| Joe Mantell obituary US actor known for his memorable lines in Marty and ChinatownThe career of actor Joe Mantell, who has died aged 94, could be said to have existed between two memorable lines of dialogue in two movies almost 20 years apart. Neither are great lines in themselves, but the way Mantell delivers them, and their importance as part of the ethos of the two contrasting films, allowed them entry into the lexicon of popular culture. In Marty (1955), Mantell, as Angie, keeps asking his best friend, Marty (Oscar-winning Ernest Borgnine) in a broad Brooklyn accent: "Well, what do you feel like doin' tonight?" only to get the reply: "I don't know, what do you feel like doin' tonight?" and so on. This riff was picked up by a generation.In Roman Polanski's Chinatown (1974), Mantell as Larry Walsh utters the film's final enigmatic line as he leads his associate, devastated private eye JJ Gittes (Jack Nicholson), away from a tragic scene: "Forget it, Jake, it's Chinatown." The line in Polanski's neo-noir sums up the film's bleakly fatalistic message. However, Mantell was very nearly deprived of his contribution to cinema history. The original script by Robert Towne did not conclude in Chinatown, and ended on an upbeat note. But it was the director's alteration and Mantell's brief aside that makes the film so powerful and disturbing.Joseph Mantel was born in Brooklyn, the son of Polish immigrants who ran a butcher's shop. After serving in the army during the second world war, he tried his luck in Hollywood, adding an extra "l" to his name. As he got only a few bit parts, he was fortunate that television was looking for actors who looked like "real people". This landed him the role of Angie in the 1953 television version of Marty with Rod Steiger in the title role. When Marty was made into a feature film, with the same director (Delbert Mann), Mantell was one of the few to be retained from the original cast.Marty was one of the first films in the mid-50s to bring new naturalism, new talent and new life to Hollywood from television. This gentle intimate study of the mundane, written by Paddy Chay- efsky, began a vogue for small-scale, low-budget dramas about ordinary people. Borgnine plays the 34-year-old butcher, too shy to approach a girl, because he considers himself "a fat, ugly man" who will die a bachelor. Mantell makes Angie an outwardly more confident character, though equally plain and lonely.Despite being Oscar-nominated (as best supporting actor) in his first credited film role, Mantell did not have a fruitful film career. Instead, television offered him gainful employment for the following 25 years. Among his early leading roles were those in Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Untouchables and an episode in The Twilight Zone entitled Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room (1960). In the latter, Mantell speaks lines that were spoken by Robert De Niro 16 years later in Taxi Driver. Mantell as a small-time crook addresses his alter ego in the mirror by saying: "Are you talkin' to me? Are you talkin' to me?" Perhaps Paul Schrader, the screenwriter of the later film, had seen the episode as a 14-year-old and repeated it unknowingly.Among his appearances in his few features were as the father of a boy in Storm Center (1956) who condemns a teacher (Bette Davis) for giving his son "a commie book" to read; as long-suffering straight man to Jerry Lewis's bumbling soldier in The Sad Sack (1957); and the travelling salesman in Hitchcock's The Birds (1963) who tells an elderly ornithologist defending the birds that the town should "Kill 'em all". Mantell's final film was The Two Jakes (1990), the disappointing sequel to Chinatown directed by Nicholson, in which Mantell reprised the role of Gittes's sidekick Walsh.Mantell is survived by his wife, Mary, two daughters and a son.• Joe Mantell (Joseph Mantel), actor, born 21 December 1915; died 29 September 2010United StatesJack NicholsonUS televisionRonald Berganguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Jolie film blocked amid Bosnia rape row Hollywood star Angelina Jolie has been denied a permit to shoot her directorial film debut in Bosnia amid protests by rape victims who object to its alleged subject matter. feeds.breakingnews.ie |
Van Damme 'has heart attack' Reports say 50-year-old Belgian action movie veteran had heart attack while shooting latest film, WeaponAction movie veteran Jean-Claude Van Damme has reportedly suffered a minor heart attack while shooting his latest film, one day after his 50th birthday.TwitchFilm.net said the Belgian actor and martial artist experienced a seizure in Louisiana, where three days of shooting was due to take place for the film Weapon. The movie was at one stage reported to be a two-hander in which Van Damme and Vinnie Jones play rival assassins forced to cooperate to bring down a drug cartel, but MTV said Jones has left the project.Van Damme's representatives did not confirm the heart attack, but a spokesman told MTV: "He is OK." TwitchFilm said the actor was taken to hospital in New Orleans after the attack, before heading home to Belgium to recover after doctors gave him the all-clear.A leading light of the 1980s action movie boom, Van Damme had recently starred mainly in straight-to-DVD fare, before making a meta-fictional return to the limelight with the downbeat JCVD in 2008. He turned down an opportunity to appear in Sylvester Stallone's The Expendables last year because he did not feel he had been offered a part with any substance.Action and adventureBelgiumUnited StatesBen Childguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Waissel 'fine' after threat to quit 'X Factor' Katie Waissel is now "feeling fine" after dramatically threatening to quit 'X Factor' earlier this week. feeds.breakingnews.ie |
Extra claims she was rejected from Hobbit for looking 'too brown' British woman of Pakistani origin reportedly refused part in Lord of the Rings prequel for not being 'light-skinned' enoughA British woman of Pakistani origin was reportedly turned away from auditions for Lord of the Rings prequel The Hobbit in New Zealand on the basis that she was not white enough.Naz Humphreys, who is 5ft tall, had travelled to Hamilton from Auckland last Tuesday in the hope of securing an extra role on Peter Jackson's forthcoming two-part adaptation of JRR Tolkien's classic fantasy tale. However, according to the Waikato Times, she was told after a three-hour wait that her skin tone made it unlikely she would be cast."It's 2010 and I still can't believe I'm being discriminated against because I have brown skin," Ms Humphreys told the Waikato Times. "The casting manager basically said they weren't having anybody who wasn't pale-skinned."According to the newspaper, a video shows a film company representative telling the crowd: "We are looking for light-skinned people. I'm not trying to be – whatever. It's just the brief. You've got to look like a hobbit."Ms Humphreys, a social policy researcher, had travelled to New Zealand on a working holiday along with her husband, both of them being keen Lord of the Rings fans. She has now set up a Facebook page entitled "Hire Hobbits of all colours! Say No to Hobbit racism!""I would love to be an extra," said Ms Humphreys. "But it just seemed like a shame because obviously hobbits are not brown or black or any other colour. They all look kind of homogenised beige and all derived from the Caucasian gene pool."In 2010, a movie company should be representing all its viewers. It's not just going to be white people seeing The Hobbit, but people from all over the world."Jackson's spokesman said: "It is not something the producers or the director of The Hobbit were aware of; they would never issue instructions of this kind to the casting crew. All people meeting the age and height requirements are welcome to audition for The Hobbit."A spokesman for the film-maker's company, Wingnut Films, said the offending crew member, an independent contractor, had been sacked. "It's something we take very seriously," he told AFP.The member of staff had placed an advertisement in a local newspaper specifying female hobbit extras "with light skin tones" and had also been responsible for informing Ms Humphreys that she did not fit the bill."No such instructions were given, the crew member in question took it upon themselves to do that and it's not something we instructed or condoned," the spokesman said.Tolkien's guidance on the subject of hobbit skin tone is unclear, though according to The Complete Guide to Middle-earth he did specify that Harfoots, the most common type of hobbit, were "browner" than other groups. The Fallohides who settled the Shire and Hobbiton, had "fairer skin". At 5ft, however, Ms Humphreys would have been a giant of a female hobbit, as Tolkien wrote that they were between 2ft and 4ft tall, with the average height being 3ft 6in.JRR TolkienRace issuesNew ZealandBen Childguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |