Peter O’Toole, of course.
Ray Bolger.
Bernadette Peters.
Bebe Neuwirth.
Hugh Laurie.
I’m counting both above and below the belt stirrings, in no particular order:
[ul]
[li]Emma Thompson [/li][li]Tricia Helfer (sigh)[/li][li]Peter O’Toole - I can’t remember not adoring him. He was 42 when I was born, and I didn’t really realize how handsome he was when he was younger until I was older. I think what made him so intriguing to me even at a young age is his androgyny and the way his intellect slides like silk out of his mouth.[/li][li]Johnny Depp[/li][li]Hillary Swank[/li][li]John Hurt - See Peter O’Toole (to a lesser degree but for similar general reasons, I think)[/li][li]Diane Lane[/li][li]Kristy McNichol - I had a Major babydyke crush on her growing up, but it had fizzled by the time Empty Nest came on the air.[/li][li]Jon-Erik Hexum - Somewhat obscure 80’s model-turned-TV-star who is obscure because he died young when he accidentally shot himself in the head with a blank fired from a prop gun. He was only on TV for 2 years, when I was 8-10 years of age, but he definitely made an impression on me. [/li][li] Michelle Pfiefer (particularly in LadyHawke. Witches of Eastwick, and Tequila Sunrise)[/li][li] Kim Delaney - (Tour of Duty, NYPD Blue)[/li][/ul]
And now that I’m reading the other responses there are more. grumble
The inspiration was more likely the singerHelen Kane. Betty Boop not only looked like Kane, but sounded like her (including the catch phrase “boop boop a doop,” which you can hear at 0:56).
It’s not a very thrilling movie, and it elides most of the interesting stuff, but Downey is positively eerie in it. I don’t often have a chance to compare an actor doing a biopic to the real thing, but in this case there’s lots of film for both. He’s several inches too tall, several inches too broad, has the wrong color eyes and the wrong dominant hand – but in character, he’s stunningly, breathtakingly accurate.
That little bit of research put Charlie Chaplin on my list, actually. I did not expect him to be so graceful, and since the little tramp is mute, it also never occurred to me he’d be articulate. He goes right up there with Errol Flynn and Basil Rathbone as someone I’ll always stop to watch on screen, and I’m sad I’ll never meet and get roaring drunk at a party with.
I don’t know if I’d say I fell for Marilyn Monroe, but whenever I watch her I wonder what was actually running through her head all that time. She was quite bright and read a lot, although I think the studio downplayed that in public, but there was always a little bit of sadness in her eyes. I don’t even know if she could have told me, had I been able to ask.
Shifting to more modern times, I am not the only one I know who has at least a little bit of a crush on Peter Davison. I’m an utter nerd and I love him in Doctor Who – which he still does, in the form of radio plays for a company called Big Finish Productions – and being a mystery buff, I also adore him as Albert Campion. He’s very sweet, a little bit scattered, and almost always playing someone who’s much smarter than he looks at first. I have very nearly as bad a thing for his now-son-in-law, David Tennant, for almost exactly the same reasons.
She has acted several times, if you consider her playing a song’s character in a video to be acting, such as her playing the child Peter Reich in “Cloudbusting” (alongside Donald Sutherland as Wilhelm Reich), or the unfortunate cursed girl in her mini-music movie The Line, The Cross and the Curve (with Miranda Richardson and Lindsay Kemp), the burglar in “There Goes A Tenner,” and many others. She also did a bit of non-music acting in a British TV show called The Comic Strip, as an impossibly beautiful and weird Bride in the deeply strange and surreal episode “Le Dogs” (co-starring Miranda Richardson, Alexei Sayle, Adrian Edmondson among others).
Le Dogs Part 1
Le Dogs Part 2
Le Dogs Part 3
I was a fan of Kate’s music for a couple of years before I ever saw a video and when I finally did see some videos (thanks to my future husband), wow, girlcrush! Out of them all, for me, Kate is at her most adorable in the video to her cover of “Rocket Man.” It starts out serious-seeming, but she quickly gets cute as hell, playing her ukelele, “conducting” the moon, stars and fireworks, skipping across the stage, and just being, well, adorable.
Kate Micucci
Felicia Day
Nicki Clyne
Julia Sawalha
Jessica Brown Findlay
Victoria Coren. Though she’s not an actress.
I’m convinced that she’s one of those artists who reinforce your initial impression of her with every new thing of hers you see.
So, yeah, that’s a Kate Bush video, all righty.
I find her disturbingly alluring when she’s killing Aslan, or putting her feet on Keanu Reeves’s face.
Forgot to add Brendan Fraser. So lovable
Kelly Reilly [see Russian Dolls]
You can eat soup out of those dimples.
And the red hair
And the eyes
And the overbite
And, oh, nevermind.
If you want jarring, put her in a mini dress made out of animal hide and have her come on to Ringo Starr while not speaking English.
Some of my earliest infatuations, starting at the age of four:
Marilyn Monroe (Some Like It Hot)
Noel Niell (“The Adventures of Superman”)
Joi Lansing (“The Adventures of Superman”)
Connie Hines (“Mister Ed”)
Dawn Wells (“Gilligan’s Island”)
Sylva Koscina (Hercules)
Elke Sommers (A Shot in the Dark)
Ingrid Bergman (Casablanca)
Vivian Leigh (Waterloo Bridge)
Ed Norton. It’s the intensity.
OK - Johnny Depp too - but with him it’s all looks.
Gerard Butler as the Phantom. Phantom of the Opera. When ‘Christine’ kisses him after he is de-masked, I just swoon.
Julie Delpy in Before Sunrise, and again in Before Sunset.
Ralph Fiennes, in the The English Patient and Oscar And Lucinda era. He just makes me squirm in embarrassment as Lord Voldemort, unfortunately.
Philliam, does she by any chance remind you of a certain cousin we have in common?
Several mentioned here, but for me I’ll add Mary Steenburgen. She’s older than me, but Ted Danson, move aside!
Great thread, thanks Loach. Lots of new names to look up! I’m not sure if many responders were staying out of the gutter at all times. I admit I wasn’t.