Some anniversaries to remember

These days we mark the anniversary of the death of two of the greatest film stars in the history of cinema: Marilyn Monroe and Henry Fonda.

Henry Fonda died on 12^th August 1982 so he died 40 years ago. Why should we mark this date? Because he belongs to the golden age of Hollywood, which means that he played some of the most memorable roles in the history of cinema in films such as Jezebel (W. Wyler), Young Mr Lincoln (John Ford), The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford), The Wrong Man (Alfred Hitchcock) or  12 Angry Men (Sidney a. Lumet). The list of films in which he participated is a long one but if we pay attention to the directors of those films, we realise the relevance of his works during his career. He was given an Academy Honorary award in 1980, at the age of 75, and just one year later he won the Oscar award for Best Actor for his role of Norman Thayer On Golden Pond (Mark Rydell), a film in which he co-starred with Katherine Hepburn and her own daughter Jane Fonda. At the time Henry Fonda was too ill to attend the ceremony and it was her daughter who accepted it on his behalf. At some point Jane Fonda explained that the story of the film about a cantankerous father who had a bad relationship with her daughter resembled their own relationship in real life and the film helped them to improve it. Jane Fonda had bought the rights of the original 1979 play on which the film is based for her father. The film received ten Oscar Academy Award nominations and won three of them: Best Actor, Best Actress – Katherine Hepburn – and Best Adapted Screenplay.

 

Henry Fonda as Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath.

Another anniversary that we can´t forget is related to the death of Marilyn Monroe 60 years ago, on 4^th August 1962.  These days there are numerous documentaries on her life on almost every TV channel as well on TV digital platforms apart from her films which are also shown together with the documentaries. What´s all the buzz about? What´s the difference between this anniversary and the anniversary of the death of other well-known film stars? The difference is that Marylyn Monroe died 60 years ago but she never grew old. She died at the early age of 36 under mysterious circumstances even if the current conclusion is that she died of a drug overdose due to her dependence at a time when people used barbiturates without being conscious of the addiction that they caused. Dying at such an early age and doing do under mysterious circumstances are two factors which probably contribute to the creation of the myth of Marilyn Monroe but we shouldn´t reduce her relevance to her death, the way she died or the personal circumstances surrounding her death. Marilyn Monroe, whose real name was Norma Jean Baker, became Hollywood´s greatest sex symbol and she did so consciously, feeling comfortable and proud of that achievement. She had a hard childhood and she admitted to finding solace in going to the pictures. Her good looks helped her to start her career as an actress but the start wasn´t easy and she posed naked to make some money. When she was already famous, those photos became public and she openly declared that she had posed for them. That kind of incident had ended the flourishing careers of other actresses at the time because of the morality standards but Marilyn was frank about it and got over the accident successfully. She was a pioneer in many ways: she became a film producer to be in charge of her own projects and four days before her death she had signed a dream contract: a two million contract for two films. She struggled to lead a family life as a working wife and she worked hard to improve her acting skills since she aspired to be not only a beautiful actress but a talented actress and Leo Strasberg, who also became her mentor, helped  her in that sense in the Actor´s Studio. She was an ambitious and intelligent woman who had intellectual and literary interests and by now nobody doubts that regardless of the image that she first projected at the beginning of her career: an attractive and naïve girl who drove men crazy. She aspired to play deep roles in dramas – such as in The Misfits –  rather than in comedies or musicals but the truth is that she excels at the creation of comic roles such as in the film Some Like it Hot directed by Billy Wilder in 1959.

                                     A photo of the actress at the beginning of her career.

 

I´ve just learnt that the American actress Anne Heche has died today. She had a horrendous and weird car crash in Los Angeles last week. She was only 53 years old.  Recalling the old days is one thing but writing about a recent death is really sad and distressing. 

In my view, her portrayal of Beth as a young lawyer in Return to Paradise (1998) is one of her best roles even if there are others which are more popular or widely acclaimed.

Olivia Newton Jon died last Monday when she was about to turn 73. She had suffered from breast cancer for 30 years and she became an activist in support of cancer research. She was a great singer whose performance of Sandy in the musical Grease (1978) made her reach stardom but she had a long career as a successful singer.