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BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors
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BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors |
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Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors From: bankley Date: 01 Dec 07 - 08:10 AM Al Jolson, Bing Crosby, Jim Nabors |
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Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors From: bankley Date: 01 Dec 07 - 08:12 AM and Oscar Levant..... a contemporary of George Gershwin |
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Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors From: John on the Sunset Coast Date: 01 Dec 07 - 10:11 AM Oh how I loved Oscar Levant! No matter the movie, or character name, he was always neurotic, chain-smoking, drinking, sarcastic Oscar Levant. He played pretty good piano too. |
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Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors From: catspaw49 Date: 01 Dec 07 - 12:39 PM Oscar Levant......He came up earlier too. I enjoyed him in almost any format, perhaps on talk shows above all else. Oscar Levant had one of the greatest love/hate relationships of all time......with himself. Tragically happy and wonderfully sad, he found himself a great joy and an impossibilty to live with. His wit was like a highly charged rapier, quick, powerful, and slashing. It could attack anyone anywhere, including himself. Of Marilyn Monroe he said something like since Marilyn had converted to Judaism, Arthur Miller could eat her. Of himself, he once said that underneath his flabby exterior was an enormous lack of character. This was really my kind of guy! If you can, read The Unimportance of Being Oscar. There are several things on YouTube including a complete show with Fred Astaire, but TRY THIS for a quick taste of Oscar Levant. Spaw |
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Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors From: Don Firth Date: 01 Dec 07 - 12:41 PM "I may not be the handsomest man in the world, but behind this flabby exterior, you will find a distinct lack of character." --Oscar Levant in An American in Paris Don Firth |
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Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors From: catspaw49 Date: 01 Dec 07 - 01:13 PM Thnaks Don for the exact quote. Spaw |
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Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors From: Little Hawk Date: 01 Dec 07 - 02:37 PM Geez! What an unsavoury and nasty little man. I must confess that I was pretty much unaware of Oscar Levant until now. He looks like a man who would have fit right in on a desert island with only Peter Lorrie, Woody Allen, and Jerry Lewis there for company. The four of them together around the campfire every night. Just think what that would have been like! ;-) |
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Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors From: John on the Sunset Coast Date: 01 Dec 07 - 03:21 PM Lorre, Allen & Lewis wouldn't have stood a chance. In fact Allen probably would have melted away from Levant's acerbic torts and retorts. |
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Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors From: Rog Peek Date: 01 Dec 07 - 03:42 PM John Leyton did a few films including "Von Ryan's Express" and of course "The Great Escape". I thought he gave a good pretty account of himself as 'Willie the Tunnel King' amoung a pretty distinguished group of actors. Rog |
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Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors From: pdq Date: 01 Dec 07 - 04:08 PM Oscar Lavant quotes (a few of many): "The first thing I do in the morning is brush my teeth and sharpen my tongue." "I'm a self-made man. Who else would help?" "I don't drink; I don't like it--it makes me feel good." "I was once thrown out of a mental hospital for depressing the other patients." "There is a thin line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line." |
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Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors From: GUEST,Neil D Date: 01 Dec 07 - 04:18 PM John, I reread your post and saw that I did indeed misinterpret it. By parsing the sentence I realize that you were saying Mr. ford was in "Best Years of Our Lives" and a Randolph Scott oater. It was the clause that through me off. Sorry if I offended. |
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Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors From: GUEST Date: 01 Dec 07 - 06:32 PM Glen Campbell gets my vote as the worst musician actor. Ricky Nelson second. I thought Hoagy did pretty well in "Old Buttermilk Sky" too. Bing Crosby is my pick as the best. DougR |
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Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors From: Sorcha Date: 01 Dec 07 - 10:04 PM At least in Alices Restaurant, Arlo was being Arlo. There was that god awful TV series he was in....I think he played an angel....once was all I could stand to watch. Just too painful. And honestly, how many 'film personas' can actually ACT? I can name a bunch that I don't think can. John Wayne, Chuck Norris, Arnold, most of the 'chop socky/hit em up' fellas. |
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Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors From: bankley Date: 02 Dec 07 - 09:22 AM besides Levant could play the hell out of the 88s, he and Gershwin had a friendly competition going on in the 'chops' dept. Talk about getting up close and personal to a master... those were the days.... |
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Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors From: bobad Date: 02 Dec 07 - 12:18 PM Having watched the Peter Sellers movie "The Party" last evening I would have to nominate Claudine Longet for the title of worst actor and singer. |
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Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors From: Janie Date: 02 Dec 07 - 12:33 PM I thought Dolly Parton did a decent job with her acting in "Steel Magnolias." I haven't seen her other flicks. |
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Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors From: bankley Date: 02 Dec 07 - 12:43 PM "Nine to Five" was more fun than "Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" |
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Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors From: Don Firth Date: 02 Dec 07 - 02:25 PM An American in Paris. Marvelously entertaining movie! It was years ago that I saw it (Hmm! I'll have to check NetFlix), but among many outstanding scenes, I recall two in particular that featured Oscar Levant. Scene in a sidewalk café: Gene Kelly, a handsome young French friend of his, and Oscar Levant are sitting at a table. Kelly and the Frenchman are both going into romantic rhapsodies about the marvelous young woman each of them has just met. They are both madly in love! And, being good friends, they are both very happy for each other. Levant, in the meantime, follows the conversation with apprehension. He knows what they don't: they're both talking about the same young woman—Leslie Caron. While nervously listening and fearing the impending revelation, he gets all mixed up between the cup of coffee he's drinking and the cigarette he's smoking. The collisions and the dunkings are absolutely hilarious! Another great scene is a dream sequence. Levant, in his reverie, is playing Gershwin. He's at the piano, of course. As the camera pans through the orchestra, one notices that it's Levant playing all the instruments—even the big cymbal clash. At the end (beautifully played, incidentally; Levant was an excellent pianist), an enthusiastic audience member is clapping wildly and shouting "Bravo! Bravo!" The camera pans up to the box, and it's Oscar Levant. Gotta love the guy!! Don Firth |
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Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors From: GUEST Date: 02 Dec 07 - 03:37 PM I second the vote for Judy Garland as best.
Thanks. -Joe Offer- |
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Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors From: Stilly River Sage Date: 02 Dec 07 - 07:00 PM Well I'm glad someone finally noticed Levant. I did name him ages ago in this thread (on Nov. 29. I said he was clever, but always seemed to paly some version of himself). I liked him in all of the films he appeared in. :) SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors From: GUEST,pattyClink Date: 03 Dec 07 - 02:27 PM Bobby Short did a fine episode of In the Heat of the Night. Robert Goulet did an extraordinary job in another one. Who knew? |
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Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors From: Flash Company Date: 04 Dec 07 - 10:14 AM The late Jerry Orbach had quite a long career on the musical stage, before going on to playing a wisecracking cop in 'Law & Order' FC |
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Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors From: Jack Blandiver Date: 04 Dec 07 - 11:25 AM Did anyone see Martin Carthy in that BBC2 (?) play - oh, must be twenty years back at least... Picked up on Napoleonic themes in folk songs, young girls dressing as men to follow their loves into battle... I'm not saying he was bad though, just that he was an acting musician. |
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Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors From: Big Al Whittle Date: 04 Dec 07 - 12:14 PM i think Martin Carthy told me one time that he'd done an acting gig at Stratford playing with the RSC. |
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Subject: RE: BS: BEST/WORST--- Musicians as Actors From: GUEST,wlisk Date: 04 Dec 07 - 01:25 PM And don't forget the late Hoyt Axton. |
