The Silver Screen Oasis

I was just thinking about performances that kick started acting careers that appeared to be running out of steam. I apolgise in advance if folk think I've mentioned a favourite that they believe didn't have a flagging career. It's only a personal opinion.

Doris Day, or her manager turned down the role of Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate (Doris supposedly said it exploited women). whereas Anne Bancroft accepted it and gave a great performance. The result being Doris' film career was over a yr later (IMO she would have been great in the role), but Anne's got a second wind. I'm trying to limit it to film roles, as countless stars like Robert Wagner were saved by television, in his case with It Takes A Thief.

Others include

Katherine Hepburn-The Philadelphia Story

Gary Cooper-High Noon

Clark Gable-Mogambo, which was funnilly enough his last MGM, but helped him have a strong mid to late 50s career as a free-lance.

Lillian Gish-Dual In The Sun

James Stewart-Winchester 73

Joan Crawford-Mildred Pierce

Ingrid Bergmen-Anastasia

John Wayne-Stagecoach

Sean Connery-The Untouchables

Margaret Rutherford-Miss. Marple

John Laurie-Dads Army

Julie Andrews-Victor, Victoria

Ben Johnson-The Last Picture Show

Kevin Costner-Open Range

Judi Dench-Goldeneye

Julie Christie-Finding Neverland

Pauline Collins-Shirley Valentine

Lana Turner in Peyton Place
Marlene Dietrich in Destry Rides Again

One that should've and didn't:
Bette Davis in All About Eve

Gloria Swanson in "Sunset Boulevard" (1950)

I think you might also say that Davis and Crawford's careers were (temporarily) jumpstarted by What Ever Happened to Baby Jane. It kept both actresses in work as scream queens for the next 3 years or so. And both took advantage of the opportunity to make TV appearances and publish memoirs.

Some others I would name:

Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler (at least that's the current buzz)
Tom Hanks - Philadelphia
Eddie Murphy - The Nutty Professor (though it was short-lived)
Susan Sarandon - Thelma and Louise (you could make a case for Bull Durham as well)
Sean Penn - Dead Man Walking
Anthony Hopkins - The Silence of the Lambs
Jodie Foster - The Accused

If TV roles count, I'd say 24 was a virtual defribrillator for Kiefer Sutherland.

On a side note, it's interesting how many of the Oscar winners of the past ten years or so seem to have tanked lately - Halle Berry, Julia Roberts, Helen Hunt, Cuba Gooding Jr., Roberto Benigni, Robin Williams, Catherine Zeta-Jones. One magazine claimed this past year that Nicole Kidman was the least profitable actress.

-Stephen

Gloria Swanson made a great comeback with Sunset Boulevard, but Im not sure it kick started her career with other movies. After Dual In The Sun Lillian Gish made several quality movies, like Night Of The Hunter

Srowley75:

In a way, you're correct about some of those on your list, but could it be because they all had superior roles which in most cases won them Oscars, and simply haven't had equal parts offered to them? Robin Williams seems to fit fairly nicely in the quirky parts he's been doing lately though.

Anne

Sandra Dee in The Reluctant Debutante. What can I say I am a big Sandra Dee fan.Gee Moondoggie

And, of course, we cannot forget John Travolta in "Pulp Fiction".

I'd also like to mention my personal favorite (obviously) George Raft, who should have got his career back on track with his stunning turn in "Rogue Cop". Alas, it was not to be.

One guy who might have made a comeback based on his sterling performance in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945):

James Dunn, who had been a star in the early '30s, but who faded away, in part, according to many, to his real life problems with alcohol. His career continued eventually in the '50s and '60s on tv, but by 1951, the poor guy had gone bankrupt, despite that well-deserved Oscar as Best Supporting Actor he won in '46. As Claude Rains said when he left England for America and eventually Hollywood: "You can't eat your notices".

Nor can we forget Bela Lugosi, whose career really hit a slump following THE INVISIBLE RAY, thanks to the British Ban on horror films. Fortuitous circumstances brought him back to the fold in what was arguably his best (or at least most creatively challenging) role: Ygor in SON OF FRANKENSTEIN. Sadly, of course, it wasn't long before his film career was back on the skids until a very brief resurgence in ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (which also revitalized the slagging career of Bud and Lou).

Well on the subject of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Joan Blondell deserves some mention, as the role was among her strongest, and was really the first kind of supporting/character role she did, and set the template for what she wound up doing the next 35 years of her career.

Of course there is also John Travolta in Pulp Fiction, who went from 80's flameout to culturally relevant in one fell swoop.

I suppose Richard Barthelmess in Only Angels Have Wings could qualify too, although he retired not too long after.

Boy, are you right, myrnaloyisdope!
Joan Blondell should have received much more attention than she did based on her beautiful work in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Though in his autobiography Elia Kazan seemed to feel that the movie wasn't emblematic of his later films, and apparently felt that it was a lesser, more commercial feature in his career, it seems that no one who was in it ever acted better in their later careers.

Yes it's a pity Joan Blondell never reached the heights of her Warner counterparts Bette Davis, ODH and Miriam Hopkins. She was certainly good enough. Like Ann Sheridan and ODH she was one of the few actresses who could stand up to Cagney in full throttle.

Did I mention Maureen O'Hara in Only The Lonely

I wouldn't call it a comeback as such, but Helen Mirren after Elizabeth, certainly put her career on another level

Stuart, I think you did a good job with your list and your disclaimer about not getting upset over the people listed gave me a little chuckle, especially since my very fave was near the top of your list. Here’s a little more info about Gary’s career around the time of High Noon. From the late 40s (about ’48) until High Noon was released in ’52, he was slipping at the box office but for the most part his films were still profitable and I think very good and well made movies. The times were changing however and many stars who had been at the top of their game in the 30s and 40s were now floundering somewhat during the post war years.

In ’51 (the year High Noon was filmed) Gary was ranked the most popular actor in a poll taken by one of the big movie magazines in France and he was most definitely still a top money maker across Europe. His films made during that time, including Good Sam, Bright Leaf, and Dallas are good movies but they are not films that make you stand up and take notice like some of his prior bigger hits including Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and Sergeant York.

However when High Noon was released in ’52, a film that has a seemingly simple plot but is really quite deep and complex, people saw that he very much still had what it took to be an A list actor. In one of the biographies I read about him he said (after High Noon had become a big hit) that not every film you make is going to be a big movie like Sgt. York or High Noon. He said basically you just have to keep putting out the best you can with the big ones scattered throughout so people don’t forget about you.

Coopsgirl, you'd like our Miss. Goddess, another Coop fan.

You know on another forum I heard some folk having a go at him because he went hunting with Hemmingway, but IMHO that was unfair because hunting back then was an acceptable persuit.

I think Gary and Clark Gable had similiar careers. Both were at their height in the 30s, both dipped a little after WW2, both came back strongly in the 50s (in Coop's case with High Noon, Springfield Rifle, Friendly Persuasion and The Hanging Tree) though admittedly not as huge as the 30s. Then sadly both died at rougly the same age. I wonder if Coop could have done in the 60s westerns that Duke did so successfully