So long Mr. Peck......
Hollywood star Gregory Peck has died at age 87. With his passing one more true old fashioned "film star" has left us and will make us wonder whether any more film greats of this sort will arise.
There are many movie and media entertainment stars today, but true film stars may be a thing of the past. The film stars of Hollywood's Golden Era, I think, weren't so much worried about their mass market appeal or their commercial success as they were their craft. No, they tended to concern themselves with making great pictures, improving their performances and in securing meaningful roles that told a story and had depth. They made some bombs along the way, but by and large, the film stars had one or perhaps several films that are rated as classics. Such was the case with Gregory Peck. His role as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, has been rated by the public as the #1 hero in filmdom.
The stars of today, seem to take any role that will make them a dime. They are bombarded upon us with interviews, tabloid stories, talk show appearances and they become too familiar. Familiarity breeds contempt, or at least boredom with them. In thinking of names who are big stars today, I quickly come up with people like Mel Gibson and Harrison Ford. Good actors with some really good entertaining films.......lot's of them. Too many of them. We are over saturated with Mel and Harrison, their mystique is gone. On the other side is someone like Meryl Streep. She remains, in my mind, aloof and out of the public eye. Until, she rises from her private world to make another great film. At which time I am awed by her talent and say to myself, "What a great actor, where has she been lately?" She's an old time star, like Gregory Peck and I am sorry there are not more like them.
Hollywood star Gregory Peck has died at age 87. With his passing one more true old fashioned "film star" has left us and will make us wonder whether any more film greats of this sort will arise.
There are many movie and media entertainment stars today, but true film stars may be a thing of the past. The film stars of Hollywood's Golden Era, I think, weren't so much worried about their mass market appeal or their commercial success as they were their craft. No, they tended to concern themselves with making great pictures, improving their performances and in securing meaningful roles that told a story and had depth. They made some bombs along the way, but by and large, the film stars had one or perhaps several films that are rated as classics. Such was the case with Gregory Peck. His role as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, has been rated by the public as the #1 hero in filmdom.
The stars of today, seem to take any role that will make them a dime. They are bombarded upon us with interviews, tabloid stories, talk show appearances and they become too familiar. Familiarity breeds contempt, or at least boredom with them. In thinking of names who are big stars today, I quickly come up with people like Mel Gibson and Harrison Ford. Good actors with some really good entertaining films.......lot's of them. Too many of them. We are over saturated with Mel and Harrison, their mystique is gone. On the other side is someone like Meryl Streep. She remains, in my mind, aloof and out of the public eye. Until, she rises from her private world to make another great film. At which time I am awed by her talent and say to myself, "What a great actor, where has she been lately?" She's an old time star, like Gregory Peck and I am sorry there are not more like them.
