I Want My Liberace Record Back! The Gene Hackman Poll

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNDBmNDZkNjItZWYyYy00NmRhLWIyNmUtNzc4ZjQxNWYyMWM0XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjUyNDk2ODc@._V1_.jpg

She really made a positive impression on me in a lot of films, but it looks like she mostly went back to theater. She was in only half a dozen major films since Class Action and most of them didn’t make much impact. She got unlucky in picking White Sands and Consenting Adults and then after that she seems to have quit pursuing major roles. Or they stopped pursuing her? She could have been a bigger star. Maybe she got tired of it.

i don't think Class Action was a huge hit

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_Action_(film)#Reception

Yeah, I remember it didn't seem to get much attention. Apted was in the middle of the 7-Up series, she'd already done The Color of Money, Hackman was still pretty big (albeit a decade removed from his heyday), but for some reason it disappeared quickly. I'd urge anyone who hasn't seen it to give it a look. (High praise from jer.fairall above: "it diverted me long enough that I didn't throw up.")

(Oh, and Scarface. I guess I had successfully suppressed my memory of that.)

90 today!

Gene Hackman retired from acting 17 years ago, but had this recent pic taken to show he is alive and well at 91, and living in New Mexico. He goes bike riding every day and remains active and engaged with hobbies, and friends. pic.twitter.com/HzYGv7duLv

— James L Neibaur (@JimLNeibaur) August 2, 2021

(RIP Morbs)

94 today. The big six of the '70s--him, Pacino, De Niro, Hoffman, Redford, and Beatty; room for disagreement there (Eastwood a much bigger box-office star, obviously)--are all still alive.

Should we re-run this poll? (Serious question, it feels like this didn’t get many votes overall)

And Eastwood's still alive too, if you want to make it a big seven.

Nicholson

...and if you want to go there, Dern

Hackman has kept a pretty low profile since he retired, though he does go out in public where he lives. I've seen photos of him, he's out there driving and doing his thing. i'm so used to him as a burly kinda guy that to see him a lot more lean is weird, but glad he's apparently got his health and mobility.

Duh! Nicholson, yeah...Should never post on the run while out for coffee...Also, I realize Richard Pryor and Richard Roundtree had periods of big box-office success. I was thinking more awards/critical acclaim/box-office--they and Eastwood don't match the others. And yes, I was just thinking of male actors...No formula, just a dashed-off list. Do I need any more qualifiers?

it's interesting because obv there were also actors like Scheider, Dreyfuss, O'Neal, Sutherland, Wilder, Reynolds -- actors who to varying degrees were all operating at their peak level and who had critical success as well. though w/O'Neal, it could be argued he wasn't so much a fine actor as he was particularly well used for his blankness in several films.

but none of those actors really hit the iconic heights across the board of course

I don’t rate Ned Beatty as high as you do

he's out there driving and doing his thing

Someone caught him on film just this morning--looking very spry for his age.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciHMuk0VLmY

Thinking about this on the drive home, how I'd categorize them:

Nicholson, De Niro, Pacino -- first tier, the three guys who most define the decade.

Hoffman and Hackman -- a shade below; actor's actors, maybe minus some of the glamour of the three above

Redford and Beatty -- sex symbols striving for more; more serious roles, directing, etc.

The genre/action stars -- Eastwood at the top, and then Reynolds, McQueen, Roundtree, Jim Brown, Charles Bronson, etc.

After that, character actors, second-tier stars (e.g., Richard Dreyfuss), etc.

I would absolutely include Hoffman in the top tier. Including box office.

Nicholson, De Niro, Pacino -- first tier, the three guys who most define the decade.

Hoffman and Hackman -- a shade below; actor's actors, maybe minus some of the glamour of the three above

Redford and Beatty -- sex symbols striving for more; more serious roles, directing, etc.

The genre/action stars -- Eastwood at the top, and then Reynolds, McQueen, Roundtree, Jim Brown, Charles Bronson, etc.

After that, character actors, second-tier stars (e.g., Richard Dreyfuss), etc.

Where do you put Paul Newman? He slips between categories 1 and 3 for me.

He had a pretty good decade, but I still think of him as a '50s/60s guy, with a big comeback in the '80s. So I don't know where I'd put him.

Needs a separate thread, but I'd like to try actresses. The decade was grossly unfair to them. Jane Fonda would seem to stand alone at the top, but even she had to do stuff like Fun with Dick and Jane and Califonia Suite. Maybe Julie Christie, too, I don't know.

Califonia, right next door to Caledonia--say it with flair.

I still think of him as a '50s/60s guy, with a big comeback in the '80s

The Sting (1973)
The Towering Inferno (1974)
Slap Shot (1977)

That's a pretty good decade, all right.

* points at elliot gould like gen turgidson *

I thought of him, for sure. Gould and George Segal (and others, I'm sure) are almost a category unto themselves: so '70s they barely exist outside the decade. (Not meaning they didn't continue to work, just that the association is so strong.)

James Caan might be in that category too.

Again, this is not a science. You can shuffle and reconfigure them dozens of ways.

Yeah, any movie James Caan was in after Thief (1981) was received as a comeback.

The Sting is one of the highest grossing American films of all time.

Fun with Dick and Jane, after five years of activism and Godard films, was her comeback even though it's terrible.

Faye Dunaway has to be in the running if we're talking about female actors in The 1970s. But that was a decade when the new era of Hollywood really pushed male actors to the extreme forefront, maybe it was the auteurism from male directors that did this but you wound up with a lotta one-sided male gaze going on. When you look at it from that point of view, it feels like a step back from what was going on in the 1930s and 1940s and 1950s.

Knowing full well of course that Hollywood was definitely not an ideal place for women in those decades either.

Yeah, she was pretty key. Maybe Fonda, Christie, Dunaway, and Ellen Burstyn are at the top (although Burstyn's second half of the decade didn't match her first).

Dunaway, Keaton, MacLaine, Burstyn

Hell, even throw Streisand in the mix.

I love Desperate Characters, but I don't know about MacLaine in the '70s. (Didn't know--or had forgotten--she turned down The Exorcist.)

Sally Fields later in the decade...I'll start a new thread; Gene's losing his.

I'd add Liv Ullmann (two Oscar nods) and a fairly major cultural force for most of the decade.

MacLaine sat out the middle of the decade doing famous person stuff (travelled the world, did a Vegas revue) before coming back with The Turning Point.

Actress talk: You Like Me! (Actresses of the 1970s)

A cable station here aired The Conversation and Downhill Racer tonight.