Sessue Hayakawa: From sex symbol to Oscar nominee

We've been celebrating 1957 for a couple of weeks. Here's one more from Cláudio Alves

In 1957, Miyoshi Umeki became the first and only Asian woman to win an acting Oscar. However, the Best Supporting Actress champion wasn't the only Japanese performer to score an Academy Award nomination that year. Sessue Hayakawa, who played the ruthless Colonel Saito in the Best Picture winner The Bridge on the River Kwai, became the first male actor of Japanese descent to be nominated by the Academy. Unlike Umeki, who had less than a decade of experience in show business by the time she achieved Oscar glory, Hayakawa had a long history with Tinsel Town. Many decades before his nomination, when the American film industry was creating itself and Silent Cinema was entertainment for the masses, Sessue Hayakawa had been one of the first sex symbols… 

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Lana Turner. Because movie stars need love, too.

We've been celebrating 1957 these past few weeks. Please welcome our new contributor Baby Clyde...

Lana turner in "Peyton Place" and the closest she came to Oscar - presenting Red Buttons with his that same year

After nearly two decades as a topflight Hollywood star Lana Turner finally grabbed Oscar’s attention for her performance as the uptight mother Constance Mackenzie in the smash hit 1957 soap opera Peyton Place. It was to be their only serious encounter. Nobody argues that Lana was a great actress but by god was she a great Movie Star. Maybe the greatest of all in my estimation. There is no one in film history who ticks so many boxes or encapsulates so many Hollywood tropes and clichés. 

Young Judy Turner went to Hollywood High School before literally being discovered at a soda counter by the editor of the Hollywood Reporter at age 16 (See how many times I’ve used the word ‘Hollywood’ already).  Now named ‘Lana’ she made one of the most iconic debuts in movie history as the ill-fated murder victim in They Won’t Forget (1937) and was dubbed "The Sweater Girl" for the way her ample charms filled out said item of clothing...

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100 Oldest Living Oscar Winners & Nominees

We thought it was time to update our Oldest Living Oscar People list. Pick a few of these giants in 2021 and watch a couple of their movies to appreciate their gift or learn about it for the first time. Our very best wishes of good health and happiness to the following actors, directors and craftsmen who nabbed at least one Oscar honor in their career...

100 OLDEST LIVING OSCAR NOMINEES/WINNERS
LIST LAST UPDATED ON 02/02/21
To see a less Oscar-specific list, here's a bigger 'oldest living actors' list 

99 YEARS OLD

Bill Butler (4/7/21) Oscar stats: 1 nomination
The cinematographer's only nomination was for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), which he shared with Haskell Wexler but '75 also featured a gig as Director of Photography on a tiny picture called Jaws ... maybe you've heard of it? Other Key Works: He later swerved into less prestigious fare like the wildly popular Grease (1978) and multiple Rocky sequels.

Walter Mirisch (11/8/21) Oscar stats: 2 Honoraries | 1 nomination | 1 win
This producer won the Oscar for In the Heat of the Night.  Other key works: The Magnificent Seven, Dracula, Two for the Seesaw, The Hawaiians

98 YEARS OLD

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200 Oldest Living Screen Stars

We thought it was time to update this list..

200 OLDEST LIVING SCREEN STARS
last updated 06/10/2021

103 years old

Marsha Hunt (10/17/17)
This Chicago born actress made over 50 films but never achieved A list stardom (during her peak she was often just below the title) and was one of many victims of the Hollywood blacklist of the 1950s. Among her best known films: the Greer Garson version of Pride & Prejudice (she played Mary Bennett), the comedy Bride by Mistake, the family dramedy The Human Comedy (which gave Mickey Rooney a historic nomination), and the well-loved noir Raw Deal.

101 years old

Nehemiah Persoff (8/2/19)
Modern audiences probably remember him best as the loving Papa whose ears Yentl kept checking in song in Barbra Streisand's hit musical. But that was just scratching the surface of his career as he had numerous tv and film roles for decades including the voice of Papa Mousekwitz in the An American Tail movies. At the peak of his career in the 1950s he was in films like Hitchcock's The Wrong Man and the immortal comedy Some Like It Hot...  

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Joan Crawford in '47

by Cláudio Alves

After more than a decade as one of MGM's brightest and most formidable stars, the 1940s were a turning point for Joan Crawford. While she struggled to reinvent herself during these middle years of her career, many of the actress's best movies came from this phase. She left behind a series of lackluster offerings from her original studio, finding new power when carefully choosing projects at her new home, Warner Brothers. It wasn't easy, but she triumphed, winning an Oscar for 1945's Mildred Pierce and going on to get two other Best Actress nominations. More importantly, she solidified her legacy, challenged herself as an actress, and proved to everyone she was more than a flapper or talentless glamour girl.

During this period of Crawford's filmography, 1947 was a particularly auspicious year. She broke our hearts in a romantic tragedy, impressed AMPAS with explosive neurosis, and went on to star in one of Hollywood's most interesting post-war melodramas…

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