Lasting Screen Stars

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xx

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Lucy Bolton, Julie Lobalzo Wright

   Pages 1-7

3. Lasting Stardom

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 9-9

      PDF

   2. From Angry Young Man to Icon of Neo-liberal India: Extra-cinematic Strategies that Make Amitabh Bachchan India’s Lasting Super-Star

      • Aparna Sharma

      Pages 11-25

   3. Sophia Loren and the Healing Power of Female Italian Ethnicity in Grumpier Old Men

      • Antonella Palmieri

      Pages 27-40

   4. Cutting a Dash in Interwar Hungary: Pál Jávor’s Enduring Stardom

      • Gábor Gergely

      Pages 41-54

   5. From Boy N the Hood to Hollywood Mogul: Ice Cube’s Lasting Stardom in Contemporary Hollywood

      • Julie Lobalzo Wright

      Pages 55-67

4. Faded Stardom

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 69-69

      PDF

   2. ‘What Price Widowhood?’: The Faded Stardom of Norma Shearer

      • Lies Lanckman

      Pages 71-83

   3. Robert Taylor: The ‘Lost’ Star with the Long Career

      • Gillian Kelly

      Pages 85-98

   4. Melanie Griffith: Wild Girl and Working Woman

      • Lucy Bolton

      Pages 99-112

5. Ageing

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 113-113

      PDF

   2. The Ageing Stars of European Art-House Cinema: Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva in Amour

      • Fiona Handyside

      Pages 115-126

   3. The Great Stoneface Ruined: From The Buster Keaton Story to Film

      • Paul Flaig

      Pages 127-139

   4. Ageing Masculinity in the Films of James Mason

      • Adrian Garvey

      Pages 141-155

6. Posthumous Stardom

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 157-157

      PDF

   2. The Afterlives of Rudolph Valentino and Wallace Reid in the 1920s and 1930s

      • Lisa Bode

      Pages 159-171

   3. Beyond the Bounds of Criticism: Preserving Spencer Tracy as a Liberal Hero

      • Hannah Graves

      Pages 173-187

   4. Everybody’s All-American: The Posthumous Rebranding of Marlon Brando

      • Lisa Patti

      Pages 189-199

7. Characters, Series and Types

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 201-201

      PDF

Lasting Stars examines the issue of stardom and longevity and investigates the many reasons for the persistence or disappearance of different star personas. Through a selection of chapters that look at issues such as inappropriate ageing, national identity and physical characteristics, this book will be the first volume to consider in depth and breadth the factors that affect the longevity of film stardom.


The range of stars includes popular stars who are approached from fresh angles (Brando, Loren), less popular stars whose lower-profiles than their peers may be surprising (Taylor, Shearer) and stars whose national identity is integral to their perception as they age (Riva, Bachchan, Pavor). There are stars from the beginning of Hollywood (Valentino, Reid) to the present day (Jolie), and those who made uneasy transitions between countries (Mason), ages (Ringwald) and industrial eras (Keaton). The book examines the range of factors that affect how star images endure, including appropriate and inappropriate ageing (Griffith), race (Ice Cube) and digital technologies (Lee).

• Stardom
• Stars
• Hollywood
• Bollywood
• British cinema
• French cinema
• Auteur
• Acting
• Ageing
• Faded stars
• Character types

• School of Languages, Linguistics and Fil, Queen Mary University of London, LONDON, United Kingdom

  Lucy Bolton

• Queen Mary University of London, School of Languages, Linguistics & Film, United Kingdom

  Julie Lobalzo Wright

Lucy Bolton is senior lecturer in film studies at Queen Mary University of London and the author of Film and Female Consciousness: Irigaray, Cinema and Thinking Women (Palgrave 2011). Her research includes film stardom, particularly in classical Hollywood cinema, and film philosophy.


Julie Lobalzo Wright is a Teaching Fellow in Film Studies at the University of Surrey,UK. Her main research concerns music stars in British and American cinema and has published on David Bowie's film stardom, in addition to more widely on music and film and stardom. Her monograph, Crossover Stardom: Popular Male Music Stars in American Cinema is forthcoming (2017).

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