20 thoughts on “Jan-Michael Vincent Movies”

1. Our poor old Myrna for example played the romantic lovers/wives of the likes of Archibald on the screen in the 30s and 40s; but by the 1950s and 1960s whilst HE was still playing cinematic dashing ‘Romeo’ roles SHE was appearing in often dowdy aunt and mother roles such as Newman’s alcoholic mother in 1960’s From the Terrace.

   [Fair play though: Loy should have gotten at least an Oscar nomination at the age of 53 when she played the adulterous [and again alcoholic] wife of Robert Ryan in Monty Clift’s 1958 Lonelyhearts. That part would have been forbidden to her of course in the Halcyon Al Leach days of the 1930s and 1940s: screen wives/lovers of the Great Archie were simply not allowed to be drunken adulterers!!]

   Anyway in the “sliding doors” format consider this scenario. A young Kathy Cogerson brings home her ‘intended’ to meet with W o C and you for the first time and you say to him “Welcome. Come in young man!” All the while he’s actually ONE YEAR YOUNGER than you! How would you like THAT?

   For evidence of that situation having played out on screen google 1953’s The Lone Hand and check out the ages of stars Joel McCrea; his lover/then wife Barbara Hale in the plot ; and her screen dad Roy Roberts.

   I haven’t seen Steve around for some time. He said he was taking a long break but it has now been so long that he must still be taking lessons at the Bruce Cogerson School for the Art of Disappearing for Long Stretches! Anyway keep safe yourself.

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   1. Wow…Bob with some kind words for Myrna Loy. Interesting thoughts on her role in Lonelyhearts. I will have to check that one out. I think many movie historians think she should have gotten a nomination for The Best Years Of Our Lives. Interesting about Steve….I hope he is enjoying his break…maybe he is writing a book. Although I have not been as active on the comment box…I have been generating new material….I think the Randy Quaid page was the 93rd one of the year….that is less than a new page every two days. Also working on Book 4…..it will be a classic actor and actress ranking book….looking at having a Top 500….still trying to figure out the rules to be included…..for some of the golden oldies like Eastwood and Caine….are they modern stars or classic stars?….I am thinking anybody that made their film debut before 1970 should be included….or should it be 1980?

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      1. HI BRUCE: Thanks for the feedback. It’s always difficult to know precisely where to draw the line because there have been so many great stars down the years.

         On the other hand if you go too far back most modern moviegoers may not know whom you are talking about. In short: it probably depends on your target readership.

         Film historians seem to agree that the classic era ended around 1962 and that the “modern” era began then. Eastwood and Sir Maurice debuted in the 1950s and therefore began in the recognised classic era; but they have had their MEGA career presence in the post-1962 -e “modern” era

         Certainly wherever you draw the line exclusion of either Clint and Sir Maurice given their success across the decades from the 50s until recent times and the fact that they are still well-known would be liable to raise howls of protest from disappointed fans of the pair – take me for instance!

         Anyway wherever you ultimately decide to draw the line I’ll be in the queue for your 4th book. Take care. However DO flag-up availanbility when the time of release comes.

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         1. Hey Bob…thanks for the thoughts….seems each day I keep changing my mind. My most recent UMR database search offered up this list. Average score of their Top 24 movies.

            Actor AvgOfRoleScorePct CountOfRoleID
            Spencer Tracy 91.90 24
            Cary Grant 91.24 24
            James Stewart 91.18 24
            Tom Hanks 90.65 24
            Gary Cooper 90.40 24
            Humphrey Bogart 90.23 24
            Gregory Peck 89.60 24
            Harrison Ford 89.22 24
            John Wayne 89.05 24
            Katharine Hepburn 88.15 24
            Jack Nicholson 88.09 24
            Paul Newman 87.88 24
            Tom Cruise 87.83 24
            Clark Gable 87.59 24
            Burt Lancaster 87.21 24
            Judy Garland 87.00 24
            Gene Hackman 86.87 24
            William Holden 86.80 24
            Dustin Hoffman 86.70 24
            Henry Fonda 86.23 24
            Elizabeth Taylor 86.16 24
            Tyrone Power 86.05 24
            Clint Eastwood 86.04 24
            Ginger Rogers 85.93 24
            Bing Crosby 85.84 24
            Bette Davis 85.80 24
            Robert Redford 85.71 22
            Bob Hope 85.64 24
            Myrna Loy 85.51 24
            Fred Astaire 85.00 24
            William Powell 84.95 24
            Van Johnson 84.87 24
            David Niven 84.62 24
            Roddy McDowall 84.53 24
            Maureen O’Hara 84.26 24
            Marlon Brando 84.13 24
            Meryl Streep 84.12 24
            Elsa Lanchester 83.81 24
            Anthony Quinn 83.81 24
            Sean Connery 83.61 24
            James Cagney 83.55 24
            Robert DeNiro 83.54 24
            George Sanders 83.51 24
            Frank Sinatra 83.41 24
            Michael Caine 83.32 23
            Matt Damon 83.15 24
            Claudette Colbert 83.09 24
            Barbara Stanwyck 82.94 24
            Donald Sutherland 82.78 24
            Vincente Minnelli 82.78 24
            Gene Kelly 82.68 24
            Edward G. Robinson 82.51 24
            Charles Laughton 82.34 24
            Morgan Freeman 82.31 21
            Robert Mitchum 82.31 24
            Jack Lemmon 82.22 24
            Fredric March 82.19 24
            Lana Turner 82.19 24
            Wallace Beery 82.16 24
            Dorothy Lamour 81.97 24
            Robin Williams 81.92 24
            Brad Pitt 81.87 24
            Fred MacMurray 81.74 24
            Errol Flynn 81.69 24
            Robert Taylor 81.35 24
            Shirley Temple 81.23 24
            June Allyson 81.17 24
            Charlton Heston 81.14 24
            Dean Martin 81.12 24
            Susan Hayward 81.10 24
            Ray Milland 81.10 24
            James Mason 80.73 24
            Thelma Ritter 80.46 24
            Bruce Willis 80.44 24
            Ingrid Bergman 80.17 24
            Angela Lansbury 80.17 24
            Dana Andrews 80.16 24
            Cate Blanchett 80.09 24
            Al Pacino 80.02 24
            Kirk Douglas 79.97 24
            Robert Downey Jr. 79.96 23
            Ronald Colman 79.81 24
            Diane Keaton 79.80 24
            Barry Fitzgerald 79.73 24
            Rosalind Russell 79.68 24
            Robert Young 79.67 24
            Willem Dafoe 79.61 22
            Maggie Smith 79.58 24
            Jane Wyman 79.53 24
            Joan Crawford 79.48 24
            Deborah Kerr 79.48 24
            Bill Murray 79.31 24
            Mel Gibson 79.27 24
            Mary Pickford 79.13 24
            Eddie Murphy 79.07 24
            Doris Day 79.04 24
            Anne Baxter 79.03 24
            Laurence Olivier 78.99 24
            Alan Ladd 78.91 24
            Loretta Young 78.84 24
            Denzel Washington 78.79 24
            Don Ameche 78.76 24
            Tommy Lee Jones 78.71 24
            Johnny Depp 78.59 24
            Tony Curtis 78.58 24
            Marlene Dietrich 78.56 24
            Van Heflin 78.51 24
            Woody Harrelson 78.41 24
            Vincent Price 78.35 24
            Jon Voight 78.29 24
            Maureen O’Sullivan 78.28 24
            Walter Wanger 78.26 24
            Betty Grable 78.24 24
            Alec Baldwin 78.17 24
            Karl Malden 78.16 24
            Natalie Wood 78.12 24
            Robert Ryan 78.09 24
            Gene Tierney 78.05 24
            Irene Dunne 77.99 24
            Walter Matthau 77.99 24
            Anthony Hopkins 77.96 23

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            1. HI BRUCE:

               Thanks for sharing that. I see it as a high-powered list throughout as there are only roughly 14 points between the ist name and the last.

               Tracy would kiss you for giving him top billing in such prestigious company!!!

               Good to see Mr Gimme More getting to “play with the big boys” for once. I suppose limiting the number of movies in each case to a star’s Top 24 helps ole Brucie as probably the droves of flops/rubbish he casually made for just the money pulls him down in most longer ranking lists?

               However he is compensated by being high up in the EARNINGS lists of stars on the Celebrity Net Worth site so he’ll probably not complain.

            2. Hey Bob….true the gap between Tracy and Hopkins is only 14……but it does put some pretty good ones at the top. Like I said earlier….ever day I seem to go in a different direction for book 4….and summer break is already a week and a half old….the clock is ticking. I think Bruce has the 78th spot on this list….which still would not have gotten him into the first book…Top 50 Stars of All-Time. Glad you liked this list.

2. Thanks for the detailed feedback. Some good information there: for
   example I was not aware that JMV was so big on television; though
   today I am more into TV than I am into modern movies most of
   which don’t interest me, one of the most recent that I liked being Sir
   Maurice’s ‘arthouse’ 2015 flick “Youth”

   Good point about Charlize. I saw her recently in a TV presentation
   of the 2003 remake of The Italian Job as my grandson asked me to watch it with him. It was OK – but for me it wasn’t the same without Sir M and I thought Edward Norton stole the show.

   I think that we owe a lot to that exercise that W o C did on The Curse of 39 as it gives us a marker against which to measure all modern female careers such as that of Charlize. Please convey to your Greater Half again my appreciation of the fine work she did with that exercise – proving she was the equal of that workaholic husband of hers in researching and producing valuable movie stats

   Certainly in the old days “young Turks” like Race Gentry being shunted into the background whilst guys like Gable, Jimmy Stewart, and Al Leach were able to hang around until they became “golden oldies” considerably lengthened the gap between male and female top-career longevities.

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   1. Hey Bob….I often think about WoC’s 39 research……I think Sandra Bullock did a good job overcoming it as well….though she seems ready to retire now. But other than Bullock and Theron most hit that hurdle. Good thoughts.

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3. Ooops! That message was from me, Brooke 😉

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   1. Hey Brooke….I figured that was you on the other comment.

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4. I have actually seen Jan Michael in only 2 movies: Bronson’s 1972 The Mechanic and the 1978 surfer drama Big Wednesday. I was attracted to the latter because Barbara Hale was in it and I have always liked her as Della Street Perry Mason’s secretary in the Perry Mason TV series and TV movies.

   William Katt [whom Work Horse lists in the co-stars column] played Barbara’s son in Big Wednesday and William was also her real-life son by 1940s/50s B movie actor Bill Williams. Big Wednesday was actually Barbara’s final cinematic film.

   However after a gap of 19 years following the conclusion of the 1957-66 TV series Canuck Raymond Burr reprised Mason in a series of 26 full-length TV movies and old trouper Barbara too was brought back as the ever-faithful Della in those 26 movies which ran from 1985-1993.

   Great entertainment for me. William Katt Barbara’s son appeared in the first 9 of that TV movie series; just as his dad, Barbara’s husband Bill Williams, had appeared in some of the 1957-66 television episodes. Bit of a ‘dynasty’ – like the famous Cogersons on this site!

   Having seen just 2 of his movies I can say no more about Jan
   Michael except that he always struck me as akin to one of those
   1950s “Pretty Boys” who appeared in supporting roles in westerns
   throughout that decade but lost out in the love-interest stakes to
   the likes of Joel McCrea or Randy Scott who were twice the age and at that stage of their lives were about half as handsome as the younger guy!

   An example of this is young 21-year- old Race Gentry who was being groomed as a Rock Hudson clone [and indeed looked like Rock]in 1954’s western Black Horse Canyon but in that film lost the voluptuous ‘sex kitten”Mari Blanchard to the ageing McCrea who was much older than Race and Marie.

   No Country for Old Men is a famous relatively-modern Coen Bros film but back in Joel and Randy’s day it was definitely an ‘Old Men’s’ world when those pair -and also especially – the balding Astaire were around !

   After seeing Black Horse Canyon, out of curiosity I asked a young girl who was my neighbour and who had also seen the movie would SHE have preferred the much older Joel McCrea to the gorgeous sexy Race Gentry. Admittedly I expressed the question in a leading way; but anyway she replied “Don’t be ridiculous!”

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   1. Hey Bob…. I have seen 9 of his movies….including 6 of his Top 11…..including two in theaters…Damnation Alley and Hooper (with a high riding Burt Reynolds). Interesting that you brought up William Katt. I liked Katt as well…and because of Big Wednesday JMV and Katt almost seemed linked in my memory. Katt got my attention in a short run television show called The Greatest American Hero. Good connections to Perry Mason and the Hale/Kaat/Williams family.

      As for JMV……for sure his looks got him noticed….and for a good ten years or more he was considered a solid star. He eventually became the highest paid actor on television for his Airwolf role. That show co-starred Ernest Borgnine. Men’s expiration age seems to be around 59….that is 20 more years than actresses…..though Charlize Theron seems to proving that to be wrong. Good stuff as always.

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5. His career started so promising. Too bad his personal demons derailed his career. Loved him in Hopper and Damnation Alley. Good job Brooke.

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   1. Thank you Taylor! And thank you very much for the page! Yeah, I really liked him a lot and get a little sentimental, whenever I watch something he was in!

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      1. Hey Brooke…glad you returned to see your “requested page”….during the summer time I have a better chance to knock out a person’s request….during the school year….it takes a little more time. Glad you liked the page.

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   2. Hey Taylor. Thanks for checking out our latest page. JMV was a favorite of mine when I was growing up. From seeing him in The World’s Strongest Athlete to Hooper and Damnation Alley. I saw bought Hoop and Alley in theaters. I remember thinking how awesome Alley was….it was not until years later did I realize it was pretty much a low budget B movie…but little Cogerson loved it back in 1977. Thanks for the positive feedback.

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