Movie star

"Film star" redirects here. For the 2011 Malayalam film, see The Filmstaar. For the Suede song, see Filmstar (song).

For other uses, see Movie star (disambiguation).

A movie star (also known as a film star and cinema star) is a celebrity who is well-known, or famous, for his or her starring, or leading, roles in motion pictures. The term may also apply to an actor or actress who is recognized as a marketable commodity and whose name is used to promote a movie in trailers and posters. The most widely known, prominent or successful actors are sometimes called “superstars” by writers and journalists. A movie star is someone who is involved in the industry of entertainment.

Music Hall antecedents

Before the advent of movies, the term "star" was already in use in the milieu of the Music Halls, at the time the most popular form of entertainment. "Star" already meant much the same as it came to mean in the context of films – i.e. entertainers who were well-known and highly popular, and who were therefore paid incomparably better than fellow performers. The term "Star" was for example used extensively during the 1907 strike in Britain which came to be known as "The Music Hall War", when Stars were praised for standing by their lesser-paid fellows and actively participating in the strike (see Music hall#'Music Hall War' of 1907).

United States

Hollywood, first years

In the early days of silent movies the names of the actors and actresses appearing in movies were not publicized or credited because producers feared this would result in demands for higher salaries.^[1] However, audience curiosity soon undermined this policy. By 1909, actresses such as Florence Lawrence and Mary Pickford were already widely recognized, although the public remained unaware of their names. Lawrence was referred to as the “Biograph Girl” because she worked for D. W. Griffith's Biograph Studios, while Pickford was "Little Mary." In 1910, Lawrence switched to the Independent Moving Pictures Company, began appearing under her own name, and was hailed as "America's foremost moving picture star" in IMP literature.^[1] Pickford began appearing under her own name in 1911.

IMP promoted their “picture personalities”, including Florence Lawrence and King Baggot, by giving them billing/credits and a marquee. Promotion in advertising led to the release of stories about these personalities to newspapers and fan magazines as part of a strategy to build “brand loyalty” for their company's actors and films. By the 1920s, Hollywood film company promoters had developed a “massive industrial enterprise” that “…peddled a new intangible—fame.”^[2]

Hollywood “image makers” and promotional agents planted rumors, selectively released real or fictitious biographical information to the press, and used other “gimmicks” to create glamorous personas for actors. Publicists thus “created” the “enduring images” and public perceptions of screen legends such as Rock Hudson, Marilyn Monroe, and Grace Kelly. The development of this “star system” made “fame…something that could be fabricated purposely, by the masters of the new ‘machinery of glory’.”^[2] However, regardless of how “…strenuously the star and their media handlers and press agents may…try to ‘monitor’ and ‘shape’ it, the media and the public always play a substantial part in the image-making process.”^[2] According to Madow, “fame is a ‘relational’ phenomenon, something that is conferred by others. A person can, within the limits of his natural talents, make himself strong or swift or learned. But he cannot, in this same sense, make himself famous, any more than he can make himself loved.”

Madow goes on to point out “fame is often conferred or withheld, just as love is, for reasons and on grounds other than ‘merit’.” According to Sofia Johansson the “canonical texts on stardom” include articles by Boorstin (1971), Alberoni (1972) and Dyer (1979) that examined the “representations of stars and on aspects of the Hollywood star system”. Johansson notes “more recent analyses within media and cultural studies (e.g. Gamson 1994; Marshall 1997; Giles 2000; Turner, Marshall and Bonner 2000; Rojek 2001; Turner 2004) have instead dealt with the idea of a pervasive, contemporary, ‘celebrity culture’.” In the analysis of the celebrity culture, “fame and its constituencies are conceived of as a broader social process, connected to widespread economic, political, technological and cultural developments.”^[3]

In the 1980s and 1990s, entertainment companies began using stars for a range of publicity tactics including press releases, movie junkets, and community activities. These promotional efforts are targeted and designed using market research, to increase the predictability of success of their media ventures. In some cases, publicity agents may create “provocative advertisements” or make an outrageous public statement to trigger public controversy and thereby generate “free” news coverage.^[2] Movie studios employed performers under long-term contracts. They developed a star system as a means of promoting and selling their movies. “Star vehicles” were filmed to display the particular talents and appeal of the most popular movie stars of the studio.

The last of the greats

With the loss of Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in 2000, Katharine Hepburn, Bob Hope and Gregory Peck in 2003, Marlon Brando in 2004, Shelley Winters in 2006, Deborah Kerr 2007, Van Johnson and Paul Newman in 2008, Tony Curtis and Patricia Neal in 2010 and Jane Russell and Elizabeth Taylor in 2011, the number of stars is dwindling. Diana Serra Cary (Baby Peggy), Barbara Kent, Luise Rainer, Mickey Rooney and Dickie Moore are the last surviving stars from the silent era. Lupita Tovar, Maureen O'Hara, Deanna Durbin, Mary Carlisle, Shirley Temple, Jane Withers, Joan Fontaine and sister Olivia De Havilland are the last main 1930s actresses, and Marsha Hunt, Lauren Bacall, Esther Williams, Lizabeth Scott, Celeste Holm, Kirk Douglas, Eli Wallach and Nanette Fabray are some of the last from the 1940s. The 1950s saw the collapse of the old studio contract system. Some of the last stars from that decade are Eleanor Parker, Doris Day, Christopher Lee, Jerry Lewis, Gloria DeHaven, Gina Lollobrigida, Angela Lansbury, Jane Powell, Sophia Loren, Leslie Caron, Julie Andrews, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Mitzi Gaynor and Gena Rowlands.

Asia

Movie stars in other regions too have their own star value. For instance, in Asian film industries, many movies often run on the weight of the star's crowd pulling power more than any other intrinsic aspect of film making.

India

The Indian film industry has its own set of rules in this aspect and there are often superstars in this region, who often command premium pay commensurate with their box office appeal. Shahrukh Khan, for example, has a fan following numbering in the billions^[4] and a net worth estimated at over Rs 2500 crore (US$ 540 million).^[5] He is regarded as one of the most powerful movie stars in the world. Other Indian actors who are among the most popular movie stars in Southern Asia include Rajinikanth, Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Haasan, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Akshay Kumar, Akkineni Nagarjuna, Mahesh Babu, Chiranjeevi, Aishwarya Rai, Surya Sivakumar, Mammootty and Mohanlal to name a few.

China

A number of Chinese film actors have become some of the most popular movie stars in Eastern Asia and are also well known in the Western world. They include include Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Chow Yun-fat, Stephen Chow, Sammo Hung, Gong Li, Ziyi Zhang, Maggie Cheung, and the late Bruce Lee.

See also

Celebrity Character actor Charisma Glamour

Leading lady Leading man List of actors Matinée idol

Sex symbol Superstar Typecasting Voice actor

Film portal

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "100 years of movie stars: 1910-1929", The Independent, 25 January 2010.
2. ^ ^{a b c d} Mitchell A. Flagg, “Star Crazy: Keeping The Right Of Publicity Out Of Canadian Law” (1999) Ad IDEM <http://www.adidem.org/articles/MF1.html>
3. ^ Editorial by Sofia Johansson from the Communication and Media Research Institute of the University of Westminster. Available at: http://www.wmin.ac.uk/mad/pdf/Sofia.pdf
4. ^ Sarah Gordon (February 10, 2010). "Airport denies Shah Rukh Khan's body scanner image was printed for autographs". Daily Mail. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-1249929/Shah-Rukh-Khans-body-scanner-image-printed-says-Heathrow-Airport.html. Retrieved February 12, 2010. 
5. ^ "Shah Rukh Khan's net worth is 2500 crore". Times of India. October 21, 2009. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/videos/celebs/Shah-Rukh-Khans-net-worth-is-2500-crore/videoshow/5146155.cms. Retrieved February 12, 2010. 

External links

• 1943 gathering of MGM stars
• Silver Screen Shadows site dedicated to stars from the silent and golden era