Monday, December 29, 2014
Mr. X Blind Item #5 - Old Hollywood
Which B-list tough guy, who was almost A-list for a short period, was born and raised into a Jewish family, but when he got to Hollywood he was told by several [Jewish] studio heads to hide his faith from the public, because they wanted an 'exotic' leading man a la Rudolph Valentino? He did so, never discussing his faith to the public until his later years.
Totslly off the top of my head, zero research: Yul Brynner?
ReplyDeleteTony Curtis, who was born Bernard Schwartz I know this because he went to my high school in NYC lol
ReplyDeleteRobert Mitchum
ReplyDeleteHe was gorgeous....
ReplyDeletePaul Muni
ReplyDeleteJohn Garfield ( Jacob Garfinkle) he was in the original The Post Man Always Twice. Played a lot of boxers and thugs. Lana Turner was the leading lady and was still beautiful . She got hard looking by the 50s and then all that shit happened. Great movie tho.
ReplyDeleteI'm with babs..John Garfield..often played tough guy parts
ReplyDeleteI agree with Tricia 13 -- Robert Mitchum.
ReplyDeleteThis isn't a blind, just read Garfield's Wiki page.
ReplyDeleteRobert Michum wasn't Jewish he was Scottish and Norwegian He was one of my favorites and I doubt there were to many people who told him what to do. Tony Curtis didn't play tough so John Garfield sounds right.
ReplyDeleteThis is Garfield, he's career was ruined because he refused to name communist, he was A list breifly, died before he was 40 of a heart attack.
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome!
ReplyDeleteIt could be Edward G. Robinson - real name Emanuel Goldenberg
ReplyDeleteKirk Douglas
ReplyDeleteloved him---- "Ryan's Daughter" was one of my fave movies-so depressingly beautifully filmed..everyone was singing the praises of "Dr.Zhivago" but R.D. really stayed with me.
ReplyDeleteI believe Mitchum did time on a chain gang for a pot bust, so I am not sure he would care about hiding his faith, whatever it was. I am with the John Garfield guess and the first Postman was great!
ReplyDeleteGeorge Raft? He was tried out in the Valentino mode - even did a movie as a tango dancer - and did tough guy roles.
ReplyDelete