MSI | Movie Star Icons
@MovieStarIcons • 83,433 subscribers
Celebrating the iconic movie stars from the Golden Age of Cinema. Posts by Neil Macready.
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English former actress and singer Shirley Eaton (born January 12, 1937) as Bond Girl Jill Masterson in the James Bond film “Goldfinger” (1964). The third photo of Eaton is when she recreated the iconic look in 2015 at 78 years old. Shirley Eaton was painted gold by makeup artist Paul Rabiger (often spelled Rabinger in some sources). Her being painted gold in “Goldfinger” (1964) was done to a strict time limit. Doctors warned that after 60 minutes the continued blocking of the pores by the paint could be dangerous. An inch square on her midriff was left clear as an added precaution on the doctors' insistence, A doctor and a nurse were on standby during filming. The scene lasted only 3 minutes, but what made things more difficult was that she had the flu at the time. Although only a small part in the film, (her character was killed only 16 minutes into the movie), the image of Eaton painted gold was renowned and Eaton appeared as such on the November 6, 1964 cover of LIFE magazine. Music | At the behest of composer John Barry, Shirley Bassey was chosen to sing the theme song. On Bassey, Barry was quoted saying “Nobody could have sung it like her; she had that great dramatic sense”. The theme was recorded on August 20, 1964 after an all-night session in the recording studio. The session was produced by EMI in-house producer George Martin, who also was the Beatles' producer at the time. Guitarist Vic Flick, who played on the track, recalled at a 2012 Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences salute to the music of James Bond that Bassey was having difficulty getting a proper take. Martin spoke to her and then over the recording baffle her brassiere came flying. She nailed it on the next take.
MSI | Movie Star Icons669,586 views • 3 months ago
Remembering Vera-Ellen on her Birthday Born | February 16, 1921 in Norwood, Ohio, USA Video | Vera-Ellen performing nerve taps that revolutionised the world in the 1954 film “White Christmas.” Never has this been replicated by any other dancer, nor has anyone been recorded performing a feat as this. Not taps in general ― but these particular set of nerve taps. The music is in 4/4 time signature which means there are 4 beats in every bar. The fast notes she taps are known as ‘semihemidemisemiquavers’/ 128th note in music theory. A 4/4 bar is equivalent in duration to one semibreve - covering all 4 bars. She begins tapping on the 3rd beat for approximately 3 full bars with two extra beats. This means she taps 128 taps in every bar. Plus the two extra beats would be an additional 64. There are then 448 taps in these 3 bars with two extra beats. Her speed facilitates her ability for this number coverage - using an extremely quick note value. Fastest taps ever recorded on film. Such immaculate precision. Clinical control. A sharp articulation of sound quality ― and powerful dexterity in both feet. Usually performers have a weakest foot; but Vera-Ellen was superhuman.
MSI | Movie Star Icons470,933 views • 3 months ago
Lucille Ball and Louise Beavers in a scene from Du Barry Was a Lady (1943). It was for this film that MGM hairstylist Sydney Guilaroff dyed Lucille Ball's hair flame red, the colour that Lucy kept for the rest of her life and became her trademark. Lucille Ball later hired Karl Freund from this film to be the director of photography on her television series “I Love Lucy”.
MSI | Movie Star Icons446,329 views • 6 months ago
Desi Arnaz’s Final Goodbye to Lucille Ball. Just days before Lucille Ball was honored at the Kennedy Centre in 1986, her former husband and “I Love Lucy” co-star Desi Arnaz passed away. The day before his death, they exchanged one final “I love you”. At the ceremony, Arnaz’s message was read aloud: “Lucy was the show … P.S. “I Love Lucy” was never just a title”. His words became a final, heartfelt farewell — a love letter that still echoes through television history.
MSI | Movie Star Icons367,617 views • 6 months ago
Audrey Hepburn’s philosophy on aging in her own words. “She deliberately looked different from other women and dramatised her own slenderness into her chief asset” ― Edith Head (Chief costume designer at Paramount) Since her debut in Roman Holiday, Audrey rejected Hollywood’s standards of beauty. At a time when Marilyn Monroe was considered the ultimate sex symbol: blonde hair, hourglass figure, and exuding sex appeal, Audrey, unwittingly, ushered in a new era femininity. Despite her own personal insecurities, which she had been more than candid about —her thinness, her small chest, the size of her nose, her crooked teeth, and large feet — Audrey learned to embrace her limitations and emphasise her flaws. With the help of her friend and French couturier, Hubert de Givenchy, together the two created “The Audrey Hepburn Look”. Instead of hiding or minimising her small waist, long neck, and ballerina posture, they dramatised it with the help of his designs and Audrey’s model figure. Her makeup artists would overdraw her eyebrows to exaggerate their fullness and emphasise her famous doe eyes. The idea was to learn to accept your imperfections as oppose to camouflaging them. In her later years, she embraced aging with the same principles. Having survived WWII, Audrey knew that getting older was a privilege, “I decided ages ago to like life unconditionally. I’ve never expected life to do anything special for me, yet I’ve accomplished more than I ever hoped for.” When she was asked to do interviews or engagements in her 50s and 60s she would do her own hair and makeup, “for myself, I never put on makeup base, never powder. I just make up my eyes, and then in the winter, if I’m feeling a bit green, I’ll use a little rouge. That’s it.” Although, we may remember Audrey as the epitome of beauty and a fashion icon, for Audrey attractiveness was about one’s character. It was an extension of one’s individuality and an expression of creativity. True beauty wasn’t defined by our outer appearance but by one’s humility, grace, and kindness. In her final years, she divided her time between her family and her philanthropy. As her son Luca Dotti noted, “She was actually very happy about growing older because it meant more time for herself, more time for her family, and separation from the frenzy of youth and beauty that is Hollywood.” Credit: Photos, text and video of Audrey Hepburn on The Phil Donahue Show in January 1990 courtesy of @rareaudreyhepburn
MSI | Movie Star Icons226,439 views • 6 months ago
Russ Tamblyn (in the blue shirt) and Tommy Rall (in the red) lead the acrobatics in this section of the “Barn Raising” number from “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” (1954). Michael Kidd was responsible for the choreography. The cast rehearsed for three weeks in order to get the intricate choreography of this sequence down. It was during one of these rehearsals that Russ Tamblyn wandered over to the set along with Jeff Richards (who played Benjamin Pontipee) to see how the scene was coming along. “Michael Kidd called me over and said, ‘Rusty, somebody told me that you’re a good tumbler, that you can do some flips’,” said Tamblyn in a 2004 interview. “So I did a back flip for him. ‘Fantastic!’ he said. ‘We’ll put it in a number.’ I told him I really wasn’t a dancer, except for some tap dancing. But he said, ‘Listen, this is just like square dancing. All you have to do is lift your legs high. You can do a lot of acrobatic stuff. It’s perfect.’ That’s how I became a dancer in Seven Brides.”
MSI | Movie Star Icons196,630 views • 6 months ago
Happy 90th Birthday ALAN ALDA !!! Born | January 28, 1936 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. Alan Alda's Hollywood film debut was in the role of Charlie Cotchipee in the 1963 comedy-drama film, “Gone Are the Days!”, starring Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee and Godfrey Cambridge. “Gone Are the Days!” is based on the 1961 Broadway play Purlie Victorious, which was written by Davis. Davis, Dee, Cambridge, Beah Richards, Sorrell Booke and Alan Alda reprised their roles from the Broadway production. Photo | Alan Alda and Mike Farrell toasting the 50th Anniversary of M*A*S*H on September 17, 2022.
MSI | Movie Star Icons136,430 views • 4 months ago
Hattie McDaniel as Aunt Tempe singing “Sooner or Later” in Song of the South 1946. Upon receiving an Academy Honorary Award for his performance in this film, James Baskett who played the role of Uncle Remus became the first Black male performer to receive an Academy Award. As you know, seven years earlier, Hattie McDaniel became the first Black actor to win an Academy Award (Best Supporting Actress, Gone with the Wind 1939. It wouldn't be until 1964 when a Black male performer would win the Academy Award for Best Actor: Sidney Poitier (Lilies of the Field 1963. Note: Two people who were not critical of the film's depiction of plantation former slaves were Hattie McDaniel and James Baskett. Both said that if they felt the film was offensive, they wouldn't have appeared in it.
MSI | Movie Star Icons98,179 views • 3 months ago
Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift became close while filming George Stevens’ A Place in the Sun (1951). At the time, both were rising stars, but Clift was already known for his intense method-acting style, while Taylor was transitioning from child roles to more mature performances. Their on-screen chemistry translated into a deep off-screen bond. They shared a rare, almost soulmate-like connection, and remained lifelong friends until Clift’s death in 1966. They later starred together in Raintree County (1957) and Suddenly, Last Summer (1959).
Movie Star Icons27,715 views • 1 month ago
Gene Kelly’s iconic “Alter Ego” dance in director Charles Vidor's 1944 musical romantic comedy Cover Girl was achieved through double exposure. Kelly performed the choreography twice, perfectly matching his movements and timing, while the camera crew precisely repeated camera moves, creating the illusion of him dancing with his own reflection. The film strip was run through the camera twice to layer two different performances on top of each other. Kelly had to hit the exact same spot in the frame during the second take as he did in the first, while the camera operator had to duplicate panning and tracking movements perfectly, ensuring the background stayed aligned in both takes. The scene was assembled using an optical printer to blend the two shots, a process that took tons of time to ensure the “ghost” reflection matched the live action. The scene was so technically challenging that director Charles Vidor initially believed it was impossible and walked off set, leaving Kelly and Stanley Donen to complete the production of the scene themselves.
MSI | Movie Star Icons78,731 views • 3 months ago
Audrey Hepburn (age 23 here) famously performed ballet “en pointe” as the character Nora in the 1952 British film “Secret People”. Though Hepburn initially dreamed of becoming a professional ballerina, this scene from the movie helped launch her acting career, which led to her role in “Roman Holiday”. Hepburn trained in ballet from a young age, studying in Amsterdam under Sonia Gaskell and later in London with Marie Rambert. The actress considered ballet her first career choice, but was told she could not reach the level of a prima ballerina due to physical limitations caused by wartime malnutrition during World War II. During the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, she continued her training and performed in underground dance recitals to raise money for the Dutch resistance.
MSI | Movie Star Icons58,159 views • 3 months ago
Lena Horne singing her signature song “Stormy Weather” in the musical film Stormy Weather (1943). Stormy Weather is one of two Hollywood musicals with a Black cast released in 1943, both starring Lena Horne, the other being MGM's Cabin in the Sky. Stormy Weather is a primary showcase of some of the leading Black performers of the day, during an era when Black actors and singers rarely appeared in lead roles in mainstream Hollywood productions. The supporting cast features the Nicholas Brothers in arguably the screen's most bravura dance sequence, Fats Waller, Katherine Dunham and her dancers, and Dooley Wilson. Stormy Weather takes its title from the 1933 song of the same title, which is performed almost an hour into the film. It is loosely based upon the life and times of its star, dancer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson.
MSI | Movie Star Icons56,940 views • 3 months ago
Clark Gable's Secret Daughter Judy Lewis Tells All ― Chapters Below👇 Judy Lewis, the secret daughter of Clark Gable and Loretta Young, sits down with Dini Petty in 1994 to reveal Hollywood's most carefully guarded scandal for the first time on television. This 1994 interview captures Lewis promoting her memoir “Uncommon Knowledge”, breaking nearly six decades of silence about her true parentage. Lewis was conceived during the filming of “Call of the Wild” in 1935, when Gable was married and Young was an unmarried Catholic starlet terrified of career destruction. Born in secret, hidden in an orphanage, then publicly “adopted” by her own mother through a fabricated story planted with gossip columnist Louella Parsons, Lewis grew up not knowing the truth that everyone else in Hollywood already knew. At 23, her fiancé casually mentioned what all their friends assumed she already understood: Clark Gable was her father. It would take another decade before Lewis finally confronted Loretta Young and heard the full story. In this interview, she describes the only meeting she ever had with Gable (at age 15, when neither acknowledged the truth), the painful ear surgery her mother forced on her to hide her resemblance to the King of Hollywood, and why she chose to write the book that would estrange her from her mother for three years. This conversation, never broadcast since its original 1994 CTV airing, offers a window into the Golden Age Hollywood's ruthless morality codes, the human cost of celebrity image-making, and one woman's journey to claim an identity that had been denied to her for a lifetime. CHAPTERS 0:00 ― Dini introduces the woman who grew up as Hollywood's best-kept secret 3:15 ― “Call of the Wild” in more ways than one: how a snowstorm and a film set created a hidden child 5:01 ― Born in Venice, hidden in an orphanage, “adopted” through Louella Parsons: the elaborate deception 6:20 ― The Clark Gable ears that terrified Loretta Young (and the bonnets that hid them) 8:07 ― Growing up with a movie star mother who made six films a year and kept her distance 8:23 ― Eight years without speaking: the cost of writing “Uncommon Knowledge” 9:47 ― The only meeting with her father: two hours with Gable at age 15, not knowing the truth 10:39 ― “I wrote the book to claim my identity”: why Judy finally broke her silence 11:37 ― A mother still denying it publicly, even in 1994 13:30 ― “My grandsons have the right to know their heritage”: breaking the generational lie 14:36 ― No inheritance, no acknowledgment: what Judy never received from either parent
MSI | Movie Star Icons65,489 views • 4 months ago
“It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946): 19 Facts You Might Not Know. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) wasn’t just a Christmas classic — it was a miracle that nearly never happened. Frank Capra poured his own heartbreak, hope, and wartime exhaustion into Bedford Falls, shaping a film that felt more like a memory than a movie. Behind the snow and smiles was a production weighed down by fear, debt, and a star facing his own doubts — yet somehow, that struggle is what made it timeless. Glimmering beneath the holiday lights are 19 quiet miracles from the film’s long, unlikely journey — A Christmas card that opened the door to a story no one expected to matter. A quiet moment on set that reshaped the film’s heart forever. A forgotten filing error that brought back a movie the world wasn’t ready to lose. Video produced by, and with thanks to, @IconicStarRewind
MSI | Movie Star Icons79,950 views • 5 months ago
Every Costume Gina Lollobrigida wears in “Solomon and Sheba” (1959). Gina Lollobrigida starred as Queen of Sheba in the 1959 film, “Solomon and Sheba”. The costumes were designed by Ralph Jester, an Oscar nominated costume designer who also worked on “The 10 Commandments”.
HGA | Hollywood Golden Age47,646 views • 3 months ago
The Searchers (1956) was a landmark Western that redefined the genre, starring John Wayne as the haunted Ethan Edwards, a complex antihero driven by obsession, racism, and post-Civil War trauma, on a 5-year quest across the American frontier to rescue his niece from Comanche captors. Its revolutionary narrative structure (exploring moral ambiguity or family fracture), and Ford’s stunning Monument Valley cinematography, with those iconic doorway compositions, influenced directors like Scorsese, Spielberg, and George Lucas. And that magnificent final sequence is without a doubt one of the most beautiful in film history.
MSI | Movie Star Icons31,972 views • 2 months ago
Sharon Tate was the absolute definition of kindness, innocence, selflessness and graciousness. She was the one with a kind heart that nobody ever had a bad word to say about, even 56 years after her passing at the young age of 26. I think in this day and age, we should try and aim to have more of Sharon’s values.
MSI | Movie Star Icons44,797 views • 4 months ago