MANILA, Philippines?Lately, I?ve been watching old films on cable. With the advantage of objectivity provided by time, I have reassessed some actors who may not have become big Hollywood stars, but were nevertheless fine, underrated performers.

Charlton Heston, Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas were overrated. While the latter was good in ?Lust for Life,? like the two other macho actors, he often acted with protruded chin. His style became so predictable that it was really tiresome to hear him scream his dramatic lines.

Power

On the other hand, actors like Robert Ryan, Sterling Hayden and Barry Sullivan were underrated. Like Robert Mitchum, they just acted simply and truthfully. Like Gary Cooper, they knew the power of the camera and lighting effects, so they underplayed their roles. Indeed, ?Less is more.?

Barry Sullivan was in a number of films topbilled by great Hollywood stars like Joan Crawford, Kirk Douglas, Lana Turner and Jane Powell, like ?The Bad and the Beautiful,? ?Jeopardy? and the original version of ?The Great Gatsby.? With a Broadway background to support his Hollywood career, he enjoyed a long if underappreciated movie career.

Sterling Hayden, who served meritoriously during World War II, became politically embroiled when he ratted on coactors during the investigation of the House Un-American Activities Committee. That unfortunate experience scarred him permanently. Nevertheless, the presence of the 6?5? actor was enjoyed by viewers in such films as ?So Big,? ?Asphalt Jungle? and ?The Godfather.? He was handpicked by Stanley Kubrick for ?The Killing? and ?Dr. Strangelove.?

Best years

Robert Ryan was a graduate of Loyola and Dartmouth, where he excelled in sports. He was a college heavyweight champion before he trained for the stage. His best years in Hollywood were in the ?50s and ?60s, during which he appeared in ?The Woman on the Beach,? ?Caught,? ?Clash by Night? and ?Bad Day at Black Rock.?

The actor played Antony to Katharine Hepburn?s Cleopatra at the American Shakespeare Festival.
On Broadway, he starred in revivals of ?The Front Page? and ?Long Day?s Journey Into Night.? He was a committed activist for groups like Sane and the American Civil Liberties Union, and was one of the founders of the UCLA Theatre Group.