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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ClassyCo" data-source="post: 424262" data-attributes="member: 7">I must admit that Elizabeth Taylor is a very good contender for "the ultimate movie star" title. She was beautiful, talented, and had a long-lasting popularity that survived changing eras in Hollywood and multiple scandals, and that was heightened by her colorful personal life, many marriages, her love of jewels, several life-threatening ailments, entrepreneurship, activism, and so forth. As an actress, she might not have always been the best, but she turned in many good, and sometimes very good, performances over her decades-long career. Even as the acting roles dried up, her public didn't seem to mind. She was still in demand as much as she had ever been. The public fascination with her never wavered. [ATTACH=full]56450[/ATTACH]However, when I started this discussion, the one movie star I had in mind was Joan Crawford. She morphed from persona to persona, going from a flapper in the 1920s, a working girl in the 1930s, to a noirish independent woman in the 1940s. Later, she found a niche in tearjerkers in the 1950s and worked almost exclusively in grande dame guignol in the 1960s. Crawford literally survived it all -- well, until April 1973 when unflattering shots of her were released by the press. Horrified, Crawford retreated into her hole and was never seen by the public she so thoroughly adored ever again. According to Myrna Loy, Crawford was hopelessly devoted and diligent in her pursuit of stardom. Many actresses, like Gloria DeHaven and Diane Baker, have asserted of Crawford's thirst for glamour and how she'd never be caught, not even at the grocery store, looking frumpy. She knew the public made her a star, and she'd fight to maintain an image for them. Still, Crawford's due diligence as "the ultimate movie star" can be read as facade. She lost herself in "Joan Crawford" and probably wasn't even herself anymore. One imagines how she spent her days when the movies stopped coming and there weren't anymore parties to attend. [ATTACH=full]56451[/ATTACH]As for the men, I doubt John Wayne can be surpassed as a movie star. His image, his movies, his likeness is still everywhere. I can walk into any flea market or thrift store and see his movies or tin signs with his image. Wayne, by most accounts, was not a very versatile actor, but he was one of the industry's largest box office draws for something like twenty-five years. He was strong and captivating on the screen, and considering he was predominantly known for Westerns, he caught the heart of America like no other. [ATTACH=full]56452[/ATTACH]</blockquote>

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