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Charles Laughton Filmography
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Charles Laughton (July 1, 1899 - December 15, 1962) was a British-born American stage and film actor.
Born in 1899 at Scarborough, Yorkshire, Laughton at first went into the family business, not making his first stage appearance until 1926. Despite not having the looks for a romantic lead, he impressed audiences with his talent and played many classical roles before making his film debut in 1932. His association with the director, Alexander Korda, began with The Private Life of Henry VIII (loosely based on the life of King Henry VIII of England), for which Laughton won an Academy Award.
Later films included The Barretts of Wimpole Street
(1934), Mutiny on the Bounty
(1935), and The Hunchback of Notre Dame
(1939). In 1937 he was to have starred in an ill-fated film version of the book, I, Claudius, by Robert Graves, which was abandoned only part-way into filming. He also received an Academy Award nomination for his role in Witness for the Prosecution (1957).
Despite his homosexual inclinations, he had a long and resilient marriage to the British-born American actress, Elsa Lanchester, possibly because she had her own such inclinations according to contemporary gossip. Lanchester appeared opposite him in several films, including Rembrandt (1936). In 1950, he took American citizenship.
Laughton had one stint as a director, and the result was the legendary The Night of the Hunter (1955), starring
Robert Mitchum and Lillian Gish. This movie is often cited among critics as one of the best movies of the 1950s; unfortunately, it was a box-office flop. Laughton never had another chance to direct his own movies.
He is interred in the Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles, California.
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LiteratureNew Yorker Film Festival: The 5 Scariest Movies Ever?
Ben Greenman of the New Yorker presents his list of the five scariest movies of all time. They are: 1. ?Texas Chainsaw Massacre,? Tobe Hooper (1974) 2. ?The Silence of the Lambs,? Jonathan Demme (1991) 3. ?The Body Snatcher,? Robert Wise (1945) 4. ?Night of the Hunter,? Charles Laughton (1955) 5. ?Mulholland Drive,? David Lynch (2001) David Lynch is the master of the eerie, which has also been called the uncanny, and his strongest films successfully deliver shock-horror at the conclusion of scenes that are either comically mundane or traditionally suspenseful. Many filmgoers remember ?Mulholland Drive? mainly for Robert Blake?s creepy performance or for the lesbian subplot with Laura Elena Harring and Naomi Watts, but the film?s signal moment comes in the Winkie?s scene, which uses a highly traditional location (a diner) and traditional suspense tricks (P.O.V. shots, menacing background music) as prelude to one horrible moment. One respondent to the in-office survey put it this way: I have seen the movie many times, and every time my chest tightens up and it occurs to me that I might actually die. He?s not alone. Retrocrush.com selected this scene as the scariest moment in the history of film. Mulholland Drive is a great movie, but as far as I recall Robert Blake was in Lost Highway, not Mulholland Drive. The 5 Scariest Movies Ever?...
Published: Tue, 30 Sep 2008 05:36:11 GMT - Source: Boingboing.Net - Read the article
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