Late, great actors get prime roles
By: Garret Cook
Issue date: 11/2/09 Section: Entertainment
More often than not, superstardom in Hollywood doesn't pan out for actors. In some cases, actors ascend to the ranks of being number one on the call sheet but find that they aren't cut out to carry movies. In other cases, an actor simply doesn't come into his or her own until they've aged a few years. Sometimes it's a simple matter of not getting prime roles until later in their careers.
Regardless of the reasons, lately I've been enjoying the work of several actors who have inspired me to compile a list of thespians who have blossomed into truly great screen talents.
Alec Baldwin-The best of the Baldwin brothers, came to prominence in the early 1990's with a great presence onscreen and the chops to be something special. But as films like The Hunt for Red October and Ghosts of Mississippi proved, he simply wasn't cut out to be a leading man. However, that didn't stop Baldwin from transforming himself into one of today's premier character actors.
The renaissance started with an Oscar bid in 2003's The Cooler for playing ruthless casino boss Shelley Kaplow. Soon after Martin Scorsese came calling, offering Baldwin juicy supporting roles in his films The Aviator and The Departed. These days, his day job consists of racking up Emmys on the NBC sitcom 30 Rock while working in films as diverse as Brooklyn Rules and the upcoming Meryl Streep-starrer It's Complicated, in which he is earning buzz for his role as one of Streep's love interests.
Ethan Hawke-The Austin, TX native and Gen-X star of forgettable 90's films like Reality Bites and Snow Falling on Cedars has come a long way. He's always been talented, but most audiences were clueless of his potential until he proved he could more than hold his own opposite a powerhouse like Denzel Washington in Antoine Fuqua's Training Day, which earned him an Oscar nomination.
Displaying a toughness previously unseen, Hawke soon found himself cast in two criminally underrated films, the John Carpenter remake Assault on Precint 13 and opposite Nicolas Cage in Lord of War. In 2004 he reprised his role in the cult and critical favorite Before Sunset and earned strong notices for his work in another grossly underrated film, Sidney Lumet's Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. And if early buzz is any indication, Oscar may take notice of his reteaming with Antoine Fuqua in the upcoming Brooklyn's Finest, a tale of three cops set in the harsher areas of the New York borough.
Regardless of the reasons, lately I've been enjoying the work of several actors who have inspired me to compile a list of thespians who have blossomed into truly great screen talents.
Alec Baldwin-The best of the Baldwin brothers, came to prominence in the early 1990's with a great presence onscreen and the chops to be something special. But as films like The Hunt for Red October and Ghosts of Mississippi proved, he simply wasn't cut out to be a leading man. However, that didn't stop Baldwin from transforming himself into one of today's premier character actors.
The renaissance started with an Oscar bid in 2003's The Cooler for playing ruthless casino boss Shelley Kaplow. Soon after Martin Scorsese came calling, offering Baldwin juicy supporting roles in his films The Aviator and The Departed. These days, his day job consists of racking up Emmys on the NBC sitcom 30 Rock while working in films as diverse as Brooklyn Rules and the upcoming Meryl Streep-starrer It's Complicated, in which he is earning buzz for his role as one of Streep's love interests.
Ethan Hawke-The Austin, TX native and Gen-X star of forgettable 90's films like Reality Bites and Snow Falling on Cedars has come a long way. He's always been talented, but most audiences were clueless of his potential until he proved he could more than hold his own opposite a powerhouse like Denzel Washington in Antoine Fuqua's Training Day, which earned him an Oscar nomination.
Displaying a toughness previously unseen, Hawke soon found himself cast in two criminally underrated films, the John Carpenter remake Assault on Precint 13 and opposite Nicolas Cage in Lord of War. In 2004 he reprised his role in the cult and critical favorite Before Sunset and earned strong notices for his work in another grossly underrated film, Sidney Lumet's Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. And if early buzz is any indication, Oscar may take notice of his reteaming with Antoine Fuqua in the upcoming Brooklyn's Finest, a tale of three cops set in the harsher areas of the New York borough.
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Buck Naked
posted 11/02/09 @ 4:10 PM CST
I thought your headline was a Halloween joke about zombie actors. That would have been a far more interesting story.
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