Brando His Second Oscar example essay topic

In the 50's, several things happened to shock and awe the entertainment business; such as the invention of the teleprompter, TV's first soap opera, "The Little Rascals" TV show, and the "I Love Lucy" TV show. But the most important thing about the entertainment in the 50's was the actors and actresses. Through out the 50's there were hundreds of actors and actresses. To name a few Vivien Leigh, Audrey Hepburn, Marlon Brando, Grace Kelly, Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn, Burt Lancaster, Bing Crosby, Dorothy Dandridge, Judy Garland, Elizabeth Taylor, and Doris Day.

Each of these performers have received Oscars nods for their played roles. Audrey Hepburn was born on May 4, 1929 in Belgium. Hepburn was a cosmopolitan from birth as her father was an English banker and her mother a Dutch baroness. In the movies she appeared as a delicate adolescent, a look which remained until her last movie Always (1989) directed by Steven Spielberg. Her career as actress began in the English cinema and after having been selected for the Broadway musical 'Gigi's he debuted in Hollywood in 1953. With Roman Holiday (1953) she won an oscar; her favorite genres were the comedies like Sabrina (1954) or Love in the Afternoon (1957).

At the end of the sixties she retired from Hollywood but appeared from time on the set for a few films. From 1988 on she worked also for UNICEF. Born Marlon Brando, Jr. on April 3, 1924 in Omaha, Nebraska to a calcium carbonate salesman and his artistically inclined wife Dorothy, 'Bud' Brando was one of three children. An enigmatic superstar widely regarded as America's greatest actor, Marlon Brando has been a Hollywood icon since the early 1950's. Brando was by all accounts 'difficult' even as a youngster, having been expelled from see era l schools, including a military academy. Upon being prodded by his father to find some direction for himself, he chose to follow his muse to New York.

Brando made his debut on the boards of Broadway. Brando was invited by talent scouts to screen test for the studios they represented, but it came to naught as he refused to be bound by the then-standard seven-year contract. Brando made his screen debut in The Men (1950), studying for his part as an embittered paraplegic by lying in bed for a month at a veterans' hospital. The following year Brando reprise d his characterization for the adaptation of Street- car earning the first of four consecutive Academy Award nominations for Best Actor. Brando fi- n ally struck Oscar gold that year for his work in On the Waterfront. His com- p lex portrayal of Terry Malloy, a washed-up boxer turned mob stooge and informant, became a landmark of Amer- i can cinema.

The actor's few forays in screen comedy, including Bedtime Story (1964) and Charlie Chaplin's ill-fated A Countess From Hong Kong (1967), nearly sank his career; indeed, by the end of the decade, Brando was nearly a forgotten figure. That remarkable performance in The Godfather (1972) not only netted Brando his second Oscar, but restored the luster to his tarnished reputation. Brando amplified his renewed notoriety by sending a young woman in Indian costume to refuse the award, based on the actor's outrage over the plight of Native Americans. He snagged yet another Oscar nomination for his work in Last Tango in Paris (1973), playing a middle-aged man carnally involved with a young stranger. Since delivering those two milestone performances, Brando has worked less frequently, appearing both in brilliant movies and silly ones based exclusively on a producer's willingness to pay his exorbitant fee. For all his eccentricities, Brando remains one of the most powerful, arresting, and unpredictable actors in film history.

Marlon Brando died on July 1, 2004 in LA of pulmonary fibrosis. On November 12, 1929, Grace Patricia Kelly was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to wealthy parents. Her girlhood was uneventful for the most part, but one of the things she desired was to become an actress which she had decided on at an early age. After her high school graduation in 1947, Grace struck out on her own, heading to New York's bright lights to try her luck there.

Grace worked some as a model and made her debut on Broadway in 1949. She also made a brief foray into the infant medium of television. Not content with the work in New York, Grace moved to Southern California for the more prestigious part of acting -- motion pictures. In 1951, she appeared in her first film. She did two movies through out the next two years. Grace stayed busy in 1954 appearing in five films.

Grace would forever be immortalized by winning the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Georgie Elgin opposite Bing Crosby in The Country Girl. In 1955, Grace once again teamed with Hitchcock in To Catch a Thief (1955) co-starring Cary Grant. In 1956, she played Tracy Lord in the musical comedy High Society (1956) which also starred Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby. The whimsical tale ended with her re-marrying her former husband, played by Crosby. The film was well received.

It also turned out to be her final acting performance. Grace had recently met and married 'Prince Rainier' of the little principality of Monaco. By becoming a princess, she gave up her career. For the rest of her life, she was to remain in the news with her marriage and her three children. On September 14, 1982, Grace was killed in an automobile accident in her adoptive home country. She was just 52 years old.

Bing Crosby was the fourth of seven children of a Tacoma, Washington, brewery bookkeeper Harry Lowe Crosby and Kate Harrigan Crosby. He studied law at Gonzaga University in Spokane but was more interested in playing the drums and singing with a local band. Bing and the band's piano player, Al Rinker, left Spokane for Los Angeles in 1925. In the early 1930's Bing's brother Everett sent a record of Bing singing 'I Surrender, Dear' to the president of CBS. His live performances from New York were carried over the national radio network for 20 consecutive weeks in 1932.

His radio success led Paramount Pictures to include him in Big Broadcast of 1932, The (1932), a film featuring radio favorites. His songs about not needing a bundle of money to make life happy was the right message for the decade of the Great Depression. His relaxed, low key style carried over into the road comedies made with Bob Hope. He won the best actor Oscar for playing an easy going priest in Going My Way (1944). He showed that he was indeed an actor as well as a performer when he played an alcoholic down on his luck opposite Grace Kelly in The Country Girl (1954). Playing golf was what he liked to do best.

He died at age 74 playing golf at a course outside Madrid -- after completing a tour of England that had included a sold-out engagement at the London Palladium. Elizabeth Taylor was born in London, England on February 27, 1932. Although she was born an English subject, her parents were Americans who were art dealers from St. Louis, Missouri. Her father had gone to London to set up a gallery. Her mother had been an actress on the stage, but gave up that vocation when she married. Elizabeth lived in London for the first seven years of her life before the family left when the dark clouds of war began brewing in 1939.

The family sailed without her father who stayed behind to wrap up the loose ends of the art business. The family relocated to Los Angeles, California where Mrs. Taylor's own family had moved. Mr. Taylor followed not long afterward. A family friend noticed the beautiful little Elizabeth and suggested that she be taken for a screen test. She passed and was signed to a contract with Universal Studios. Throughout her career Taylor has had over 250 TV and big screen appearances.

Taylor has been married eight times. Taylor is considered one of the last, if not the last major star, to have come out of the old Hollywood studio system. And not just any studio, the top of the heap: MGM. Her early movies, as a child in the early 1940's, starred such Hollywood luminaries as Orson Welles and Spencer Tracy. She quickly grew up, however, and by 1950 was, if not starring in, assuming major responsibilities for the success of motion pictures she appeared in. Then with major roles onscreen, came worldwide attention off-screen, most notably due to a succession of famous and / or rich husbands and a series of health crises throughout her life.

To put it simply, Elizabeth Taylor has lived a life far more exciting and dramatic than any movie she's ever appeared in and probably most any other movie you could name. She's known internationally for her beauty, especially for those violet eyes, with which she captured audiences early on in her youth and has kept the world hooked on ever since. She's won the Oscar twice and she's earned her place in and out of the sun. These actors and actresses are just a few of the many remembered and celebrated talents in the entertainment business of the 50's.