# Vain actors **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 7, 2010, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vain-actors/552963 "2010-09-07T20:57:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2010, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vain-actors/552963/41 "2010-09-10T00:24:25Z")
> [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](#): > > …Perfectly reasonable, however, if the actor is Nicholas Cage. Quite so. You should even get double your ticket cost back. It’s the only way the studios will learn! ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2010, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vain-actors/552963/42 "2010-09-10T01:24:37Z")
A famous example of this is an anecdote I once read about Charlton Heston. When a role (I don’t remember the movie) called for him to be bald, he refused to remove off his hairpiece for the job. Instead, he made the producers create a fake bald-cap for him to wear over his rug! Now _that’s_ vain! ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2010, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vain-actors/552963/43 "2010-09-10T02:33:21Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > A famous example of this is an anecdote I once read about Charlton Heston. When a role (I don’t remember the movie) called for him to be bald, he refused to remove off his hairpiece for the job. Instead, he made the producers create a fake bald-cap for him to wear over his rug! > > Now _that’s_ vain! [Dustin Hoffman says](http://www.anecdotage.com/index.php?aid=14346) it was “A Man for All Seasons” ---
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2010, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vain-actors/552963/44 "2010-09-10T13:22:29Z")
We were watching the Star Wars marathon on Labor day. I just then noticed that in the scenes of RotJ on Endor, Han Solo was wearing a camouflage trench coat when every one else had on ponchos. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2010, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vain-actors/552963/45 "2010-09-10T13:47:59Z")
From\* The World of Star Trek:\* [Discussing the episode\* The Deadly Years\*] > [@](#): > > To some extent William Shatner objected to this - he didn’t want to look old. And if you’ll look at the stills from the show, you can see he is wearing considerable less makeup than the other two actors. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2010, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vain-actors/552963/46 "2010-09-10T14:43:14Z")
> [@Paintcharge](#): > > We were watching the Star Wars marathon on Labor day. I just then noticed that in the scenes of RotJ on Endor, Han Solo was wearing a camouflage trench coat when every one else had on ponchos. That would seem to be a very deliberate design choice, and not a vanity thing on the part of Ford. Han Solo always had the low holsters for a quick-draw (something he couldn’t do as effectively in a poncho). The motif was carried through as part of the character’s iconography - he’s supposed to harken to a show-down-at-high-noon cowboy, and the trenchcoat is supposed to be reminiscent of a duster. Compare these pics of Solo: [pic #1](http://celebritiesindisgrace.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/hansolo.jpg) and [pic #2](http://www.tk560.com/endor3.jpg), and [Han Solo toy in trenchcoat](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00000JR8Z.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg) To Gary Cooper in [_High Noon_](http://www.shellbrookgolf.com/cent/highnoon.jpg) and this still from [_Jonah Hex_](http://www.filmofilia.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/jonah_hex_photo_3.jpg). I don’t remember any other trenchcoats on Endor, but some of the toys have Rebel soldiers in trenchcoats as well. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2010, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vain-actors/552963/47 "2010-09-12T01:11:47Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > > [@Bob Ducca](#): > > > > Wasn’t the joke that Candy got the buzzcut thinking that it was required but it turned out that they didn’t have to get one? I love the scene of him holding clumps of hair looking down at them sadly. > > No, it was required. And I loved the look on Candy’s face as he pouted at his hair clumps, too. That’s what makes the fact that Murray didn’t get his hair cut so glaring. They show a little scene of all the recruits getting buzzed, and for some reason, Ramis and Murray (Murray I remember especially) just get a trim. It’s so obvious that Bill wasn’t about to let a set of clippers anywhere near his thinning hair. The way I remember it, the other guys in Basic griped about the non-haircuts Murray and Ramis got, which implies to me that they bribed the barber. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2010, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vain-actors/552963/48 "2010-09-12T03:54:11Z")
A lot of actors may have very good reasons for not wanting the shaved-head look. Shoots may take quite a while, and if re-shoots are needed, the hair may be off for a year. That can really mess with other stuff in the actor’s schedule. I definitely wouldn’t want to do it unless I knew, period, that I wouldn’t have to bother with anything else going on for a long time thereafter. And even then I might have some formal events or something that I’d at least prefer to have my full head of hair for. Even giving a certain amount of human vanity, it’s no great shame to avoid a total head-shave. I can’t blame anybody who avoids it if they can. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2010, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vain-actors/552963/49 "2010-09-12T04:56:52Z")
> [@Sir\_T-Cups](#): > > I’ll never get over Matt Damon’s perfect stark white teeth in his “me and my brothers” story in _Saving Private Ryan_ > > I’ve never been to war…but there is no way your entire body is covered in mud, and your teeth are THAT bright Matt Damon is the last actor I would think of as vain considering what he did to himself and how bad he looked as junkie Ilario in _Courage Under Fire_. He doesn’t seem to take himself very seriously either regularly mocking himself in movies and on TV. William Goldman tells a story about Dustin Hoffman in _Adventures in the Screen Trade_. In _Marathon Man_ his character was supposed to wake in the night, grab a torch from his bedside table and shine it upon Roy Scheider, who’s crept into his room. Hoffman argued for over an hour that his character wouldn’t have a torch by the bed. Goldman said that an actor of Hoffman’s ability should be able to justify anything to himself; he was simply scared that his fans would consider him a coward. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2010, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vain-actors/552963/50 "2010-09-12T05:12:37Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > Matt Damon is the last actor I would think of as vain considering what he did to himself and how bad he looked as junkie Ilario in _Courage Under Fire_. Plus, hold that picture up next to one from THE INFORMANT! ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2010, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vain-actors/552963/51 "2010-09-12T12:00:54Z")
A note for Americans who are confused by don’t ask’s post: A “torch” is a flashlight. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vain-actors/552963.md?page=2)