about Alan Napier's Autobiography
Replies: 55
Views: 94359

Re: Q & A with James Bigwood about Alan Napier's Autobiography

Thanks everybody! It's really been a pleasure chatting with all of you. For those of you who decide to buy the book, please post a review on Amazon or Barnes & Noble or wherever you usually post your reviews. Good, bad or indifferent! Now that I'm a member here I hope to be chatting with you all...
by BiggieB
December 6th, 2015, 5:06 pm
Forum: Archived Guest Stars
Topic: Q & A with James Bigwood about Alan Napier's Autobiography
Replies: 55
Views: 94359

Re: Q & A with James Bigwood about Alan Napier's Autobiography

Mongo, or Joe, if I may - Alan was great fun in "House of Horrors", unfortunately murdered too soon. He was quite capable of a Clifton Webb style performance, and he did it more than once. Alan's favorite movie role was as Dr. Scott in "The Uninvited". His granddaughter loved him...
by BiggieB
December 6th, 2015, 4:53 pm
Forum: Archived Guest Stars
Topic: Q & A with James Bigwood about Alan Napier's Autobiography
Replies: 55
Views: 94359

Re: Q & A with James Bigwood about Alan Napier's Autobiography

Moira - Alan was at one point hired to be a dialogue director on "This Above All" (this was not unique for him; he was dialogue director for Otoo Preminger on "Forever Amber" too). He got a nasty taste of the "us versus them" attitude that some producers have for actors...
by BiggieB
December 6th, 2015, 4:44 pm
Forum: Archived Guest Stars
Topic: Q & A with James Bigwood about Alan Napier's Autobiography
Replies: 55
Views: 94359

Re: Q & A with James Bigwood about Alan Napier's Autobiography

Moira - When Alan left England, he knew he was going for the money. He had poured years into his career on the English stage without becoming rich. His marriage had fallen apart, and he decided to make a new start. He knew that he was leaving the theatre behind. He enjoyed being comfortable and he k...
by BiggieB
December 6th, 2015, 4:34 pm
Forum: Archived Guest Stars
Topic: Q & A with James Bigwood about Alan Napier's Autobiography
Replies: 55
Views: 94359

Re: Q & A with James Bigwood about Alan Napier's Autobiography

Wendy - Isn't that an amazing episode! "Alan imbues the mysterious passenger with a weariness and resignation that is perversely compelling", if I may quote myself from the book. Alan was not a group joiner. He had friends in the ex-pat community, like Brian Aherne, but it wasn't a sine qu...
by BiggieB
December 6th, 2015, 1:38 pm
Forum: Archived Guest Stars
Topic: Q & A with James Bigwood about Alan Napier's Autobiography
Replies: 55
Views: 94359

Re: Q & A with James Bigwood about Alan Napier's Autobiography

Professional Tourist - There is every likelihood that Alan saw Agnes Moorehead in that production. He was always going to the theater in Los Angeles and he was directed by John Houseman in four plays: Coriolanus at the Phoenix Theater in New York in 1954 and then three of Houseman's Group Theater UC...
by BiggieB
December 6th, 2015, 1:29 pm
Forum: Archived Guest Stars
Topic: Q & A with James Bigwood about Alan Napier's Autobiography
Replies: 55
Views: 94359

Re: Q & A with James Bigwood about Alan Napier's Autobiography

Wendy (if I may) - Glad to hear you are planning on getting the book! Alan was married twice. His first wife was Lesbian, a fact that he knew when they married, but which, in the ignorance of the times, they both thought they could overcome. They had a daughter, Jennifer, who eventually came to live...
by BiggieB
December 6th, 2015, 1:13 pm
Forum: Archived Guest Stars
Topic: Q & A with James Bigwood about Alan Napier's Autobiography
Replies: 55
Views: 94359

Re: Q & A with James Bigwood about Alan Napier's Autobiography

Moira - Happy to be back for Day 2! There's been some great challenging questions! Alan always said that he was the most unlikely candidate for success as an actor. "A woefully inhibited, stammering, skinny, 6 foot 5 inch, hopelessly myopic beanpole" was how he described himself. However, ...
by BiggieB
December 6th, 2015, 10:37 am
Forum: Archived Guest Stars
Topic: Q & A with James Bigwood about Alan Napier's Autobiography
Replies: 55
Views: 94359

Re: Q & A with James Bigwood about Alan Napier's Autobiography

Jack - The main force behind the Oxford Players was not an actor manager, but a playwright/director (although he had acted in his early days). J.B. Fagan was a good friend of fellow-Irishman George Bernard Shaw and directed the London premiere of "Heartbreak House" in 1919 (the world premi...
by BiggieB
December 6th, 2015, 9:38 am
Forum: Archived Guest Stars
Topic: Q & A with James Bigwood about Alan Napier's Autobiography
Replies: 55
Views: 94359

Re: Q & A with James Bigwood about Alan Napier's Autobiography

Professional Tourist - One other known radio credit for Alan, which is maddeningly lost, is a Theatre Guild production of Oliver Twist (starring Basil Rathbone and Boris Karloff), which was broadcast on February 24th, 1952.
by BiggieB
December 6th, 2015, 9:26 am
Forum: Archived Guest Stars
Topic: Q & A with James Bigwood about Alan Napier's Autobiography
Replies: 55
Views: 94359

Re: Q & A with James Bigwood about Alan Napier's Autobiography

Professional Tourist - Not a word about Aggie, I'm afraid. Given the Orson Welles connection, there should have been!
by BiggieB
December 5th, 2015, 11:47 pm
Forum: Archived Guest Stars
Topic: Q & A with James Bigwood about Alan Napier's Autobiography
Replies: 55
Views: 94359

Re: Q & A with James Bigwood about Alan Napier's Autobiography

Sue Sue - Beyond Lord Shayne and Captain Shotover, Alan tended to remember his favorite plays, not for what he did, but for who he was working with. "Marry At Leisure" because of Marie Tempest; "The Green Pack" because of Gerald du Maurier; "Firebird" because of Gladys ...