Christopher Plummer (1929-2021)

by Nathaniel R

I thought Christopher Plummer would never die. Which is to say, I thought he wouldn't die for a long time yet. The last act of his career, running roughly from the one-two punch of his second Tony win in Barrymore (1997) and his much-praised Oscar-snubbed Mike Wallace in The Insider (1999) through his mischievously pleasing star turn as Harlam Thrombley the manipulative patriarch in the surprise hit Knives Out (2019), was like a gauntlet thrown down; dare to imagine the movies without me!

We'd rather not, thank you very much. But now we sadly must with the actor's death at 91 years of age...

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Who's Next to the Triple Crown?

by Eric Blume

I’m sure we’ve all found ourselves in some sort of YouTube hole at some point during lockdown.  Mine has led me to rewatching snippets from Tony Awards ceremonies from about a decade ago.  I had completely forgotten that Eddie Redmayne had won a Tony for his work in the play Art, which is strange because I saw his performance in that show and he was staggeringly good.  He absolutely deserved that Tony.

I then realized that since he has since won an Oscar, he is only an Emmy away from the Triple Crown of Acting.  This triple-crown honor (you can see the actors who have won all three big awards of the Tony, Oscar, and Emmy here) has been nabbed by only 24 actors in the history of show business awards!  It’s a very elusive accomplishment and prestigious list of people. In just the last five years, though, there's been a lot of movement -- we've recently seen Helen Mirren, Frances McDormand, Jessica Lange, Viola Davis, and Glenda Jackson all secure this title.

That got me to thinking:  wow, it seems highly likely that Eddie Redmayne would find a big role in a series or miniseries to win that Emmy and be in this company?  He’s young, still at the top of his game, and while I don’t think he’s quite in the league of the other major actors who have won all three, he is surely a likely candidate.

But who are some others...

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Will John Lithgow Triple Crown?

by Nathaniel R

John Lithgow to play Roger Ailes

I used to suspect that John Lithgow, who is quite an awards magnet, would join our growing Triple Crown Actors list. But then the big screen portion of his triple threaded career seemed to peter out, with less prominent roles and less frequent movies. This just in: he's been cast in that increasingly starry Fox News Scandal movie alongside Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman, and Margot Robbie. He'll be playing the repulsive Roger Aisle, the main antagonist of the film. And you know how Oscar LOVES respected actors playing despicable men in the Supporting category. Perhaps he'll Triple Crown yet?

Lithgow was nominated for two consecutive Best Supporting Actor Oscars in the 1980s (The World According to Garp and Terms of Endearment). Aside from that short round of movie hoopla he's mostly concentrated on racking up Emmys (12 noms, 5 wins to date) and Tonys (6 nominations, 2 wins to date).

What's your favorite performance from this 72 year-old showbiz giant?

List-Mania: Glenda Jackson & Lots of Triple-Crown Acting Trivia

This is a update/reworking of two previous posts about Triple Crowns!

Glenda Jackson is the oldest performer (82) to complete the Triple Crown

Since I'm on record as being annoyed that all anyone cares about is the EGOT it's time to celebrate our preferred obsession: The Triple Crown of Acting. That's when a performer manages the Emmy, Oscar, and Tony. To date only 24 actors* have accomplished this, with Glenda Jackson being the most recent recipient as of this past Sunday night at the Tony Awards. Triple Crowns have become much more commonplace in the 21st century since actors move much more fluidly through the three mediums than they did in before the turn of the century. TV has totally lost its stigma for movie stars and Broadway is more welcome to very short runs freeing major stars up to continue with their movie and TV careers without as much scheduling trauma.  A TRUCKLOAD OF TRIVIA AFTER THE JUMP...

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Stage Door: Glenda Jackson in "Three Tall Women"

by Eric Blume

The Broadway revival of Edward Albee’s 1994 play Three Tall Women opens on Thursday. It stars Alison Pill, freshly Oscar nominated Laurie Metcalf, and two-time Oscar winner Glenda Jackson, who hasn’t been on an American stage in 32 years.  

Director Joe Mantello builds a stunning production.  Albee’s play, which won the Pulitzer Prize when it debuted off-Broadway in 1994, holds up beautifully, as all of his major plays do.  Albee writes in a theatrical, controlled, but go-for-broke language that soars in the way only the best theater can. Three Tall Women is a major play, like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Seascape and The Zoo Story and A Delicate Balance and The Goat, Or Who is Sylvia?.  It’s mind-boggling when you think of this man’s contribution to the theater, and the deep and compelling issues and emotions he tackled during his long career.

rehearsing Three Tall Women

Act One of Three Tall Women deals with a rich, dying old woman (Jackson), her caretaker (Metcalf), and her legal representative (Pill)... 

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