Happy 94th Birthday Clint Eastwood 31st May 2024!

Thirty years ago David Thomson could write of Clint Eastwood, Has there ever been so unneurotic, so steadfast, or so steadily improving a moviemaker? As a director, he matches his own work as an actor: acutely aware of his limitations, he knows how to look good, how to serve and broadcast himself, while doing interesting, honest work in the mainstream. There is nothing coy, boastful or unstable, nothing out of balance or true. Who could have foretold that when those words were published in Thomson’s 1994 edition of his Biographical Dictionary of Film that this was around the midpoint of the auteur’s career? For today at the age of 94 Eastwood is preparing Juror No. 2, allegedly his final film as director. Thomson’s commentary concluded with the words, The test that awaits Eastwood is whether he can find himself in neurosis and failure. And what has he done in the last quarter century alone to credit the shrewd critic? Investigated masculinity itself in its many colours as his own age has advanced – from Million Dollar Baby and Gran Torino and Sully to American Sniper and The Mule and Cry Macho, boxing dramas, suburban race melodrama, political critiques, sardonic musical road movies. And the rest. A gallery of male neurosis, failure and a portrait of America itself. We salute you, Mr Eastwood. Many happy returns and more of them! #730days2straightyearsofdailypoststomondomovies

Happy 80th Birthday John Rhys-Davies 5th May 2024!

Many happy returns to John Rhys-Davies who turns 80 today. That fine RADA-trained Welsh actor of the booming voice, formidable presence and prolific career on screens big and small is still in demand and working constantly. Some years ago we found ourselves waiting a very long time for a very long flight out of LAX. A baby began to cry and nerves were jangling among the hundred or so people hanging around for hours. Thankfully that creature was so exhausted by the time the flight was called it fell asleep. Yours truly on the other hand was completely enervated and enchanted by the fact that one of the other passengers in the lounge was our beloved Sallah, the man we first encountered in Raiders of the Lost Ark (the greatest film ever made – fact). Rhys-Davies – for it was he – was a picture of patience. We didn’t bother him, despite a desperate longing to get his signature on something vaguely cinematic – like the latest edition of Premiere. We exercised manful restraint, to be honest. Regrets? We have a few, perhaps, now and then, but the flight took off, nobody cried and actually we found ourselves chatting to someone who knew Natalie Wood’s babysitter, so you know, swings, etc. And Mr JR-D was unbothered and unruffled. Happy Birthday John Rhys-Davies! Long live Sallah! (And Gimli!)

Happy 59th Birthday Robert Downey Jr. 4th April 2024!

The actor who can do anything has had a banner year. The extravagantly talented Robert Downey Jr. finally got an Academy Award (and a Bafta) for his supporting role as Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer after being acknowledged but not taking home the main prize for his astonishing embodiment of Chaplin more then three decades ago. Let’s not forget he was also nominated for his howlingly funny turn in Tropic Thunder fifteen years back. We’ve been fangirling him since his early days in eye-catching comedy roles on the fringes of the Brat Pack, from Back to School to Weird Science. When he did Less Than Zero his Julian was simply unfathomably addictive as a screen character. Since then he has done every kind of part – singing and dancing too! – and no matter the genre he’s the one we watch. The son of independent filmmaker the late Robert Downey Sr. (commemorated in 2022 documentary Sr.), who gave him his infant debut in Pound and who worked with him consistently through his Hollywood years in his own peripatetic career, his celebrity gained a different taint when he found himself in prison after a drug-related incident in which he slept in his neighbour’s bed. A longtime friend of Mel Gibson who was his biggest support at that time and with whom he co-starred in Air America, he spent the Nineties making all kinds of films with standout performances in everything from Natural Born Killers to Two Girls and a Guy. Stunning turns in Wonder Boys and Zodiac brought him into the new century with mainstream hits which ultimately led to his being cast as Marvel’s own Elon Musk-a-like Tony Stark aka Iron Man, making him Hollywood’s highest paid star in 2013-2015, a remarkable turnaround. With Team Downey, the production company he founded with wife Susan, he produced and starred in a wonderful drama (which had an admittedly odd incestuous subplot) The Judge, opposite Robert Duvall. It was a reminder that he was so much more than a comic book superhero. He made a very amusing speech at the Baftas in which he described his career in 30 seconds. As he said, his success has been bookended by two British directors, Richard Attenborough and Christopher Nolan, but the awards just confirm what we have always known: Robert Downey Jr. is the most exciting actor in the world. Many happy returns and congratulations to Robert Downey Jr.!

Happy 95th Birthday Michael Craig 27th January 2024!

That venerable British actor Michael Craig celebrates his 95th birthday this very day! Born Michael Francis Gregson, he began his career in theatre as an assistant stage manager and was finally spotted in a role at Oxford Playhouse and began a series of walk-on parts in notable films until finally he got speaking parts and thereafter became a regular performer in a range of British films. Perhaps his best role in the 50s was in the fantastic war film Sea of Sand which earned him a BAFTA nomination as Best Actor but he was also creative behind the scenes and co-wrote The Angry Silence with Bryan Forbes and his own brother, producer and screenwriter Richard Gregson, who would go on to marry Natalie Wood. Never exactly the big international star envisaged by the Rank Organisation, a combination of striking good looks, a sense of charm and decency and sheer talent made him a reliable leading man and his roles varied from social justice films like Sapphire, a romcom like Doctor in Love, to the terrific Jules Verne adventure Mysterious Island and more complex co-productions like Sandra. He would return sporadically to the stage in such great plays as A Whistle in the Dark and The Homecoming as well as maintaining a career in Australia where he even featured in oddball cult favourite western horror Inn of the Damned. Interviewed about the ins and outs of his long career in the business by Talking Pictures TV channel in 2018, he published his memoir The Smallest Giant: An Actor’s Life, in 2005. Happy birthday, Michael Craig, we salute you for your career, your smarts, your longevity and your contribution to cinema!