Peter Bart: Tom Cruise and George Clooney Are Developing Powerful Career Third Acts

 

The only apparent similarity between Tom Cruise and George Clooney is this: The two celebrities, who are in their mid-60s, demonstrated this year that they can overcome the odds and develop successful third acts for their performing careers. and to enjoy the dangers. Both Clooney’s Broadway debut and its weekend CNN premiere were huge successes. Good Night and Good Luck was reimagined as live theatre on television after its theatre was packed for a month. It was a pleasant change for Clooney, who was hearing rumours about his personal life and politics after his popcorn film with Brad Pitt (Wolfs) had failed just a year before.

 

The Guinness Book of Records was even invaded by Cruise’s eighth Mission: Impossible, which re-awakened the global box office once more (do they actually chart flaming parachute jumps?). However, due to strikes, the pandemic, and his extreme perfectionist tactics, his budget was threatening to veer towards $400 million a year ago. As a result, their admirers are up against two legendary performers who are demonstrating that they can successfully defy Hollywood’s gerontological timeline and develop their own “end game.” In Hollywood, third acts have not always been simple. We’ve all played trivia games and joked about lists of the “worst last pictures” over the years. Was it truly necessary for Humphrey Bogart to die with The Harder They Fall? Or Big Bug Man with Marlon Brando? I’ve had open discussions with…In The Shootist, John Wayne played a cancer sufferer; should he have hung up first? Soon after, Duke was overcome by cancer. True Grit, as I had suggested, would have been a preferred conclusion. Legend has it that Rita Hayworth committed to Wrath of God in 1972 knowing that Alzheimer’s condition was getting worse. She didn’t say much. When Jimmy Stewart voiced Sheriff Burpe in American Tail, he made a vow to his pals that he had given up acting. They ought to have trusted him.

 

The strange John Huston film The Misfits (1961) illustrates the common issues threatening third acts in Hollywood. Even though Clark Gable had retired with severe cardiac issues, Huston was in poor condition when he hired Gable for his major part. The renowned playwright Arthur Miller wrote the screenplay for Misfits especially for his wife, Marilyn Monroe, who costarred as a former stripper who fell in love with retired cowboy Gable.