The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Completely Updated and Expanded (279 page)

Douglas McGrath
, b. Midland, Texas, 1958
1996:
Emma
. 2000:
Company Man
. 2002:
Nicholas Nickleby
. 2006:
Infamous
.

While I should admit to the great pleasure of dining with Doug McGrath a few times lately, still I have to say I would (just) prefer to go hungry and have him run ragged by more regular work. For if there is ever a chance of American moviemaking regaining some of the wit, panache, and decency of the 1930s, it rests with people like McGrath. Except that there is no one like him.

What can he not do? He acts sometimes, with a steady, still gaze and a smooth, rounded face that is immediately likeable, but which might do “sinister” at the drop of a smart line. He is a very funny writer and a deft director who seems raised in the Hawksian manner that requires us to look. Just recall the opening of
Infamous
, where Gwyneth Paltrow sings “What Is This Thing Called Love?,” and breaks down. McGrath never explains the moment. He just lets its drug seep into every cell of the best film ever made about Truman Capote (which is not to say we don’t admire the Philip Seymour Hoffman version).

McGrath was a writer of comic essays (especially in
The New Republic
), and then a contributor to
Saturday Night Live
. From that, he edged into movie writing:
Born Yesterday
(93, Luis Mandoki), an impertinent venture, but one that discovered how the original had dated;
Bullets Over Broadway
(94, Woody Allen), a glass of champagne in Allen’s career; and then the four films that he has directed.

Of those,
Company Man
is the most neglected, and it has McGrath himself as Alan Quimp, the English teacher and driving instructor whose henpecking wife (Sigourney Weaver) nags him into the pretense that he is really in the CIA, until imagining does the trick. (Why does the Agency not use this film for training purposes?)
Nicholas Nickleby
is a quite superb glorying in the zest of Dickens, with a range of unexpected casting.
Emma
is as cool, tart, and refreshing as a chilled gooseberry jam spread on warm scones.

Ewan McGregor
, b. Crieff, Scotland, 1971
There’s an interesting rupture in the career of Ewan McGregor. Having grown up on films made by writer John Hodge and director Danny Boyle
—Shallow Grave
(94),
Trainspotting
(96), and
A Life Less Ordinary
(97)—McGregor is said to have severed ties with his old pals when they elected to make the lousy but lucrative
The Beach
with Leonardo DiCaprio as their hero. This after McGregor’s eerie commitment to the drug vision of
Trainspotting
and his embodiment of the new, bare-forked Scotsman.
The Beach
, a sellout, was its own reward, but one trembles to think that it was in retaliation that McGregor traded himself away to fit into the plasticized games of
Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace
(99, George Lucas), a project that could add as many zeroes to an actor’s life as to his bank balance.

Still, confidence and good cheer returned with his exuberant singing lead, Christian, in
Moulin Rouge
(01, Baz Luhrmann). Maybe being close to Nicole Kidman helped, but it’s hard to think of an actor having such a good time since the early days of Jack Nicholson. Perhaps that goes too far—McGregor’s strength is in being young, an obstacle Nicholson overcame with characteristic panache. And the Boyle breach may show how far the actor likes to feel himself in the company of like minds and dedicated spirits. Whereas one could see perplexity and boredom settling on him as the young Obi-Wan Kenobi. A middle-aged Obi-Wan would be a disaster.

So far, after a terrific launch, as the lead on TV in Dennis Potter’s
Lipstick on Your Collar
(93, Renny Rye), he has put together a jazzy record:
Being Human
(93, Bill Forsyth); Julian Sorel in a TV version of Stendhal,
Scarlet & Black
(93, Ben Bolt);
The Pillow Book
(96, Peter Greenaway);
Emma
(96, Douglas McGrath); a small bit in
Karaoke
(96, Renny Rye);
Brassed Off
(96, Mark Herman);
The Serpent’s Kiss
(97, Philippe Rousselot);
Nightwatch
(98, Ole Bornedal);
The Eye of the Beholder
(98, Stephan Elliott);
Velvet Goldmine
(98, Todd Haynes);
Little Voice
(98, Herman); as Nick Leeson in
Rogue Trader
(99, James Dearden); very good as James Joyce in
Nora
(00, Pat Murphy), on which he was also a coproducer;
Black Hawk Down
(01, Ridley Scott). He returned in
Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the
Clones
(02, Lucas); and he then played in
Solid Geometry
(02, Dennis Lawson);
Down with Love
(03, Peyton Reed), where he was cute and funny;
Young Adam
(03, David Mackenzie);
Big Fish
(03, Tim Burton);
Flora Plum
(04, Jodie Foster).

He did another Obi-Wan in
Star Wars III
(05, Lucas) and then had a serious failure in
The Island
(05, Michael Bay);
Stay
(05, Marc Forster); as Norman Warne in
Miss Potter
(06, Chris Noonan);
Stormbreaker
(06, Geoffrey Sax);
Cassandra’s Dream
(07, Woody Allen);
Deception
(08, Marcel Langenegger);
Incendiary
(08, Sharon Maguire);
Angels & Demons
(09, Ron Howard);
The Men Who Stare at Goats
(09, Grant Heslov); as Gene Vidal in
Amelia
(09, Mira Nair).

Dorothy McGuire
(1918–2001), b. Omaha, Nebraska
So tolerant and sweet-faced, Dorothy McGuire was somehow secretly designed to play Disney mothers. Not even devoutness could take it amiss that she was cast as the Virgin Mary in
The Greatest Story Ever Told
(65, George Stevens), not after Linda Darnell had taken the part in
Song of Bernadette
. But in the middle 1940s, at Twentieth Century and RKO, she had been very winning as a wide-eyed romantic heroine, predisposed to smile against sadness. Her slightly staring humility was best used as the deaf-mute horribly menaced in
The Spiral Staircase
(45, Robert Siodmak).

She came to the movies from the theatre, and
Claudia
(43, Edmund Goulding), her debut, was a repeat of her own Broadway success. Thereafter, she was best in soft focus, dreamy and benign, having to work against Fox’s grainy black and white:
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
(45, Elia Kazan); with Robert Young (costar in
Claudia
) in
The Enchanted Cottage
(45, John Cromwell);
Claudia and David
(46, Walter Lang); outstanding in a halting, understated love scene with Guy Madison in
Till the End of Time
(46, Edward Dmytryk); rather stuffy in
Gentleman’s Agreement
(47, Kazan);
Mister 880
(50, Goulding);
Mother Didn’t Tell Me
(50, Claude Binyon);
I Want You
(51, Mark Robson);
Callaway Went Thataway
(51, Melvin Frank and Norman Panama);
Invitation
(52, Gottfried Reinhardt);
Make Haste to Live
(53, William A. Seiter);
Three Coins in the Fountain
(54, Jean Negulesco);
Trial
(55, Robson); the Quaker Mom in
Friendly Persuasion
(56, William Wyler);
Old Yeller
(57, Robert Stevenson);
This Earth Is Mine
(59, Henry King);
The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker
(59, Henry Levin);
A Summer Place
(60, Delmer Daves);
The Dark at the Top of the Stairs
(60, Delbert Mann);
Swiss Family Robinson
(60, Ken Annakin);
Susan Slade
(61, Daves);
Summer Magic
(62, James Neilson); and
Flight of the Doves
(71, Ralph Nelson).

She was a voice in
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
(73, Hal Bartlett); and she played on TV in
The Incredible Journey of Doctor Meg Laurel
(79, Guy Green);
Ghost Dancing
(83, David Greene);
Amos
(85, Michael Tuchner);
American Geisha
(86, Lee Philips); and
Caroline?
(90, Joseph Sargent).

Sir Ian McKellen
, b. Burnley, England, 1939
It’s been a delight to see the growing confidence and aplomb with which this great stage actor has been taking to the movies in his late fifties and early sixties. Arguably, the role of James Whale in
Gods and Monsters
(98, Bill Condon) was one that any well-trained English actor could have impressed in. But never doubt McKellen’s evident pleasure as he discovered the intricacies of the camera and learned to trust presence (as opposed to fidgeting) in the excellent example of Brendan Fraser. McKellen has much to offer, and we should hope that the picture business finds proper ways of challenging him.

On stage, since the early sixties, McKellen has had so many triumphs: early on with
Hamlet;
Salieri in
Amadeus;
a stunning, hungry
Macbeth
, with Judi Dench (filmed and now available on cassette—Trevor Nunn, 1976);
Richard III; Uncle Vanya;
and his Shakespearean one-man show. In public life, however, McKellen has become a very sensible, dedicated spokesman for gay rights—he may even be the first British actor to come out of the closet. It seems likely that this emotional candor assisted in his more appreciative grasp of movies. He was knighted in 1991.

He made his screen debut in
Thank You All Very Much
(69, Waris Hussein) and in
Alfred the Great
(69, Clive Donner). Then he worked fitfully:
The Promise
(69, Michael Hayes); as D. H. Lawrence, with Janet Suzman as Frieda, in
Priest of Love
(81, Christopher Miles);
The Keep
(83, Michael Mann); brilliant and heartrending for British television in
Walter
(82) and
Walter and June
(83), both directed by Stephen Frears; remarkable as a cameo in
Plenty
(85, Fred Schepisi);
Zina
(85, Ken McMullen); as John Profumo in
Scandal
(89, Michael Caton-Jones); in the Western
The Ballad of Little Jo
(93, Maggie Greenwald);
And the Band Played On
(93, Roger Spottiswoode);
Last Action Hero
(93, John McTiernan);
Six Degrees of Separation
(93, Schepisi);
I’ll Do Anything
(94, James L. Brooks)—proof of his new approach;
The Shadow
(94, Russell Mulcahy); the preacher in
Cold Comfort Farm
(95, John Schlesinger);
Jack & Sarah
(95, Tim Sullivan);
Restoration
(95, Michael Hoffman); as a 1930s fascist
Richard III
(95, Richard Loncraine), very nasty but still too stagy; as the Tsar in
Rasputin
(96, Uli Edel);
Bent
(97, Sean Mathias); as the Nazi in
Apt Pupil
(98, Bryan Singer);
Swept from the Sea
(98, Beeban Kidron).

He was Mr. Creakle in
David Copperfield
(99, Simon Curtis); Magneto in
X-Men
(00, Singer); and a magisterial, amused Gandalf in
Lord of the
Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
(01, Peter Jackson). He then did a double repeat:
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
(02, Jackson);
X2
(03, Singer);
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
(03, Jackson);
Emile
(03, Carl Bessai);
Asylum
(04, David Mackenzie).

He was in
Extras
(06, Ricky Gervais); a voice in
Flushed Away
(06, David Bowen and Sam Fell);
X-Men: The Last Stand
(06, Brett Ratner);
The Da Vinci Code
(06, Ron Howard); a narrator on
Stardust
(07, Matthew Vaughn) and
The Golden Compass
(07, Chris Weitz). He was
King Lear
(08, Trevor Nunn) for TV;
The Prisoner
(09, Nick Hurran). He is set to play Gandalf again in
The Hobbit
(11, director unknown).

Virginia McKenna
, b. London, 1931
There was a moment in the mid-1950s (a teenager remembers) when Virginia McKenna seemed to have a romantic appeal that was inseparable from heroism and suffering. In her two best films—
A Town Like Alice
(56, Jack Lee), with Peter Finch, and
Carve Her Name with Pride
(58, Lewis Gilbert)—she is a wan victim of war (in a Japanese prison camp, and in the French resistance). Torture is in the air but her bravery is flawless. McKenna was an English blonde with sculpted features, and she had a loaded kindness. Alas, her readiness to show that kindness to people (onscreen) was to be exceeded by her embrace with animals. Decades later, Ms. McKenna got the OBE for her services to the arts and to wildlife. If only the life in the arts could have been a little wilder.

She was educated at the Central School of Speech and Drama and at Dundee Rep, and she was briefly a member of the Old Vic company—she did a
Romeo and Juliet
(with Tony Britton) that was shown on television. Her screen debut was
Father’s Doing Fine
(52, Henry Cass);
The Second Mrs. Tanqueray
(52, Dallas Bower);
The Cruel Sea
(53, Charles Frend);
The Oracle
(53, C. M. Pennington-Richards); with Dirk Bogarde in
Simba
(55, Brian Desmond Hurst);
The Ship That Died of Shame
(55, Basil Dearden); as Jennifer Jones’s sister in
The Barretts of Wimpole Street
(57, Sidney Franklin);
The Smallest Show on Earth
(57, Dearden).