TERENCE Stamp has died, and his many acting triumphs are being overshadowed by his role as a one-dimensional villain in Superman II. These actors will suffer the same:
Dame Judi Dench
A storied career in stage and screen over six decades has seen Judi play Sally Bowles in Cabaret, play a definitive Lady Macbeth, win Tony awards, Olivier awards, Baftas and Oscars, and yet what will the headline photo be when that sad day finally comes? F**king M out of the f**king Bond films.
Sir Ian McKellen
Opposite Dench in that acclaimed 1976 Trevor Nunn production of Macbeth for the RSC? The great Ian McKellen. Such a fine actor with such incredible range. His 1930s-set Richard III, which he co-wrote, redefined a role Olivier was considered to have made his own. The picture editor’s tough choice? ‘Hmm. Gandalf or Magneto?’
Kate Winslet
Right through her career it’s been arthouse for Winslet. Whether Heavenly Creatures or Holy Smoke, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind or The Reader, she’s consistently challenged her audience and herself. But she knows and we know it’ll be Titanic, the only debate being how much cleavage to show. They are magnificent, to be fair.
Kristen Scott Thomas
A fine actress, despite debuting in a Prince film even Prince fans cannot enjoy, with a career on the West End stage and in Paris. Indeed she’s also starred in many French films which must be impenetrably arty by the simple fact of their nationality. Yet to the wider world she will forever be the one from Four Weddings who says ‘Duckface’.
Jack Nicholson
Actually, The Shining is far from Jack’s shittiest film. That accolade goes to anything he made from Anger Management onwards. But for a brilliant actor with a unique screen presence and a filmography of Chinatown and Five Easy Pieces to be remembered with the axe-door picture is an indignity. Still, at least it’s not the f**king Joker.
Heath Ledger
As proof. Heath Ledger was, after Brokeback Mountain, thought to be one of the greatest actors of his generation. Nominated for an Oscar aged just 26, he aspired to direct and write his own films. He would have become a legend. Instead he’s remembered for being the Joker in a bloody Batman film. Not even the most recent award-winning Joker.
