Curt Anderson

Whenever a film actor passes away I wonder if I will be seeing their film clips against the TCM windshield wipers accompanied by mournful music. It’s not surprising when a Lauren Bacall is remembered. She certainly deserves to be. But sometimes an actor dies who is not afforded the tribute that I think deserved it. Peter Graves died a few years ago. He was unforgettable in “Stalag 17” and hilarious in “Airplane”. I noticed at the time he was not remembered by TCM. Other recently departed actors who didn’t get the treatment (as I recall) included Jack Klugman, Jonathan Winters, Eileen Brennan, Ben Gazzara, Michael Ansara, Steve Forrest and RG Armstrong. Admittedly some of them were not major screen stars. But that makes them even more deserving. Their faces are familiar to fans of old movies. To me it’s like recognizing a photo of somebody in a small town newspaper’s obituary section. It may not be a person you know extremely well or even by name, but it’s a person you’ve seen around town and exchanged pleasantries with. They are people whose passing is worth a poignant pause of reflection. The very famous people like Lauren Bacall or James Garner will be memorialized everywhere else. For the character actors and the lesser luminaries, TCM is the one place that should mark their passing.

Good point. That still happens. Today films are publicized in various entertainment magazines, entertainment cable channels, shows like "Entertainment Tonight", entertainment websites, radio interviews and of course talk shows, especially the late night ones. I sometimes I am predisposed to feel warmly toward a film because an actor revealed the trials and tribulations of producing of a film (working under difficult conditions, a miniscule budget, etc.)

Thank you for the welcome and the good suggestions. While reading your responses another thought occurred to me. Namely, I am unfamiliar with a lot of the silent stars, especially the supporting actors. When I see an old movie from the 30's I know that a Frank McHugh or an Allen Jenkins will be the hero's pal. A George Zucco or a Laird Cregar will be the bad guy. If I become more familiar with silent films I will at least recognize the good guys from the bad guys.

I have a hard time following the plots of silent films that are any more sophisticated than a Keystone Cops short. I presume the average silent film audience member wasn't that much smarter than me, yet they apparently followed the plotlines. I wondered if people then had different visual cues--a language of film--to help them understand the plot and action of the film. We have them in sound films: a wave transition indicates a flashback. A clock wipe indicates the passage of time. Music cues all sorts of things: approaching danger, etc. I assume that certain live music was indicated and timed to the action for each silent films but the quality of the organists and orchestras varied from theatre to theatre. Was there a different language of film understood by movie patrons then that I am not familiar with? Does anybody know any examples of that film language?