A Star is Risen!
Saturday, March 26, 2016 at 10:00AM For Easter weekend, here's Kyle Stevens author of Mike Nichols: Sex, Language and the Reinvention of Psychological Realism". You can read more about our team members here.
Stars are our larger-than-life figures. We worship them. We tell stories about them and fancy ourselves made in their images. In fact, bona fide movie star celebrity dates all the way back to 1909, when Carl Laemmle (who would later co-found Universal Studios) placed false notices of the tragic death of “the Biograph girl” in a street car accident. When it was revealed that she was alive and well, the nation rejoiced and everyone cesuddenly knew the name of Florence Lawrence. In this way, Hollywood stardom has always had not just a religious flavor but a Christian Messianic one at that.
Over the next century, countless stars have profited from the love of the resurrection narrative. Remember the elation when Barbra Streisand announced to the world that Lauren Bacall wasn’t in the tomb but gorgeous and talented and right there on-screen? And it was just two years ago that Matthew’s McConaissance brought him Oscar glory.
What are your favorite movie star resurrection stories?
Reader Comments (25)
Barbara Hershey rising back from career death triumphantly in Black Swan.
Looking back and based on the performance alone should Bacall have got the Oscar.
craver -- ooh good one. Too bad that only sent her into bad tv. but at least she's working a lot again.
i'm hoping we have a "comeback" story for Pfeiffer later this year. but that might be too much to hope for.
the best "comeback" ever has to be Judy Garland in A Star is Born though, yes?
Mickey Rourke in the Wrestler is another good one.
The two greatest career ressurrectors are Tarantino and Aronofsky.
John Travolta (Pulp Fiction), Darryl Hannah (Kill Bill), David Carradine (Kill Bill), Pam Grier (Jackie Brown), Ellen Burstyn (Requiem for a Dream), Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler), Barbara Hershey (Black Swan), the list goes on!
I also am a big fan of Bette Davis's comeback with Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, Sally Field in Lincoln and Tom Hanks in Captain Phillips, though of those three only Davis was a bonafide comeback. Field had continously been great all along on TV and theater, and Hanks never stopped working in movies, they were just not great films or demanded much of him as an actor.
Gloria Swanson, unforgettable in Sunset Boulevard. Prolific in silents and early talkies, she'd moved to NYC, done theatre and other projects and charities, and hadn't had a film hit in ages.
Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler.
Robert Redford in All is Lost.
Def NOT Jennifer Garner in 2016.
And then there are those who should never have come back - Mae West in Myra Breckinridge
Nathaniel- Yes Barbara Hershey is on TV but she is just wonderful on Once Upon a Time. My roommate started watching it because of her and now is hooked.
I would like to see Genevieve Bujold get a resurrection. I just watched Anne of a Thousand Days and she is fantastic- the best screen version of Anne Boelyn. She does come work in Canadian films but hasn't been in anything high profile in a while.
too early to say michael keaton?
Charles O: After Birdman, Spotlight and, this year, The Founder? Nope, it's not too early. Travolta's revival, after all, lasted only six years, from Pulp Fiction to Battlefield Earth.
Jessica Lange? American Horror Story added to her awards count (1st SAG, 5th Globe, 2 Emmy(s) and visibility for the industry and a new generation of fans who never knew her prior. Now she has a Gia Coppola movie with Noami Watts, will appear on Broadway again. Everyone knows she intends to retire after this run and I believe her. She may show up again in award season to extend her Oscar record to 7!
I really want Sharon Stone to have a career resurrection, but I think the chances of it happening are very slim.
My favourite off screen resurrection occurred in 1998 when Terrence Malick surfaced with The Thin Red Line. I love that film.
Ez -- ooh good call. given how meh his last couple have been maybe he should take longer with them as he used to.
Julia Roberts - after her initial run of being the it girl from pretty woman to sleeping with the enemy, she was practically declared over. She stopped working for two years and was labeled an anorexic, a drug addict by the tabloids. She returned with a hit in the pelican brief in 1993 but spent the following years making weak movies. Then she did my best friend's wedding and her second run as the biggest female moviestar of her time, from mbfw to erin brockovich culminating with her oscar win immortalizes her.
Speaking of Bacall and Streisand, frankly it is time for Barbra Streisand to have a real comeback.
I was never rooting for Barbra to do a remake of Gypsy. That ship has more than sailed, besides what mass audience would want to see that film even if it was a spectacular triumph.
Barbra did have a comeback of sorts with her portrayal of Roz Focker and we are glad for that. However, it is time for a great dramatic comeback and it does not have to be a starring role.
Remembering her glorious dramatic work in "The Way We Were", Streisand is capable of real passion and true greatness. I honestly shutter at the thought that "The Guilt Trip" might be her last big screen motion picture. BTW she was fine in the TGT but everything else about the film was so mediocre. Hopefully that marvelous film career that started in 1968 with a bang will not end in a whimper.
Joan Crawford in Mildred Pierce(1945).
She faked a pneumonia and stayed at home thinking they would give the Oscar to the America darling and favorite Ingrid Bergman with the blockbuster The Bells of St. Mary's.
Going to the Academy Awards and not winning would be
humiliating at that low point of her career when they called her a "has-been".
When she heard her name on the radio she cured herself instantly, jumped out of bed,
made her make up, put her best clothes and was ready for her close up with the press.
The success of the movie and the Oscar put her career and personal life back on
track.
Max - Streisand is looking for a Resurrection as a director. She has been signed to direct Catherine the Great by the producer of Life with Pi. Whether it will get off the ground is the question. It's a good script, let's keep our fingers crossed.
I don't think Barbra Streisand can ever sustain a comeback as an actress. She's already in her 70s and the quality of her very few films since Prince of Tides has been painfully pathetic. I used to enjoy her early performances but it's all downhill for me after A Star is Born. She's grown mannered, self-conscious over the years and seemed to be playing a variation of herself in one movie after another.
I would like to see the return of Michelle Pfeiffer and Debra Winger for starters.
My favorite comeback would probably be the entirely unexpected one effected by a lovely second string leading lady from the 30's, Gloria Stuart. In 1997 (at age 86) she reappeared out of the blue in "Titanic". Attracting media attention and fan affection way beyond anything she'd received in her youthful heyday. Also an Oscar nomination. By all accounts, it couldn't have happened to a nicer - and more accomplished - lady. Check her out sometime in "Gold Diggers of 1935". A real charmer.
Is it too late for me to add that the most exciting comeback for me in my lifetime was probably Angelica Huston. She went from being considered a "terrible" actress in some godawful early films and then showed up in Prizzi's Honor and stole the movie right out from under Jack Nicholson and Kathleen Turner, which is definitely not easy to do. Thanks Dad!
And if that hadn't have happened we wouldn't have The Grifters or Addams Family or The Witches or The Dead, etc.
PS I am also holding out hope for Barbra. Woody, build a film around her!
Your posts are really different from others.It contains good blogs Thank you for sharing really informative blogs.
Your posts are really different from others.It contains good blogs Thank you for sharing really informative blogs.