Posted on 02/26/2016 11:41:53 AM PST by Borges
Born 100 years ago (today), Jackie Gleason rose to the top of comedy thanks to his larger than life personality and rigorous work ethic.
The mood of the photo essay is a strange one: Jackie Gleason’s soon-to-be hit show The Honeymooners was about to hit the airwaves, but the star’s look in the pages of that 1955 issue of LIFE was melancholy. The entertainer, as the magazine explained, had “just become, by financial standards at least, history’s greatest comedian.†He was raking in millions between his weekly Jackie Gleason Show and new contracts with Buick and CBS for The Honeymooners. “No other actor in the world,†the magazine declared, “ever had it so good as this 39-year-old, Brooklyn-born comedian with a 265-pound body, a bellowing voice and a superb instinct for theater.â€
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
Except the masse shot. That was W. Mosconi all the way.
His stock line to kick off The Jackie Gleason Show: “And Away We Go!
“The Honeymooners” showed working Americans without the condescension and snarkiness of All in the Family and others.
I think “The Honeymooners” came from Gleason doing “The Life of Riley” earlier.
The Honeymooners was strongly based on a radio show called The Bickersons.
Seriously? Have you actually watched the movie? The role required almost no range at all. His lines were in the single digits, or darn close to it. About the only line he uttered that took any finesse at all was; “shoot pool fast Eddie”.
How about you tell how you know it was a challenge. Fill me in on how putting on a suit coat and holding out ones hands for talc registers as an challenging performance. I can use the laugh.
Because I am an acting teacher. Have been on and off for years. In New York City - coaching opera students in the art of acting. So buzz off, amateur.
And of course, we are all free to disagree with each other. What he added to the movie fit perfectly, no question. But what he had to do in order to add what he brought to the movie was minimal.
Watch “The Fighter” to see Christian Bale’s performance as the older brother, Dickie. It is amazing. The guy Bale played and that Dickie’s mother are alive. Bale was walking down the street “in character”. Dickie’s mother thought it was her son.
Did you know that Agent Smith (the Matrix movies), V (V for Vendetta) and the Red Skull (Captain America) are the same actor; Hugo Weaving?
A good story, and the enjoyment of a movie are not necessarily excellent acting. Tom Cruise does well. His movies are mostly enjoyable. I respect that he does his own stunts. But there is not a great deal of difference between Ethan Hunt and Maverick excepting age; he plays the same basic character in each movie. Far and Away was probably the biggest challenge, but not by that much. Oblivion and Minority Report - how are the two people He played different? They aren’t.
Again, you are free to disagree. Still, I can’t help but wonder what Gleason did, that anyone can be point to, in that film that was so very difficult. To the contrary, he just delivered the understated performance that was called for in that movie. A smart choice? of course, but not difficult in any way.
You didn’t answer the question, did you? I have provided my reasons. Where are yours? Tell us all what he did that was so very extraordinary. It should be a very easy task, shouldn’t it?
In the unlikely event that you are not lying in order to cover your own idiocy, let me thank you for all of the wait staff you help provide.
“On and off”? Well, I can certainly understand the “off” part. Do they miss you at the community college night courses during “off”?
I look forward to your learned opinion. And in (what I consider to be) the unlikely event that you are able to support your position I will post my retraction and apology right here.
Put up or shut up.
How nasty you are on a thread that is simply about Jackie Gleason. Frighteningly so. If you so disdain actors and opera singers why do you even bother coming on a thread about acting?? You obviously know nothing about this fine art.
I can’t change your mind (because you have none)
but to those who also don’t understand this performance: it is about the art of stillness, mostly. It is about internal, subtle acting - much like what Garbo did when the camera was on her but she said nothing. It is about thinking, not speaking. In that, his performance is wonderful. His character is there in the snap of a finger because, somehow, Mr. Gleason, brought forth all those dark qualities that were in his own persona.
Much different than Gigot, which I differ with from my friends here. I do not think that’s a good performance.
Perhaps to express an opinion about that which he disdains.
You obviously know nothing about this fine art.
Sniff them tights, grandma.
Sniff them tights.
Ah, the likes of George Jean Nathan strikes again!
The “art of stillness” is just another name for his appropriately understated performance. We have no way to know if that writer choose that, or the director, or him. It may have been a collaboration. So what? None of that changes the situation. The best you have done is rename what I had already offered.
“Ok, Jackie, that was good. This time I want you to dial it down a little more. Let's see how that looks.” OH MY GOSH! ROLL IN A WHEELBARROW FULL OF OSCARS!
Dark qualities? Exactly what dark qualities? Give specific examples. He played pool. He wore a suit. He chalked a cue. He was not tied into any of what transpired between the principles. It seems you have confused his part with those of Newman, Scott and Laurie. You want to believe it was an amazing performance so you have added what isn't there.
I'm not trying to take anything away from him. He was an amazing, incredibly talented performer, and one of my favorites. His physical and acting stature were used perfectly in the film. But the credit goes to those who were smart enough to select him. He and the rest were smart enough to understand that while key parts of the story hinged on Fats, his was not a big performance; it couldn't be. You know this is true. You are unwilling to admit it.
Now go somewhere else and try to act smart. Your performance isn't working here.
Puccini operas are generally my favorites, and Kiri Te Kanawa my favorite soprano. Others are excellent, but for me at least, her voice had a quality unmatched. Similarly, I prefer the quality of Andrea Bocelli’s voice above that of the late great Pavarotti. But there is no question that Pavarotti was the superior tenor. His clarity and accuracy were wonderful, imo.
OTOH, I do disdain arrogant jerks who imagine no one else’s opinion can possibly be as “important” as theirs. Hopefully you have managed to absorb that.
No one else even comes close!
Another vote for Kiri!
Ah, the likes of George Jean Nathan strikes again!
Learn HTML. They have made it simple enough so that even acting teachers can manage to use it.
You need to lie down in a dark, quiet room with a cool cloth across your fevered brow. You are too nervous a creature to discuss the career of Jackie Gleason with the dispassion it so obviously deserves.
I have provided reasons for my statements. You have pretended one of my reasons as yours, and presumed that he “brought out his inner darkness”. For me, the best part, based on your own statement, is that you imagine you know what he was thinking in order to provide “stillness”.
BTW, still waiting for the info on that “darkness”. Come on, you do this for a paycheck. Why is citing the scene and the look that MUST have been his “inner darkness” so difficult? This is not complicated. You pretend you know, but when I ask you to discuss it you offer silly textbook drivel.
The discussion is not the career of Jackie Gleason. It is his performance in “The Hustler”. Oh, those pesky liberal thought patterns of yours. Tisk.
This has been fun, but even the cat tires of the string after it has been batted around long enough.
And please, no angry posts from offended balls of string, OK?
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