“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.” That Abraham Lincoln quote sums up the quiet, thoughtful dignity that actors have tried to portray on film for several generations now. And on screen, the 16th president has done everything from meeting Shirley Temple to fighting vampires. In honor of President’s Day, here are some of the actors who have played Honest Abe over the years.
Joseph Henabery – “The Birth of a Nation” (1915)
The racism in “The Birth of a Nation” aside, D.W. Griffith stages the assassination of Abraham Lincoln as a true national tragedy, and he does so in ravishing display, staging a scene everyone already knows but hadn’t yet visualized on film, using never before seen intercutting and sweeping wide shots as John Wilkes Booth dives from the balcony to provide ravishing tension and action.
Walter Huston – “Abraham Lincoln” (1930)
D.
Joseph Henabery – “The Birth of a Nation” (1915)
The racism in “The Birth of a Nation” aside, D.W. Griffith stages the assassination of Abraham Lincoln as a true national tragedy, and he does so in ravishing display, staging a scene everyone already knows but hadn’t yet visualized on film, using never before seen intercutting and sweeping wide shots as John Wilkes Booth dives from the balcony to provide ravishing tension and action.
Walter Huston – “Abraham Lincoln” (1930)
D.
- 2/21/2022
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
Sky, the Comcast-backed pay-tv broadcaster in the U.K., has added “outdated attitudes” disclaimers to a batch of films, including the original animated “Jungle Book,” “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and “The Last Samurai.”
Upon searching for Disney’s “The Jungle Book” on movie service Sky Cinema, a description now reads, “This film has outdated attitudes, language and cultural depictions which may cause offence today.” The same warning has been applied to Jon Favreau’s 2016 re-imagining of the classic movie.
A check of nascent streamer Disney Plus, whose content is also available on Sky under the companies’ output deal, shows that that service already makes clear that films such as the original “Jungle Book” “contains outdated cultural depictions.” As previously reported, Disney had the warnings in place around the 2019 launch of the streamer.
Altogether, some 16 films on Sky Cinema now have an attached disclaimer, including Disney’s 1941 animated film “Dumbo;” kids...
Upon searching for Disney’s “The Jungle Book” on movie service Sky Cinema, a description now reads, “This film has outdated attitudes, language and cultural depictions which may cause offence today.” The same warning has been applied to Jon Favreau’s 2016 re-imagining of the classic movie.
A check of nascent streamer Disney Plus, whose content is also available on Sky under the companies’ output deal, shows that that service already makes clear that films such as the original “Jungle Book” “contains outdated cultural depictions.” As previously reported, Disney had the warnings in place around the 2019 launch of the streamer.
Altogether, some 16 films on Sky Cinema now have an attached disclaimer, including Disney’s 1941 animated film “Dumbo;” kids...
- 6/21/2020
- by Manori Ravindran
- Variety Film + TV
The film world lost a certified legend lat last night as Shirley Temple (or Shirley Temple Black as she was known after she got married to Charles Black and retired from acting in her 20′s) passed away at the age of 85. She died of natural causes and obviously led a long life, much of it spent in front of the camera. Perhaps the most famous child star of all time, Temple Black was a giant in the industry for sure, and made her impact as a young girl, which makes that even more astounding. One of the biggest box office draws of her time and easily the youngest A-lister ever, Temple Black was able to command a record salary of $50,000 a picture. That might not sound like a huge amount now, but this was the 1930′s, so that was a massive sum of money to earn. That alone puts her in the history books.
- 2/11/2014
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
Shirley Temple Black, the one-time child star whose precocious acting ability, cheery demeanor and innocent face made her one of the biggest draws of the 1930s, died on Monday night at her home in California. She was 85.
From the age of six to ten Shirley Temple was once one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. While the rest of the nation was mired in the Great Depression Shirley Temple sang and danced her way through it in films such as Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Little Miss Marker, Heidi and The Little Princess.
Shirley Temple was born on April 23, 1928 in Santa Monica, California, the third and youngest child (and only girl) of George Francis Temple, a bank teller, and Gertrude Krieger, a supremely willful stage mother (Temple dedicated her autobiography to her). Her parents noticed an innate sense of rhythm and extroverted presence as early as eight months in Shirley. She was put in acting classes by the age of three and was starring in a series of cloying shorts in 1932 and ’33, as well as assaying bit parts in larger films.
It was her performance of “Baby Takes a Bow” in 1934’s Stand Up and Cheer, a film that debuted in May, that thrust her into prominence. She was obviously a natural in front of the camera with a wide range of talent. She could sing. She could dance. She could act. Fox signed her on and, by the end of the same year, which also held the hits Little Miss Marker and Bright Eyes (where she famously sang “On the Good Ship Lollipop”) and several other roles, Shirley Temple was a star. A mere nine months after Stand Up and Cheer hit screens, in February of 1935, she received a special “Juvenile Award” at the Oscars “in grateful recognition of her outstanding contribution to screen entertainment during the year 1934.”
For the next few years the public couldn’t get enough of her. Exhibitors named her the top box-office attraction of 1935 (when she sang “Animal Crackers” in Curly Top) - 1938. A non-alcoholic drink was named after her (a mixture of ginger ale and grenadine) and a cottage industry sprang up around her likeness including dolls, coloring books, and dress lines. She tapped alongside Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, in The Littlest Rebel, starred in John Ford’s Wee Willie Winkie and several Allan Dwan films, Heidi and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. (Graham Greene’s review of Winkie, where he accused Temple of being an adult impersonating a child, and where he impugned the motives for older men’s attraction to her, caused such an uproar that Night and Day, the magazine in which the review was published, shortly thereafter was bankrupted and folded.)
Temple was the natural pick to play Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz but Fox wouldn’t loan its star out so Judy Garland got the role. It was a turning point in both their careers.
As she matured, Hollywood and the audience, now veterans of World War II, and seemingly unable to reconcile the fact that the cherubic star had become a comely young woman, looked elsewhere. Temple was no longer the compliant child but a willful ingénue. After two flops she canceled her contract with Fox and moved over to MGM but fared no better there.
At 17 she wed fellow actor John Agar but the marriage fell apart five years later. Temple, now divorced with a child, lost her interest in movie-making. The audience too moved on. She became a cautionary tale in many circles, an example of the loose morals and bad ends destined for Hollywood types. Her talent agency, MCA, unceremoniously dropped her and Temple’s meteoric career was over. She wasn’t yet 21.
Later life included several quickly-canceled variety shows but she attained a second act as a public figure and politician, even running for office in the vacant Republican seat in her congressional district. In 1968 President Richard Nixon appointed her as the US representative at the United Nations and she became an ambassador to Ghana from 1974-1976. She later also held the post of US Chief of protocol and ambassador to Czechoslovakia (appointed by President George H.W. Bush).
Shortly after her divorce from Agar Shirley Temple met and married Charles Black, a TV executive. They were married for 55 years, until his death, and had two children together.
From the age of six to ten Shirley Temple was once one of the biggest stars in Hollywood. While the rest of the nation was mired in the Great Depression Shirley Temple sang and danced her way through it in films such as Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Little Miss Marker, Heidi and The Little Princess.
Shirley Temple was born on April 23, 1928 in Santa Monica, California, the third and youngest child (and only girl) of George Francis Temple, a bank teller, and Gertrude Krieger, a supremely willful stage mother (Temple dedicated her autobiography to her). Her parents noticed an innate sense of rhythm and extroverted presence as early as eight months in Shirley. She was put in acting classes by the age of three and was starring in a series of cloying shorts in 1932 and ’33, as well as assaying bit parts in larger films.
It was her performance of “Baby Takes a Bow” in 1934’s Stand Up and Cheer, a film that debuted in May, that thrust her into prominence. She was obviously a natural in front of the camera with a wide range of talent. She could sing. She could dance. She could act. Fox signed her on and, by the end of the same year, which also held the hits Little Miss Marker and Bright Eyes (where she famously sang “On the Good Ship Lollipop”) and several other roles, Shirley Temple was a star. A mere nine months after Stand Up and Cheer hit screens, in February of 1935, she received a special “Juvenile Award” at the Oscars “in grateful recognition of her outstanding contribution to screen entertainment during the year 1934.”
For the next few years the public couldn’t get enough of her. Exhibitors named her the top box-office attraction of 1935 (when she sang “Animal Crackers” in Curly Top) - 1938. A non-alcoholic drink was named after her (a mixture of ginger ale and grenadine) and a cottage industry sprang up around her likeness including dolls, coloring books, and dress lines. She tapped alongside Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, in The Littlest Rebel, starred in John Ford’s Wee Willie Winkie and several Allan Dwan films, Heidi and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. (Graham Greene’s review of Winkie, where he accused Temple of being an adult impersonating a child, and where he impugned the motives for older men’s attraction to her, caused such an uproar that Night and Day, the magazine in which the review was published, shortly thereafter was bankrupted and folded.)
Temple was the natural pick to play Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz but Fox wouldn’t loan its star out so Judy Garland got the role. It was a turning point in both their careers.
As she matured, Hollywood and the audience, now veterans of World War II, and seemingly unable to reconcile the fact that the cherubic star had become a comely young woman, looked elsewhere. Temple was no longer the compliant child but a willful ingénue. After two flops she canceled her contract with Fox and moved over to MGM but fared no better there.
At 17 she wed fellow actor John Agar but the marriage fell apart five years later. Temple, now divorced with a child, lost her interest in movie-making. The audience too moved on. She became a cautionary tale in many circles, an example of the loose morals and bad ends destined for Hollywood types. Her talent agency, MCA, unceremoniously dropped her and Temple’s meteoric career was over. She wasn’t yet 21.
Later life included several quickly-canceled variety shows but she attained a second act as a public figure and politician, even running for office in the vacant Republican seat in her congressional district. In 1968 President Richard Nixon appointed her as the US representative at the United Nations and she became an ambassador to Ghana from 1974-1976. She later also held the post of US Chief of protocol and ambassador to Czechoslovakia (appointed by President George H.W. Bush).
Shortly after her divorce from Agar Shirley Temple met and married Charles Black, a TV executive. They were married for 55 years, until his death, and had two children together.
- 2/11/2014
- by Keith Simanton
- IMDb News
Curly Top and The Little Princess weren't just movie titles. They were apt descriptions for the sensational Shirley Temple. News of the death of the former child star - whose charm and career were arguably unmatched in the Sound Era of movies - was announced Tuesday. She was 85. Having helped cheer up the nation during the Depression - as well as movie audiences mourning the 1935 fatal plane crash of the beloved folk humorist and radio and screen star Will Rogers - "she came along at the very right moment," film historian Leonard Maltin told People Tuesday morning. "At a time...
- 2/11/2014
- by Stephen M. Silverman
- PEOPLE.com
Cherubic child star of the 1930s who returned to public life as a Us diplomat
From 1934 to 1938, when she was at the height of her fame, Shirley Temple (later known as Shirley Temple Black), who has died aged 85, appeared in films as a bright-eyed, curly-topped, dimpled cherub, whose chirpy singing and toddler's tap dancing were perfect antidotes to the depression. "During this depression, when the spirit of the people is lower than at any other time, it is a splendid thing that, for just 15 cents, an American can go to a movie and look at the smiling face of a baby and forget his troubles," Franklin D Roosevelt stated in 1935, referring to the world's biggest and littlest star.
Temple's message was "be optimistic", the title of the song she sang in Little Miss Broadway (1938). Her biggest hit songs were On the Good Ship Lollipop, from Bright Eyes (1934), which describes a...
From 1934 to 1938, when she was at the height of her fame, Shirley Temple (later known as Shirley Temple Black), who has died aged 85, appeared in films as a bright-eyed, curly-topped, dimpled cherub, whose chirpy singing and toddler's tap dancing were perfect antidotes to the depression. "During this depression, when the spirit of the people is lower than at any other time, it is a splendid thing that, for just 15 cents, an American can go to a movie and look at the smiling face of a baby and forget his troubles," Franklin D Roosevelt stated in 1935, referring to the world's biggest and littlest star.
Temple's message was "be optimistic", the title of the song she sang in Little Miss Broadway (1938). Her biggest hit songs were On the Good Ship Lollipop, from Bright Eyes (1934), which describes a...
- 2/11/2014
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
She was far and away the most popular child actress of all time and at her prime, she was the most recognized star in the world. Shirley Temple’s sweet charisma and loveable voice lifted the spirit of depression-era America in a series of incredibly successful films throughout the 1930′s such as The Little Colonel, Curly Top (which featured her signature song ‘Animal Crackers in My Soup’), Rebecca Of Sunnybrook Farm, and The Littlest Rebel. Before those, when she was just three and four, Ms Temple starred in a series of politically incorrect ‘Baby Burlesque’ shorts, which featured its toddler cast members clad in adult costumes on the top and diapers fastened with large safety pins on the bottom (I’ve shown a couple of these at my Super-8 Movie Madness show to astounded audiences). In 1945, she married cult actor John Agar and co-starred with him in John Ford’s...
- 2/11/2014
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Shirley Temple, the dimpled, curly-haired child star who sang, danced, sobbed and grinned her way into the hearts of Depression-era moviegoers, has died, according to publicist Cheryl Kagan. She was 85. Temple, known in private life as Shirley Temple Black, died at her home near San Francisco. A talented and ultra-adorable entertainer, Shirley Temple was America's top box-office draw from 1935 to 1938, a record no other child star has come near. She beat out such grown-ups as Clark Gable, Bing Crosby, Robert Taylor, Gary Cooper and Joan Crawford. In 1999, the American Film Institute ranking of the top 50 screen legends ranked Temple at No.
- 2/11/2014
- by Associated Press
- PEOPLE.com
No. 75: Shirley Temple 1928-
The daughter of a bank clerk, she was born in Santa Monica, a bus ride from Hollywood, and thrust into the movies at the age of three by a fanatically ambitious mother. In her sixth year, she went from supporting to starring roles, had two hit songs ("Baby Take a Bow", "The Good Ship Lollipop"), and was the eighth biggest box-office attraction in America. For the next five years, her confidence as a performer and brilliance as a mimic (in Stowaway she impersonated Eddie Cantor, Al Jolson, Bing Crosby, Ginger Rogers and Alice Faye in one virtuoso sequence, as well as conversing in Chinese) made her the biggest child phenomenon ever known. She was 20th Century Fox's greatest asset, the centre of a little industry of commercial spin-offs, the sweet, curly-haired, dimpled kid that every mother wanted her daughter to look like and the top-ranking Hollywood star,...
The daughter of a bank clerk, she was born in Santa Monica, a bus ride from Hollywood, and thrust into the movies at the age of three by a fanatically ambitious mother. In her sixth year, she went from supporting to starring roles, had two hit songs ("Baby Take a Bow", "The Good Ship Lollipop"), and was the eighth biggest box-office attraction in America. For the next five years, her confidence as a performer and brilliance as a mimic (in Stowaway she impersonated Eddie Cantor, Al Jolson, Bing Crosby, Ginger Rogers and Alice Faye in one virtuoso sequence, as well as conversing in Chinese) made her the biggest child phenomenon ever known. She was 20th Century Fox's greatest asset, the centre of a little industry of commercial spin-offs, the sweet, curly-haired, dimpled kid that every mother wanted her daughter to look like and the top-ranking Hollywood star,...
- 11/22/2009
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
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