Gene Feldman
In the 1942 This Gun For Hire, he was only a supporting actor. But his portrayal of a cold, ruthless killer with a core of gentle sadness had an impact on audiences everywhere. Teamed with diminutive Veronica Lake, he became an immediately saleable commodity, and in the process helped launch the age of film noir. By 1954, Photoplay Magazine voted him the world's most popular male film star; his fellow award-winner was Marilyn Monroe. But Alan Ladd's fabulous success already contained within it the mechanism to self-destruct.
Narrated by Connick himself in a candid look at his own life and career, the program features interviews with jazz greats Branford and Wynton Marsalis and their father, Ellis Marsalis.
This glamorous and hugely popular actress raised herself from brutal poverty to Academy Award-winning stardom by guts, determination and hard work. During her fifty-year career, she made over eighty films. But her obsessive perfectionism led to the later caricature of coat-hanger-wielding harridan that even the adoration of fans could not counter. Still, she has endured as one of the most popular icons of the movies, an early role model to a million young women who aspired to her image of stylish magnetic power and unquestioned independence.
Born November 2, 1913, he went from street-wise tough to art-collector liberal-activist, from circus-acrobat hunk to Academy Award winner. Burton Stephen Lancaster - later Burt Lancaster - was one of five children of a New York City postal worker. Burt recalled family life as warm and mutually supportive. At the Union Settlement House, he and boyhood friend Nick Cravat formed an acrobatic team. By eighteen, Burt was 6'2" and blessed with the athletic physique and dynamic good looks that helped make him famous. A basketball scholarship was not enough to keep him in NYU beyond his sophomore year. That's when he and the 5'2" Cravat joined a circus, earning $3 weekly between them. A stint in the Army introduced Burt to acting and led him to Hollywood where his first release, The Killers (1946), propelled him to stardom at age 32. He took control of his own career and seldom faltered.
Documentary about the life and work of actress Ingrid Bergman, with personal insights from her daughters, Pia Lindstrom and Isabella Rossellini.
Amiable and unassuming, Fred MacMurray went from small-town boy to one of Hollywood and television's most enduring stars.
Jack Lemmon made over sixty films and received numerous awards, including eight Academy Award Nominations and two Oscars. Later in life, his achievement was enriched by new challenges in which he exposed the vulnerability and emotion of the later years as few had dared. He reveled in his ongoing screen partnerships with directors like Billy Wilder and stars like Walter Matthau. Narrated on-camera by Jack Lemmon, this documentary includes interviews with Lemmon's son, the actor Chris Lemmon. Also appearing are such legends as Jack's life-long friend, the writer and director Billy Wilder, writer-director Garson Kanin, drama teacher Uta Hagen, and actor Gregory Peck. Actors Charles Durning, Maureen Stapleton, Betty Garrett, and Kevin Spacey, writer Neil Simon, director Delbert Mann, and other Hollywood luminaries help complete the profile. Clips from some of Lemmon's major films as well as archival footage add to this portrait of one of our most illustrious and productive stars
Documentary about the life and work of actress Shirley MacLaine
There is only one Yul Brynner. No other actor had his looks, his range of talents, his energy, and his capacity to draw others into the spell of his charm. A true sophisticate of deliberately mysterious origins, Yul Brynner was at home in a wide variety of languages and social environments.
The story of actor Roger Moore. Includes clips from his movies, television shows and interviews with the actor, his family and acquaintances.
The life and times of actor (The Ten Commandments) and NRA activist Charlton Heston.
A documentary about actor Michael Caine. Narrated by Caine himself, it includes interviews of his family, friends and colleagues and clips from some of his films.
There never was a star quite like her. Adored by adults and children alike, at four she already led at the Box Office - ahead of Gable and Cooper. Her films saved a movie studio from bankruptcy, and a President credited her with raising the morale of Depression-weary Americans. Her earliest movies gave a foretaste of her talents and soon would become the songs and dances that helped make those movies immortal. Here she is at her heart-stirring best in films like Little Miss Marker, Now And Forever, The Little Princess, and The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer.
Documentary - Audrey Hepburn was one of movies best-loved stars, blessed with beauty, talent, an elegant sophistication, and an enduring aura of youthful innocence. As Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF, she spoke for the world's suffering children and families, earning an affection and admiration that only increased with news of her untimely death. From the star herself we learn of her career, and the family and friendships that were her priority. Directors Billy Wilder, Blake Edwards and Stanley Donen, composer Henry Mancini, actors Gregory Peck, Mel Ferrer, George Peppard and Roger Moore, fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy and others, join Rob Wolders and Sean Ferrer to help complete this loving portrait. - Audrey Hepburn, Richard Attenborough, Richard Brown
A retrospective on the career of Robert Mitchum through interviews with friends and co-workers, scenes from his films, and the actor himself.
The tragic life and career of two-time Oscar winner Viviemn Leigh, who battled tuberculosis and manic-depression but always remained a star.
Abandoned by his father, he was a reform school kid with nothing going for him and a giant chip on his shoulder. He joined the Marines, but never stayed far from trouble. Then he discovered acting - and the woman who would be with him for most of his meteoric career. He was Steve McQueen, one of Hollywood's highest paid stars - and one of its most difficult, most rebellious and, when he wished, most charming. His story is told with film clips from his greatest performances, including The Magnificent Seven, Love With The Proper Stranger, The Cincinnati Kid, The Reivers, The Great Escape, The Thomas Crown Affair, and Bullitt. Also shown are home movies - and the recollections of those who knew him best, including Steve's first wife, Neile McQueen Toffel and their children, Terri and Chad, fellow actors Chuck Norris, Karl Malden, Don Gordon, as well as directors, producers, agents and the racing buddies who saw it all happen. Narrated by James Coburn.
It was said of him that in more than seventy films, he never once gave a bad performance. William Holden was a charming and unconventional man with a “wild streak” and a compulsion to test himself at every turn.
Documentary - Cary Grant was the very essence of a movie star: a man every woman loved and every man wanted to be. His deft comic style merged easily with his strength as a romantic leading man. But the suave exterior concealed a complex and often sensitive individual. Cary's painful journey from his lonely working-class beginnings to the peak of Hollywood royalty is made vivid through family photos, archival footage, clips from many of his films -- including his first starring role in SHE DONE HIM WRONG, following his discovery by blonde bombshell Mae West. Among friends and colleagues interviewed on-screen are Leslie Caron, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Deborah Kerr, Eva Marie Saint, Ralph Bellamy, Stanley Donen, Richard Brooks and Stanley Kramer. Narrated by Richard Kiley. - Ralph Bellamy, Richard Brooks, Michael Caine
Her story is well-known - the lonely child who yearned for affection and approval which she finally seemed to find as Hollywood's greatest love goddess. But even though she scaled heights few could even dream of, she was one of the loneliest of stars. And yet, in spite of the breakdowns, the failed marriages, the sordid rumors surrounding her life -- and her death.
Documentary - She came from a wealthy and competitive Philadelphia family, but the life of well-brought up society held little appeal for this acclaimed beauty. She left for New York City and worked hard as a model, stage actor and TV player. And then she was discovered by Hollywood. In less than four years she was acknowledged as one of movie's most sought after stars and an Academy-Award winner, playing opposite some of the greatest leading men of her time. Suddenly, like a modern-day fairy tale, Grace Kelly turned her back on it all - to become Her Serene Highness Princess Grace of Monaco.
A documentary about child actors in Hollywood, exploring their history from the early days of film.
As the first "blonde bombshell," Mae West reigned supreme and changed the nation's view of women, sex and race- on stage, in films, on radio and television. Including clips from Night After Night, She Done Him Wrong, I'm No Angel, Belle of the Nineties, and Klondike Annie. In addition to home movies and archival footage, Anthony Quinn, Rex Reed and Robert Wise provide interviews.
Known for his personification of the Western Hero, it was Montana-born Cooper's horse-riding skills that first brought him bit parts in movies. And he never lost his love of the great American outdoors. Though he rarely played a villain and was an adept comedian, Cooper is best remembered for his strong, silent heroes. With his lanky countryboy looks and shy hesitancy he created a unique screen presence, though his real life was one of sophisticated elegance. Over 100 movies brought him three Academy Award Nominations and two Academy Awards. Cooper's most memorable films include A Farewell to Arms, Mr. Deeds Goes To Town, Meet John Doe, The Pride of the Yankees and High Noon. Daughter Maria Cooper Janis and actors George C. Scott, Charlton Heston, Patricia Neal and Joan Leslie are among those appearing in this profile of one of Hollywood's greatest stars.
