joelmccrea:Happy Birthday to James Francis Cagney (July 17, 1899 – March 30, 1986)Cagney, in my view
joelmccrea:Happy Birthday to James Francis Cagney (July 17, 1899 – March 30, 1986)Cagney, in my view, is maybe the greatest actor who everappeared in front of the camera. First of all, he brokeevery rule about movie acting. You see, the first thing that everystage actor says is, ‘I learned to act for the camera becauseyou have to do less. You can’t do what you do at theNational Theatre. You act for the camera.’ Cagney came onas though he were playing to an audience of 4,500 people.He acted at the top of his bent, and he never hammed for onemoment. Just proving my point that hamming is not overacting, it’s false acting. It’s fakery. And there’s not a fakemoment in a Cagney movie.– Orson WellesHe was fond of saying that if ever art was practiced in his part of Hollywood, he never saw it. But if art is both the conscious and unconscious development of one’s deep creative instincts in the service of a lasting truth, Cagney was not only an artist but a very great one. He had no superior as a film actor and very few peers: Brando, Robert Donat, Alec Guinness, Charles Laughton, Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, Edward G. Robinson, and Spencer Tracy. Possibly Fredric March. But none of these had his all-reaching dynamism, and none so well represented to Americans the qualities they consider uniquely their own: dispatch, engaging openness, and feisty independence. Cagney became for many Americans the person they think they are.– John McCabe Coming here tonight to be with Jimmy is a sentimentaljourney for me, as I know it is for all of you. And seeingyou here tonight, Jimmy, surrounded by so many of your friends,and all of us who love you so very dearly, I can’t help butwish that we were starting Love Me or Leave Me all over again.Working with you was one of the happiest times of my life,really, and anyone who has ever worked with you knows that you’remore than just an actor. I mean, you don’t play a character,you live a character. You breathe life into your own performance and make the rest of us really look good. That’s because you’rethere. And tonight, you make the whole world feel good.Just because you’re here.– Doris Day -- source link