Posted on 03/19/2015 11:06:09 AM PDT by donna
Actors were once strapping hunks, thick-thighed he-men who had only to arrive at a film premiere to make everyone’s eyes bulge.
These Adonises towered above lesser mortals and had their suits made specially for them because they were such muscular specimens.
That’s the way things were when the likes of John Wayne (6ft 4in), Gregory Peck (6ft 3in), Charlton Heston (6ft 3in) and Clint Eastwood (6ft 4in) were in their prime.
They were big men playing big characters, often on top of enormous horses or engaged in butch boxing bouts.
Compare that with the recent Oscars ceremony, when our own Eddie Redmayne was announced as winner of the Best Actor category for his performance as Stephen Hawking in The Theory Of Everything. The audience members sitting near him leapt to their feet to applaud — and little Eddie was suddenly dwarfed.
The actress Cate Blanchett loomed over him — she looked so much bigger than him, he could have been her lunch. And yet Redmayne, at 5ft 10in, is one of the taller modern male stars.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Men 5' 9.6" Women 5' 4.3"
Movies: The reverse!
Probably, because the old films could not hide as much things like height, the heights had to be real. Today, thanks to special effects, they can hide things like this so other things, like aesthetics become more important.
They left out Gary Cooper...of course he wasn’t much of an actor. Yet he is in many of my favorite movies, go figure.
Directors like short male actors close to same height as actresses - easier to film.
Superman George Reeve. Short
Alan Ladd. Short
Audie Murphy. Short.
Many others were also.
Actors whose heads look too big for their bodies are judged to look better on today’s screens.
I was very upset upon learning that Tom Cruise was cast to play Jack Reacher.
Sgt. York was pretty dreamy.
“...so other things, like aesthetics become more important...”
Tom Cruz has an aesthetic?
Yup...and The Fountainhead, High Noon and others.
Paul Newman, Humphrey Bogart, James Dean, James Cagney, Steve McQueen, Robert Redford... 5’10 or under.
Sure, there are some good actors nowadays, but they are like boys compared to Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, et al.
Cruise did a good job as Reacher, but those who’ve read the books say otherwise.
I don’t like Tom Cruise, but he is a handsome man.
Marlon Brando.
Why? Because the gay guys are running the Academy.
Do actors represent the ideal? Is pajama boy the ideal in the non acting sphere? Generally along with the moral and psychological degeneration in a dying civilization there goes a physical degeneration. Such degeneration would be reflected in the popular media.
Mickey Rooney.
This list is growing very long.
Steve McQueen - only 5’10”???
Always pictured him MUCH taller.
Having read all of the Reacher books I’m squarely in that latter group. His defining features in the books, 6-8, 250lbs.
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