The great American actor Tony Curtis, famous for his role in the movie with Marilyn Monroe ,” Some Like it Hot!” was also an outstanding painter and sculptor. Tony Curtis was born Bernard Schwartz in the year 1925 in Manhattan, New York.
Curtis is associated with the Expressionists and Surrealist movements.
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In this outstanding clip from a few years back we visit a show with Tony Curtis that took place at Harrod’s of London, England:
Curtis began his acting career with a contract at the age of twenty- three years of age.
Its important to note that many of the actors who influenced by Tony Curtis, were also personal friends of the artists. In this clip we visit his studio and he talks about some of his friends including Matisse, who played a large role in Curtis’ development of an artist:
Tony Curtis passed away in 2010 at the age of 85 years of age.
Curtis has a star on the famed Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Surely everyone is familiar with some of this actor’s work in Star Wars or currently he was celebrity on Dancing With the Stars, Billy Dee Williams. Billy Dee Williams was born in 1937 in New York City. For his artistic education Billy Dee Williams attended National Academy of Fine Art and Design located in New York City.
Williams refers to his art as “abstract reality.”
Williams grew up in Harlem and was raised mainly by his grandparents as his parents worked several jobs. Williams loved to paint, but found the materials very expensive and took up acting as a way to earn money to pay for his art supplies.
Billy Dee Williams is part of the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.
In this clip we visit a gallery in Toronto for a show featuring the work of Billy Dee Williams. The clip includes a great interview with Billy Dee Williams:
Williams paints with oils and acrylics. Williams works with acrylics using the brush and also the airbrush.
Price range information: Works range from $5,000 to $50,000.
What a talented artist capable of working in many different mediums. Other well known actors who paint would be Eve Plumb from the Brady Brunch who was already profiled here. The actor Tony Curtis was also a talented painter and will be an upcoming post.
Billy Dee Williams was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship at the age of nineteen years old.
Eugene Atget was a ground breaking photographer and great businessman born in Libourne, Gironde, France in the year 1857. His father built carriages and both parents died when Eugene Atget was very young. He was raised by his mother’s grandparents. Atget took more than 10,000 photographs of Paris!
In this clip we view a montage of images and short documentary of Eugene Atget:
Atget joined the merchant marines after finishing high school. During this time he also enrolled in acting class, Atget had to quit due to his marine service. He continued to work on his acting by joining an acting club and being a street art performer. He quit acting as his vocal chords went bad.
In 1890 Atget began to earn a living as a professional photographer. He would shoot items that he knew would be sought after by painters. Museums would pay the artist to go shoot his renown Paris street scenes before they would vanish.
In 1898 he started shooting his famous street scenes of Paris. The artist would see the landscapes to any artist that wished to paint Paris. He was the first to offer this service. Before Flickr or Pinterest, the world had Eugene Atget. Much like the painters of Paris from Galien-Laloue to Antoine Blanchard, Atget had a goal of capturing the older and romantic look of Paris during 1800s and early 1900s.
The artist stopped shooting for the most part during the first world war and had a son die during the conflict.
Atget was able to make a large amount of wealth from his photographs and even did a series on prostitutes.
Eugene Atget passed away in 1927.
Price range information: Most works priced between $2,000 and $10,000.
Below another montage of images by Eugene Atget:
What a great businessman and artist. I love to compare the photography of Eugene Atget with the painters of Paris like Cortes, Dabo, or Antoine Blanchard. Many photographs were made using albumen, which gives them a tremendous sense of atmosphere.
Natar Ungalaaq is not only a great visual artist, but also a world renown actor. Natar Ungalaaq was born in Hall Beach, Nunavut Territory, Canada in the year 1959. Ungalaaq began carving around age ten. The artist works mainly in soap stone.
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His most well known role as far as internationally renown movies was titled the Fast Runner. This movie won some prizes at many international film festival including Cannes, France. The artist has acted in American and Canadian movies.
A work titled “Sedna with a Hairbrush” is included in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada. Here is a link to this work:
Started his own television production company dealing with the Inuit community.
His most famous movie is Atanarjuat, the Fast Runner. Its about an Inuit man who is a legend as far as running is concerned and his struggle to live in a changing environment. Below a trailer for this movie:
What an outstanding artist in many mediums! Other visual artists who have done well in the acting world are Granville Redmond, a person turned deaf by the earthquake in San Francisco in the early 1900s, who went on to act with Charlie Chaplin and be one of America’s great Impressionist painters. And Delia Brown, who paints herself and friends and luxurious Hollywood hang outs! She also has appeared in soap operas.
The artist was born Granville Seymour Redmond in March of 1871 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania . I find this artist to be one of the most inspirational forces out there. An artist who was also great at acting and counted Charile Chaplin as a friend. Redmond even appeared in silent movies alongside Chaplin. Chaplin learend a great deal about mime work from Redmond.
Redmond appeared in many films directed by Chaplin. Such as City Lights, You’d Be Surprised, A Woman of Paris, The Idle Class, The Kid, Sunnyside, A Day’s Pleasure, and A Dogs Life (A clip from this movie is in the video section above)
Redmond was born able to hear but slightly before turning three years of age he contracted Scarlett Fever. As a result he was unable to hear the rest of his life, but he didn’t let being deaf get in the way of being a successful artist working in movies as well as painting and drawing. Chaplin not only got acting jobs for Redmond but also made him a painting studio on one of the film lots.
The artist’s family moved out west to so that he could attend a special elementary and high school that was made for deaf students. After graduating he went to the San Francisco School of Design. He won an award and as a result he was able to study in Paris, France at the Julien Academy. He is known as one of the great California Impressionist Painters.
This artist is just great to read about when you are upset because you just can’t get something right. A great example of an artist who overcame deafness and acted in silent movies. The man helped Charlie Chaplin master his craft! His use of color and tone was remarkable. Also interesting is his lively brush work with a wide variety of strokes and a weaving of paint similar to Van Gogh’s landscapes in style but not thickness of paint.
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