Thursday Thirteen #60: Cast Against Type

Thirteen Performers Who Were Cast Against Type

In the case of many performers, they get associated with a specific character type. On some occasions, the performer spreads their wings and takes on a role that is totally uncharacteristic from what we are used to seeing. Below are 13 examples of performers who took a chance by getting out of their acting comfort zone.

If you know of other examples where performers played against type, please feel free to list them in the comments section.

1. Lucille Ball- The funny redhead played a tough New York bag lady in the 1985 TV movie Stone Pillow.

















2. Harry Belafonte- The smooth "Day-O" man appeared as Vito Corleone-like mobster Geechie Dan in the 1974 comedy Uptown Saturday Night.











3. Humphrey Bogart- The legendary tough guy played a gold prospector consumed by greed and paranoia in the 1948 classic Treasure of the Sierra Madre.













4. Diahann Carroll- The picture of class and elegance, Ms. Carroll glammed down to play a welfare mother of six in the 1974 comedy-drama Claudine.
















5. Tony Curtis- Best known for playing light leading man roles, Curtis turned in arguably the best performance of his career as a slimy unscrupulous press agent in the 1957 drama Sweet Smell of Success.













6. Rodney Dangerfield- The legendary comic surprised many with his turn as the abusive father of Juliette Lewis in the 1994 film Natural Born Killers.










7. Bette Davis- The Warner Bros. diva earned her seventh Oscar nomination as an insecure spinster who finds love in the 1942 romantic drama Now, Voyager.













8. John Garfield- Best known for his roles as tough and cynical rebels, Garfield (pictured with co-star Anne Shirley) switched gears to play mild-mannered dreamer Rims Rosson in the 1940 comedy-drama Saturday's Children.
















9. Andy Griffith- Widely known for playing such homespun nice guys as Sheriff Andy Taylor and lawyer Ben Matlock, Griffith was absolutely terrifying as a psychotic father in the 1995 TV movie Gramps.
















10. Gene Kelly- The dapper song and dance man demonstrated his dramatic skills as cynical newspaperman E.K. Hornbeck in the 1960 film Inherit the Wind.
















11. Richard Pryor- The controversial funny man showed off his serious side in the 1977 factory drama Blue Collar.











12. Edward G. Robinson- Best known for playing tough gangsters, Robinson portrayed a milquetoast clerk in the 1945 drama Scarlet Street.












13. Denzel Washington- The good guy leading man shocked many of us with his frightening Oscar-winning portrayal of rogue cop Alonzo Harris in the 2001 movie Training Day.
















Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

TCM Tribute To Paul Newman

In honor of Paul Newman, Turner Classic Movies will air a tribute to the late actor on Sunday, October 12th, replacing the current scheduled programming with the following films:

6:00 AM The Rack
8:00 AM Until They Sail
10:00 AM Torn Curtain
12:15 PM Exodus
3:45 PM Sweet Bird of Youth
6:00 PM Hud
8:00 PM Somebody Up There Likes Me
10:00 PM Cool Hand Luke
12:15 AM Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
2:15 AM Rachel, Rachel (Newman directed, but did not star, in this film)
4:00 AM The Outrage

Damn Amanda! Apparently Allison Isn't the Only One With A Drinking Problem

Former Melrose Place star Heather Locklear was pulled over Saturday afternoon on a DUI charge. For more on the story, click here.

Final Results of the Mark Cuban Poll

By an overwhelming margin, most of you felt that Mark Cuban was right to post the hate emails he received (including the names and email addresses of the senders). As with many topics, there is no real right or wrong answer. However, as Mark Cuban said, hopefully something good came from the emails being posted.

Here are the final results:

Right- 75%
Wrong 25%

Paul Newman 1925-2008

On Saturday morning I learned that one of my favorite actors, Academy Award winner Paul Newman, died on Friday at the age of 83 after a battle with cancer. Even though I knew through news reports about a month ago that it was unlikely that Paul would live to see 2009, his death still hit me. One of the things I liked about Paul's screen persona is that he had a nice balance of easygoing charm for the ladies to go along with a cool, rebellious nature that guys could appreciate too. Even though he had the physical looks that some might term "pretty boy", he never played it up to the point where guys in the audience wanted to punch his lights out.

Below are 5 of my favorite Paul Newman roles:

1. Lucas Jackson (Cool Hand Luke)
2. "Fast" Eddie Felson (The Hustler, The Color of Money)
3. Chance Wayne (The Sweet Bird of Youth)
4. Henry Gondorff (The Sting)
5. Donald J. "Sully" Sullivan (Nobody's Fool)

Besides liking Paul Newman the actor, I respected Paul Newman the man. Throughout his career, he remained active in both social causes (Paul was one of many celebrities to participate in the March on Washington in 1963), as well as charitable ones (according to the Newman's Own website, the franchise has given over $250 million in proceeds to charities worldwide). Along with his philanthropy, I also admired Paul Newman's stance on marriage. In an industry where couples sometimes are headed to divorce court before the ink is dry on their marriage certificate, Newman's 50 year union with his second wife (award-winning actress Joanne Woodward) was one of the most enduring in the world of entertainment. When asked about infidelity, Paul responded "Why go out for hamburger when you have steak at home?"

Once Turner Classic Movies announces their lineup change in order to pay tribute to Paul Newman, I'll post the information.

Below is a montage of scenes from Paul Newman's legendary film career:

Retro Mix Playlist For 9/26/08

7 pm hour

Heart of Glass- Blondie
I Missed the Bus- Kriss Kross
Nobody- Keith Sweat
Are We Ourselves- The Fixx
Give Me Just A Little More Time- Chairmen of the Board
Hey Big Brother- Rare Earth
Free Your Mind- En Vogue
You Little Trustmaker- The Tymes

Common Thread segment: 63rd birthday tribute to singer Bryan Ferry
Love Is the Drug- Roxy Music
More Than This- Roxy Music
Avalon- Roxy Music
Kiss and Tell (solo)

Slam- Onyx
Sister Fate- Sheila E.

8 pm hour

Are You Gonna Go My Way- Lenny Kravitz
You're All I Got Tonight- The Cars
I Want You To Want Me- Cheap Trick
Mexican Radio- Wall of Voodoo
Where It's At- Beck
Sex O Matic Venus Freak- Macy Gray
Motownphilly- Boyz II Men
Hot Number- Foxy
Teach Your Children- Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young
A Campfire Song- 10,000 Maniacs
Let's Go Dancin' (Ooh, La, La, La)- Kool & the Gang
Wishing Well- Terence Trent D'Arby
Up In A Puff of Smoke- Polly Brown
It's My Life- Talk Talk
Until It Sleeps- Metallica

Retro Mix Video of the Week: More Than This by Roxy Music

Please Take A Moment To Vote In the Current Mark Cuban Poll... Thank You

As some of you may know, last week a huge controversy erupted surrounding Dallas Mavericks forward Josh Howard. Back in July, he played in fellow NBA star Allen Iverson's charity flag football game. During the National Anthem Howard said, "The Star-Spangled Banner is going on. I don’t even celebrate that shit. I’m black." He then went on to make a comment referencing Barack Obama followed by another expletive. This incident was filmed using a cell phone camera and was then uploaded to You Tube.

As a result of Josh Howard's foolish comments, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban was besieged with hate mails directed at Howard. Not only did Cuban post a sampling of the emails on his blog (Blog Maverick), he included the names and email addresses of the people who sent the offensive messages. However, on the next day (Sept. 19th), he deleted the post and wrote a follow up explaining why he did. You can read that post here. Although I didn't get a chance to read the offensive emails before Cuban deleted them, I did find a couple of them here. A sports radio station that I listen to did a segment on the topic last Friday in which one of the hosts read some of the offensive emails. You can listen to them by first clicking here and then clicking the "Listen" button under the heading "Cuban Reacts to Hate Mail 9/19". Just to warn you, some of the emails the host read were extremely disgusting.

Although I can understand Cuban's change of heart, I wouldn't have had a problem if he decided not to delete the post. If people want to be racist jackasses, they deserve to be exposed. It's not like Cuban hacked into someone else's computer and posted the messages/email addresses. The perpetrators chose to contact him.

Retro Commercial: Blip

Do the weirdest things from years ago ever pop into your mind for no reason? That's what happened to me when I was fixing a turkey burger sandwich yesterday evening. While getting all my condiments (Miracle Whip, lettuce, and tomatoes) lined up as my turkey burger was being heated, I started to think about the portable electronic game from the late 1970s called Blip. Very similar to the even more primitive Pong, Blip involved an LED (light emitting diode) that bounced back and forth across the screen... all you had to do was press the right button to send it back. Watching this commercial makes me laugh at how easy we were entertained back in the day. Hell, Blip became dated once the "state-of-art" Atari 5200 hit the market in 1982!

Even though it's been over 30 years, this is one of those commercials that never seeped out of my cranium. Probably because it not only played constantly, but the theme song was annoyingly catchy too (Blip blip blip blip blip blip blip blip blip blip blip blip blip blip....). After watching this commercial just once, you may wish you had the actual game Blip. Not to actually play it, but to smash it to pieces in frustration because you can't get that damn song out of your head!

Thursday Thirteen #59: One Hit Wonders

Thirteen of My Favorite

Since Sept. 25th is National One Hit Wonder Day, I decided to list a baker's dozen of my favorites. As for what constitutes a one-hit wonder, you can ask three people and get three different answers (for the various definitions, you can click here). For my list, I chose to focus on artists who had only one Top 40 hit on the Billboard Pop Singles chart. Following the song title and the artist is the tune's highest chart position and the year that it reached its peak.

What are some of your favorite one-hit wonders?

1. Over the Mountain, Across the Sea by Johnnie and Joe (#8, 1957)
















2. Sorry (I Ran All the Way Home) by The Impalas (#2, 1959)
















3. Have I the Right? by The Honeycombs (#5, 1964) - This British band was one of the earliest to feature a female drummer (Honey Lantree).












4. Reach Out of the Darkness by Friend and Lover (#10, 1968)
















5. How Do You Do? by Mouth and MacNeal (#8, 1972)
















6. The Boys Are Back In Town by Thin Lizzy (#12, 1976)














7. Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now by McFadden and Whitehead (#13, 1979)
















8. Mickey by Toni Basil (#1, 1982)
















9. Tarzan Boy by Baltimora (#13, 1986)
















10. Supersonic by J.J. Fad (#30, 1988)
















11. Groove Is In the Heart by Dee-Lite (#4, 1990)















12. Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia) by US3 (#9, 1994)
















13. Kiss the Rain by Billie Myers (#15, 1998)















Leave your link in comments so that others can visit you.



Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Dancing With the Stars: Night 2 Recap

Tuesday was night #2 of season 7 of Dancing With the Stars. Here's a brief rundown:

• The Susan Lucci I saw last night was the one I was expecting to see from the get go. On the first night, "The Looch" was borderline robotic in her effort to be flawless. The second night saw her loosen up a lot and have fun.

• I missed his performance on Monday night but from the sounds of judges, celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito did a 180 on Tuesday. I just went to Cyber Crack and watched the clip of Rocco and Karina's Monday performance. I didn't think it was bad enough to rate a 14 score.

• When British judge Len Goodman criticized Warren Sapp's technique during the quickstep routine, Warren had a "I outta whup yo' tea sipping, crumpet eating ass" look on his face. However, the big man kept his composure and didn’t have a Brett Favre flashback.

• Cloris Leachman is going home soon and she knows it. That's OK though... the actress formerly known as Phyllis has her Oscar and nine Emmy awards to keep her warm.

• I'm still waiting for Kim Kardashian to exude more sexiness. Because Kim has the goods physically, watching her dance is frustrating because she isn't letting her hair down figuratively. It's like someone buying a Lamborghini and refusing to drive faster than the speed limit. In the backstage interview after her performance, Kim said that she's really a shy person. Sorry, but if you starred in not only your own sex tape but a reality show too, you have to resign your membership from the Shy Club.

• Comedian Jeffrey Ross was the first one to be voted off the dancing island. He was a good sport about it and had nothing but praise for his dance partner, Edyta Sliwinska.

Night 3 airs Wednesday night at 8 pm EST.

Below is a clip including a recap of Susan Lucci's opening night performance, her rehearsal footage, pre-taped interviews, and last night's performance: