The consecutive deaths of Peter O'Toole and Joan Fontaine overshadow the classic cinema of the 40s and 50s, although several actors from the golden age of celluloid still remain
Hollywood said goodbye to two legendary actors: the Lawrence of Arabia Peter O'Toole, and Joan Fontaine, the magnetic protagonist of Rebecca. However, there are still a good handful of living legends that maintain the legacy of those golden years of celluloid.
LOUISE RAINER
The oldest of all is LOUISE RAINER, who at 103 years old is not only the longest-lived among the Academy Award winners but also holds the record for being the first actress to win two consecutive Oscars (The Great Ziegfeld and The Good Earth). That was, however, "the worst" that could happen to her, and she disillusioned with the movie Mecca and abandoned her career.
ELI WALLACH
Faced with Rainer's very brief career, ELI WALLACH remained active until 2010, when she participated in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps. At 98 years old, he can boast a vast and prolific path that spans from Baby Doll to The Conquest of the West, passing through The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, where he played one of his most remembered roles. The Academy awarded him the Honorary Oscar in 2011.
KIRK DOUGLAS
KIRK DOUGLAS is another of the few living male faces of classic Hollywood. He is 97 years old and has a career that dates back to Broadway in the early 1940s, a stage after which his well-remembered Spartacus and Paths of Glory followed. He was nominated for the highest award three times until in 1996 the Academy gave him the statuette of honor.
OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND
Fontaine's death once again brought to the headlines one of the toughest rivalries in Hollywood: the one that he lived from the beginning of his career with his sister, OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND, who is now 97 years old and is one of the most remembered actresses of the golden age of cinema. She was Melanie Hamilton from Gone with the Wind and won two Oscars.
MAUREEN O'HARA
Another of the great divas of the 40s and 50s was the Irish MAUREEN O'HARA, a child prodigy whose career began first as an opera singer and then, in the cinema, at the hands of Alfred Hitchcock (The Jamaica Inn). She was dating her friend and compatriot John Wayne in the Rio Grande. Her red hair was one of the culprits for being nicknamed the queen of technicolor, but she is one of the great forgotten by the Academy: at 93 years old she does not even have the honorary award.
CHRISTOPHER LEE
Equally forgotten by academics, two years younger and still active is the British CHRISTOPHER LEE, who in the last decade has once again lived an idyll with the big screen thanks to his role as the magician Saruman in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. His imposing physique and his resounding voice made him specialize in villain characters, including his remembered Scaramanga opposite Roger Moore as Agent 007.
RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH
He won the Oscar for best film and Direction for Ghandi, but before launching into trying his luck behind the camera, RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH developed an extensive career as an actor. The 90-year-old Briton has behind him titles like The Great Escape or Jurassic Park. His last work, as director and producer, was in 2007 with the drama framed in World War II Closing the Circle.
LAUREN BACALL
Betty Joan Weinstein Perske, known as LAUREN BACALL, was another of the great beauties of classic Hollywood, with a very personal and unforgettable deep-pitched voice. Along with greats like Humphrey Bogart, her first husband, she filmed, among others, To Have and Have Not and Key Largo and participated with Marilyn Monroe in the well-remembered comedy How to Marry a Millionaire. In 2010 the Academy recognized her with the honorary Oscar. She is currently 89 years old.
ANGELA LANSBURY
In November, Britain's ANGELA LANSBURY was thrilled to receive her honorary award at the age of 88, after having been nominated and left empty three times. The emblematic protagonist of the series Murder She Wrote was, in addition to being the most famous detective on television, one of the eternal luxury high schools since Metro Goldwyn Mayer signed her at age 18, and is still active.
ROGER MOORE
ROGER MOORE went down in history as the successor to Sean Connery in the shoes of agent James Bond, whom he gave life to in seven films. A model before an actor, Sir Moore was the S- a symbol of Her Majesty's secret services, but he is also remembered for his role as Simon Templar in the series El Santo. At 86 years old, he is still active both in the cinema and on television, and since the 1990s he has collaborated as a UNICEF ambassador.
