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Would you believe three of the first four American Best Actress Academy Award winners were Canadians, including, at left, "America's Sweetheart" Mary Pickford, shown with Johnny MackBrown in her Oscar-winning role in "Coquette" (1928-29); at center, Norma Shearer in her Oscar-winning role in "The Divorcee" (1929-30), and, at right, Marie Dressler with Wallace Beery in her Oscar-winning role in "Min and Bill" (1930-31). |
Scratch a Hollywood actor,
find a Canadian inside
of TheColumnists.com
I was bumbling around the Internet the other day when I discovered something startling.
There were--and still are--a heck of a lot of Canadians in American show business.
Sure, you know about Jim Carrey, John Candy, Michael J. Fox, Martin Short, Lou Jacobi, Mike Myers, Pamela Anderson, Raymond Burr, Linda Evangelista, Paul Anka, the immortal Hume Cronyn, Celine Dion, Robert Goulet, Christopher Plummer, Yvo;nne DeCarlo, Alexis Smith and Dan Aykroyd. But did you more mature types know that “America’s Sweetheart,” Mary Pickford, was from Canada?
And even more startling, to me at least, is the fact that Jack Warner, one of the co-founders of Warner Bros., was born in London, Ontario. Think of it. The man who headed the studio that gave us “Casablanca” and Bugs Bunny was Canadian. So was Louis B. Mayer, by the way. And Walter Huston. And Guy Lombardo, who used to usher in New Year’s with “Should Auld Acquaintance…” Jay Silverheels, who portrayed Tonto in the Lone Ranger franchise, was Canadian.
Fay Wray, the helpless lass held in the
grip of King Kong? Canadian. (No word on whether the big ape
spent any time up north before heading for the top of the Empire
State Building.)
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may have been screaming "Take me back to Canada!" as "King Kong" came for her in the 1933 classic. |
Leonard Nimoy once told me that when he and William Shatner were doing “Star Trek,” he tried to enlist Shatner to work with him on behalf of some of Nimoy’s favorite good causes, such as Cesar Chavez and the farm workers. Shatner, whom I suspect simply didn’t want to be bothered, would always refuse, citing the fact that he was a Canadian and shouldn’t become involved in American politics. (James Doohan, “Scotty” on “Star Trek,” was also Canadian, and didn’t get along particularly well with Shatner.)
Lorne Greene of “Bonanza” fame was once dubbed “The Voice of Canada” before he crossed the longest undefended border in the world to become even more famous and do dog food commercials. Greene once voiced a mockumentary, “The Canadian Conspiracy,” about a supposed subversion of the United States by Canadian-born media people. Well, Peter Jennings was born and raised up there, but he certainly was not a Canadian subversive.
Canadian-born actresses are responsible for a rare feat. Few people remember them now, but in the late 20s and early 30s, the Oscar for Best Actress went to three of them in a row - Mary Pickford in 1929, Norma Shearer in 1930 and Marie Dressler in 1931.
Canadians are good at being American icons, or at least movers and shakers. Raymond Massey famously portrayed Abraham Lincoln; Donald Sutherland, who was a habitué of the White House in the recent short-lived “Commander in Chief” television series, is from Canada, and so is his son, Keifer Sutherland; Canadian David James Elliott played an all-American naval officer in the CBS series “JAG.”
It wasn’t all roses. Canadian-born Florence Lawrence, regarded by many Hollywood historians as the first real “movie star,” but now pretty much forgotten, committed suicide in 1938 after appearing in no fewer than 270 movies.
Another Canadian-born femme fatale named Florence La Badie (sounds to good to be true) was purportedly the mistress of Woodrow Wilson and mother of his child. (Woodrow Wilson??!!)
I don’t know what all this proves. Canadians are a talented group? Sure. America is a magnet to people from everywhere, giving them an opportunity to do well in this open-hearted land?
I like that.
©2006 by Charles M. McFadden. The McFadden caricature is ©2001 by Jim Hummel. This column first posted Aug. 28, 2006.
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