No internet connection

I apologize everyone but I do not have an internet connection.  My modem went out and I have to order a new one.  I will get back on as soon as possible.

Quote of the Week by Sharon Herself and A Poem that could have been written by Polanski

One of Sharon's most famous quotes:

"Everything that's realistic has some sort of ugliness in it. Even a flower is ugly when it wilts, a bird when it seeks its prey, the ocean when it becomes violent."

I think these kinds of quotes show Sharon's intelligence.  And with this one, I think she does make a valid point.

I found this online.  It is a poem written for a girl named Sharon but it could easily have been written by Roman Polanski with the emotion it expresses.   I was thinking about when Sharon died and Roman kept asking: "Did she know how much I loved her?  Did she, did she?"  Sometimes I wonder if he just didn't realize how wonderful she truly was until she was gone.  Sometimes we all take things for granted when we shouldn't and I'm sure he must regret this.

Don't get me wrong, I know he loved her very much and was happy with her.  However, when someone passes I think we all think back and realize things about people we never did before.  I know I did this with my grandmother when she passed.  I thought, "I should have spent more time with her..." and so on.

Poem For Sharon

By Chris Todd

Why is it that some people who find love,

handle it with such carelessness?

Some people search for love all their lives.

When it is found, why put it down and forget about it,

only to realize how much it meant when it is gone?

When you find love, hold on to it,

celebrate its feelings,

drown in them every day,

be consumed by them...

I am consumed by you Sharon.

I will never set aside my love.

I will never look for it only when it is lost.

I love you.

I will show you and tell you every day.

From this site: http://poems.topdownloads.net/poems/view.php?id=5038

Coming up...

This week more translated articles and hopefully, more surprise quotes from people who knew Sharon. :)

The Steve McQueen Blog-a-thon

The Steve McQueen Blog-a-thon has ended. Many thanks to the event's contributors. There's lots of great reading here. Enjoy!

Day 4

The Blob (1958)
By Doniphon - The Long Voyage Home
Steve stutters, making up nonsense, eventually trailing off and laughing. But as he looks at the officer his dying laugh becomes something else, and even as Steve the character sets out to tell the aw shucks officer he'll never do "it" again, Steve the icon practically sneers. Those (goddamn soulful) eyes look out, that vein in his forehead we know emerges, and he seems to say, "I don't deserve this." It becomes clear; McQueen the star was McQueen the star long before he ever was one, and he ain't going to be doing this bullshit forever.

Bullitt Points on Steve McQueen
By Jason Bellamy - The Cooler
I expressed most of my Steve McQueen thoughts in my two previous submissions to the Steve McQueen Blog-a-thon: the “5 for the Day” piece at The House Next Door and the video essay “Steve McQueen: King of the Close-Up.” But here are a few more ruminations and ramblings related to the King of Cool.

Le Mans
By Tony Dayoub - Cinema Viewfinder
What's amazing about Le Mans, a film which was branded as McQueen's Folly even as it was being made, is how well it still holds up today. Racing films always seem so full of cinematic potential, speed being the most attractive factor. Yet with rare exception does it ever pan out. I'm speaking strictly from a cinephilic perspective since I am not qualified to render even the most basic opinion about auto racing or even cars (so this is your opportunity to take me to task in the comments section if you have a stronger argument). But contemporary auto racing films like Days of Thunder (1990), Driven (2001), even Pixar's Cars (2006) seem to place a priority on artificially raising tension through camera placement; if one's point-of-view resides amongst the vehicles jockeying for position, then one should get the feel for what it's like to be a driver in one of these competitions. It's just a bunch of horseshit, if you ask me.

The Sand Pebbles (1966) - Part 2 - The River Battle Sequence
By Hokahey - Little Worlds
Especially during the 1960s, the heyday of the widescreen historical epic, battle scenes were everywhere. But this one stands out. I like how it uses extreme long shots to establish the setting and the situation the San Pablo is in, and when it comes to the battle, close-ups are used sparingly for dramatic effect, and loosely framed medium to long shots capture the hand-to-hand combat, making the action clearer, unlike the claustrophobic, in-your-face framing of much of the battle action in films these days.

Day 3

For Steve
By Jay C. - Funny Farm
There's always this discussion on what people are actors and what people are stars. I'm no movie critic and McQueen's acting skills can be debated maybe, I don't know, I live in Holland and I can't remember him getting any big awards like an Oscar or anything at the time. Not that it matters, to me he is the real meaning of the word actor, more so than the word star, although he was that too, a big one.

The Kid's Break
By Jamie Yates - Chicago Ex-Patriate
When notes or conversations arise about Steve McQueen's beginnings, the first two names that understandably come up are The Blob and the television show Wanted: Dead or Alive. Further fame would come with his more memorable roles in the 1960s and 1970s, but a little-discussed aspect of his start is his first teaming with John Sturges in 1959's Never So Few. Perhaps the fact that this film doesn't garner much attention is because it's a movie weighed down with limitations and a generally poor script.

The McQueen Persona, Part II: The Imprisoned Free Spirit (The Great Escape & Papillon)
By Steven Santos - The Fine Cut
In Part 1 of this series (see Day 1), I discussed the one aspect of the McQueen Persona, the Righteous Rebel, in two of his films, Bullitt and An Enemy of the People. I had admitted that both films were both rather flawed films that were elevated by McQueen's performances, but never quite pushed him as far enough in challenging that aspect of his persona. As we take a look at a different aspect of the McQueen Persona, The Imprisoned Free Spirit, not only are both films much stronger, one of which I consider a genuine classic, but they do quite an effective job at building McQueen's image while almost cutting him back down to size in a way that few parts designed for movie stars rarely do these days.

Seeing The Great Escape (1963)
By Hokahey - Little Worlds
I was 11 years old, living in San Mateo, California, in a suburban home that had a small backyard with a lawn and a wooden shack used as a garden shed. The shack had a door, windows with glass, and a concrete floor with a hole in it. My two brothers and I, along with a couple of neighbor kids, pulled away more pieces of concrete and started digging straight down. Then we tunneled out under the foundation and the front wall. Surreptitiously, we dispersed the dirt in the backyard garden beds, sometimes holding handfuls in our hands, walking through the garden, and dropping them as we walked. A neighbor friend made a wooden tray that we filled with dirt and placed over the mouth of the tunnel to conceal it. Our secrecy fooled the German “guard” who sometimes looked over us from the kitchen window over the sink. (Well, she was my mother – but she really was German.)

Day 2

The Cincinnati Kid (1965)
By Adam Zanzie - Icebox Movies
Before Jewison came onboard, the end result was destined to be something completely different from what it is now. Peckinpah's original vision for The Cincinnati Kid was to shoot the film in black-and-white, and fill the story (in typical Peckinpah fashion) with visceral sequences of sex and violence. But Hollywood was not yet ready for Peckinpah's “fascists works of art” (as dubbed by Pauline Kael in her Straw Dogs review), and with Jewison replacing Peckinpah as director, Steve McQueen's next anti-heroic vehicle was about to become something more passive, less aggressive. Arguably, it ultimately became a better film.

Regarding The Getaway
By Steve Saragossi - The Screen Lounge
The Getaway is first and foremost an action thriller. That is what all concerned were endeavouring to produce and, on the basis of its box-office receipts and Steve McQueen’s return to the top of the superstar tree, they succeeded. But a closer examination of the text reveals subtleties not usually at work in such a genre-piece.

Day 1 - Essays:

5 for the Day: Steve McQueen
By Jason Bellamy - The House Next Door
McQueen's was a career that started too late — in 1958's The Blob, his first starring role on the big screen, the already-developing wrinkles in McQueen's forehead give away that he isn't the high schooler he's pretending to be — and that ended too soon. ... What follows here is a list of what I consider to be McQueen's five most essential performances.

The Getaway
By J.D. - Radiator Heaven
Steve McQueen brings his trademark cool and intensity to the role of Doc and is not afraid to play a relatively unlikable character. We don’t know what Doc was like before his prison stretch, only how he behaves once he gets out. McQueen plays him as someone who doesn’t suffer fools gladly. I find it interesting that two of his strongest performances came from back-to-back Peckinpah films: Junior Bonner and The Getaway. The former featured a very nuanced, introspective performance from McQueen, while this one is all on the surface as he plays an irredeemable criminal.

The Getaway
By Bryce Wilson – Things That Don’t Suck
The Getaway’s a strange movie to write about, a star at the height of his iconoclasm, a director in full possession of his incendiary talent, scripted by another badass filmmaker I’m quite fond of, coming from what is arguably the greatest novel from the greatest hardboiled novelist of all time. It’s a movie I wouldn’t hesitate to call a classic. And yet on some level I can’t help but find it unfulfilling.

Junior Bonner (1972)
By Kevin J. Olson - Decisions at Sundown
McQueen exudes cool throughout the film as Bonner (sunglasses and a cowboy hat have never looked so good on someone), a man who has spent his best years on the rodeo circuit, immersed in the ways of the Old West, but now that he has returned home he sees modernism and the counter culture of America in the 70's starting to creep into his home. He's a dying breed, and much like the way Faulkner wrote about Modernism penetrating the old South in "The Bear," so too does Peckinpah seem enamored with this theme of things never being the same.

Le Mans (1971)
By Vuk Radic - SeeItWith.Me
Steve McQueen's vision was simple: Create the best, most realistic movie about motorsports ever made. It was a story that began years before filming took place during the summer of 1970, and its aftermath impacted McQueen for the rest of his life. Le Mans was a huge project; 20,000 props, 26 high-performance racing cars with 52 drivers from seven countries, along with 350,000 French-speaking extras. And no finished script. There were few lines, even for a McQueen film, and no intelligible structure. "Cars," he told everyone. "We film the fucking cars." And from the very inception of the idea it was riddled with problems.

McQueen, Gleason, and a Couple of Guys Who Had It Coming
By Bill R. - The Kind of Face You Hate
There are a couple of things that happen during this fight that are a bit hard to swallow, but they gain a certain level of verisimilitude due to the clumsy brutality of everything else. It's strange to watch this moody little comedy, and then find yourself smack in the middle of a terrific, bone-crunching beatdown -- these guys are pounding the shit out of each other, and it makes them tired.

The McQueen Persona, Part 1: The Righteous Rebel (Bullitt & An Enemy of the People)
By Steven Santos – The Fine Cut
I never considered Steve McQueen the greatest actor, as much as I considered him a great presence. One has to look at today's "movie stars" to truly appreciate what McQueen brought to movies that were, for the most part, mostly memorable due to him. He seemed to have a mature, been around the block quality even in his early thirties, while many present-day actors are more pretty and boyish even when some of them are approaching forty. He may have been considered too cool, and, by turn, too unemotional by some, but he still represents to me more how men really are or perhaps should be. Maybe, these days, pop psychology has infected male characterizations so much that I prefer some of the mystery that McQueen's opaque performance style offers.

Non-Expressionism: The Gift of Steve McQueen
By Greg - Cinema Styles
I started going to the movies in the seventies and Steve McQueen was one of the first stars I got to know in current releases. When I saw his last film in the theatre, The Hunter, on opening weekend no less, so excited was I to see it, I felt I knew him well. I didn't. Even though I loved movies like The Blob, The Great Escape, Bullitt, Papillon and, yes, The Hunter, mediocre as it may be, I didn't fully understand Steve McQueen as an actor. I liked him and his movies but never felt he was doing the job I thought others were doing when it came to big screen acting. I certainly didn't think he was bad, I just never gave him much thought as an actor overall. But then, very recently in fact, I had a revelation.

The Sand Pebbles (1966) - Part 1
By Hokahey - Little Worlds
McQueen well deserved his nomination for his portrayal of Holman. He creates a simple soul who just wants to be left alone. In one scene straight from the wonderful novel by Richard McKenna, Holman actually talks to the ship’s engine he loves to work with. When he first arrives on the boat, he lovingly adjusts valves, wipes pipes, and declares. “Hello, engine. I’m Jake Holman.” This might be the type of language that works in a novel but should probably be left out of the film version, but McQueen puts touching believability into his delivery and it works.

Steve McQueen, an acting racer or a racing actor? Whatever ... He loved cars
By Vuk Radic - SeeItWith.Me
Steve McQueen really did have it all. He was supposedly smoking insane amounts of marijuana every day, wasn’t a stranger to mounds of cocaine, he was married three times and died at 50. Which takes on an ironical twist to another racing quote of his: “Racing is the most exciting thing there is. But unlike drugs, you get high with dignity.”

Steve McQueen and the Evolution of the Action Hero
By Clarence Ewing – GLI Press
McQueen’s heyday was mainly in the 1960s and '70s and he had all the tools to succeed in the era of Technicolor – the looks, the screen presence, and the persona. I don’t think I’m going out on a limb to declare that McQueen wasn’t the most spectacular thespian in the world, but neither were hundreds of other actors who came along before or after him. His screen presence was something that comes along a few times a decade, and his directors made full use of it.

Steve McQueen: King of the Close-Up (Video Essay)
By Jason Bellamy – The Cooler
Not quite 30 years removed from his death, McQueen tends to be remembered for his role in two of cinema’s most famous action sequences, in The Great Escape and Bullitt, and for his blazing blue eyes, his physical grace and his effortless swagger, which were the substance of several of his films. These were the ingredients that helped McQueen earn the honorary title “The King of Cool,” and rightfully so. But to come to the conclusion that McQueen’s success was simply the result of a handsome, athletic and naturally suave guy playing too-cool-for-school characters is to miss McQueen’s true cinematic gift: He was devastating in a close-up.

Day 1 - Photos:

Behind the Scenes With My Favorite Actors: Steve McQueen in Bullitt
By Jeremy Richey – Moon In The Gutter

Steve McQueen: 20 Never-Before-Seen Photos*
Photos by John Dominis - Life Magazine
(*Not technically a submission to the blog-a-thon, though LIFE was kind enough to email the link. Very cool!)

Steve McQueen's Women
By Vuk Radic - SeeItWith.Me

Steve McQueen Film Posters
By Vuk Radic - SeeItWith.Me

Steve McQueen's Cars
By Vuk Radic - SeeItWith.Me

Preamble:

The following isn’t an official contribution to the blog-a-thon, but it’s a wonderful place to start. Back in May 2009, Matt Zoller Seitz created the following video essay, which calls into question McQueen’s credentials as a leading man. If you’re a fan of McQueen, you might not agree with Seitz’s conclusion, but his arguments are almost impossible to refute. It's essential viewing.

Too Cool (Video Essay)
By Matt Zoller Seitz – L Magazine
This self-willed aura of confidence is the source of my own early admiration for McQueen. He was everything I wasn't — everything almost no one is; as much a cinematic demigod as Burt Lancaster, but humbler, more human scaled. Nevertheless, at some point second thoughts on McQueen took root in my mind and made it difficult to adore him uncritically, and made even his most acclaimed star turns feel unsatisfying. And at the risk of inviting a flood of angry email from dudes with subject headers along the lines of "Dear McQueen-hating pansy," I'll attempt to explain why.

Photo Comparison of the Week, A Viewer Can't Get Enough of Sharon in FVK, and a Very Hot Ebay Item

Photo Comparison of the Week:

Actress Ali Larter is reminiscent of Sharon in this photo:

Can't Get Enough of Sharon?  Apparently this viewer only had eyes for her during his viewing of "The Fearless Vampire Killers":

http://shane-movies.blogspot.com/2010/03/fearless-vampire-killers-or-pardon-me.html

 

For a quick rundown of his comments here are some:

"I'd only known Sharon Tate as a name. I'm not going to claim that she's the greatest actress who ever lived or anything, but there sure was something appealing about her.  My eyes were a little angry every time Sharon Tate wasn't on the screen. But my eyes needed to calm down since most of her scenes seemed to take place in bathtubs.  And after a bit, I really stopped caring about the plot so that I could focus on Sharon Tate."

We agree that Sharon was something special! ;)

And here is a rare video of Roman and Sharon offered on ebay now that sounds interesting and is quite a hot item! :

http://cgi.ebay.com/Rare-Roman-Polanski-Video-from-1968-with-Sharon-Tate_W0QQitemZ320504173549QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxZ20100324?IMSfp=TL100324145018r38121

Rare Roman Polanski Video from 1968 with Sharon Tate

“The New Cinema” a unique 15 minute 1968 tape featuring top Hollywood performers, producers and directors, including Roman Polanski, Sharon Tate, Dustin Hoffman, Andy Warhol, Peter Fonda, Mia Farrow, Francis Ford Coppola George Lucas, Michael Pollard, Dick Gregory and veteran actress Dame Edith Evans, all informally discussing changes in movie and TV production, predicting future TV and big screen developments, various cultural changes, additional violence in films, and the participants’ individual general philosophies of film making. The film is narrated by Paul Winfield.

This fascinating informal conversation among top film personalities was filmed at the Tate-Polanski home only months before the unthinkable 1969 “Manson Murders” led by Charles Manson and his Manson “family” cult’s 1969 murder spree tragically taking the life of Sharon Tate, occurring on this very same spot!

When the premiere of this film was held in a private screening room for top film producers, directors and performers, Hollywood columnist Rex Reed wrote “The Beverly Hills Hotel screening room could hardly contain the excitement.. ‘The New Cinema’ may revolutionize television.”

Among accurate predictions of things to come are included: massive use of “the split screen” technique and rapid film cuts -- none of which had yet been incorporated into films to any degree.

This unusual film was never packaged and distributed commercially, and has only been seen by a few people. Both of the producers, Buckey and McDermott have passed away and this is one of the few existing copies of the tape. It is currently in the possession of Wink Blair, President of Wink Inc. Public Relations. Page Buckey gave the tape to her when he was serving as an associate of hers at Wink Inc. Pat McDermott, co-producer of the tape is also now deceased.

Bullitt Points on Steve McQueen

I expressed most of my Steve McQueen thoughts in my two previous submissions to the Steve McQueen Blog-a-thon: the “5 for the Day” piece at The House Next Door and the video essay “Steve McQueen: King of the Close-Up.” But here are a few more ruminations and ramblings related to the King of Cool.

When The Great Escape Got Greater
The first Steve McQueen movie I ever saw was either The Great Escape or The Magnificent Seven. I saw both when I was about 10 or 11 and I loved them immediately. Although The Great Escape didn’t inspire me to dig a tunnel of my own, it opened up my mind to the possibility that “old movies” could be just as exciting as those made during my own lifetime (a novel concept at that age). Soon, I owned The Great Escape on VHS, and I spent my middle school, high school and even college years excitedly showing it to friends, many of whom hadn’t heard of the movie or McQueen. (It almost goes without saying that the movie was always a hit.) By the time I was 21, I must have seen The Great Escape two dozen times. Or so I thought.

It was around then that I got my first DVD player, and of course The Great Escape was among my initial DVDs. One afternoon I settled in to watch a movie I thought I knew by heart, only to find it thrillingly new. Until then, you see, I’d only seen The Great Escape in the standard pan-and-scan format of VHS. My DVD copy presented the film in its full (2.35:1) widescreen glory. What a difference it made! Now shots of Hilts speeding toward the Alps near the film’s conclusion were panoramically breathtaking. Now shots of the prisoners arriving at the camp in the film’s opening revealed more than a half-dozen trucks in a row instead of two or three. Most importantly, now, for the very first time, I knew the size of Hilts’ familiar cell in the cooler.

Stop reading. Look at the image that makes for the masthead here at The Cooler. That shot? I’ve only known that shot for a little over a decade. In pan-and-scan, we never saw Hilts’ entire cell in one shot. Instead, when Hilts tosses his baseball against the floor and walls of his cell, we’d get a shot of Hilts throwing the ball, then a cut to the ball hitting the wall, then a cut to Hilts catching the ball. Over and over again. Rinse and repeat. Consequentially, I always assumed that the cell was at least two times bigger than it actually is. The DVD-inspired renaissance of widescreen restored The Great Escape to its original glory. For me, there’s no better example of the ills of pan-and-scan than its perversion of Hilts in the cooler. Widescreen has never delighted me more.



Misspelled, With a Bullit
As I type this, I’m facing a poster for Bullitt, which is one of two Steve McQueen images among the five framed posters in my apartment (the other one shows McQueen as Virgil Hilts in The Great Escape). I bought the Bullitt poster at an outdoor sale when I was a student at Washington State University, and so I’ve had it for more than 12 years. But it was only about 10 years ago that I realized the poster’s flaw: Though the bold print atop the poster correctly touts “Steve McQueen as ‘Bullitt,’” the blurb underneath reads thusly: “Not many freaky cops like BULLIT around. You look at the Italian shoes and the turtleneck and you have to wonder. You listen to the official beefs about ‘personal misconduct,’ ‘disruptive influence,’ you figure he’s got to be up for trade. But when some rare Chicago blood starts spilling in San Francisco, they give BULLIT the mop. They weren’t exactly doing him a favor. But they’ve done a great big one for you.” OK, first of all: How cool is that blurb?! But, back to the point, how on earth did someone manage to drop a ‘T’ in Bullitt without anyone noticing? Oops.



Portrait of a Kung Fu Wannabe
In preparation for the blog-a-thon, I dusted off my copy of Marshall Terrill’s 1993 biography, Steve McQueen: Portrait of an American Rebel, which until recently had been boxed up with some other books I hadn’t touched since college. It’s a good book – personal and revelatory without seeming sensationalistic – and the process of rereading it reintroduced me to bits of trivia that I had forgotten. Perhaps my favorite forgotten factoid was this tidbit: McQueen was a pallbearer at Bruce Lee’s funeral. Surprised? So was I. The two (eventual) stars became connected when McQueen met Nikita Knatz, one of Lee’s training partners, on the set of The Thomas Crown Affair and asked (er, nagged) to get some martial arts training of his own. Soon, McQueen and Lee became companions. “Both men had what the other wanted,” James Coburn says in Terrill’s book. “It was two giant egos vying for something: stardom for Lee and street-fighting technique for McQueen.” When Lee got his first movie deal, he called himself the “Oriental Steve McQueen.” Lee then bragged to McQueen that he’d have a more worldwide audience. In response, McQueen sent an 8x10 glossy to Lee signed, “To Bruce, my favorite fan.” The two weren’t friendly rivals so much as rivals pretending to be friends. And although McQueen’s influence on Lee is difficult to pinpoint, Lee’s influence on McQueen is easy to spot. If you’ve ever wondered why Doc McCoy finishes off a butt-kicking in The Getaway with a rather goofy karate chop, now you know.



He Coulda Been a Defectah
There are several films that McQueen turned down because of a lack of interest or problematic preproduction, among them Dirty Harry, The French Connection, First Blood and even Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The one that’s most intriguing, though, is Apocalypse Now, given how easily it could have been a reality. McQueen was first offered the role of Willard, and then, after turning that down, the role of Kurtz. But McQueen intentionally priced himself out of the running, not wanting to spend so much time shooting in a foreign country, having already had a healthy dose of that for The Sand Pebbles. Francis Ford Coppola clearly wanted McQueen, and the project started roughly on time (though it famously didn’t finish that way). So had McQueen been more interested, he’d have been in that picture. The mind boggles trying to imagine if McQueen would have elevated the film’s twisted greatness, morphed it or neutralized it. McQueen as Kurtz is a strange but potentially interesting twist. It’s hard to picture, but not impossible. On the other hand, one doesn’t have to try very hard to imagine McQueen in The Bodyguard, which was originally conceived for him and Diana Ross.



The Remake I’d Endorse
There are only two McQueen films that I consider sacred and untouchable as far as remakes are concerned: The Great Escape and The Magnificent Seven. Those films have a distinctive magic that I don’t think can be adequately duplicated or reimagined (so let's not try, Hollywood, OK?). On the other hand, the remake I would love to see would be Bullitt by Michael Mann. Mann certainly has the resume for it. He seems to be evoking Bullitt in Heat, both in terms of the way Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino), like Frank Bullitt, is losing himself to the darkness of his work and in regard to the film’s climactic shootout in and around airport runways. Also, in Miami Vice, Mann created a film that niftily blends high-caliber action with a sort of romantic-cool mood that takes precedence over a muddled and somewhat inconsequential plot. Sounds like Bullitt. I’m not sure who would star in the picture. Daniel Craig might have been perfect, but now he’s Bond. Matt Damon could have worked, but now he’s Bourne. So maybe one of the Miami Vice stars: Colin Farrell or Jamie Foxx. Or maybe a redefining role for Michael Fassbender, Ryan Gosling or Jeremy Renner. Damn. Heath Ledger might have worked, too.

Photo of the Week and Alan Young and Rock Brynner talk briefly about Sharon

Here is our lovely photo of the week:

Hope you enjoy!

I recently asked former Mr. Ed star Alan Young if he remembered Sharon?  His assistant replied back:

"Sharon's appearance was almost 50 years ago and only for a brief moment.  Unfortunately, he doesn't remember anything worth noting except she was sweet and beautiful.  Alan wishes you good luck on your blog."

In addition, since Yul Brynner has passed on, I asked his son Rock about Sharon:

Actor Yul Brynner.

"Yes, my father and I knew Sharon and Roman well, mainly in London in 1968-9.  I can only say the obvious: she was heartbreakingly beautiful, happy and in love with Roman.

"Yul flew with Roman from London to L.A. when Sharon was murdered, and stayed through the funeral."

Yul's son Rock Brynner.

I also asked if his father ever photographed Sharon? He replied:

"I don't believe he ever photographed Sharon."

I'll still keep trying and let you know what I can find out.

The Meaning of a Name: Doris Tate and Ewan McGregor Compares Polanski to His Mother

I haven't done this in awhile and thought it would be interesting to put in Sharon's mother's name and see what it says:

You entered: Doris Gwendolyn Willet Tate

There are 24 letters in your name.

Those 24 letters total to 113


There are 8 vowels and 16 consonants in your name.

What your first name means:  Greek Female Gift. In Greek mythology, the daughter of Oceanus and mother of the sea-nymph Nereids; also the name of a district of Greece. Famous bearer: American actress Doris Day.

Your number is: 5

The characteristics of #5 are: Expansiveness, visionary, adventure, the constructive use of freedom.

The expression or destiny for #5:

The number 5 Expression endows with the wonderful characteristic of multi-talents and versatility. You can do so many things well. The tone of the number 5 is constructive freedom, and in your drive to attain this freedom, you will likely be the master of adaptability and change. You are good at presenting ideas and knowing how to approach people to get what you want. Naturally, this gives you an edge in any sort of selling game and spells easy success when it comes to working with people in most jobs. Your popularity may lead you toward some form of entertainment or amusement. Whatever you do, you are clever, analytical, and a very quick thinker.

If there is too much of the 5 energy in your makeup, you may express some the negative attitudes of the number. Your restless and impatient attitude may keep you from staying with any project for too long. Sometimes you can be rather erratic and scatter yourself and your energies. You have a hard time keeping regular office hours and maintaining any sort of a routine. You tend to react strongly if you sense that your freedom of speech or action is being impaired or restricted in any way. As clever as you are, you may have a tendency to make the same mistakes over and over again because much of your response is glib reaction rather that thoughtful application. You are in a continuous state of flux brought by constantly changing interests.

Your Soul Urge number is: 1

A Soul Urge number of 1 means:

Your Soul Urge is the number 1. With a Soul Urge number of 1, you want to lead and direct, to work independent of supervision, by yourself or with subordinates. You take pride in your abilities and want to be recognized for them. You may seek opportunities to display your strength and usefulness, wanting to create and originate. In your desire to manage the big picture and the main issues, you may often leave the details to others.

The positive 1 Soul Urge is Ambitious and determined, a leader seeking opportunities. There is a great deal of honesty and loyalty in this character. If you possess positive 1 Soul Urge qualities, you are very attainment oriented and driven to success. You are a loyal friend and strictly fair in your business dealings.

The negative side of the 1 Soul Urge must be avoided. A negative 1 is apt to dominate situations and people; the home, the spouse, the family and the business. Emotions aren't strong in this nature. If you possess an excess of 1 energy, you may, at times, be boastful and egotistic. You must avoid being too critical and impatient of trifles. The great need of the 1 Soul Urge is the development of friendliness, and a sincere interest in people.

Your Inner Dream number is: 4

An Inner Dream number of 4 means:

You dream of being a very solid citizen that people can depend upon. You strive for organization and predictable order. You want to be recognized as a person with a plan and the discipline to make that plan work like clockwork.

--From this site: http://www.paulsadowski.com/Numbers.asp

Here's an interesting small article I found today:

Ewan McGregor has compared Roman Polanski to his mother, because they are both “annoying”, and “usually right”.

The 38-year-old Scottish actor worked with the legendary film director on new thriller The Ghost Writer. McGregor plays an author who discovers a deadly secret when he is commissioned to write the memoirs of a former British Prime Minister. He found the role extremely challenging because he was constantly being criticised by Polanski.

“Roman doesn’t sugar-coat his notes to anyone – he tells it as he sees it,” McGregor told Total Film magazine. “We were doing one scene and Roman wanted a pillar moved two inches to the right, so there was a props guy with a drill trying to unscrew this pillar.

“I was running the lines and Roman just grabbed my script and said, ‘No! Why would you f**king play it like this? You would play it like this…’ Then he walked away and grabbed the drill out of the props guy’s hands and said, ‘Why are you doing it like this? You f**king drill it like that!’

“Once you learn not to take it personally, it’s fantastic and he’s like your mother – annoyingly, usually right.”

The Ghost Writer will be released worldwide on April 16.
 
--From this site: http://www.musicrooms.net/showbiz/4616-Ewan-McGregor-Has-Compared-Roman-Polanski-His-Mother.html

New Vintage Translated Turkish Interview with Sharon Tate...

Thanks to Andrea, we have a new translated article on Sharon.   A friend of mine did it for me today.  I hope everyone enjoys it.

Hayat - 1967

According to the British this will be the year of Sharon Tate: 1967

In recent years, British stars have emerged to be the new cinema sensations, Julie Christie, Vanessa Redgrave, Samantha Eggar and now a new star is slated for stardom.

Everyone has a common opinion: If you like the photos of an actress in advertisements then generally you will like the star. Movie star Sharon Tate, a 23-year-old blonde of English origin, is a complete exception to this rule. She has avoided advertising herself to the public.  She has even hid under a black wig out in front of television audiences. Sharon, is not recognized as a star yet on posters or marquees of theaters.  Fame has become a suitable adventure to be found for this young lady.

How many years has she been hidden ?

Everything is riding on this girl who came to the eyes of Hollywood cinema three years ago.  Martin Ransohoff discovered her and drew up a seven-year contract. For a period of 30 months Sharon fully learned how to be an actress and she has longed for the moment to be introduced. 

Sharon, recently met with a journalist in London and gave answers to various questions. Let us now turn our attention to this interesting conversation:

Q: Sophia Loren, Gina Lollobrigida, Brigitte Bardot are actresses called sex symbols.

A: For actresses we cannot control everything that is said about us. It is not possible.  Having said that, I do not mind being called that.

Q: Do you look upon yourself as a 'sex symbol'?

A: Everyone says I am a beautiful girl. But sexy... that's another thing altogether.

Q: What are your thoughts about the fashions of today?

A: I do dress from Paris. I am glad women wear something more comfortable than say in the 1920s.  Now, the apparel is more sharper and full of commericial lines.

Q: In the "Vampire Killers" film you have a naked bath scene.  Do you have on anything at all in this scene?

A: No. The director Polanski said: "You don't have to allow it to embarrass you.  The crew will eventually not even think about it if you don't.  But, of course, you can just ignore them if you want to!"  In this way, it was easier to do my job.  Polanski is a genuine artist.

A: So you like him?

A: I think he is a good and valuable person.

Q: What characteristics should your ideal man have?

A: To have an emotional yet strong character.

Q: For example, such as Roman Polanski?

A: Yes.

Sharon Tate is a caring young girl who is on her way to the great climb of fame.

Steve McQueen: King of the Close-Up

[I’m pleased to debut The Cooler’s first video essay as my contribution to the Steve McQueen Blog-a-thon. As usual, the video plays best if you let it completely buffer before watching. Click here to see it on Vimeo's site in a slightly larger, but not too large, size. A transcript of the narration is below.]

In his first starring role, on TV’s Wanted: Dead or Alive in 1958, and in his last starring role, in 1980’s The Hunter, Steve McQueen played bounty hunters. In between, McQueen played a host of characters who were on the run or behind bars – guys who had been to prison or seemed to be heading there. He played lawmen, too, and leaders, thrill-seekers and risk-takers. He played men of action – guys who always seemed to be cocked and ready. Not muscle men so much as tough guys. Not brave men, because they often seemed immune to fear, but determined ones. With rare exception, McQueen’s characters were strong, silent types, either intentionally or inevitably. Quiet strength was McQueen’s default setting.

Not quite 30 years removed from his death, McQueen tends to be remembered for his role in two of cinema’s most famous action sequences, in The Great Escape and Bullitt, and for his blazing blue eyes, his physical grace and his effortless swagger, which were the substance of several his films. These were the ingredients that helped McQueen earn the honorary title of “The King of Cool,” and rightfully so. But to come to the conclusion that McQueen’s success was simply the result of a handsome, athletic and naturally suave guy playing too-cool-for-school characters is to miss McQueen’s true cinematic gift: He was devastating in a close-up.

Of course, that wasn’t the extent of McQueen’s talent. McQueen was terrific behind the wheel of anything with four tires and he was even better on the seat of a motorcycle. He didn’t do all of his own stunts, of course, but his vehicular abilities allowed directors to get some magical shots that stuntmen couldn’t provide – shots that made action intimate. McQueen was also good on a horse – a skill that wouldn’t be worth much today – and he was terrific with props of all shapes and sizes. Guns. Food. Whatever. Even the engine of a ship. Give McQueen something to do and he was quietly captivating.

In other situations, McQueen seemed painfully out of his element. Thomas Crown Affair screenwriter Alan Trustman noted in Marshall Terrill’s 1993 biography Steve McQueen: Portrait of an American Rebel that when McQueen was uncomfortable “you could squirm watching him.” This is undoubtedly true. Many of McQueen’s particularly squirm-worthy moments came when the actor attempted to wear his heart on his sleeve. But that’s oversimplifying things. Given that McQueen was most comfortable when driving, manipulating a prop, or acting from the shoulders up, it should come as no surprise that he seemed least comfortable when forced to act with his entire body and with nothing in his hands. An apt example would be this scene from Nevada Smith, which Matt Zoller Seitz used to underscore McQueen’s limitations in his cogent 2009 video essay “Too Cool.” As McQueen squats down and looks at his character’s home in flames, he comes off less like a man distraught over the murder of his parents than like an actor who feels naked from the neck down and at a loss for what to do with his hands. It might be the most cringe-inducing moment in McQueen’s career. I mean, other than this one.

McQueen’s biggest fault as an actor wasn’t so much that he couldn’t play emotion but that he couldn’t play his emotions to the back row. McQueen needed the camera to get close enough that he could emote with his face, subtly but intensely, charismatically, powerfully. Some filmmakers had no trouble identifying the money shot and put McQueen’s face to good use, particularly Norman Jewison, who directed McQueen in The Cincinnati Kid, the poker flick full of tight close-ups, and The Thomas Crown Affair, in which McQueen and Faye Dunaway turned a game of chess into steamy foreplay. Other directors used McQueen’s best angle as a tease, intentionally thwarting our ability to look directly into his eyes in order to enhance the emotional unease of the characters. A good example is this scene from Sam Peckinpah’s mostly macho The Getaway, in which McQueen’s Doc McCoy is intimidated by intimacy after years of imprisonment. Also of note is this scene from Baby, the Rain Must Fall, in which McQueen’s Henry Thomas, also recently out of the big house, and now trying to figure out how to support his wife and child, realizes his dreams of being a country music star are just that: dreams.

To call McQueen a limited actor is accurate, but to suggest that his silence is evidence of emptiness is to imply that emotions must be verbally articulated to be deep. Beyond Hollywood’s frustrating habit of bestowing awards to those who act most instead of best, even hardcore cinephiles fall into the trap of praising acting in situations when the screenwriting deserves the lion’s share of acclaim, confusing amazing roles with amazing performances. This is unavoidable, of course. At some point the two cannot be separated. And just like great talkers need great dialogue, great physical actors, like McQueen, need a director with enough sense to point a camera where the action is. Still, one of the reasons that McQueen is thought of as a purely physical actor is because so few screenwriters gave him anything interesting to say. The most quotable line of McQueen’s career might be this one from The Magnificent Seven: “We deal in lead, friend.” Trouble is, McQueen’s would-be catchphrase is merely the punctuation on a conversation between Yul Brynner and Eli Wallach. It’s the first of only two lines for McQueen in a 10-minute span. Given the film’s wealth of heroes, it’s all to easy to come away remembering the line but not the cowboy who said it. “We deal in lead, friend” is a cool line, sure. But what it isn’t as this: “Yippie-ki-yay, motherfucker” – an instant classic.

And that leads us here. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about McQueen is that he’s entirely inimitable – not in the general, “Oh, there’ll never be another one like him” kind of way, but in the sense that he’s truly impossible to impersonate. Given the right props, sure, you could mimic his actions, but other than that you couldn’t “do McQueen,” the way someone could do Jimmy Stewart, Marlon Brando or Humphrey Bogart. McQueen didn’t have a distinctive voice or an unforgettable line. Some actors had both. For this, McQueen deserves a share of the blame. Woefully uneducated, McQueen found dialogue a physical challenge and cut it wherever he could. On the set of The Towering Inferno, he regularly complained that the dialogue was “shit,” but when the screenwriter pressed him for a specific example McQueen confessed that there was nothing wrong with the dialogue itself, he just couldn’t say it. It was because of this, as much as anything, that on the set of The Getaway, McQueen would read the script and say, “Too many words, too many words. I’ll give you a close-up that’ll say a thousand words.”

You have to hand it to McQueen: his arithmetic was usually correct. But sometimes McQueen took silence to the extreme. In Le Mans, the racing film that was the actor’s passion project, McQueen doesn’t utter anything resembling traditional dialogue for more than 37 minutes. Upon the film’s release, Jay Cocks of Time Magazine wrote that McQueen didn’t play a part, he just posed for it. He was right. Then again, there were also instances when McQueen’s terse approach wound up making an otherwise forgettable line of dialogue surprisingly potent. One such instance comes late in The Towering Inferno, when McQueen’s fire chief learns that the only hope for extinguishing the blaze is for him to be airlifted to the top of the skyscraper to blow up some rooftop water tanks with plastic explosives. In that scene, and so many others, McQueen’s magic was the expansiveness of his minimalism. Few actors ever conveyed so much without saying anything at all. McQueen’s physical acting was so efficient, in fact, that in the rare case one of his characters verbally articulated his thoughts, the dialogue usually seemed unnecessarily redundant.

In a way, it’s silly to criticize McQueen for so often playing to his strengths, but there’s at least one film that suggests he didn’t have to be quite so narrow, 1962’s often overlooked The War Lover, in which McQueen plays a womanizing hotshot pilot in World War II. In so many ways, it’s still the typical McQueen role: cocky, intense and tough. But in The Water Lover, McQueen is a little more emotionally vulnerable than normal, even when his character is on the attack. This is the film to recommend to anyone who insists that McQueen could only pose. And yet it’s impossible to overlook the way McQueen dazzles most in a close-up, his blue eyes blazing, even in black-and-white, flashing that visceral coiled intensity that’s so rarely duplicated.

Most actors who try to be as super-cool as McQueen come off like frauds. Every now and then, though, someone recaptures the silent swagger that was the essence of McQueen. Jeremy Renner’s Oscar-nominated portrayal in The Hurt Locker is evidence that McQueen’s brand of acting can be as potent as ever. Two of the film’s most powerful scenes are ones in which Renner doesn’t say a word. But just because McQueen’s acting style has endured doesn’t mean that it would have aged well with him as his star faded and he moved on to smaller supporting roles. Alas, we we’ll never know. McQueen was a top-of-the-marquee star until he died, all too soon, in 1980 at the age of 50 from complications due to cancer.

In a career just over two decades long, McQueen produced a collection of exhilarating films and performances, many of which are still cherished three decades after his death. And though it’s true that the most memorable thing that a McQueen character ever did was something McQueen didn’t do himself – stuntman Bud Ekin’s famous motorcycle jump in The Great Escape – it’s also true that McQueen thoroughly dominated the screen in a way that few other actors have before or since. He was “The King of Cool,” the king of the close-up, and his honorary reign continues.

A Hairdresser and his Dresser Wife Remember Sharon Fondly...

I have interviewed another couple who knew Sharon.  Harold Leighton did the stars hair and his wife Maxine dressed the stars in London in the 1960s.  Harold and Maxine (yes, they were and are still married) had quite a client list that included: Joan Collins, Raquel Welch, Julie Christie, Romy Schneider, Ursula Andress, Dusty Springfield, Marlo Thomas, Glenda Jackson, Natalie Wood.  And the men included: Charlie Chaplin, Woody Allen, Rod Steiger and Dudley Moore and so many others!  The list of men and women go on and on.

Harold and Maxine early in their relationship.

They both remember Sharon fondly and say she had a great sense of humor.

Harold says: "God bless her, one of the most perfect women. One of the most beautiful women of her era if not the most beautiful! She was fun to share time with with such great humor.  She was sharp and we have very fond memories of her and being with her."

With their sons here.

Maxine says: "One of our most gorgeous clients was model Sharon Tate. She was the most beautiful looking woman with a faultless body and glowing skin, even without one jot of makeup on her face. On her first visit to the boutique, she came with her film producer lover Martin Ransohoff.

“Martin introduced himself to me as her mentor and producer. ‘I want Sharon to come here whenever she needs new clothes,’ he said. ‘I have heard so much about your look and taste Maxine, so please give her whatever you choose, no matter the cost.’

"Sharon said: ‘I love that Sonia Rykiel sweater and knitted skirt,’ – and with that she took off the shirt she was wearing and dropped her skirt to try on the clothes. Low and behold, there was not a bra in sight – only the most perfect boobs and just a G-string in satin and lace! I have never seen such a wonderful figure on any woman."

One of Harold's hair styles from the 60s. 

Harold adds that "she was understanding if you did not have her size of garment, that would make her come back in the following days when another shipment of merchandize would arrive from Paris." 

"She came into my boutique every other day," Maxine continues,"sitting down for a chat and ending up with a bag full of goodies! Every time she walked into the salon Harold was informed immediately and would rush upstairs to have a coffee, chat and plan a photo shoot."

...And another...

"Our boutique was on Hampstead High Street in the 60s," says Harold. "Sharon became a fan of Maxine’s ‘French Look’ and shopped almost weekly. She could not stay away and then Maxine sent her down to my salon under her boutique and I did her hair and later I did her hair for her Wedding at the Chelsea Register office on Kings Road. When you see the photographs of her being married to Roman Polanski--that’s my hair with all the flowers in it."

...And another.

 
There are some wonderful photos taken of Sharon with jewelry and such in her hair.  Harold also did her hair for these shots.  "Roman Polanski told me he wanted to give her some jewelry for their first anniversary.  I was there when thousands of of pounds' worth arrived at her flat for her to choose a one.
 
" 'Let's cover her with the jewels for a photograph,' Roman said and he was right, it made a wonderful study. 

Sharon with Harold during the famous jewelry photos.

 
"At another session, Sharon was all but naked, and I was nervous about doing her hair.  With her impish sense of humor, she decided to make things worse for me.
 
"She sat up like a lovely, half-naked bear, wrapped both arms around me and said, teasingly: 'Now Harold, does that make you happy?'

Harold today.

 
"We had such fun.  It was the hub of French fashion in Hampstead and in today's market would have been the shop where the Paparazzi would live outside the salon and boutique."

Iain Quarrier Never Recovered From Sharon's Death, A New Tour has its good points and bad ones, and More on Polanski

I found this in a autobiography by Mim Scala called "Diary of a Teddy Boy":

At this time Roman Polanski was getting married to the beautiful Sharon Tate, and Victor Lownes offered to host his stag-night (bachelor party) at the Playboy Club and later at Victor's town house. The guests included Richard Harris, Terence Stamp, Michael Caine, Iain Quarrier, Steve McQueen, Warren Beatty, Harry Baird, Gene Gutowski and myself.

Our party started off in the normal fashion, drinks, a joint or two, small talk. We all knew each other pretty well. We were being waited on by the pick of the Playboy Bunnies and a dozen other gorgeous girls. The higher and drunker we got, the more outrageous the party became. I was sharing the sauna with Michael Caine and Gene Gutowski, and several of the girls, when the door opened and Richard Harris (drunkingly) staggered in. We all carried on with what we were doing. 'Come on you filthy bastards, come with me. I know where the real action is'-- whereupon he staggered out of the heat. Michael, Gene and I were not about to leave. As morning came and Roman had to prepare for his wedding, we discovered what had happened to Richard. He had burgled Sharon's hen party (bachelorette party), the only male present at that gathering of about twenty of the most beautiful girls in London. He was unable to remember a thing.

Richard Harris, the only man at Sharon's Bachelorette party.

And then some pages later:

Iain Quarrier and Jane Birkin in "Wonderwall"

A few awful things had happened since I had left. In August 1969 Charles Manson had murdered Roman Polanski's beautiful wife, Sharon Tate. At the time, Michael Pearson and Iain Quarrier were in the California desert shooting the last scene of their film Vanishing Point. From the mobile production office Michael called Sharon to invite her to the end-of-shoot party. Sharon was eight months pregnant with Roman's child. She said she would try to make the party but if not, they should drop by for a drink. It took longer than expected to shoot that last scene, and it was nearly 11 o'clock when Michael and Iain finally drove into Mulholland Drive and past the compound where the Polanski house was. They decided not to disturb Sharon with a phone call as it was late, and drove directly to the Vanishing Point party. As the party wound down a couple of blocks away, dawn broke over the Polanski household and the Manson massacre. Michael heard the chilling news on the radio as he drove away from his party. Had he and Iain dropped in on Sharon, the two would have been victims of Hollywood's most evil murder.

Not surprisingly, Michael and Iain took the whole thing badly. Iain was very close to Sharon. He never fully recovered, nor worked again as an actor or producer. When I last saw him, rock climbing in the Lake district, he was handsome as ever, but the lights seem to have gone out.

Here is a new tour in California that I have mixed feelings about.  I'll let the girl who's seen it tell you more here:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001790/board/nest/159370515

More on Polanski:

Roman directing "Vampire Killers" and yes, that is Sharon's back to the bottom right.

He gets defended here:

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2010/03/22/letter-movie-ghost-writer-director-roman-polanski/

And this critic says that "The Ghost Writer" is the best picture of the year:

http://www.niagarafallsreporter.com/calleri3.23.10.html

Quote of the Week, Sharon is part of the 50 Most Beautiful Faces, Star Trek Actress remembers Sharon and More

Here is the Quote of the Week:

Victor Lownes in 1979.

Victor Lownes on Sharon: "I vividly remember the first time I met Sharon, she was simply stunning. I saw her and did an immediate double take. I've been around a lot of beautiful women before and since, but nobody ever impacted people the way Sharon did. She was completely natural, not caught up on herself, and very smart, which wasn't something you might have expected if you just judged her by her looks. She had the best sense of humor, too, which I think surprised a lot of people. She was sharp, and always got the joke."

Sharon is part of the 50 Most Beautiful Faces here:

http://users.livejournal.com/_jollyholiday/14879.html

Former Star Trek star Grace Lee Whitney fondly remembers Sharon in her autobiography:

William Shatner with Whitney on Star Trek.

"I got to know a lot of fascinating people at Warner Brothers. Angie Dickenson, Troy Donahue, Suzanne Pleshette and Connie Stevens were all contract players at the studio when I was there. After work I used to go to a bar across the street from the studio called El Chiquita and hang out with other actors--Lee Marvin, Van Williams, Troy, Chad Everett and many others.

"I was in make up with Sharon Tate a number of times, and I remember her as a very friendly, sweet girl in her early twenties. We used to gossip like schoolgirls about how cute Troy and Chad were. Like me she was doing a lot of episodic television--shows like The Beverly Hillbillies and The Man from Uncle. I vividly recall how shocked and horrified I was a few years later when I heard that, while pregnant, she had been tortured and murdered in the Tate Labianca slayings."

Actress Olivia Williams talks about working with Polanski:
 
http://www.newsok.com/actress-olivia-williams-steps-up-speaks-for-absent-ghost-writer-director-roman-polanski/article/3447459?custom_click=lead_story_title
 
Be sure to watch Kerstien Matondang 's site for Sharon, she is coming up with more great videos for us ;)
 
http://www.kerstien.se/sharoninart.htm