# Who needs a good biopic? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 10, 2017, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517 "2017-10-10T21:38:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/21 "2017-10-12T02:11:55Z")
Maybe it’s too soon, but along the lines of _The Queen_, what about Aung San Suu Kyy? I mean, I suppose we need to wait for the current drama to play out, but in a year or so, we have a drama that focuses on that, with lots of flashbacks to her past, including her childhood, but especially on the ordeal that won her the Nobel Peace Prize. I’s also like to see a really good one on Helen Keller’s later life, one that focuses on her Socialist activism (she asked the US government to support the fledgling Soviet Union at a time when no one knew how later history would play out), and her time as a Suffragist. Right now, as far as I know, the only thing on her later life is a kinda lame TV movie with Mare Winningham that focuses on her college years. Plus a throwaway line in the movie _Iron-Jawed Angels_ that HK supports the younger, more militant Suffrigists, not the older, staid ones. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/22 "2017-10-12T02:28:22Z")
Innovative British General Orde Wingate > **[Orde Wingate](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orde_Wingate)** > > Major General Orde Charles Wingate, DSO & Two Bars (26 February 1903 – 24 March 1944) was a senior British Army officer known for his creation of the Chindit deep-penetration missions in Japanese-held territory during the Burma Campaign of the Second World War. > Wingate was an exponent of unconventional military thinking and the value of surprise tactics. Assigned to Mandatory Palestine, he became a supporter of Zionism, and set up a joint British-Jewish counter-insurgency unit. Under the patr... ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/23 "2017-10-12T02:31:25Z")
> [@johnspartan](#): > > Freddie Mercury and Keith Moon movies were both often rumored to be in development over the years and both could have been great. They _are_ making a Freddie Mercury biopic. Rami Malek (who stars in Mr Robot) is to play Mercury. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/24 "2017-10-12T03:25:34Z")
[Ferdinand Verbiest](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Verbiest), Jesuit missionary to China, participant in VERY high-stakes astronomy competitions, and inventor of the first steam-powered vehicle in history. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/25 "2017-10-12T05:00:05Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > George McJunkin. Born a slave, became a cowboy in the old west. Had enough natural curiosity and intelligence that he recognized clues that resulted in a distinction between the two types of arrowheads, reversing the conventional theories about the origin of Indians. Similarly (with less anthropology and more corpses) Bass Reeves. There was a movie but not big and Morgan Freeman supposedly wants to make a miniseries. Though if it doesn’t contain Blazing Saddles in jokes I’ll be disappointed. > [@madsircool](#): > > Innovative British General Orde Wingate > > [Orde Wingate - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orde_Wingate) Such a character, lots of material. Good choice. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/26 "2017-10-12T14:30:06Z")
[Anne Morrow Lindbergh](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Morrow_Lindbergh). In addition to being Charle’s wife, she led an amazing life and left behind a slew of diaries and letters about it. I would highly recommend her works, and those of her daughter Reeve Lindbergh. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/27 "2017-10-12T16:40:41Z")
I’d love to see warts-and-all biopics of Walt Disney, Gene Roddenberry and Stan Lee. A couple of Janis Joplin movies have been tied up by lawsuits for upwards of 40 years. [Janis Joplin:Get It While You Can](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1670250/?ref_=nv_sr_1), the most promising of them, is apparently dead in the water. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/28 "2017-10-12T16:53:40Z")
I’ve mentioned this in another thread: the history of MAD. From Bill Gaines creating its first issue to Antonio Prohías working in (and subsequently fleeing from) Cuba to the purchase by Time Warner and the old guys adjusting to their new work environment. ---
**Author:** ![caligulathegod](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caligulathegod/32/9685_2.png) [@caligulathegod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caligulathegod)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/29 "2017-10-12T17:25:07Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > I’ve mentioned this in another thread: the history of MAD. From Bill Gaines creating its first issue to Antonio Prohías working in (and subsequently fleeing from) Cuba to the purchase by Time Warner and the old guys adjusting to their new work environment. Plus, they had a group road trip/vacation every year that reads right out of National Lampoon. ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/30 "2017-10-12T17:35:23Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > I’d love to see warts-and-all biopics of Walt Disney, Gene Roddenberry and Stan Lee. \*American Experience \*did a four-hour biography of Disney. [It took them almost a year of negotiating with the Disney company to make it happen](http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-ca-st-fall-tv-walt-disney-20150913-story.html). ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/31 "2017-10-12T17:39:32Z")
Roald Dahl had a life that reads like fiction. And was a real douche bag ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/32 "2017-10-12T18:22:46Z")
I want to see one of Jim Henson. From the early days, where he really wanted to be on television (story is he went to the local station and asked, was told they needed a puppeteer, so he checked a book on puppetry out of the library, went back, and said, “okay, now I’m a puppeteer”), finding success in commercials and then on **Sesame Street** , making his name with **The Muppet Show** and its cast of characters, on to the more sophisticated projects he craved to do like **The Dark Crystal** and **Labyrinth** , to his all-too-soon, all-too-preventable death and one-of-a-kind funeral. Of course, it’ll probably never happen, because licensing all of those characters from the various sources that own them is a massive undertaking. ---
**Author:** ![johnspartan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a183cd/32.png) [@johnspartan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnspartan)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/33 "2017-10-13T00:16:26Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > They _are_ making a Freddie Mercury biopic. Rami Malek (who stars in Mr Robot) is to play Mercury. They’ve been making it for 15 years or sp Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/34 "2017-10-13T00:53:08Z")
Fictional characters: Magneto, Dr Doom. Real people: [Daniel Lewin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Lewin). Wealthy (on paper) IT genius and MIT student who served in an Israeli counterterrorism military unit. He was on flight 11 on 9/11 and was killed by the hijackers while trying to stop the hijacking. I read his biography, but he deserves a movie too. Maybe he’d be one of Silicon valley’s wealthy elite had he not died. Another person who deserves a movie. Adam Brown. Overcame a crack cocaine addiction and became a member of DEVGRU, died in combat. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/35 "2017-10-13T01:33:07Z")
I’ve mentioned [Tom Molineaux](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Molineaux) before, but his life was pure cinema: born a slave in Virgina, fought his way out by winning his freedom as a bare-knuckle boxer, travelled to Regency England, boxed his way up through the ranks to challenge Tom Cribb, the world champion, in what was perhaps the first ever Anglo-US sporting clash, [lost a close fight in a disputed verdict in front of a partisan crowd](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1338673/200-years-ago-Black-Ajax-Thomas-Molineaux-cheated-British-heavyweight-title.html), then succumbed to drink and gambling and died penniless at the age of 34. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/36 "2017-10-13T03:21:17Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Fictional characters: Magneto, Dr Doom. > > Real people: [Daniel Lewin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Lewin). Wealthy (on paper) IT genius and MIT student who served in an Israeli counterterrorism military unit. He was on flight 11 on 9/11 and was killed by the hijackers while trying to stop the hijacking. I read his biography, but he deserves a movie too. Maybe he’d be one of Silicon valley’s wealthy elite had he not died. > > Another person who deserves a movie. Adam Brown. Overcame a crack cocaine addiction and became a member of DEVGRU, died in combat. Magneto has had extensive flashback scenes though. Similarly, Rick Rescorla. Cornish, joined the British army, then volunteered for the US army in Vietnam. Became a security officer in the World Trade Center and died a Hollywood appropriate heroic death. He was important in a book that became the film We Were Soldiers,but he counts because they wrote him out of the film. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/37 "2017-10-13T04:04:02Z")
James A. Garfield. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/38 "2017-10-13T04:16:45Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > I want to see a move about the life of Lee Harvey Oswald. Nobody would believe it. Too fucking far-fetched. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/39 "2017-10-13T15:56:08Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Similarly, Rick Rescorla. Cornish, joined the British army, then volunteered for the US army in Vietnam. Became a security officer in the World Trade Center and died a Hollywood appropriate heroic death. He was important in a book that became the film We Were Soldiers,but he counts because they wrote him out of the film. Read James B. Stewart’s _Heart of a Soldier_, and the New Yorker article that it expanded upon, [_The Real Heroes Are Dead_](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/02/11/the-real-heroes-are-dead). As his friend Dan Hill said: _You see, for Rick Rescorla, this was a natural death. People like Rick, they don’t die old men. They aren’t destined for that and it isn’t right for them to do so. It just isn’t right, by God, for them to become feeble, old, and helpless sons of bitches. There are certain men born in this world, and they’re supposed to die setting an example for the rest of the weak bastards we’re surrounded with._ ---
**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:** [October 13, 2017, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517/40 "2017-10-13T16:15:46Z")
Last week a woman told me about her grandmother, Frances Dean Smith, who published poetry under the name FranceEyE. She was Charles Bukowski’s girlfriend for a while and had a child with him. She worked at a World War II codebreaking unit in Washington, D.C.: > **[FrancEyE](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FrancEyE)** > > FrancEyE aka Frances Dean Smith (March 19, 1922 – June 2, 2009), was an American poet. > Frances Dean Smith was born Frances Elizabeth Dean, in San Rafael, California, on March 19, 1922. During her childhood her family moved to the East Coast, where she grew up. > She married Wray Smith while living on the East Coast. They had four daughters, Patricia, Irene, Sara, and Ruth, and eventually divorced. Frances returned to California in 1963, leaving her daughters with her their father. > She was closel... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-needs-a-good-biopic/798517.md?page=3)