The Silver Screen Oasis

Oh but yes, that really is what I'm asking you to do here: declare who the best choice would be, if you could actually select an actor & actress as your full-time, honorary Dad & Mom.
Your rationale can be aesthetic, or physical, or bear relevency to your apperance, or that of your biological folks, or have to do with a favorite or memorable roles, or aspects of that star's life, or even just who resonates with your heart of hearts.
Further you can explain your selection, or not, as you please: if you choose to run a photo, choose a nice one, and keep the size modest . . and if you really want to groove to this exercise you may include (as I did) a handful of 'supporting players' as aunts & uncles, just don't run hog-wild.
Decade & size of career are unimportant to this assignment - but for the sake of continuity, we'll limit choices to screen performers working between 1910 & 1969.

Kicking it all off, here are the ones who'd turn up at my Sunday Dinner . . .

DAD: Victor McLaglen [almost went with Paul Douglas, for his resemblence to my Pa, but he's entirely too mild to have raised such a "wild colonial boy" as meself ]

MOM: Marjorie Main [she had more tricks in her kit to civilize young'uns than anyone else, and with me, she'd need every one]

Uncles: Two of the Irish Franks (Jenks & Faylen) - Aunts: Thelma Ritter & Anne Revere

I'd have Charlie Chaplin as my father, British and left handed and that's probably where the similarities end. A mother, that's harder to deicde, Ingrid Bergman, a classy and talented lady who knew her own mind and who passed her good looks on to at least one of her daughters.

Father: Joel McCrea : strong, kind, considerate of women, someone you could always count on for sensible advice.
Mother: Barbara Stanwyck: strong sense of self, level headed, wicked sense of humor.
Aunts: Mildred Natwick, Audrey Hepburn, Thelma Ritter, Agnes Moorehead.
Uncles: Cary Grant, Buster Keaton, Gilbert Roland, Jimmy Durante.
Grannies: Spring Byington, Edith Evans
Gramps: Lionel Barrymore, S.Z. Sakall
Sisters: Ann Sheridan, Judy Garland
Brother: Mickey Rooney

I have no sisters I'd have to pick Judy Garland and Paulette Goddard.

Brothers, Buster Keaton, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy (poor mum)

Can I pick my neighbours too? Charles Boyer on one side and on the other Cary Grant.

Father: Joel McCrea (although I always thought my father looked like Desi Arnaz)
Mother: Rita Hayworth (my mother is a real red-head...but no Lucille Ball to my father's Desi)
Aunt: Barbara Stanwyck (too cool to have as Mom)
Crazy Uncle: TIMOTHY CAREY (explanation necessary?)
Godmother: Sophia Loren (isn't she the Godmother of us all?)

Now, if it were Directors rather than Actors/Actresses: Father Orson Welles and Mother Ida Lupino, with John Cassavetes as my brother and Samuel Fuller as my uncle.

Mother:

Myrna Loy

My mother really was a lot like Myrna, brunette, pretty, level headed, smart, funny, not overly demonstrative, but we ALWAYS knew she loved us more than anything.

Father:

I hate to say my real dad is a LOT like Dr Sloper in The Heiress.

Dream dad: would be Ben Johnson or Joel McCrea. Is there something about Joel that makes us all want him to be our dad? Yes.

That makes you guys my brothers and sisters!

Dream dad: would be Ben Johnson or Joel McCrea. Is there something about Joel that makes us all want him to be our dad? Yes.

That makes you guys my brothers and sisters!

I would be MARRIED to Ben, and I'd love having you for a sister!!!!

I'd love having you for a sister!!!!

Me too!

I almost didn't write Ben down as a dad, I was torn, but if I can't have him for a husband, I'd like him for a father. Is that weird?

Not at all, I had the exact same dilemma!!!! (are you sure we weren't separated at birth???)

Hey, are we choosing husbands now. Well I want to marry the guy from next door either of them

if I can't have him for a husband, I'd like him for a father. Is that weird?

I don't know, but Herr Doktor Montgomery Clift just asked that you step into his office.

Ha ha! Are you politely saying I need psychiatric help? I think I'll call on Tom Conway.

I think for my doctor I would like Daniel Day Lewis.

Klon,

I got lucky. My dad was John Wayne in every way except name. My second choice would be Gregory Peck. (Isn't Atticus Finch the father of us all?)

As for mother, I would go with:

Jean Arthur. My second choice would be Pat Neal.

I don't come from a big family so here would be my 'wish' family:

Aunts:
Mildred Natwick, Thelma Ritter and Eve Arden

Uncles:
George O'Brien, Leon Ames and Jack Carson (because every family has to have a black sheep).

Brother:
Ben Johnson and Joel McCrea (Lord don't I wish I had a brother like either of them)

Sisters:
I've got two great non-related sisters already, Moira and SueSue. No one on the silver screen can match those two.

"Uncles" (good family friends):
Walter Brennan, Cary Grant and William Holden

Grandma (maternal):
Spring Byington

Grandpa (maternal):
Charles Coburn

Grandma (paternal):
Dorothy McGuire

Grandpa (paternal):
Robert Mitchum


A girl can dream..........................

What a great premise for a thread, Klon.

Lzcutter wrote: Sisters:
I've got two great non-related sisters already, Moira and SueSue. No one on the silver screen can match those two.

and Ditto, right backatcha, sis.

Hmmm, my family structure, huh...I loved all your choices--they were greatly entertaining and touching! Here goes nothing...

Dad: for a physical resemblance to the real one, a more intelligent-looking Dick Foran, a handsomer Spencer Tracy and quite a bit of the older, gruffer Jean Gabin thrown in.

Mom: for similar manner and looks: Margaret Sullavan for her voice, a rounder young Ava Gardner (mother really was a real knockout, though as kids we just thought she was Mom), for fierce intelligence and a nice, healthy contrariness, Katharine Hepburn

Aunts, just the dream variety: Thelma Ritter, Aline MacMahon, Edna May Oliver, Myrna Loy

Uncles wish list: Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Jack Oakie, Conrad Veidt (a dashing if daunting unc), and James Gleason

Brothers: Jeffrey Hunter, Ted Donaldson, James Stewart, Rod Taylor

Sisters: Maureen O'Hara, Sylvia Sidney, Margaret O'Brien, Eve Arden

Grandfathers: Donald Crisp and Frank Morgan

Grandmothers: Fay Bainter and Lucile Watson (the latter really did look like my Nana)