MANILA, Philippines?Who would believe that an experienced Hollywood producer would reject a very beautiful child actress because ?her eyes are too old?? The moppet?s violet eyes would later beguile the world?by taking care of Lassie and taming both Julius Caesar and Mark Antony in the biggest film spectacle of the ?60s! She has won two Academy Awards and was the first actor to get paid a cool million dollars per film. Her name: Elizabeth Taylor.
Alan Ladd (?Shane,? ?Mona Lisa?) was deemed too short when he first came to Hollywood. So, an agent he later married paired him with pixie-like beauties like Wanda Hendrix. Soon, his drawing power overcame his vertical limitations. The 5?6? actor even starred opposite the statuesque Sofia Loren?who?s 5?9"?in ?Boy on a Dolphin.?
Insecure costars
On the other hand, Esther Williams was deemed too tall beside Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra in ?Take Me Out to the Ballgame.? In her autobiography, she recounts how her two insecure costars made fun of her aquatic skills?assets that actually brought her stardom and a Box Office Queen title in the early ?50s.
Other actresses who were deemed too tall included Alexis Smith, Patricia Neal and Ingrid Bergman?because, in their heyday, the 4?11? Judy Garland and the five-footer Vivien Leigh set the height standard for female movie stars.
Diminutive actresses like Merle Oberon, Olivia de Havilland and her sister, Joan Fontaine, appeared with Laurence Olivier and David Niven, and with tough, short actors like James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson.
Fortunately, for Smith, Neal and Bergman, there were tall actors like Gary Cooper, Gregory Peck and John Wayne.
Bergman starred in a number of movies with Cooper, and her first Hollywood film, ?Intermezzo,? was with the 6?4? Gregory Peck. Even Katharine Hepburn, who was 5?7?, was considered too tall for her favorite leading man, Spencer Tracy. The 5?4? Sammy Davis Jr.?s talent more than made up for his lack of conventional good looks.
Barbara Streisand?s ?problem? was her nose, which was considered too long and ?ethnic.? In fact, for a while, she was referred to as ?The Anteater.? However, the talented Jewish girl from the Bronx decided to confront the issue by posing for the cover of a nationally respected magazine. Soon, journalists started referring to her as Nefertiti-like.
Acting lessons
Sometimes, actors reinvented themselves to achieve stardom. Anne Bancroft appeared doomed to become just another starlet in a string of B-movies. So, she left Hollywood, took acting lessons in New York?and took home a Tony Award for ?Two for the Seesaw,? opposite Henry Fonda.
Bancroft followed that critical success with ?The Miracle Worker,? for which she was bestowed her second Tony?and, when the play was adapted for the movies, she won an Oscar! She capped her triumphant return to Hollywood when she portrayed the unforgettable Mrs. Robinson in ?The Graduate.?
Sylvester Stallone would never have become the major star that he is today if he allowed Hollywood?s initial assessment of his lisp, face and voice to weaken his determination to become a star. Like ?Rambo? and ?Rocky,? he beat all the odds to become the champion he always believed he was!
