Cukor Actors at the Oscars
Many actors were nominated for their performances in a movie directed by George Cukor, Hollywood’s best actor director.
Note:
If you want to know more, lease read my biography of George Cukor:
Winners
Six performers had actually won the Oscar Award, all in the lead categories:
Fredric March in The Royal Family of Broadway
James Stewart in The Philadelphia Story
Ingrid Bergman in Gaslight
Ronald Colman in A Double Life
Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday
Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady.
Nominees:
Other players nominated for an Oscar in a Cukor film include:
Norma Shearer in Romeo and Juliet
Greta Garbo in Camille
Charles Boyer in Gaslight
Deborah Kerr in Edward, My Son
Anna Magnani and Anthony Quinn in Wild Is the Wind
Stanley Holloway and Gladys Cooper in My Fair Lady
Maggie Smith in Travels with My Aunt.
Cukor should also be credited for one of the most memorable performances by the legendary W.C. Fields, cast as Mr. Micawber in David Copperfield.
Woman’s Director???
Cukor’s intuitive understanding of temperamental actresses (Garbo, Hepburn, Joan Crawford, Tallulah Bankhead) labelled him as a “woman’s director,” one who presumably preferred to work with actresses and allegedly got better results from actresses than from actors. This label was not only incorrect, but most damaging to his reputation. He himself resented it, though pretended it did not bother him. “Women’s director!” Cukor said with a touch of irritation in l981, “Well, I’m very pleased to be considered a master of anything, but remember, for every Jill there was a Jack. People like to pigeonhole you–it’s a shortcut, I guess, but once they do, you’re stuck with it.”
On another occasion, charged with being a woman’s director, he carefully set the record straight: “Actors have fared equally well under my direction. Stewart and Colman, for instance, won Academy Awards; Sylvia Scarlett gave Cary Grant his first real stature; Camille broke the ‘pretty boy’ stigma for Robert Taylor; and Charles Boyer drew great acclaim for Gaslight.” Cukor could have included among his credits other great male performances: Joel McCrea in Girls About Town; Melvyn Douglas in A Woman’s Face and Two-Faced Woman; Spencer Tracy’s work in a number of films; William Holden and Broderick Crawford in Born Yesterday; Jack Lemmon in It Should Happen to You; Rex Harrison’s Oscar-winning for My Fair Lady; Anthony Quinn and Anthony Franciosa in Wild Is the Wind, etc, etc.
