Latest news with #DustinHoffman
BBC News
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
'I'm not interested in happy endings': How Midnight Cowboy became the only X-rated winner of the best-picture Oscar
When Midnight Cowboy came out 56 years ago this week, it instantly upended Hollywood's idea of a mainstream hit. A bleak tale of loneliness, sexuality and survival in New York, it was powered by career-defining performances from its lead actors. "I did have problems with it as I now see the movie," actor Dustin Hoffman confessed to the BBC in 1970 as he reflected on his performance as the sickly New York grifter Enrico "Ratso" Rizzo in Midnight Cowboy. "I can see where I am inconsistent in the character." The film, released in cinemas on 25 May 1969, would go on to earn Oscar nominations for both Hoffman and his co-star Jon Voight, who played a naive young Texan with aspirations to be a rich woman's gigolo. Based on James Leo Herlihy's 1965 novel, Midnight Cowboy's bleak tale of loneliness, sexuality and survival in New York was very different from the film in which Hoffman had his breakthrough role, The Graduate. Having played a clean-cut middle-class young man, fresh out of college, Hoffman did not strike its director John Schlesinger as the obvious choice to play the story's down-at-heel streetwise conman. "Jerry Hellman [the film's producer] had seen him in a play by Henry Livings, Eh?, off Broadway and said, 'He's a wonderful character actor, don't just go by The Graduate, you had better go and meet him,'" Schlesinger told the BBC's On Screen in 1994. "So, I went to New York, and Dustin met me in a dirty old raincoat and we wandered around the 42nd Street area and the Hell's Kitchen area, which is sort of a largely Italian area, and he blended in so perfectly with the background that by the end of the evening, there was absolutely no question that he had got the part." But to play the ailing Rizzo, who suffers from a disabled leg and tuberculosis, Hoffman felt that he needed to keep checking the film's rushes while filming to ensure his performance was consistent between takes. "I had to try and keep a posture, a gait going, a way of walking, a dialect going. I was very worried about the fluctuation of that," he told the BBC's Film Night in 1970, when he was interviewed on the set of his revisionist Western, Little Big Man. The actor later told Vanity Fair in 2000 that he ended up putting a stone in his shoe to ensure that he would limp on camera without having to think about it. "I think the average person will see work like that and think it is very difficult," said Hoffman. "But my own feeling is that Jon Voight's part was far the more difficult role in Midnight Cowboy because it was somehow a little more foggy, it didn't seem to really have a razor's edge to it as written, and it's to his credit that he brought what he did to it." Voight, too, was far from a shoo-in for the role of an out-of-his-depth would-be hustler who ends up broke and desperate in New York, and forms an unlikely bond with Rizzo. The actor had initially been dismissed by Schlesinger, who felt that he didn't have the right look for the role. "We turned down Voight, and a wonderful casting director in New York in those days, Marion Dougherty, said, 'You are missing something, why won't you see Jon Voight?' We said, 'That face it isn't what we were thinking,' and she said, 'Meet him, read him one scene,' so we agreed and he came in and he seemed to us to be quite extraordinary, and so we added him to the list of people we were going to test." The battle for the perfect cast and music But the director still chose Canadian actor Michael Sarrazin for the role instead. Luckily for Voight, Sarrazin was under contract with Universal Pictures, and when they tripled their price for him, Schlesinger looked at the screen tests again. Voight, who was willing to be paid scale – the Screen Actors Guild minimum wage – was then cast. "He had a kind of belligerence in his personality as well as a total sweetness and innocence that I think the part needed," Schlesinger said. Midnight Cowboy did not seem an obvious contender for box-office success. Schlesinger's usual producer Joe Janni turned the project down, warning the director that the film could ruin his career. But Schlesinger, who was himself gay, told the BBC in 1994 that the story of outsiders struggling to survive on society's margins was something he could identify with. "I'm not terribly interested in sort of pseudo-happy endings of people walking hand-in-hand into the sunset because I don't think it is true. So, most of the films that I made have question marks at the end," he said. Midnight Cowboy, which juxtaposes flashbacks, reality and fantasy to hint at the motivations driving its protagonists, was edited to Harry Nilsson's cover version of Everybody's Talkin'. The song would become synonymous with the film, seeming to encapsulate its wounded characters' longing, aimlessness and desire for a better future. "I always put music on at a very early stage in the cut," said Schlesinger. "I thought not only is it musically and rhythmically right, it's lyrically right, it has a wonderful apt lyric, so we put it on an early cut, and we went to the head of music at United Artists and said, 'This is what we want.'" But a United Artists executive did not want to use a song that was already published and, believing that its feel could be easily replicated, he instructed the film-makers to work with a songwriter to come up with something new. "We went to various people from [Bob] Dylan to Joni Mitchell, who wrote a song that had far too many words," Schlesinger said. Dylan would ultimately write Lay Lady Lay for the film, but submitted it too late for it to be used. "When we first showed the film to the distributors," Schlesinger continued, "we had Everybody's Talkin' on it, and the same man got up from the screening and said, 'My God, where did you get that song from? It's so terrific.' And we said, 'Well, we played it to you several months ago, and you said anybody can reproduce it.' So, he said, 'Well, we've got to have it.'" An adults-only audience Because Midnight Cowboy had explicit depictions of gang rape, prostitution and drug use, it was always destined to be limited to an adult audience upon release. And when it was reviewed by the Motion Picture Association of America, it was duly given a Restricted rating, meaning that in 1969 no one under the age of 16 could see it without an accompanying adult. But the studio's boss, Arthur Krim, was nervous: he had consulted a psychiatrist who denounced the film's "homosexual frame of reference" and its "possible influence on youngsters". It was Krim who then decreed that the Restricted rating wasn't enough: Midnight Cowboy should be X-rated instead, so that no one under 16 would be admitted, even if they were with an adult. An X rating, a category typically associated with pornography, would usually be the commercial death knell for a mainstream film. Many cinemas refused to show X-rated films, while many newspapers and TV stations refused to run advertisements for them. But Universal Studios made the rating a selling point, paying for advertisements that trumpeted: "Everything you hear about Midnight Cowboy is true!" More like this:• The risqué rom-com that defined a genre• Jean-Luc Godard on the film that changed cinema• The 'obscene' banned book that became a bestseller When it was released, the film became a surprise hit. It made back 10 times its modest $4m (£3m) budget and became the third highest grossing film of 1969. "It had an extraordinary reception," said Schlesinger. "I didn't realise we were sitting on top of something that was going to be that successful." Midnight Cowboy was also critically lauded, earning seven Oscar nominations the following year. It would go on to win three Academy Awards, with Schlesinger taking home the prize for best director, and Waldo Salt for best adapted screenplay. The film also scooped the Oscar for best picture, becoming the first and only X-rated film to do so. (The MPAA replaced the X rating with the NC-17 rating in 1990.) Alongside other films of the era such as Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate and Easy Rider, Midnight Cowboy helped set off the New Hollywood movement, which would see US cinema embrace more narratively complex, morally ambiguous and stylistically innovative film-making in the 1970s. In 1994, it was selected for preservation by the Library of Congress due to its being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant". Despite Midnight Cowboy's box-office success and critical acclaim, Schlesinger told the BBC that there was "no way" it would get made in 1994. "Recently I was having dinner, amongst the guests was the head of Columbia [Pictures] and I tried out just a precis, just the dramatic points of the story. And I said, 'If I brought you that, would you do it?' And he said, 'Absolutely no way, I'd show you the door.'" -- For more stories and never-before-published radio scripts to your inbox, sign up to the In History newsletter, while The Essential List delivers a handpicked selection of features and insights twice a week. For more Culture stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram.
Daily Mail
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Who is Tom Cruise's sister? Mission Impossible star name drops sibling who quietly lives in shadow of his dazzling career
While the world knows his every on-screen move, Tom Cruise 's siblings lead much more private and quiet lives away from the spotlight. The cinematic titan, 62 — born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV — has three sisters: Lee Ann Gillotte, Cass Capazorio, and Marian Henry. Speaking at the BFI Southbank on Sunday, Cruise offered a rare mention about Cass, who shares his avid belief in the church of Scientology. The actor — who is currently romancing Ben Affleck's ex Ana de Armas — recalled how his younger sister, who was in the audience, had a hand in helping him land his role in the Oscar-winning film Rain Man. It all happened when Cass spotted Dustin Hoffman at a restaurant ordering takeout in London. Cass encouraged Tom to go over and introduce himself, with the actor recalling her words to the crowd: 'You love him! And you know his career. You go over and say hello.' Cass (R) leads a private life and shares Tom's avid belief in the church of Scientology; She is pictured with her and Tom's late mother Mary Lee and his ex-wife Katie Holmes in 2007 Though Tom was skeptical at first, Cass eventually convinced him. 'She doesn't usually do stuff like that and I don't walk up to people and introduce myself, but she was so pushy,' he added. Cass then told her brother that if he wasn't going to do it, she would walk over to Hoffman herself. Tom worried that Hoffman wouldn't know who he is, joking, 'This is like going to be really humiliating.' But after enough pestering from Cass, he finally approached Hoffman. 'He had his hat on and he was ordering takeout. I stood next to him and said, "Excuse me, Mr Hoffman, I'm sorry…" and he looked at me and said, "Cruise!"' 'And I went "f**k,"' Tom joked, a he released a sigh of relief, happy that the encounter didn't end up being awkward. Hoffman then invited Cruise to come see him on Broadway in Death of a Salesman, and Cruise ended up bringing Cass with him. He recalled: 'As I was leaving, he said, "I want to make a movie with you," and I said, "That would be nice."' After their meeting, Hoffman sent him the script for Rain Man a year later. The 1988 movie marked a breakthrough for Cruise, earning four Academy Award wins, including best actor for Hoffman; they are seen in a still 'A year later he sent Rain Man to me.' The 1988 film marked a breakthrough for Cruise, earning eight Academy Award nominations and four wins, including best picture and a best actor Oscar for Hoffman. Though she helped her brother nab the iconic role, Cass has stayed away from the spotlight herself. She is a director of a company that helps run courses in the religion of Scientology, sometimes referred to as a cult, that was born in America during the 1950s. Though Cruise is not often seen with his siblings, they reportedly share a very close bond. His father, electrical engineer Thomas Cruise Mapother III - dubbed a 'bully and a coward' by the multi-millionaire - left his mother, special education teacher Mary Lee Pfeiffer, in the 1970s, with Tom quickly taking on the role of man of the house, looking after his three sisters. As a result the siblings formed a tight-knit bond, with Tom even declaring a few years ago: 'I would live with all of my sisters if I could. We have always been very close, my sisters and me.' And it appears now that dream has come true, with his family reported to have moved into a luxury Scientology building in Florida just a stones throw away from the church's global headquarters. Tom's other sister, Lee Anne, is a former publicist who now works managing the luxury Skyview building where the quartet live and being treasurer of the he 'Skyview Condominium Association Inc'. According to The Sun, his third sister Marian, her son Cal and daughter-in-law Marjorye, are also all Scientologists. His brother in law Greg, who is married to Cass, is also said to be the head of another company that helps to rehabilitate prisoners using Scientology techniques. It is perhaps unsurprising that Tom has remained close to his siblings after he dedicated much of his younger years to helping raise his sisters as they endured a tough childhood at the hands of their abusive father Thomas. Reflecting on the abuse he endured from his father in a 2006 interview with Parade magazine, he said Thomas 'was a bully and a coward... the kind of person where, if something goes wrong, they kick you'. 'It was a great lesson in my life - how he'd lull you in, make you feel safe and then, bang,' he added. 'For me, there's something wrong with this guy. Don't trust him. Be careful around him. There's that anxiety.' On the other hand, he described his mother Mary Lee with love and care, calling her a 'very warm, charismatic woman, very kind, very generous'. At the age of 11, Tom and his family moved to Kentucky after his mother split from Thomas in 1974. As a result of the split, his mother was forced to take up three jobs to be able to support her four children, depending on her caring and dependable son who began working himself. The superstar took up a morning paper round, mowed the lawns for his neighbors and even took up cleaning jobs to help his family stay afloat. One of his neighbours Bill Lewis previously revealed: 'No job was too dirty or difficult for Tommy, as long as it paid money to help his mom out.' Lewis added that when his mother slipped a disk in her back from all the work, the star supposedly told him: 'My mom could have sat there every morning and cried and cried.' 'She didn't. My mom was very proud. She had dignity. She's going to work hard.' In light of her injury, one of Mary's friend had to move in with them to help with the workload while the family also lived on food stamps for a period of time. John later divorced Mary in 2012 and he passed away in 2015 at age 89 after a battle with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, while Mary died in 2017. She went on to move to New Jersey and marry John 'Jack' South in 1978, when Tom was 16. Both Mary and her husband were supportive of Tom's dreams to become an actor. Mary previously explained how he told them of his ambitions after he starred in a high-school production of Guys And Dolls. She said: 'After the show, Tom came home and said he wanted to have a talk with my husband and me.' 'He asked for 10 years to give show business a try. Meanwhile, my husband's thinking, "What's this gonna cost me? Ten years of what?"' 'Tom said, "I really feel that this is what I want to do."' 'And we both wholeheartedly agreed, because we both felt it was a God-given talent, and he should explore it because he was so enthused about it.'
News.com.au
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
Kramer vs Kramer director Robert Benton dead at 92
The three-time Oscar-winning director and screenwriter, who was also known for films including The Late Show, Places in the Heart, and Nobody's Fool, passed away at his home in Manhattan. His death was confirmed to the New York Times by his assistant and manager, Marisa Forzano. In 1979, working with Dustin Hoffman and newcomer Meryl Streep, Benton directed Kramer vs. Kramer after Francois Truffaut dropped out of the project. It won him two Oscars and grossed more than $100 million. Five years later came Places in the Heart.
Daily Mail
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Robert Benton dead at 92: Oscar-winning filmmaker who made Meryl Streep a star in Kramer vs. Kramer star passes away
Robert Benton, a three-time Oscar winner who directed the 1979 motion picture Kramer Vs. Kramer, died at the age of 92 in New York City on Sunday. Benton's manager/assistant Marissa Forzano, confirmed the passing of the filmmaker, who also worked on project such as places in the heart, nobody's full, and the late show, the New York Times. Benson was also a screenwriter who penned the script for the Warren Beatty-Faye Dunaway classic Bonnie and Clyde. Early in Benton's career, he worked as an art director for the magazine Esquire, where he had a strong, creative partnership with coworker David Newman. They penned the 1967 motion picture Bonnie and Clyde, which helped get them off the ground in Hollywood, and Benson's next major project was a motion picture titled Bad Company, with Oscar-winning actor Jeff Bridges in the starring role. Benton's son, John Benton, said that he died Sunday at his home in Manhattan of 'natural causes.' During a 40-year screen career, the Texas native received six Oscar nominations and won three times: for writing and directing Kramer vs. Kramer and for writing Places in the Heart. He was widely appreciated by actors as attentive and trusting, and directed Oscar-winning performances by Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep and Sally Field. Although severe dyslexia left him unable to read more than a few pages at a time as a child, he wrote and directed film adaptations of novels by Philip Roth, E.L. Doctorow and Richard Russo, among others. Benton was an art director for Esquire magazine in the early 1960s when a love for French New Wave movies and old gangster stories (and news that a friend got $25,000 for a Doris Day screenplay) inspired him and Esquire editor David Newman to draft a treatment about the lives of Depression-era robbers Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, imagining them as prototypes for 1960s rebels. Their project took years to complete as Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard were among the directors who turned them down before Warren Beatty agreed to produce and star in the movie. Bonnie and Clyde, directed by Arthur Penn and starring Beatty and Faye Dunaway, overcame initial critical resistance in 1967 to the film's shocking violence and became one of the touchstones of 1960s culture and the start of a more open and creative era in Hollywood. The original story by Benton and Newman was even more daring: they had made Clyde Barrow bisexual and involved in a 3-way relationship with Bonnie and their male getaway driver. Beatty and Penn both resisted, and Barrow instead was portrayed as impotent, with an uncredited Robert Towne making numerous other changes to the script. 'I honestly don't know who the 'auteur' of 'Bonnie and Clyde' was,' Benton later told Mark Harris, author of 'Pictures at a Revolution,' a book about 'Bonnie and Clyde' and four other movies from 1967. Over the following decade, none of Benton's films approached the impact of 'Bonnie and Clyde,' although he continued to have critical and commercial success. His writing credits included 'Superman' and 'What's Up, Doc?' He directed and co-wrote such well-reviewed works as 'Bad Company,' a revisionist Western featuring Jeff Bridges, and 'The Late Show,' a melancholy comedy for which his screenplay received an Oscar nomination. His career soared in 1979 with his adaptation of the Avery Corman novel 'Kramer vs. Kramer,' about a self-absorbed advertising executive who becomes a loving parent to his young son after his wife walks out, only to have her return and ask for custody. Starring Hoffman and Streep, the movie was praised as a perceptive, emotional portrait of changing family roles and expectations and received five Academy Awards, including best picture. Hoffman, disenchanted at the time with the film business, would cite 'Kramer vs. Kramer' and Benson's direction for reviving his love for movie acting. Five years later, Benton was back in the Oscars race with a more personal film, 'Places in the Heart,' in which he drew upon family stories and childhood memories for his 1930s-set drama starring Fields as a mother of two in Texas who fights to hold on to her land after her husband is killed. 'I think that when I saw it all strung together, I was surprised at what a romantic view I had of the past,' Benton told The Associated Press in 1984, adding that the movie was in part a tribute to his mother, who had died shortly before the release of 'Kramer vs. Kramer.' Benton was born in Waxahachie, Texas, outside of Dallas. He owed his early love for movies to his father, telephone company employee Ellery Douglass Benton, who, instead of asking about homework, would take his family to the picture shows. The elder Benton would also share memories of attending the funerals of outlaws Barrow and Parker, Texas natives who grew up in the Dallas area. Robert Benton studied at the University of Texas and Columbia University, then served in the U.S. Army from 1954 until 1956. While at Esquire, Benton helped start the magazine's long-standing Dubious Achievement Award and dated Gloria Steinem, then on staff at the humor magazine Help! He married artist Sallie Rendigs in 1964. They had one son. Between hits, Benton often endured long dry spells. His latter films included such disappointments as the thrillers 'Billy Bathgate,' 'The Human Stain' and 'Twilight.' He had much more success with 'Nobody's Fool,' a wry comedy released in 1994 and starring Paul Newman, in his last Oscar-nominated performance, as a small-town troublemaker in upstate New York. Benton, whose film was based on Russo's novel, was nominated for best adapted screenplay. 'Somebody asked me once when the Academy Award nominations came out and I'd been nominated, 'What's the great thing about the Academy Awards?' Benton told Venice magazine in 1998. 'I said 'When you go to the awards and you see people, some of whom you've had bitter fights with, some of whom you're close friends with, some people you haven't seen in ten years, some people you just saw two days before — it's your family.' It's home. And home is what I've spent my life looking for.'
CBS News
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Robert Benton, prolific filmmaker known for "Bonnie and Clyde" and "Kramer vs. Kramer," dies at 92
Robert Benton, the Oscar-winning filmmaker who helped reset the rules in Hollywood as the co-creator of "Bonnie and Clyde," and later received mainstream validation as the writer-director of "Kramer vs. Kramer" and "Places in the Heart," has died at age 92. Benton's son, John Benton, said that he died Sunday at his home in Manhattan of "natural causes." During a 40-year screen career, the Texas native received six Oscar nominations and won three times: for writing and directing "Kramer vs. Kramer" and for writing "Places in the Heart." He was widely appreciated by actors as attentive and trusting, and directed Oscar-winning performances by Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep and Sally Field. Although severe dyslexia left him unable to read more than a few pages at a time as a child, he wrote and directed film adaptations of novels by Philip Roth, E.L. Doctorow and Richard Russo, among others. Director Robert Benton speaks onstage at the screening of "Kramer vs. Kramer" during the 2018 TCM Classic Film Festival on April 28, 2018 in Hollywood, TCM Benton was an art director for Esquire magazine in the early 1960s when a love for French New Wave movies and old gangster stories — and news that a friend got $25,000 for a Doris Day screenplay — inspired him and Esquire editor David Newman to draft a treatment about the lives of Depression-era robbers Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, imagining them as prototypes for 1960s rebels. Their project took years to complete as Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard were among the directors who turned them down before Warren Beatty agreed to produce and star in the movie. "Bonnie and Clyde," directed by Arthur Penn and starring Beatty and Faye Dunaway, overcame initial critical resistance in 1967 to the film's shocking violence and became one of the touchstones of 1960s culture and the start of a more open and creative era in Hollywood. The original story by Benton and Newman was even more daring: they had made Clyde Barrow bisexual and involved in a 3-way relationship with Bonnie and their male getaway driver. Beatty and Penn both resisted, and Barrow instead was portrayed as impotent, with an uncredited Robert Towne making numerous other changes to the script. "I honestly don't know who the 'auteur' of 'Bonnie and Clyde' was," Benton later told Mark Harris, author of "Pictures at a Revolution," a book about "Bonnie and Clyde" and four other movies from 1967. Over the following decade, none of Benton's films approached the impact of "Bonnie and Clyde," although he continued to have critical and commercial success. His writing credits included "Superman" and "What's Up, Doc?" He directed and co-wrote such well-reviewed works as "Bad Company," a revisionist Western featuring Jeff Bridges, and "The Late Show," a melancholy comedy for which his screenplay received an Oscar nomination. His career soared in 1979 with his adaptation of the Avery Corman novel "Kramer vs. Kramer," about a self-absorbed advertising executive who becomes a loving parent to his young son after his wife walks out, only to have her return and ask for custody. Starring Hoffman and Streep, the movie was praised as a perceptive, emotional portrait of changing family roles and expectations and received five Academy Awards, including best picture. Hoffman, disenchanted at the time with the film business, would cite "Kramer vs. Kramer" and Benson's direction for reviving his love for movie acting. Five years later, Benton was back in the Oscars race with a more personal film, "Places in the Heart," in which he drew upon family stories and childhood memories for his 1930s-set drama starring Fields as a mother of two in Texas who fights to hold on to her land after her husband is killed. "I think that when I saw it all strung together, I was surprised at what a romantic view I had of the past," Benton told The Associated Press in 1984, adding that the movie was in part a tribute to his mother, who had died shortly before the release of "Kramer vs. Kramer." Benton was born in Waxahachie, Texas, outside of Dallas. He owed his early love for movies to his father, telephone company employee Ellery Douglass Benton, who, instead of asking about homework, would take his family to the picture shows. The elder Benton would also share memories of attending the funerals of outlaws Barrow and Parker, Texas natives who grew up in the Dallas area. Robert Benton studied at the University of Texas and Columbia University, then served in the U.S. Army from 1954 until 1956. While at Esquire, Benton helped start the magazine's long-standing Dubious Achievement Award and dated Gloria Steinem, then on staff at the humor magazine Help! He married artist Sallie Rendigs in 1964. They had one son. Between hits, Benton often endured long dry spells. His latter films included such disappointments as the thrillers "Billy Bathgate," "The Human Stain" and "Twilight." He had much more success with "Nobody's Fool," a wry comedy released in 1994 and starring Paul Newman, in his last Oscar-nominated performance, as a small-town troublemaker in upstate New York. Benton, whose film was based on Russo's novel, was nominated for best adapted screenplay. "Somebody asked me once when the Academy Award nominations came out and I'd been nominated, 'What's the great thing about the Academy Awards?'" Benton told Venice magazine in 1998. "I said, 'When you go to the awards and you see people, some of whom you've had bitter fights with, some of whom you're close friends with, some people you haven't seen in ten years, some people you just saw two days before — it's your family.' It's home. And home is what I've spent my life looking for."
