In Rogue One the actor Peter Cushing is digitally restored to appear in the movie. This technology is being used more and more. One wonders if soon they’ll be able to make new movies starring Humphrey Bogart or John Wayne. But sticking to the present are dead actors paid for appearing in films? Does it go to their estate or have they lost all rights to their image by dying?
I think there’s a California law that allows estates to licence the image.
Laurence Olivier was dead for 13 years when they used old footage of him in “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow”, continuing his practice of appearing in any turkey for a big enough check.
John Wayne got a Coors Light beer commercial in 1992 with R Lee Ermey, again 13 years after he died.
It’s an interesting situation, for sure. I think for something like Star Wars, you sign away your rights to your image as that character. After Mark Hamill has been dead for 25 years, Luke stuff will still be for sale and his family will either get nothing(likely) or whatever little has been agreed to.
Does this include making a new Luke movie if they wanted to? Remaking him entirely?
This Variety article mentions that
- The California Celebrity Rights Act only protects people who died in California.
- LucasFilm worked with the Cushing estate but doesn’t explicitly say whether they were paid. I’d guess they did get at least a nominal fee just to avoid any bad publicity.
Generally they’re paid by check.
Bela Lugosi Jr., who is an attorney, litigated the issue on behalf of his, and the Chaney and Karloff families against Universal.
Sir Larry was quite open about the fact that he was working every ounce of his ability to provide assets for his family to do that very thing. And he didn’t give a flying fuck about anyone who didn’t approve. See: Caine, Michael.
It can actually have a career. So John Gielgud was universally respected on stage and had some quality from festivals to his credit by his 60s, but he was generally considered too “legitimate” to be a real motion picture star. In old age he began a relationship with a partner who was 40 years younger than he was and bought a mansion that was 300 years older than he was and both proved to be incredibly expensive to maintain, and since even a low-budget low-value miniseries can pay more than a prestigious Shakespearean stage role he basically began taking any film role he could get. He wasn’t reduced to Poverty Row slop like Lugosi and sometimes Carradine and had some quality moments (Murder on the Orient Express), but he took a lot more stuff take lots of stuff that was strictly for a paycheck: window dressing for lots of very forgettable TV movies and mediocre miniseries and pretty much anything he could narrate including commercials and crappy documentaries. However, in doing this he became visible and relevant to a generation that had either never heard of him I thought of them like we would think of Helen Hayes or some other regal relic, and that brought them to the attention of the producers of ARTHUR which gotten cast as Hobson which though it was nowhere near the prestige of his works with Olivier and Orson Welles got him an Oscar. Another words he got from that made him a millionaire and while he still did lots of forgettable films in addition to high quality work he did them for a lot more money than before, so in so,e ways he actually helped his career by taking everything. (He also knocked it out of the park in some of his quality roles in his 80s and 90s-is Dr. Aaron Jastrow in the miniseries WAR & REMEMBRANCE was a tour de force and possibly his greatest acting, it’s a very physically challenging for a man in his 80s.
Sidenote: His relationship with his much younger boyfriend lasted for decades, but sadly ended with Gielgud surviving the much younger man. He was a terrible tenant for his house, extinguishing cigarettes wherever he happened to finish smoking them amomg other neglects, but even so when he died it sold to Tony Blair for £4 million.
I had a feeling this thread was inspired by Rogue One. Also had a feeling that Sky Captain (a classic which everyone should see) would get a mention.
Honestly, I respect the hell out of actors who appear in pretty much anything, like Sir Patrick Stewart, who seemingly takes on cheesy or campy roles to pass the time between iconic characters like Captain Picard or Professor Xavier. And then he’ll act out every goofy B or C role like it’s King Lear (which is probably how he *keeps *getting hired for both the A and B and C list roles)