Movie Actors

Americans have always loved our movie actors since the days of the first silent films! We lavish our adoration on them, but we also consider their private lives as "fair game" for our entertainment as well, much to the chagrin of the movie actors themselves.

We know who is getting married, who is getting divorced, who is having a baby, who got arrested for drug or alcohol use, who is engaged in a brutal custody battle and on and on. Nothing is "off limits"! If the movie actors do "it" (whatever "it" happens to be) we feel like that we have a right to know about "it."

In the days of silent films, an actor's reputation was guarded as though it represented the crown jewels. I suppose in a way it was a very valuable asset. Actors were trotted out by movie studios, and their virtues were touted to sell tickets to the movies the actors starred in. Any "negative" publicity" was carefully avoided, and there have been cases in which an actor's true life choices were never revealed until after his death.

Today, of course, the more outrageously an actor behaves off screen, the more appealing he is to the public on screen. "Bad boy" images sell movie tickets. The movie studios discovered that profitable bit of information during the 1950s. The phenomenon gives credence and maybe even new meaning to the old "nice guys finish last" adage.

Actors give voice and image to our imaginations. We can watch an actor portray a character on screen and see ourselves experiencing and reacting to situations in the same "heroic" manner! Movie actors fascinate us on screen as well as off screen.

Movie actors — the good ones — provide us with entertainment!