Happy Thankbirthday!

[mooncove]

Just taking a break from the all-day House marathon (now that our mysterious power-outage has been resolved) to wish everyone a nearly belated happy Thanksgiving (I'm thankful for all my friends here!) ... as well as a happy belated birthday to two of my FDMIs ("favorite dead movie idols"), coincidentally born just five years apart on November 26,

Comments

[mooncove]

"Now if some ACTRESSES could get big breaks (why is it that there are only a select few shows that are fronted by women? Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives are the only two that I can think of from the top of my head) that would be something"

Really? There must be more than those two. There was "The Ex-List" earlier this season ... but I think that was cancelled. Oh, and on cable (USA network) there's a new hit called "The Starter Wife" starring Deborah Messing from "Will & Grace" ... Hmm, I suppose if I were taking that sort of class, I would pay more attention, but I don't usually keep a count of such things. I'm too busy being hypnotized by sexy male actors!

Although he was born in South Africa, Cyril Cusack was an Irish actor. He had most of his starring roles on the stage (he was big in the Abbey Theatre), but he played mostly character parts in films. (Although he starred in an Irish-language film called Poitín that I would love to find a copy of!) He'd probably be best known as the fire chief in Fahrenheit 451. He also played the landlord, Charrington, in 1984 and the gunsmith in Day of the Jackal. He also got to utter the title line in The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. And (appearing with Emlyn Williams's protege yet again--I think they did about 10 pictures together!) he was Grumio in Taming of the Shrew. I first saw him in two Robert Newton films, Odd Man Out (1947) and, the film that the photo is from, a silly comedy from 1951 called Soldiers Three, in which he is totally adorable ... yet sexy. (He and Emlyn Williams actually appeared in one movie together--David Copperfield--but they didn't have a single scene together.) Probably my next favorite role that he played was as Edward Marston in Gone to Earth ... the original, British version. It was re-tooled for American release a couple of years later under the title The Wild Heart, and his character is made to seem like such a wimp, while he's more the romantic lead in Gone to Earth (based on the novel by Mary Webb). If you want to know more, I made a website about him a few years back, but it hasn't been updated in ages. BTW, his daughters Sorcha, Sinéad, and Niamh, and Catherine are actresses too. (Maybe you've seen Catherine on Ballykissangel? When I was in Ireland in 2000, it seemed like everybody watched that show!) Also, Sinéad Cusack is married to Jeremy Irons.

[mooncove]

PS: Another of Cyril's claims to fame: He was offered the role of the original Dr. Who back in the '60s but turned it down! (Same reason he always took character parts in films: they paid the bills so he could focus on his theatre career. He didn't want to be tied down by series TV.)

[ali_babble]

There probably are more shows than that, but there are very few that seem to last. There's never more than a handful at any given time.

They appear to have a copy of Poitín for sale on this site, but they don't specify the region.
http://www.moviemail-online.co.uk/film/53006/Poitin/
There's a few clips on Youtube.

Anyway the name is definitely familiar, he's probably mentioned in my old school history book. And I would certainly recognise Catherine Cusack. I was probably a bit young to watch Ballykissangel but even then I do vaguely remember this strong tension between the priest and the policewoman.

But that's a very nice site! I wish I could make websites, but I'm a bit lazy to teach myself (although I know that in some schools people were taught it - that would've been a very useful skill to have!).

[mooncove]

I thought of a couple of other hit shows with female leads: How about "New Adventures of Old Christine" starring Julia Louis Dreyfuss and "30 Rock" starring Tina Fey (winner of all those Emmys)?

OMG, you found Poitín!!! *hugs you* I'm so glad to see it's not lost! (Hey, I don't suppose you have any leads on the Cyril Cusack bio that aired on TV years ago?) I'm sure it's not in the right format, but I'll get it anyway; I'm sure it can be converted. (I told my Irish teacher, and he was excited about it too!)

I couldn't find any YouTube clips though. (I did find some scenes from the rare Italian movie in which he starred as Galileo.)

Thanks for the compliment on the site! I used to be really into making websites as a hobby ... until I realized that, once you create one, you have to maintain it forever after. Meaning, the more websites you have, the more WORK you have to do, updating it, answering e-mails, moderating forums, dealing with TROLLS, etc., and pretty soon, it's not a "hobby" anymore!

If you ever decide to learn to make websites, I'd be happy to answer any questions and give you some tips. It's not that difficult, and it's kind of fun (creating them, that is). If you can use MS Word--and LiveJournal--you can use web-design software, like Dreamweaver or FrontPage, for example. Or even online using sites like Bravenet and Geocities. (I mean, seriously, look at the huge range in quality of the sites out there. Literally anybody with a computer can make a webpage! It's making a good one that's the challenge. I took some workshops myself to learn the basics, but then, as I got more experience, I ended up teaching myself out of necessity since the technology is constantly changing. In fact, I've been so lazy about it the last couple of years, it's kind of passed me by. For example, I could probably figure out how to create a Flash page, but I can't be bothered. Nowadays, I'm more into making fan videos. Not that you can legally post them anywhere!)