#Anna Strasberg

[perfettamentechic]

6 gennaio … ricordiamo …

6 gennaio … ricordiamo … #semprevivineiricordi #nomidaricordare #personaggiimportanti #perfettamentechic

2024: Anna Strasberg, nata Anna Mizrahi, attrice venezuelana naturalizzata statunitense. Sposò l’attore Lee Strasberg nel 1968. Grazie al testamento di Marilyn Monroe, di cui era insegnante di recitazione insieme al marito, ricavò moltissimo e decise di curare il Marilyn Monroe Theater e il Marilyn Monroe Museum. Recitò in alcuni film cinematografici e televisivi negli anni ’60 e poi negli anni…

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

"Marilyn Monroe was baptized by Aimée Semple McPherson, analyzed by Anna Freud, befriended by Carl Sandburg and Edith Sitwell, romanced (if you can call it that) by Jack and Bobby Kennedy, painted by Willem de Kooning, taught acting by Michael Chekhov and Lee Strasberg, photographed by Richard Avedon, Cecil Beaton, and Henri Cartier-Bresson. 

She managed—on the strength of limited dramatic talent and within a studio system that paid no attention to individual ambition—to work with some of the greatest directors in movie history: twice with John Huston, Billy Wilder, and Howard Hawks, and once each with George Cukor, Joseph Mankiewicz, and Laurence Olivier. 

She was the first Playboy centerfold and one of the first women to own her own production company; she was a nudist and a champion of free love long before these concepts emerged into the national consciousness. 

She maintained a deep association with the American military that, all on its own, lent her a mythic stature. When the Second World War broke out, she became both a teenage war bride and an actual Rosie the Riveter (long days spent working in the fuselage-varnishing room of the Radioplane plant in Burbank); her first cheesecake photographs were taken in the spirit of “morale boosters” for the boys overseas; her famous appearance in Korea—wriggling onstage in her purple sequined dress, popping her glorious platinum head out of the hatch of the camouflaged touring tank rolling her to the next appearance—remains the standard against which any American sex symbol sent to entertain the troops is measured. 

She was the first celebrity to talk openly about her childhood sexual abuse, a kind of admission that has become so common today that we hardly take notice of it. But to tell reporters in the 1950s that you had been raped as an 8-year-old—and to do so without shame, but rather with a justifiable sense of fury and vengeance—was a breathtaking act of self-assurance." 

From "Inventing Marilyn Monroe," by Caitlin Flanagan, in "The Atlantic," March 2013. (Photograph by Ed Feingersh.) 

[Follies Of God]

[latristereina]

Two months after Dad died, Al admitted in the safety of the therapist’s office what I must have always known: He never had any intention of marrying me. What he wanted was out. And that’s what he got. He got out. I watched him walk into the light of the California sun without so much as a glance back. Later the same day, he flew to the safety of New York, the George Washington Bridge, his driver, Luke, and his dog, Lucky, waiting at Snedens Landing. This is what remains of Al Pacino.

1. Eight pink slips from the Shangri-La Hotel in 1987, saying, ‘Call from Al.’

2. A page ripped out of a book with the sheet music to ‘All I Have to Do Is Dream,’ inscribed ‘To Di’ at the top of the page, ‘Love Al’ at the bottom.

3. One happy-birthday note card, with ‘Love Al’ written on it.

4. A handwritten letter from December 1989: ‘Dear Di, I am feeling uncomfortably lonely more than I have in many, many moons. I don’t know why this is so. It’s perhaps being in a foreign country and not being able to speak the language; you could say that’s one of the reasons. But mainly it’s being away from you and what we have together. As I’m writing this letter I’m sitting in an outside café in Rome, it’s pouring rain. I’m looking onto a beautiful square with a church talking to myself. I’ve got my hands folded as if in prayer. But in the middle of my hands is a little tape recorder. So it looks like I’m talking to my fingers. That’s the way it looks. If only I could dictate this letter without moving my lips. Just trying to tell you I miss you, ‘darlin’. In a sort of roundabout way it seems. I will get back to you. Love, Al.’

5. A note on a torn piece of paper: ‘Diane, Andy, me, and Don went to a restaurant in Mondello. I will call you with the name of the joint. Sit tight be right. Don’t fight. Love Al, Your friend.’

6. January 29, 1992, handwritten: ‘Dear Di. I heard that Anna Strasberg talked to you on the phone and may have mentioned something about my sending regards or some such amenity. Never did I do that. I would never use such a coy approach to trying to communicate with you. It’s unbearable to think that you would get that impression. I need no go between if I want to contact you. I apologize for having put you through this note. L. Al Pacino.’

7. August 19, 1995, on Chal stationery, typed: ‘Dear Di, Thank you for your very beautiful note about Lucky. Your warm words, thoughts, and deep understanding of my relationship with Lucky made me feel not alone. Thank you. Meanwhile, I heard about your mother and the news was upsetting to me. I send to you my thoughts and hopes for her recovery. I know it’s very difficult. It’s seriously a hard life, and that’s all there is to it. I feel now, of course, helpless to do anything for you except to let you know that I have some understanding for what you’re going through. Once again, thank you for your note. It helped me. My thoughts are with you, and I think about you often. Love, Al.’

- Then Again Diane Keaton

[vintagestagehotties]

Round 1 is officially over!

Congratulations to the actresses who made it to Round 2!

Round 2 will begin on Saturday, May 4th

The winners of Round 1:

Maude Adams

Anna Maria Alberghetti

Julie Andrews

Angela Baddeley

Hermione Baddeley

Lauren Bacall

Olga Baclanova

Pearl Bailey

Josephine Baker

Lucille Ball

Anne Bancroft

Tallulah Bankhead

Theda Bara

Mona Barrie

Jessie Bateman

Polly Bergen

Claire Bloom

Mrs Patrick Campbell

Diahann Carroll

Lina Cavalieri

Helen Chandler

Geraldine Chaplin

Ruth Chatterton

Claudette Colbert

Constance Collier

Gladys Cooper

Katharine Cornell

Phyllis Dare

Zena Dare

Ruby Dee

Judi Dench

Stephanie Deste

Marie Doro

Geraldine Farrar

Maude Fealy

Edwige Feuillère

Susanna Foster

Trixie Friganza

Jane Froman

Eva Gabor

Zsa Zsa Gabor

Mary Garden

Greer Garson

Dusolina Giannini

Hermione Gingold

Dorothy Gish

Lillian Gish

Frances Greer

Mata Hari

Dolores Hart

Olivia de Havilland

Jill Haworth

Audrey Hepburn

Libby Holman

Lena Horne

Sally Ann Howes

Ethel Irving

Diane Keaton

Lisa Kirk

Eartha Kitt

Angela Landbury

Carol Lawrence

Vivien Leigh

Lotte Lenya

Beatrice Lillie

Bambi Linn

Gillian Lynne

Heather MacRae

Jayne Mansfield

Mary Martin

Jessie Matthews

Siobhán McKenna

Meng Xiaodong

Helen Menken

Ethel Merman

Cléo de Mérode

Evelyn Millard

Liza Minnelli

Rita Moreno

Odette Myrtil

Pola Negri

Julie Newmar

Nichelle Nichols

Maureen O’Sullivan

Aida Overton Walker

Anna Pavlova

Bernadette Peters

Lily Pons

Rosa Ponselle

Lee Remick

Diana Rigg

Thelma Ritter

Chita Rivera

Ginger Rogers

Lillian Russell

Rosalind Russell

Diana Sands

Lizabeth Scott

Maggie Smith

Emily Stevens

Susan Strasberg

Barbra Streisand

Yma Sumac

Inga Swenson

Laurette Taylor

Hilda Trevelyan

Monique Van Vooren

Fannie Ward

Ethel Warwick

Elisabeth Welch

Mae West

Anna May Wong

Diana Wynyard

Yoshiko Yamaguchi

[vintage1981]

Celebrating Jacqueline Pearce

Jacqueline Pearce is a British actress best know for playing Servalan in all four series of Blake's 7.

Born in Woking in the south of England, Jacqueline Pearce trained at the British stage school RADA and at Lee Strasberg’s Actors Studio in Los Angeles. 

Her TV career began in the 1960’s with regular roles in the ITV Play of the Week as well as appearances in shows such as The Avengers and Armchair Theatre.

She starred in two Hammer horror films, The Plague of the Zombies and The Reptile, filmed simultaneously in 1966. Other film roles include Sky West and Crooked, Don’t Raise the Bridge, Lower the River and How to Get Ahead in Advertising.

Roles in the 1970’s included Rosa Dartle in David Copperfield, Claudia Haswell in Couples, and Anna Rupius in Vienna 1900. But it was in 1978 that she was cast in the role for which she would be ever known.

Servalan was the Supreme Commander of the Terran Federation in Blakes 7, the TV drama devised by Dalek creator Terry Nation. The character was only expected to appear in one episode of the saga, but Pearce’s electrifying performance ensured the character would survive far longer than the title character, appearing in all four series.

A cold, calculating, ruthless sociopath Servalan’s main aim was to destroy the crew of the Liberator and the relish with which Pearce played the character ensured she would remain a fan favourite for the series duration. 

Her Doctor Who appearance came in 1985, playing Chessene of the Franzine Grig in the Colin Baker story The Two Doctors. She later appeared in a slew of Blake’s 7 and Doctor Who audio adventures for for Big Finish Productions.

In 1991 she played Miss Pendragon in the Russell T. Davies series Dark Season. She also appeared in series such as Casualty, Doctors, Daniel Deronda and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.

Her theatre work included West End appearances in Harold Pinter’s Otherwise Engaged (Queen’s Theatre) and JB Priestly’s Dangerous Corner (Garrick Theatre); Shadowlands; Tom Stoppard’s Night and Day (Belgrade Theatre, Coventry) ; and her one woman show A Star is Torn.

Jacqueline relocated to South Africa for several years, initially to care for orphaned monkeys, before recently returning to the UK. Her autobiography, From Byfleet to the Bush, was published in 2012. 

Jacqueline Kay Pearce, actor, born 20 December 1943; died 3 September 2018

[havithreatendub4]

Johnny Depp won the Lee Strasberg Artistic Achievement Award from the Actors' Fund of America on October 30, 2004.

The award was presented to Depp at the Actors' Fund of America Gala, held at the Waldorf Astoria in New York, and emceed by Whoopi Goldberg. 

The Lee Strasberg Artistic Achievement Award is given annually to a member of the performing arts community. The award was renamed in honor of Lee Strasberg, a renowned acting teacher, director, and actor, to commemorate his 100th birthday.

Jack Valenti, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Johnny Depp, Angela Lansbury and Bernadette Peters (l. to r.) get together during "That's Entertainment," the Actors' Fund of America's annual tribute dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria. Depp received the Lee Strasberg Artistic Achievement Award at the event, and Lansbury was presented with the fund's Special Lifetime Achievement Award. ⬆️

Johnny pictured with Martha Nelson and Anna Strasberg ⬆️

[pastedpast]

The photographs in this book by George Barris were the last ones taken of Marilyn Monroe. The photoshoot took place on Santa Monica Beach, California, and it captured a fun and free-spirited Marilyn. Her beauty is au naturel, and she looks happy and relaxed.

I am remembering her because I've been reading how the person who ended up inheriting the vast majority of Marilyn's estate was someone who never actually met her. She died in 1962 aged 36, leaving 75% of her wealth including all her personal effects to her acting coach, Lee Strasberg and his Paula, to whom she had become very close. But Paula died four years later and Lee remarried the following year, to a Venezuelan woman called Anna Mizrahi. When Lee died in 1982, Anna inherited Marilyn's estate.

Although Monroe had asked that her belongings be distributed to her friends and colleagues, Lee stored everything in two vast warehouses instead. It proved to be a goldmine for Anna, who put hundreds of items up for auction at Christie's. The sale generated $13.4m. She gave some of the money to charity, but kept most of it for herself. She also hired a lawyer to start selling licensing rights, so that the star's image appeared on everything from scratchcards to novelty telephones. In 2010, she sold what was left of the estate for a reported $20-30m.

The remaining 25% had been left to Monroe's psychiatrist, Dr Marianne Kris. She spent years trying to get hold of her share, which she eventually bequeathed to the Anna Freud Centre in North London, to support its work with children experiencing mental illness.

I found this information in the 'Obituaries' section of 'The Week' magazine (27 January 2024, p. 36). Anna Strasberg died at the beginning of this year, aged 84.

[delectablywaywardbeard-blog]

Addio a Anna Strasberg, l'erede del patrimonio di Marilyn Monroe

È morta a 84 anni Anna Strasberg, la vedova di Lee Strasberg, il fondatore del leggendario Actor’s Studio, sul cui ‘metodo’ si sono formate star come Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe e Robert de Niro. Dopo la morte del marito nel 1982 Anna aveva continuato a istruire intere generazioni di attori. La vedova Strasberg aveva finito per ereditare il grosso del patrimonio’ di Marilyn, che la diva aveva…

[davidhudson]

Lee Strasberg, November 17, 1901 - February 17, 1982.

With Anna Strasberg at the Actors Studio.

[scotianostra]

Happy Birthday Scots born television actor Ian Buchanan.

Ian was born and grew up in Hamilton, the second of six children (two sisters, three brothers). His father worked as a foreman and his mother was a nurse. Both struggled with alcoholism and tragically both died by the time Ian was 14.

He worked at a local hotel as a porter while aged 14, he was a bartender at age 18 and at age 20 was managing a restaurant.

While on holiday in Spain, his good looks captured the attention of a photographer. He agreed to a photo session that went so well he quickly found regular modelling work. He moved to London where he soon became an international fashion model. When the prestigious Ford Agency signed Buchanan in the 1980s, he relocated to New York City. 

Buchanan studied acting at New York's Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. He was also coached by notable playwright and actress Marcia Haufrecht. His hard work paid off when he was offered the role of heartthrob Duke Lavery on the medical soap, General Hospital, and never looked back.

Appearances in  The Bold and the Beautiful, Twin Peaks, Columbo, Nip/Tuck, Justice League,  Quantum Leap and many others followed.  His film credits include The Cool Surface, Double Exposure, Ivory Tower, Lying in Wait, Panic Room, Make the Yuletide Gay, and Always.

The pic with Ian in the kilt is with General Hospital co-star and screen wife,  Finola Hughes/ aka  Duke Lavery and Anna Devane Duke.

Buchanan won the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Newcomer for General Hospital in 1988. He was nominated in 1994, 1995, 1996, and 1998 for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series The Bold and the Beautiful and won the honour in 1997.

We may know very little of him here in his home country, but Ian has over 47 thousand followers on his twitter account. His social media handle on Twitter is a nod to his homeland, @KilttripUSA

There’s not much about his private life to be found, one source says “ he lives with physical therapist Antonio Hendricks.” but according to his twitter where he posted the final pic, with the words  “ A Scottish Wedding.” it looks like the couple are now married.

Four of Buchanan’s brothers and sisters still live in Scotland and the actor makes sure to return at least once a year. 

[perfectlymarilynmonroe]

Marilyn, walking through Central Park with Sam [Shaw], was explaining Strasberg’s concept of “sense memory” and its use to an actor, especially in improvisation. She said, “I’m doing Anna Christie and I’m feeling rain, you get the idea?”

“Show me an improvisation,“ Sam countered, “Right now.”

Marilyn picked up a copy of the New York Times and walked over to a nearby park bench where a young couple were engrossed in conversation.

She sits beside them, apparently oblivious to them and their conversation. She unfolds a newspaper, creating a small personal world. They pay no attention to her and continue their dialogue. The young man is proposing marriage. Marilyn is totally absorbed in the paper.

When the “exercise” was completed, Marilyn turned to them, explained her purpose and asked them for permission to use the photos. They agreed.

— Marilyn Among Friends by Sam Shaw and Norman Rosten

[tcm]

The Oscar Effect on Careers By Susan King

Does winning an acting Oscar change the career of the recipient? The answer is yes and also no. Take Brad Pitt, who won Best Supporting Actor last year for ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD (2019). He’s a veteran superstar with over three decades in Hollywood. So, the award is more icing on the cake for his career. But that wasn’t the case when he earned his first nomination for Terry Gilliam’s 12 MONKEYS (‘95). Pitt was on a hot streak since gaining attention for his roles in THELMA & LOUISE (‘91), A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT (‘92), INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE (‘94) and LEGENDS OF THE FALL (‘94), and his first Oscar nominations gave his career an even bigger boost.

Similar to Pitt, many young actors discovered their stock in Hollywood with Oscar gold, but nominations and wins have effected various stars’ careers in different ways. Here’s a look at various Oscar winners and how the award affected their careers.

Martin Landau

The Oscar has changed the career trajectory of many veteran actors. Martin Landau was making such TV movies The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island (’81) that just squandered his talents. But that all changed when he earned his first Oscar nomination for Francis Ford Coppola’s TUCKER: THE MAN AND HIS DREAM (’88), followed by a second for Woody Allen’s CRIMES & MISDEMEANORS (’89), eventually winning for his poignant performance as Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton’s ED WOOD (’94).

Ironically, Landau told me in a 2010 L.A. Times interview he didn’t think he could play the Dracula star. “It’s a Hungarian morphine addict, alcoholic who has mood swings,” he remembered telling Burton. “That would be hard enough, but it has to be Bela Lugosi! I said I don’t know if I can do this, but let’s do some tests.”

Makeup artist Rick Baker transformed Landau into the elderly frail actor. Burton, he recalled, looked at the tests and thought he was 50% Lugosi. Landau believed he captured the icon in fleeting moments. “I said if I can do it 10% of the time, I can do it 100% of the time. They have to accept me as Lugosi in the first five minutes or we don’t have a film. It was not an impersonation for me. He had to be a human being.”

Melvyn Douglas

Similarly, Melvyn Douglas, who was best known for his comedic roles in the 1930s and ‘40s in such films as NINOTCHKA (’39), had seen his career slow in the 1950s because of his liberal political leanings. But he came back to the forefront in 1960 after winning a Tony Award for Gore Vidal’s THE BEST MAN, and then receiving his first of two supporting actor Oscars for his turn as Paul Newman’s hard-working Texas rancher father in Martin Ritt’s HUD (’63). Seven years later, he received a Best Actor nomination as Gene Hackman’s father in I NEVER SANG FOR MY FATHER (’70), ultimately winning his second Oscar as the president of the United States in Hal Ashby’s BEING THERE (’79).

Luise Rainer

The German stage actress was signed to an MGM contract in the mid-30s. But the free-spirited Rainer, who considered herself an actress and not a movie star, was always at logger heads with studio head Louis B. Mayer. She told me in a 2011 L.A. Times interview, Mayer “couldn’t make me out. You know it was a little bit difficult for him. I wasn’t the type that he was used to. So, the poor man didn’t know what to do with me. For my first film, ESCAPADE [‘35], William Powell said [to him] you got to star that girl��My first film made me a star.”

Rainer won Best Actress as famed performer Anna Held in THE GREAT ZIEGFELD (’36) and as a Chinese peasant in THE GOOD EARTH (’37). All but one of her subsequent films didn’t do well at the box office and she left Hollywood. She made one film, HOSTAGES (’43), guest starred on some TV series including a voyage on The Love Boat and had a small part in indie film THE GAMBLER (’97).

Art Carney  

One of the greatest comedic actors, Carney came to fame in the Honeymooners sketches on The Jackie Gleason Show and The Honeymooners series as Ralph Kramden’s (Gleason) best pal, the clueless sewer worker Ed Norton. He won five Emmys for his work with Gleason. Carney also originated the role of neatnik Felix Ungar opposite Walter Matthau’s Oscar Madison in the 1965 Broadway production of Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple.

Well-known that he had a drinking problem, Carney wasn’t working that much in film or TV in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In fact, he tried to convince Paul Mazursky he wasn’t right for the filmmaker’s heartfelt dramedy HARRY & TONTO (’74) about a curmudgeonly old New Yorker who travels with his cat across country after he loses his apartment. Mazursky told me in a 2011 L.A. Times interview that no one wanted the part. James Cagney, Laurence Olivier, Cary Grant and even Danny Kaye were among those who turned him down. 

He had seen Carney on Broadway in 1957 in a dramatic role in The Rope Dancers.  “Of course, I had seen him in The Honeymooners. He didn’t want to do it,” noted Mazursky. “He said ‘I’m 59 years old and you want this guy to be in his 70s.�� I said, ‘Art, this is the first time I met you and you look like you are in your 70s – you’re balding, you wear a hearing aid and you have a bum leg.’ He told me, ‘You don’t want me, I’m an alcoholic.’ He had one bad night then nothing else. He had been out on a binge and he showed up on location in Chicago in a taxi in the morning loaded. I took him up to his room, put him in the shower and made him a pot of coffee. He was easy to direct.”

Carney won both the Golden Globe and the Academy Award for his turn, beating out the likes of Jack Nicholson for CHINATOWN and Al Pacino for THE GODFATHER PART II. And he did some of his best work post-Harry including as an aging Los Angeles private detective in the charming THE LATE SHOW (’77) and as a senior who teams up with his buddies (George Burns and Lee Strasberg) to rob a bank in GOING IN STYLE (’79). He earned his sixth Emmy for the TV movie Terrible Joe Moran (’84), which was James Cagney’s last film.  Carney’s final film was the 1993 Arnold Schwarzenegger disaster LAST ACTION HERO. “I’m outta here” was the last line Carney ever uttered on film.

[bulldogedition]

MARILYN MONROE HAS BEEN DEAD FOR 59 YEARS.. BUT SHE LIVES ON IN THE COUNTERFEIT WORLD

Her estate, including certain intellectual property rights, was split, with 25% going to her therapist and 75% to famed acting coach, Lee Strasberg. After Strasberg died in 1982, the rights transferred to his third wife, Anna, and Authentic Brands eventually became owner of that share. The scope of those intellectual property rights have been litigated heavily over the decades but the ownership of Monroe’s name and the title of her most famous song are clearly owned by Authentic Brands.

“She’s got a timeless beauty that even today still resonates,” said Jay P. Kennedy, associate professor and assistant director of research at the Center for Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection at Michigan State University. “She represents a part of this history and the culture of this country that people identify with.”

That makes her name and image profitable with legitimate companies that license the rights from Authentic Brands and those that haven’t. And Marilyn Monroe isn’t alone. Just about every product on the market has a counterfeit version sold on the cheap, Kennedy said.

“As a consumer, if you go online and look for a product, we don’t know what’s trademarked, what’s copyrighted — we just know the product we’re looking for,” he said. “One of our partners at the center joked that if you’re a company and you manufacture a product and you don’t have counterfeits, you’re making a really crappy product.”

[citizenscreen]

The Strasberg Family. From left to right: Adam Strasberg, Lee Strasberg, Anna Strasberg, David Lee Strasberg

[humanistauno]

Chris Evans’ Life Behind The Limelight

by: Matt Basco

Chris Evans is an American actor best known for playing comic book superhero Captain America on the big screen.

Early Life

Christopher Robert Evans was conceived on June 13, 1981, in Boston, Massachusetts, and brought up in the close by town of Sudbury. While his father, Robert, gave monetary solidness as a dental specialist, Evans and his three kin were attracted to the performing expressions universe of their mom, Lisa, an artist turned Youth Theater chief. As Evans reviewed, "We resembled the von Trapps [from The Sound of Music], all singing and moving."

A characteristic competitor, Evans wrestled and played lacrosse at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, when not put resources into his school or network theater. He spent the late spring before his senior year of secondary school interning for a throwing organization in New York City, making significant contacts and sharpening his aptitudes at the Lee Strasberg Institute. Anxious to restore, the hopeful entertainer sped through his senior year to graduate a half semester in front of his cohorts.

Who Is Chris Evans?

Brought up in the Boston zone, Chris Evans handled his first significant film job in the parody Not another Teen Movie. He played the Human Torch in two Fantastic Four flicks, however the ball was in his court as another superhuman that moved him to notoriety in the immensely fruitful Captain America and The Avengers blockbusters. Evans additionally earned praise for his exhibition in the tragic Snowpiercer, and made a generally welcomed Broadway debut in 2018.

Movies

'Captain America' and 'the Avengers'

In July 2011, Evans joined the burgeoning Marvel Cinematic Universe Empire with Captain America: The First Avenger. As Steve Rogers, the scrawny but dutiful serviceman who undergoes a massive physical transformation to become the titular super soldier, Evans capably displayed the earnestness central to his character, along with the eye-popping physique and fighting skills requisite for a modern action star. The First Avenger was just the start of the MCU run for Evans, who joined Robert Downey Jr.'s Iron Man, Chris Hemsworth's Thor and other big-name actors, both in and out of costume, for the superhero blockbuster The Avengers (2012). Evans went on to headline the sequels of his own Captain America franchise with The Winter Soldier (2014) and Civil War (2016), while also leading the charge for The Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) and surfacing in other Marvel features, like Ant-Man (2015) and Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017). Initially reluctant to wield the Captain's shield due to the extended commitment, Evans was ready to move on by the time his contract drew to a close, with Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019) showcasing his final performances as America's super solider.

Early Roles

'Not another Teen Movie' and 'Cellular'

Evans first major film role came in Not another Teen Movie (2001), a spoof of high school dramas like She's All that (1999) and earlier predecessors. As football star Jake Wyler, he follows the formulaic procedure of accepting a bet to date the nerdy, glasses-wearing girl, delivering a silly highlight by squirting on the whipped cream bikini made famous by Ali Larter in Varsity Blues (1999). He followed with another high school comedy, The Perfect Score (2004), as part of a group of students who steal the answers to an SAT exam, and then the action-thriller Cellular (2004), where he showed his future leading man chops by helping to rescue Kim Basinger from her captors.

'Fantastic Four' and 'Scott Pilgrim'

Other Comic Adaptations Prior to his star-making turn in Captain America, Evans went the superhero route for Fantastic Four (2005), as Johnny Storm/Human Torch. The film was a commercial success, but a downturn at the box office for Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), along with another round of largely negative reviews, led to the cancellation of a third installment.

Returning to comic-sourced material, Evans provided voice work for the animated TMNT (2007), as the boyfriend of the Ninja Turtles' colleague, April O'Neil. He later co-starred in the action comedy The Losers (2010), which drew mixed reviews despite a strong cast, and landed a supporting role in the entertaining Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), as an over-the-top version of the Hollywood action hero he had become. Meanwhile, the actor took advantage of the all-American good looks and charm that made him a natural for romantic comedies. He played the "Harvard Hottie" of past and future co-star Scarlett Johannson in The Nanny Diaries (2007), before becoming the ideal match for Anna Faris in what’s Your Number? (2011).

Drama and Sci-Fi

'London' and 'Sunshine'

Coming off his early teen films, Evans showed he could handle weightier fare with London (2005), as a junkie struggling to get over his ex-girlfriend. He later took on Tennessee Williams in The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond (2008), with Bryce Dallas Howard, and portrayed a real-life lawyer and drug addict who goes after the pharmaceutical industry in Puncture (2010).

'Iceman' and 'Snowpiercer'

Despite his Marvel commitments requiring much of his energy, Evans found the time for other screen projects to his liking. Iceman (2012) gave him the chance to overturn his squeaky-clean superhero image as a contract killer who assists Michael Shannon's sadistic hitman. Snowpiercer (2013) placed him back in leading man territory, albeit as an antihero in a dystopian future.

'The Red Sea Diving Resort’ and 'Knives Out'

Evans next starred as an Israeli agent in The Red Sea Diving Resort (2019), based on the real-life rescue and transport of Ethiopian Jews to Israel in 1981. Late that year, he again distanced himself from the wholesome superhero image by playing an obnoxious playboy in the murder-mystery Knives Out.

Net Worth

Evans checks in at a cool $70 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. The bulk of his fortune has come from his Marvel Cinematic involvement, though it took a little while to get there, after reportedly receiving a relatively modest $300,000 for his first Captain America movie.

Romantic Life and Girlfriends

Evans was involved in an on-and-off relationship with actress Jenny Slate after they got to know one another on the set of The Gifted. The couple spent the 2017 holiday season together, though they reportedly split for good a few months later. Earlier in his career, from 2001 to 2006, Evans was in a long-term relationship with Jessica Biel. He has also been linked to actresses Minka Kelly and Lily Collins.

Chris Evans's Height and Workout

At 6 feet tall but naturally slim, Evans displayed the results of long hours in the gym while progressing from the rangy jock of Not another Teen Movie, to the beefier Human Torch of Fantastic Four, to the cartoonishly muscular Captain America. Packing on the pounds was vital to the appearance of his laboratory-enhanced superhero, prompting a training regimen that included high-weight reps of squats, deadlifts and incline bench presses, as well as bodyweight exercises like dips and pull-ups. By the time of The Winter Soldier, he had incorporated gymnastics and plyometrics to his routine for more speed and agility, aiding his efforts in such scenes as when he beats up a group of men in a crowded elevator.

TV Shows

Sent to Los Angeles by his agent in the late 1990s to audition for a show called Get Real (where he met Anne Hathaway), Evans instead wound up with a supporting role on Opposite Sex, alongside Milo Ventimiglia, as one of the few boys to attend a former all-girls academy. The teen comedy-drama lasted for only eight episodes in the summer of 2000, but still provided vital exposure for its young stars. Evans went on to make appearances in The Fugitive, Skin and the popular Boston Public. In 2008, with his successful film career well under way, he provided voice work for Adult Swim's stop-motion series Robot Chicken.

[rpsabetto]

Winter of the Witch

Winter of the Witch

(USA 1970)

I never heard of this short film until I saw it, but it’s apparently quite big with Gen X. I can see why: a precursor to Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore and Scooby Doo with Bewitched and The Addams Familythrown in, it’s about a single mother (Anna Strasberg) who skips town (Manhattan) in her VW Bug with her young son, Nicky (Roger Morgan), and buys a dilapidated old Victorian mansion…