Mommie Dearest

[Swellin]

I think Linda Gray would have been the better choice to play Joan Crawford in Mommie Dearest. They have similar features, she would have aced the drunk scenes and would have been given a more restrained performance. Given the success of Who Shot JR, she would have been a great box office draw too.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Should I begin...?

 

[Swellin]

Should I begin...?

Go for it

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Go for it

It's horoscopic, mentioned many times (mostly by me). If she hadn't died a couple of years earlier, Crawford could have played Sue Ellen's mama.

 

[Barbara Fan]

Linda Gray was relatively new then - was it 1980/81 it was made? and she was a "TV" actress

I think it needed a bigger name for the cinema - but Ms Dunaway was so hammy in it - I still find it amusing

 

[Laura Avery-Sumner]

I think it needed a bigger name for the cinema

The original concept for the movie was a much better psychological drama bout the relationship betweem mother and daughter and was supposed to star Anne Bancroft. I think she would have been fantastic as Crawford but the way I heard it is that the script was terrible for her and obviously leaned too heavily on the stories of what would happen with no conflict resolution until she dies at the end. I don't blame her. That being said, the film is one of my guiltiest pleasures.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Gray wasn't a movie star in 1981. But she would have been better casting for Ryan Murphy's 2017 FEUD as Crawford than Jessica Lange.

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

The original concept for the movie was a much better psychological drama about the relationship between mother and daughter and was supposed to star Anne Bancroft. I think she would have been fantastic as Crawford but the way I heard it is that the script was terrible for her and obviously leaned too heavily on the stories of what would happen with no conflict resolution until she dies at the end. I don't blame her. That being said, the film is one of my guiltiest pleasures.

Interestingly, Linda Gray and Anne Bancroft both were Sun in Virgo/Scorpio Rising (with different Moon signs, and shared legs for movie-poster purposes!). While Joan Crawford and Linda Gray both were Scorpio Rising/Moon in Aquarius (with different Sun signs) which gives them the same face. (Despite varying birth year data for Crawford).

Almost as interesting, miscast Jessica Lange in 2017's FEUD is Sun in Aries/Moon in Aquarius ... just like Crawford! Only Lange is on the Taurus cusp, and has a Leo Rising and not Crawford's Scorpio Rising, so it doesn't really work. (And while Leo Risings may be the more versatile actresses, you really need a Scorpio Rising to play another Scorpio Rising --- although Glenn Close playing Hepburn in THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP just ruins that part of my point).

But even in 2017, Ryan Murphy still wanted a "movie star" to play Crawford. So no one but us would have thought of Linda.

Yes, Bancroft playing Crawford for MOMMIE DEAREST in 1981 would have been more on-point casting than Faye Dunaway who, horoscopically, has no similarity to Crawford at all, the wrong diva for her to play... Christina also preferred Bancroft, who indeed left the production as the script deteriorated. (Although if you watch young Crawford in, say, GRAND HOTEL, you can see the recognition Crawford had decades later for Faye Dunaway, Crawford asserting that Faye was the only young actress "who has the guts to be a star!" and reportedly proclaimed Dunaway the only actress who could play Crawford in the future -- little did Crawford know how that would play out only five minutes after her own death).

I accept Faye Dunaway in the role of Joan Crawford in MOMMIE DEAREST, if only because the legacy both stars wound up sharing because of it (their images blending, as Faye herself conceded). But I desperately want Linda Gray to play Crawford in 2017's FEUD... yet that was never going to happen either.

To get an idea of how much astrological stuff can impact physicality (and layman catch it all the time, not knowing the horoscopic basis for what they're seeing)... look at these examples:

Both Elsa Lanchester and Anne Hathaway share the same key horoscopic combination, Sun in Scorpio/Sagittarius Rising/Moon in Libra -- and share the same face exactly (if not the same carbohydrate intake):

Not Elizabeth Taylor, but another actress who shares her Libra Rising/Moon in Scorpio:

Two Libra Rising/Moon in Libras (with different Sun signs):

 

[southfork88]

Interestingly, Linda Gray and Anne Bancroft both were Sun in Virgo/Scorpio Rising (with different Moon signs, and shared legs for movie-poster purposes!). While Joan Crawford and Linda Gray both were Scorpio Rising/Moon in Aquarius (with different Sun signs) which gives them the same face. (Despite varying birth year data for Crawford).

Almost as interesting, miscast Jessica Lange in 2017's FEUD is Sun in Aries/Moon in Aquarius ... just like Crawford! Only Lange is on the Taurus cusp, and has a Leo Rising and not Crawford's Scorpio Rising, so it doesn't really work. (And while Leo Risings may be the more versatile actresses, you really need a Scorpio Rising to play another Scorpio Rising --- although Glenn Close playing Hepburn in THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP just ruins that part of my point).

But even in 2017, Ryan Murphy still wanted a "movie star" to play Crawford. So no one but us would have thought of Linda.

Yes, Bancroft playing Crawford for MOMMIE DEAREST in 1981 would have been more on-point casting than Faye Dunaway who, horoscopically, has no similarity to Crawford at all, the wrong diva for her to play... Christina also preferred Bancroft, who indeed left the production as the script deteriorated. (Although if you watch young Crawford in, say, GRAND HOTEL, you can see the recognition Crawford had decades later for Faye Dunaway, Crawford asserting that Faye was the only young actress "who has the guts to be a star!" and reportedly proclaimed Dunaway the only actress who could play Crawford in the future -- little did Crawford know how that would play out only five minutes after her own death).

I accept Faye Dunaway in the role of Joan Crawford in MOMMIE DEAREST, if only because the legacy both stars wound up sharing because of it (their images blending, as Faye herself conceded). But I desperately want Linda Gray to play Crawford in 2017's FEUD... yet that was never going to happen either.

To get an idea of how much astrological stuff can impact physicality (and layman catch it all the time, not knowing the horoscopic basis for what they're seeing)... look at these examples:

Both Elsa Lanchester and Anne Hathaway share the same key horoscopic combination, Sun in Scorpio/Sagittarius Rising/Moon in Libra -- and share the same face exactly (if not the same carbohydrate intake):

Not Elizabeth Taylor, but another actress who shares her Libra Rising/Moon in Scorpio:

Two Libra Rising/Moon in Libras (with different Sun signs):

Could you remind us which Dallas actors and actresses were Scorpio? Is it true that especially for this zodiac sign women have a temperament almost opposite to men?

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

Could you remind us which Dallas actors and actresses were Scorpio? Is it true that especially for this zodiac sign women have a temperament almost opposite to men?

Not really all that true. But it depends on Rising Sign and Moon Sign and how they combine (and the books are all cliched malarkey).

There are good (Sun in) Scorpios and bad -- and the in between, like with all the signs.

Someone occasionally starts a thread about the characters' signs. And while I realize the actors and the characters are two different things, I always say, "Go by the actors' signs" because the character is passing through the sieve of the actor's countenance... DALLAS, for example, is loaded (as one poster observed) with Virgos -- even behind the camera. But some posters found it "hard to believe" that J.R. was a Virgo even though she knew Larry was a Virgo... I mean, just how different did she think Larry and J.R. actually were??

But that's partly because people are going by astrological cliches which aren't true at all (e.g., "JR must be a Scorpio because he's evil," "Miss Ellie must be a Cancer or a Libra because she likes family and balance").

BBG and Miss Ellie are Sun in Scorpio (Linda Evans and Krystle -- on that other show -- are also Scorpio). Aunt Lil's a Scorpio, et al.

Rising sign, based on birthtime, is often very physical. And normal people see it, but don't know what it is. (I correctly guessed Larry had an Aquarius Rising, and that Mary Crosby had an Aries Rising when I was a teenager, decades before I obtained their birthtimes... And a few years ago, I correctly guessed Susan Howard -- and, of all people, Meg Ryan -- had a Capricorn Rising based on nothing more than their nose-crinkle... I should have guessed the same about Priscilla Presley, but I foolishly missed it).

Here's the Virgo-centric thread about DALLAS started a couple of years ago by @Trainwreck

Virgo’s on Dallas | Forums for television shows past and present