The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Completely Updated and Expanded (53 page)

He was in
The Road to Wellville
(94, Alan Parker); a voice on
Arabian Knight
(95, Richard Williams); rather good with Jim Carrey in
The Cable Guy
(96, Ben Stiller). In 1996, with his mother as cowriter, he wrote and directed
Infinity
, a pleasant film about the life of physicist Richard Feynman (
WarGames
indeed!). He was a little out of his element in
Addicted to Love
(97, Griffin Dunne); stranded in
Godzilla
(98, Roland Emmerich); and belittled as
Inspector Gadget
(99, David Kellogg);
Walking to the Waterline
(99, Matt Mulhern);
You Can Count on Me
(00, Kenneth Lonergan); as Professor Harold Hill in a TV
The Music Man
(01);
Good Boy!
(voice) (03, John Robert Hoffman);
The Last Shot
(04, Jeff Nathanson);
Marie and Bruce
(04, Tom Cairns);
The Stepford Wives
(04, Frank Oz).

Closer to plump middle-age, his charm grows more tenuous: in
The Producers
(05, Susan Stroman);
Strangers with Candy
(06, Paul Dinello);
Deck the Halls
(06, John Whitesell);
Then She Found Me
(07, Helen Hunt);
Diminished Capacity
(08, Terry Kinney);
Finding Amanda
(08, Peter Tolan);
Wonderful World
(09, Joshua Goldin);
Margaret
(09, Lonergan).

Adrien Brody
, b. New York City, 1973
People swear by Adrien Brody. They say his performance in
The Thin Red Line
(98, Terrence Malick) was exquisite until most of it was cut from the film. They say that he has extraordinary, secret performances here and there, but that is because so many of his films have been so oddly released. What is clear is that he was the youngest actor to win a Best Actor Oscar, as Szpilman in
The Pianist
(02, Roman Polanski), a heartrending performance for which the actor made himself thinner than normal, and on which he learned enough of the languages used in Warsaw during the holocaust. People say his Szpilman was a pure performance done for its own sake, and they point to the actor’s upbringing as a proof of how dedicated he is to radical and perilous projects.

He is the son of the photographer Sylvia Plachy (an escapee from Hungary in 1956) and of Elliot Brody, a professor who lost family to the concentration camps. He was determined to be an actor and he worked from an early age (though he is an accomplished musician, too). He had a bit part in
New York Stories
(89, Francis Coppola), and he appears in
King of the Hill
(93, Steven Soderbergh);
Angels in the Outfield
(94, William Dear);
Nothing to Lose
(95, Eric Bross)—one of the films that sustain his legend;
Bullet
(96, Julien Temple), written by Mickey Rourke;
Solo
(96, Norberto Barba);
The Last Time I Committed Suicide
(97, Stephen Kay);
The Undertaker’s Wedding
(97, John Bradshaw);
Six Ways to Sunday
(97, Adam Bernstein);
Restaurant
(90, Bross).

He was a long time on location for mere moments in
The Thin Red Line
. And then
Oxygen
(99, Richard Shepard), and serious exposure in
Summer of Sam
(99, Spike Lee). He was featured in
Liberty Heights
(99, Barry Levinson) and he fought very hard to get the part in
Bread and Roses
(00, Ken Loach).
Harrison’s Flowers
(00, Elie Chouraqui) was a brave adventure in Bosnia.
Love the Hard Way
(01, Peter Sehr) is another film more talked about than seen. He was in
The Affair of the Necklace
(01, Charles Shyer); a ventriloquist with his
Dummy
(02, Greg Pritikin). That’s when he did
The Pianist
, to be followed by
The Singing Detective
(03, Keith Gordon); very subdued in
The Village
(04, M. Night Shyamalan);
The Jacket
(05, John Maybury); a rather frail Jack Driscoll in
King Kong
(05, Peter Jackson); and very good in
Hollywoodland
(06, Allen Coulter)—but who saw it?

Yes, he did look like
Manolete
(07, Menno Meyjes), but the film passed obscurely. He narrated
The Tehuacan Project
(07, Andrew Lauer). He was in
The Darjeeling Limited
(07, Wes Anderson), and he was inspired in
Cadillac Records
(08, Darnell Martin). Then he worked for Dario Argento in
Giallo
(09);
Splice
(10, Vincenzo Natali).

Charles Bronson
(Charles Buchinsky) (1921–2003), b. Ehrenfield, Pennsylvania
That face did not become an image until the age of fifty. It took that long for lines, sleepy eyes, and a drooping mustache to soften the sculptured Lithuanian rock often cast as an Indian. But, by 1970, the weathering process had confused shyness and menace, and there followed a brief glory as the dispenser of monumental violence, always with an expression of geological impassivity. Nevertheless, his four films for Michael Winner—
Chato’s Land
(71),
The Mechanic
(72),
The Stone Killer
(73), and
Death Wish
(74)—had audiences cheering at the celebration of “justified” homicide. In the history of American film, they represent the legalized separation of violent energy and offended honor. They were cold-blooded pictures that relied on Bronson’s impregnability—he might claim to be hurt, but he was immune to damage or doubt.

He was Buchinsky until 1954, a miner, in the navy, and then doing anything to pay for acting lessons. His debut was in
You’re in the Navy Now
(51, Henry Hathaway) and he was also in
The Mob
(51, Robert Parrish);
Red Skies of Montana
(52, Joseph M. Newman);
My Six Convicts
(52, Hugo Fregonese); being beaten up by Katharine Hepburn in
Pat and Mike
(52, George Cukor);
House of Wax
(53, André de Toth);
Miss Sadie Thompson
(53, Curtis Bernhardt);
Crime Wave
(54, de Toth);
Tennessee Champ
(54, Fred M. Wilcox);
Apache
(54, Robert Aldrich);
Drum Beat
(54, Delmer Daves);
Vera Cruz
(54, Aldrich);
Big House, U.S.A
. (55, Howard W. Koch);
Jubal
(56, Daves); as Blue Buffalo in
Run of the Arrow
(57, Samuel Fuller); his first starring part in a poverty B picture,
Machine Gun Kelly
(58, Roger Corman), where his comic-book strength of feature suits the man’s inner flaws;
Never So Few
(59, John Sturges);
The Magnificent Seven
(60, Sturges);
A Thunder of Drums
(61, Newman);
Kid Galahad
(62, Phil Karlson);
The Great Escape
(62, Sturges);
4 for Texas
(63, Aldrich); as the painter in
The Sandpiper
(65, Vincente Minnelli);
This Property Is Condemned
(66, Sydney Pollack); and
The Dirty Dozen
(67, Aldrich).

Short of stardom, he only got leading parts in several films made in Europe:
Guns for San Sebastian
(67, Henri Verneuil);
Farewell, Friend
(68, Jean Herman);
Villa Rides
(68, Buzz Kulik);
Once Upon a Time in the West
(68, Sergio Leone);
Twinky
(69, Richard Donner);
Le Passager de la Pluie
(69, René Clément);
You Can’t Win ’Em All
(70, Peter Collinson);
Cold Sweat
(70, Terence Young);
Red Sun
(71, Young);
Someone Behind the Door
(71, Nicolas Gessner); and
The Valachi Papers
(72, Young).

He was a star now, but not young, not expressive, and so reticent a personality that his later films have not done very well. They were humdrum affairs, not much brightened by the regular presence of his wife, Jill Ireland:
Valdez the Half-breed/Chino
(73, Sturges);
Mr. Majestyk
(74, Richard Fleischer);
Breakout
(75, Tom Gries);
Hard Times
(75, Walter Hill);
Breakheart Pass
(75, Gries); the more adventurous
From Noon Til Three
(75, Frank D. Gilroy);
St. Ives
(76, J. Lee Thompson); as General Shomron in
Raid on Entebbe
(76, Irvin Kershner);
The White Buffalo
(77, Thompson); and
Telefon
(77, Don Siegel). He made
Love and Bullets
(79, Stuart Rosenberg);
Caboblanco
(80, Thompson);
Borderline
(80, Jerrold Freeman);
Death Hunt
(81, Peter Hunt);
Death Wish II
(82, Winner);
Ten to Midnight
(83, Thompson);
The Evil That Men Do
(84, Thompson);
Death Wish 3
(85, Winner);
Act of Vengeance
(86, John Mackenzie) for TV;
Murphy’s Law
(86, Thompson);
Assassination
(87, Hunt);
Death Wish 4: The Crackdown
(87, Thompson);
Messenger of Death
(88, Thompson); and
Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects
(89, Thompson).

Jill Ireland died, of cancer, in 1990.

After that, Bronson did
The Indian Runner
(91, Sean Penn),
The Sea Wolf
(93, Michael Anderson) and the nasty
Death Wish V: The Face of Death
(94, Allan A. Goldstein). For TV, he did
Family of Cops
(95, Ted Kotcheff), with sequels.

Clive Brook
(Clifford Brook) (1887–1974), b. London
The son of an opera singer, Brook was educated at Dulwich College. After working as a writer and violinist, he served with distinction in the First World War: that effortless reference to military service in
Shanghai Express
was based on Vimy Ridge. After the war, he became an actor, onstage, but principally in the British cinema:
Trent’s Last Case
(20, Richard Garrick);
The Loudwater Mystery
(21, Norman MacDonald);
Daniel Deronda
(21, Walter Rowden);
Sonia
(21, Denison Clift);
Shirley
(22, A. V. Bramble);
Married to a Woman
(22, H. B. Parkinson);
Debt of Honor
(22, Maurice Elvey);
Through Fire and Water
(23, Thomas Bentley);
Royal Oak
(23, Elvey);
Woman to Woman
(23, Graham Cutts);
The White Shadow
(24, Cutts); and
The Passionate Adventure
(24, Cutts). He then went to America under contract to Thomas Ince:
Christine of the Hungry Heart
(24, George Archainbaud);
The Mirage
(24, Archainbaud);
Compromise
(25, Alan Crosland);
Enticement
(25, Archainbaud);
Seven Sinners
(25, Lewis Milestone); and
For Alimony Only
(26, William De Mille). Thereafter he worked generally for Paramount:
You Never Know Women
(26, William Wellman);
Barbed Wire
(27, Rowland V. Lee);
The Devil Dancer
(27, Fred Niblo);
French Dressing
(27, Allan Dwan); opposite Clara Bow in
Hula
(27, Victor Fleming); as “Rolls Royce” in
Underworld
(27, Josef von Sternberg);
The Perfect Crime
(28, Bert Glennon);
The Yellow Lily
(28, Alexander Korda);
A Dangerous Woman
(29, Lee);
The Four Feathers
(29, Merian Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack);
Anybody’s Woman
(30, Dorothy Arzner), with Ruth Chatterton;
Slightly Scarlet
(30, Louis Gasnier);
Sweethearts and Wives
(30, Clarence Badger);
East Lynne
(31, Frank Lloyd); and
Tarnished Lady
(31, George Cukor). It was then that Brook played “Doc,” or Captain Harvey, in
Shanghai Express
(32, von Sternberg). Repeated viewings of that masterpiece impress upon one the mock heroic stylization in Brook’s underplaying. His restraint was oddly sexy, his disdain alluring. Few actors have ever engaged so musically in cross talk with Dietrich; their conversations in that film are not just one of the achievements of early sound, but immensely influential of the Hawks pictures and
Johnny Guitar
, for instance. After a wintry
Sherlock Holmes
(32, William K. Howard) and
Cavalcade
(33, Lloyd), Brook returned to England to make
The Dictator
(35, Victor Saville);
Love in Exile
(36, Alfred Werker);
Action for Slander
(37, Saville);
The Lonely Road
(37, James Flood);
The Ware Case
(39, Robert Stevenson);
Return to Yesterday
(39, Stevenson);
Convoy
(40, Penrose Tennyson);
Freedom Radio
(40, Anthony Asquith);
Breach of Promise
(42, Harold Huth);
The Flemish Farm
(43, Jeffrey Dell); and
Shipbuilders
(44, John Baxter). In 1945, he directed himself and Bea Lillie in the delightful
On Approval
, and then opted for the theatre. He made an engagingly tetchy reappearance in
The List of Adrian Messenger
(63, John Huston).

Sir Peter Brook
, b. London, 1925
1953:
The Beggar’s Opera
. 1960:
Moderato Cantabile
. 1962:
Lord of the Flies
. 1966:
The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat, as performed by the inmates of the Asylum of Charenton, under the direction of the Marquis de Sade
. 1967: “Red, White and Zero,” an episode from
The Ride of the Valkyries
(unreleased). 1968:
Tell Me Lies
. 1969:
King Lear
. 1978:
Meetings With Remarkable Men
. 1983:
La Tragédie de Carmen
. 1989:
The Mahabharata
. 2002:
The Tragedy of Hamlet
(TV).