The Best Actors

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This week The Best Actors tells you about Jose Ferrer, who won an Oscar for his fabulous performance in the classic romance, CYRANO DE BERGERAC. Ferrer's spanned over fifty years and included award-winning turns in film and on the stage. He directed productions in both mediums. Although not often spoken about these days, Jose Ferrer was an impressive entertainer whose accomplishments deserve to be remembered. Not to mention, he has some very famous present day relatives!

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This week, I highlight the terrific Oscar-winning performance by Broderick Crawford as politician Willy Stark in ALL THE KING'S MEN. Prior to his Academy Award, Crawford mostly acted in "B" pictures, and afterwards, he mostly took on supporting roles in films, but he also became a mainstay in the then new medium of television, where he struck financial, if not exactly artistic, gold.

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Laurence Olivier is widely considered to be one of the greatest actors of the twentieth century, and sometimes THE greatest. In this episode of The Best Actors, I'll examine Olivier's considerable Oscar legacy (10 nominations), his life and loves, his award-winning performance in HAMLET, and one of the gayest acting nomination line-ups to date. 

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Ronald Colman—a handsome actor with a warm, cultivated voice—was rewarded with an Oscar for his multi-faceted performance in A DOUBLE LIFE. In this episode, I explore Colman's biography and filmography, and I discuss the movie that won him Hollywood's highest accolade, which came at the sunset of his acting career.

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Fredric March won his second Oscar for one of the all-time classics, William Wyler's THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES, a moving drama about returning World War II veterans. In this episode, I talk about March's career since his first Oscar win in 1932, but I also do a deeper dive into the making of the movie itself, including supporting actor Harold Russell, and his unique place in Academy Award history.

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Bing Crosby was the most popular entertainer in the USA during the 1940's. His  Academy Award in 1944 for GOING MY WAY was a coronation of that status. Although Crosby was a megastar, modern audiences might view his Oscar somewhat skeptically. In this episode, I speak about Crosby's amazing success in several media, and how his win is in a grand Oscar tradition of awarding the performer and not the performance.

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Paul Lukas, a Hungarian-born actor, had a long Hollywood career, yet when he is remembered, it is mostly for a few supporting roles and one moment of Oscar glory. He took thje prize for his role as Kurt Müller, a German fighter in the anti-Nazi underground, in an adaptation of Lillian Hellman's play WATCH ON THE RHINE. In this episode, I offer an overview of Lukas's life and career, and of the performance that won against one of the most iconographic movie heroes of all time.

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In this week's episode, Jimmy Cagney wins a well-deserved Academy Award for his role in YANKEE DOODLE DANDY, the first actor to win for a musical performance. All the more surprising, because Cagney was much better known for playing tough guys and gangsters. Nonetheless, he was almost always a live-wire on screen, and fun to watch!

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Gary Cooper, one of Hollywood's most handsome leading men, won the first of his two Academy Awards for playing Alvin York, a much-decorated hero of World War I.  this episode, we learn about the path that led Cooper to Hollywood, and how his Oscar victory coincided with the changing mood of America. 

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James Stewart, who won an Oscar for his comic role in THE PHILADELPHIA STORY, is one of the all-time greats, someone who deftly adapted a familiar on-screen personality to a wide range of characters. In this episode, I examine the volatile times when Jimmy got his Academy Award, and look at several of his iconic roles.