P. T. Barnum, Who Portrayed Him Best?
The life of the legendary showman, circus impresario, producer, anti-slavery politician, businessman, and author Phineas Taylor 'P.T.' Barnum was told in film, a Broadway play, and television movies and tv shows at least six times which included two very good and imaginative musical versions. Each version, and therefore the actors too, emphasized different aspects of Barnum’s life. Who portrayed Barnum the best?
“Now Ladies and Gentlemen, for your entertainment, may I direct your attention to the center ring (page) to discuss the topic there?”
Note: two of the actors on this list, Beery and Lancaster, actually were circus performers (Beery was actually in P. T. Barnum and Bailey’s and Ringling Brother’s Three Ring Circus), and two others, Jackman and Crawford, had to learn and perform several circus stunts in order to perform their roles.
“Now Ladies and Gentlemen, for your entertainment, may I direct your attention to the center ring (page) to discuss the topic there?”
Note: two of the actors on this list, Beery and Lancaster, actually were circus performers (Beery was actually in P. T. Barnum and Bailey’s and Ringling Brother’s Three Ring Circus), and two others, Jackman and Crawford, had to learn and perform several circus stunts in order to perform their roles.
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In 1902, 16-year-old Wallace Beery joined the Ringling Brothers Circus as an assistant to the elephant trainer. He left two years later after a leopard clawed his arm. Beery next went to New York, where he found work in musical variety shows. He became a leading man in musicals and appeared on Broadway and in traveling stock companies. In 1913 he headed for Hollywood, where he would get his start as the hulking Swedish maid in the Sweedie comedy series for Essanay. In 1915 he would work with young ingénue Gloria Swanson in Sweedie Goes to College (1915). A year later they would marry and be wildly unhappy together. The marriage dissolved when Beery could not control his drinking and Gloria got tired of his abuse. Beery finished with the Sweedie series and worked as the heavy in a number of films. Starting with Patria (1917), he would play the beastly Hun in a number of films. In the 1920s he would be seen in a number of adventures, including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921), Robin Hood (1922), The Sea Hawk (1924) and The Pony Express (1925). He would also play the part of Poole in So Big (1924), which was based on the best-selling book of the same name by Edna Ferber. Paramount began to move Beery back into comedies with Behind the Front (1926). When sound came, Beery was one of the victims of the wholesale studio purge. He had a voice that would record well, but his speech was slow and his tone was a deep, folksy, down home-type. While not the handsome hero image, MGM executive Irving Thalberg saw something in Beery and hired him for the studio. Thalberg cast Beery in The Big House (1930), which was a big hit and got Beery an Academy Award nomination. However, Beery would become almost a household word with the release of the sentimental Min and Bill (1930), which would be one of 1930's top money makers. The next year Beery would win the Oscar for Best Actor in The Champ (1931). He would be forever remembered as Long John Silver in Treasure Island (1934) (who says never work with kids?). Beery became one of the top ten stars in Hollywood, as he was cast as the tough, dim-witted, easy-going type (which, in real life, he was anything but). In Flesh (1932) he would be the dim-witted wrestler who did not figure that his wife was unfaithful. In Dinner at Eight (1933) he played a businessman trying to get into society while having trouble with his wife, link=nm0001318]. After Marie Dressler died in 1934, he would not find another partner in the same vein as his early talkies until he teamed with Marjorie Main in the 1940s. He would appear opposite her in such films as Wyoming (1940) and Barnacle Bill (1941). By that time his career was slowing as he was getting up in age. He continued to work, appearing in only one or two pictures a year, until he died from a heart attack in 1949.- Actor
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Burt Lancaster, one of five children, was born in Manhattan, to Elizabeth (Roberts) and James Henry Lancaster, a postal worker. All his grandparents were immigrants from the north of Ireland. He was a tough street kid who took an early interest in gymnastics. He joined the circus as an acrobat and worked there until he was injured. In the Army during WWII he was introduced to the USO and to acting. His first film was The Killers (1946), and that made him a star. He was a self-taught actor who learned the business as he went along. He set up his own production company in 1948 with Harold Hecht and James Hill to direct his career. He played many different roles in pictures as varied as The Crimson Pirate (1952), From Here to Eternity (1953), Elmer Gantry (1960) and Atlantic City (1980).
His production company, Hecht-Hill-Lancaster, produced such films as Paddy Chayefsky's Marty (1955) (Oscar winner 1955) and The Catered Affair (1956). In the 1980s he appeared as a supporting player in a number of movies, such as Local Hero (1983) and Field of Dreams (1989). However, it will be the sound of his voice, the way that he laughed, and the larger-than-life characters he played that will always be remembered.- Actor
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Hugh Michael Jackman is an Australian actor, singer, multi-instrumentalist, dancer and producer. Jackman has won international recognition for his roles in major films, notably as superhero, period, and romance characters. He is best known for his long-running role as Wolverine in the X-Men film series, as well as for his lead roles in the romantic-comedy fantasy Kate & Leopold (2001), the action-horror film Van Helsing (2004), the drama The Prestige and The Fountain (2006), the epic historical romantic drama Australia (2008), the film version of Les Misérables (2012), and the thriller Prisoners (2013). His work in Les Misérables earned him his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and his first Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy in 2013. In Broadway theatre, Jackman won a Tony Award for his role in The Boy from Oz. A four-time host of the Tony Awards themselves, he won an Emmy Award for one of these appearances. Jackman also hosted the 81st Academy Awards on 22 February 2009.
Jackman was born in Sydney, New South Wales, to Grace McNeil (Greenwood) and Christopher John Jackman, an accountant. He is the youngest of five children. His parents, both English, moved to Australia shortly before his birth. He also has Greek (from a great-grandfather) and Scottish (from a grandmother) ancestry.
Jackman has a communications degree with a journalism major from the University of Technology Sydney. After graduating, he pursued drama at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, immediately after which he was offered a starring role in the ABC-TV prison drama Correlli (1995), opposite his future wife Deborra-Lee Furness. Several TV guest roles followed, as an actor and variety compere. An accomplished singer, Jackman has starred as Gaston in the Australian production of "Beauty and the Beast." He appeared as Joe Gillis in the Australian production of "Sunset Boulevard." In 1998, he was cast as Curly in the Royal National Theatre's production of Trevor Nunn's Oklahoma. Jackman has made two feature films, the second of which, Erskineville Kings (1999), garnered him an Australian Film Institute nomination for Best Actor in 1999. Recently, he won the part of Logan/Wolverine in the Bryan Singer- directed comic-book movie X-Men (2000). In his spare time, Jackman plays piano, golf, and guitar, and likes to windsurf.- Actor
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His father was a pilot during the second World War and was killed in action before Michael was born resulting in him being brought up by his mother, Doris, and Irish grandmother, Kathleen .His mother married a, Kent grocer when he was 4 but after his mother died when he was 21 he broke off all contact with him,, Michael was educated at Oakfield School in Dulwich and developed his singing skills as a chorister. At 12 he was picked by Benjamin Britten to sing with the English Opera Company, At 14 he was in children's films and at 15 he was in a school play where he was spotted by an agent and put into a radio programme during which he developed a relationship with hairdresser Patricia Maxwell and became engaged but then he met Gabrielle Lewis at a club where he was relaxing after a show. This resulted in his daughter Angelique being born to Patricia the same month that he married Gabrielle, and daughters Emm and Lucy, He divorced in 1975 and moved to America in the 80's In 1996 he was in the show EFX in Las Vegas and fell sustaining a high impact injury to a femur and hip.- Actor
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Beau Bridges was born in Hollywood, and is the son of actor Lloyd Bridges and his wife, who was his college sweetheart, Dorothy Dean Bridges. Born just two days after the attack on Pearl Harbour, he was delivered by candlelight because of a power blackout. Named Lloyd Vernet Bridges III, his parents immediately started calling him Beau after Ashley Wilkes' son in Gone with the Wind (1939), a book they were reading at the time. His younger brother, actor Jeff Bridges, was born in 1949 and a sister, Cindy Bridges, the following year.
Although only 5'10", Beau played basketball for UCLA his freshman year. The following year he transferred to the University of Hawaii, but dropped out to pursue acting and got his first major role in 1967. During his first marriage to Julie Landifield, they adopted Casey Bridges and then had Jordan Bridges. He and his second wife, Wendy Treece Bridges, have three children from this marriage: Dylan Bridges (born 1985); Emily Bridges, (born 1987) and Ezekiel Jeffry Bridges.
Beau likes to play guitar and collects Native American percussion instruments. He also loves the ocean, including swimming and surfing. He is also active in environmental causes and handgun control.P.T. Barnum (1999) the older Barnum- Actor
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Jordan Bridges is an American actor, best known as Frankie Rizzoli on Rizzoli & Isles (2010-2016). Bridges was born in Los Angeles County, California, and is the son of actor Beau Bridges and Julie Bridges. He is the nephew of Jeff Bridges and the grandson of Lloyd Bridges and Dorothy Bridges. Bridges' maternal grandfather, Marvin Landfield, was the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants.Younger Barnum, P.T. Barnum (1999)- Actor
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Dell Yount was born in California, March 28, 1960. He studied at California State University, San Bernardino and Fullerton, where he earned his BA & MFA in Theatre Arts (Acting). After graduation, Dell traveled to New York and won a lead role in the National Tour of the Tony Award winning musical "The Mystery of Edwin Drood." He then returned to Los Angeles and began a career as an actor in film and television, with a role in Cop-Rock in 1990. A veteran character actor in film and television, Dell Yount also teaches Theatre Arts courses at colleges and universities. In a wonderful twist of fate... Dell became a father for the first time in the Summer of 2019, when he discovered his daughter (Stephanie) through 23andMe!The “P. T. Barnum” episode of A.J.'s Time Travelers (1995)- Actor
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William George Zane, better known as Billy Zane, was born on February 24, 1966 in Chicago, Illinois, to Thalia (Colovos) and William Zane, both of Greek ancestry. His parents were amateur actors and managed a medical technical school. Billy has an older sister, actress and singer Lisa Zane. Billy was bitten by the acting bug early on. In his early teens, he attended Harand Camp of the Theater Arts in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. In 1982, he attended the American School in Switzerland. His high school days were spent at Francis Parker High School in Chicago, Illinois. Daryl Hannah and Jennifer Beals also attended Parker, prior to Billy's attendance.
Soon after graduating from high school, Billy decided to venture out to California to attempt acting for the first time. Within three weeks, he won his very first big screen role in Back to the Future (1985), playing the role of Match, one of Biff Tannen's thugs. He would later reprise that role for the sequel Back to the Future Part II (1989). Then after a small role in the science fiction horror film Critters (1986), he landed starring roles in several television films. Billy played villain Hughie Warriner in the Australian thriller film Dead Calm (1989), where he met his future wife, Lisa Collins.
He also co-starred in Memphis Belle (1990), a film version of a 1944 documentary about a World War II bomber. In 1991, he appeared as John Justice Wheeler on several episodes of David Lynch's television series Twin Peaks (1990). Billy starred as the eponymous superhero in The Phantom (1996) and as Caledon Hockley in the billion dollar grossing Titanic (1997). Then, he starred in the television movie Cleopatra (1999) where he met his soon-to-be fiance, actress Leonor Varela from whom he subsequently separated. In 2005, he had a recurring role as the poetry loving ex-demon Drake on the television series Charmed (1998).Freakshow (2017) episode of DC's Legends of Tomorrow (2016). (Suggested by Pencho15)