when didonly the good looking become movie stars?

[davids]

You know there was a time in Hollywood when the not so pretty could be a movie star! Lon chaney the great silent actor would never be called good looking. and what he did to himself only made things worst and even more interesting.

Ever hear of Wallace berry or marie dresser they both looked like the south end section of a north bound mule! Bill and min, tug boat annie were big movies. Berry starred in trasure island, twenty mule team, the champ was a star for years, dresser starred in dinner at eight and others. It seemed the movie going public were less interested in looks then we are today.

Who was the last over weight ugly star? John Wayne the old version. True grit the cowboys?

Why today only the good looking are stars?

[Paradox]

Dustin Hoffman, Robert deNiro, Al Pacino...none of them are pretty at all.

It's mostly just the women, now, and even then it's not ALL. Ellen Degeneris does movies and she's not all that. Then again, I wouldn't call her a "movie star" either.

[Devon C.]

James Earl Jones ain't all that, and he's one of the more respected movie stars.

[Headhunter]

It's been a long time, at least the last decade.

I'd accept it if they could act, but there are so many stone-cold stiffs in Hollywood these days...

[davids]

He was fantastic looking, but he fought against that all his movie carea. Was one reason he played a geek in night mare alley! great crtical fame for that part, fans hated it and the movie bombed. Women in the old days wee still stars in their 40ths. today 40 is a death sentence for an actress!

[Alex Dragon]

You know there was a time in Hollywood when the not so pretty could be a movie star! Lon chaney the great silent actor would never be called good looking. and what he did to himself only made things worst and even more interesting.

Ever hear of Wallace berry or marie dresser they both looked like the south end section of a north bound mule! Bill and min, tug boat annie were big movies. Berry starred in trasure island, twenty mule team, the champ was a star for years, dresser starred in dinner at eight and others. It seemed the movie going public were less interested in looks then we are today.

Who was the last over weight ugly star? John Wayne the old version. True grit the cowboys?

Why today only the good looking are stars?

Back in the old days great actors became "movie stars". Nowadays "movie stars" are people who's movies make lots of money.

[DoubleWide]

Because most of the not so good looking people are too smart to be actors. And yes, there exceptions to the rule.

[blackdragon6]

people are just shallow its as simple as that.or at least thats what hollywood thinks of the general public,same thing with the music industry.if there was some fat dark skinned black woman who was the second coming of billie holiday the music industry wouldn't give a shit.and yes its true james earl jones is respected,but he's not neceserily a leading man either.but thats a completly different issue that i won't get into here.

[VCreed32]

Three words:
Billy
Bob
Thornton.

[Steve]

Two words.

Ron Jeremy!

That's if you count porn films.

If not, Jack Black.

[Grant]

Dustin Hoffman, Robert deNiro, Al Pacino...none of them are pretty at all.

All three were pretty good looking guys when they started out. They just didn't fit that Robert Redford or Ryan O'Neil mold.

[Paradox]

Grant is sort of right:

All three were pretty good looking guys when they started out. They just didn't fit that Robert Redford or Ryan O'Neil mold.

Well, yes and no. "Attractive" is certainly a subjective quality, but one of the major angles of all three of those guys careers is that they were NOT "Hollywood Pretty" which I think is what the original poster is more talking about. I mean, nobody DISFIGURED or anything is even going to be considered.

You're not going to find any of them on very many women's "Hot Guys" lists, in any era to boot.

[ElectraAlan]

If not, Jack Black.

It's not really fair to count funny movies, since it's probably easier to get laughs if you're not good looking. If you count funny actors, you'd have to bring in Robin Williams, Rob Schneider, etc. And older comedy stars from W.C. Fields to the Marx Brothers were not very good looking. Unfortunately for the point I was trying to make, Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler are both pretty good looking.

If you confine yourself to leading men, things haven't changed all that much. The only truly unattractive leading man I can think of is Bogart.

[Grant]

Well, yes and no. "Attractive" is certainly a subjective quality, but one of the major angles of all three of those guys careers is that they were NOT "Hollywood Pretty" which I think is what the original poster is more talking about. I mean, nobody DISFIGURED or anything is even going to be considered.

You're not going to find any of them on very many women's "Hot Guys" lists, in any era to boot.

At least Al Pacino was considered a sex symbol. I've known plenty of women who found him attractive. I know a couple of women who found DeNiro attractive. It's hard for either of us to say being hetereosexual guys.

They aren't exactly Brad Pitt but they are defnately better looking then Harvey Keitel.

[StoneGold]

First off, you've got issues of changing standards of beauty. What's considered beautiful now might not have been then.

Second, with some of the people mentioned as stars of the past, you're thinking of how they looked later in life. Remember, John Wayne started out in the movies all young and trim and handsome. It's just he didn't start to get really popular until just about the time he was starting to peak physically. But he was pretty fit as late as Stagecoach, which is when he really broke out as a bankable star.

http://www.movieactors.com/freezeframes510/stagecoach319.jpeg

Name me an overweight actor who started out as young and overweight and wasn't either a comedic actor or the villain. Any time period.

[KenK]

First off, you've got issues of changing standards of beauty. What's considered beautiful now might not have been then.

Second, with some of the people mentioned as stars of the past, you're thinking of how they looked later in life. Remember, John Wayne started out in the movies all young and trim and handsome. It's just he didn't start to get really popular until just about the time he was starting to peak physically. But he was pretty fit as late as Stagecoach, which is when he really broke out as a bankable star.

http://www.movieactors.com/freezeframes510/stagecoach319.jpeg

Name me an overweight actor who started out as young and overweight and wasn't either a comedic actor or the villain. Any time period.

Yeah, Brando was actually quite the hunk when he started his career.

[Shellhead]

Steve Buscemi and Lance Henrikson have done well in Hollywood.

[StoneGold]

Steve Buscemi and Lance Henrikson have done well in Hollywood.
Hardly leading man material though. Character actors who tend to play villains, sidekicks or comic relief. But then, that's more than likely what they would have played in any time period.

[Shellhead]

Hardly leading man material though. Character actors who tend to play villains, sidekicks or comic relief. But then, that's more than likely what they would have played in any time period.

Buscemi and Henrikson have both done (a little) better than that. Buscemi was the leading man in Ghost World, and he even got the girl. Henrikson starred in a tv series that lasted a few years on Fox.

[StoneGold]

Buscemi and Henrikson have both done (a little) better than that. Buscemi was the leading man in Ghost World, and he even got the girl. Henrikson starred in a tv series that lasted a few years on Fox.
Neither one particularly mainstream though. There are plenty of ugly leading men in indie-type stuff.

As for Milllenium, Fox couldn't wait to cancel it fast enough. Sure, you can get the stuff made occasionally, but can you get it to suceed? Same goes for Lone Gunmen.

Besides, ugly people have more of a history on television. For whatever reason, people seem to be more accepting of ugly on a weekly basis, if it's free, than paying money for it.

[Shellhead]

Neither one particularly mainstream though. There are plenty of ugly leading men in indie-type stuff.

As for Milllenium, Fox couldn't wait to cancel it fast enough. Sure, you can get the stuff made occasionally, but can you get it to suceed? Same goes for Lone Gunmen.

Besides, ugly people have more of a history on television. For whatever reason, people seem to be more accepting of ugly on a weekly basis, if it's free, than paying money for it.

Good point about tv, Roseanne Barr's show lasted for years, but she will never have her own movie.

[SAMAS]

Two words.

Ron Jeremy!

That's if you count porn films.

If not, Jack Black.

As long as people still watch sitcoms like The King of Queens, Jack Black will always be able to find work.

[StoneGold]

Good point about tv, Roseanne Barr's show lasted for years, but she will never have her own movie.
Actually, she did, but it didn't do very well. And it's a comedy, and there's an asterik for the ugly people rule on comedies.

But on TV, you get a lot more chance to develop a personality, so people can look past the fact you are fat and ugly. Case in point, the Sopranos. Before the Sopranos, Gandolfini played mostly nameless thugs. He was big, fat, ugly bald guy #4. But with the Sopranos, there's more time to develop his personality, all of a sudden he's the world's ugliest sex symbol.

[Ontir]

"When did only the good looking become movie stars?"

I think it was about 1898! Right from the beginning, film makers wanted to see pretty people on film.

[BoosterBronze]

There have always been actors of different levels of lovliness, but 'movie stars' from the very beginning with Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks have been beuatiful people living a glamourous lifestyle that Hollywood has used to sell itself.