On politics and hollywood: was “method acting” just a front for leftwing politics?

On politics and hollywood: was “method acting” just a front for leftwing politics?


[“Three weeks after her death, it’s announced in an obit that Anita Bryant is dead”]

By RM
sunday, january 19, 2025 at 12:29:00 a.m. est

There were actors who were punished, shunned or marginalized for being vocally anti-Communist. Adolphe Menjou comes to mind, and Robert Hutton, as I noted once before. And Robert Taylor’s name was removed from a building, though that was much later (probably after his demise). They keep lobbying to remove John Wayne’s name from an airport, but he remains stubbornly popular to this day!

Obnoxious liberal “method actor” Robert Horton (not to be confused with Hutton) was always at odds with Ward Bond during Wagon Train, and the stress MAY have contributed to Bond’s untimely death in 1960 from a heart attack (though the man DID drink quite a bit!).

Walter Brennan was supposedly hated in Hollywood for his blatant unfavorable comments about various “minority” groups, though, like Wayne, he was too popular to “cancel”!

Elia Kazan was despised for “informing” at the HUAC hearings, though his career was fairly inert anyway by the 1960s (the Commies weren’t enamored with his anti-union classic, On the Waterfront (1954), either).

-RM


By Grand Rapids Anonymous
sunday, january 19, 2025 at 12:46:00 a.m. est

Wasn’t that all “behind the scenes,” though? The public never knew anything about celebrities back then. When Anita voiced her opinion, the venom unleashed against Bryant was publicly voiced. Phil Donahue for one, but comedians as well (SNL, I believe—and others). She’s the first I remember, anyways.

--GRA


By RM

sunday, january 19, 2025 at 3:49:00 a.m. est

Before the 1960s, performers were discouraged from being openly “political,” unless it was to express the patriotic/propagandistic views of the moment. Lew Ayres was an unusual case: his career was harmed when he declared himself a “conscientious objector” during the War, when many big stars were going into the Service.

-RM


N.S.: RM, I must respectfully disagree with you about Robert Horton (1924-2016) and Wardell Bond (1903-1960). (Or is that Robert Fuller? Has anyone ever seen them in the same room together? Same look, same type of roles...)

Ward Bond was the most loveable-hateable man in Hollywood, a super-patriot who was a scourge of communists of McCarthyesque dimensions, a rabid anti-Semite, and the third greatest character actor in movie history (after Walter Brennan and Thomas Mitchell). He performed in more Top 100 masterpieces (nine) than anyone else, in roles that became increasingly substantial: It Happened One Night (1934), Bringing Up Baby (1938), Gone with the Wind (1939), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), The Maltese Falcon (1941), It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), The Quiet Man (1952), Mr. Roberts (1955) and The Searchers (1956).

He deserved at least two academy award nominations for Best Supporting Actor, for Gentleman Jim (1942) and The Searchers (1956). Non-communist movie critics (e.g., Andrew Sarris) have long swooned over those performances.

However, according to movie historian Scott Eyman, Bond was utterly unprofessional during the making of Wagon Train. Granted, Eyman is a “liberal,” but he’s no Jon Hopwood.

Apparently, ol’ Ward wanted to drive Horton off the show. And so, he started a whispering campaign, telling crewmen that Horton was as queer as a three-dollar bill!

Well, eventually it got back to Horton, who raised holy heck about it. The producers came up with a compromise: Bond and Horton would have virtually nothing to do with each other. Each episode would alternately feature one actor or the other.

As for RM’s insinuation—assuming I read him right—that “method acting” was a political disguise for leftists, that’s a most intriguing idea.