NitrateVille.com

In 1932's "If I Had A Million," W.C. Fields plays Rollo, a former vaudevillian. As the exchange of dialog below from the movie shows, one of the 16 acknowledged writers on this movie cribbed from Fields' real life to write the dialog. For me, that raises a question of in what other movies was the background of a starring character based on the actual life of the actor who played that role.
---
402
00:34:37,960 --> 00:34:40,486
Excuse me, I forgot.
You know Agnes Dupont.

403
00:34:40,560 --> 00:34:43,962
- Hi, Rollo.
- Hi, Miss Dupont. Queen of the high wire.

404
00:34:44,040 --> 00:34:46,088
What do you play these days?
Revivals?

405
00:34:46,160 --> 00:34:48,925
I headline bills they wouldn't
even let a juggler on.

406
00:34:49,000 --> 00:34:54,131
- Oh, Rollo, let's go look at it.
- Coming, my little chickadee.

407
00:34:55,720 --> 00:34:57,210
I wish you luck.

408
00:34:57,280 --> 00:35:01,171
I wish you'd remember you're not
handling cigar boxes, but an automobile.

409
00:35:01,240 --> 00:35:04,642
I find it difficult at this time
to remember that you're a woman.

410
00:35:04,720 --> 00:35:09,044
I wish you'd forget. I'd like nothing better
than to knock your ears into your neck.
---

I can think of other examples, the character Jean Harlow plays in 1933's "Bombshell" and Greta Garbo's role in 1932's "Grand Hotel," where Garbo's character says "I want to be alone." I wonder if part of the reason why you have this overlap between movie character and the actor playing the role is that in the 1930s, many of the script writers were studio employees who worked alongside the contract actors. So, when Warner Bros. was putting the 1931 movie "Taxi!" into production, James Cagney's co-workers must have known he spoke Yiddish, so in the movie Cagney's character gets to say a few lines in Yiddish.

I can't think of a recent movie where the scripted role borrows from the actor's real life. That would be tough in a comic book movie like "Thor: The Dark World." On television series, of course, borrowing details from the starring actor's real life is routine e.g. "Seinfeld." For movies nowadays, I think part of the problem is the long lead time between when a movie is written and when the movie finally goes into production. What happens when the star is unable to appear in the "star vehicle" because the star is now unavailable?

If you have any other examples where the movie role is borrowed from the star's real life, feel free to comment

Judy Garland in Ziegfeld Girl-1941 plays a vaudeville performer "born in a trunk.'

I am not sure that in all the cases art imitates real life or just the opposite, but comes to my mind Imitation of Life with Lana Turner, Mildred Pierce with Joan Crawford and Royal Wedding with Fred Astaire. On the other side, we have many real legendary feuds between great stars that were used to enhace the dramatic effect in their roles or just for publicity purposes like Shearer & Crawford's in The Women, Davis & Crawford's in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane or Davis & Hopkins in Old Acquaintance and The Old Maid. And last but not least, what about all those movies where Joan Crawford has to choose between her real-life husband Franchot Tone and her lasting real-life lover Clark Gable

Here's my favorite:

TARGETS (1968) Boris Karloff playing "Byron Orlak". Life imitating art imitating life. Excellent movie, by he way.

Danny

Lostintime wrote:I am not sure that in all the cases art imitates real life or just the opposite, but comes to my mind Imitation of Life with Lana Turner, Mildred Pierce with Joan Crawford and Royal Wedding with Fred Astaire. On the other side, we have many real legendary feuds between great stars that were used to enhace the dramatic effect in their roles or just for publicity purposes like Shearer & Crawford's in The Women, Davis & Crawford's in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane or Davis & Hopkins in Old Acquaintance and The Old Maid. And last but not least, what about all those movies where Joan Crawford has to choose between her real-life husband Franchot Tone and her lasting real-life lover Clark Gable

What fascinates me about La Craw is that she generally left the Tone-Gable-Craw love triangles behind at Metro. Post-MGM she almost always seems to be battling a younger woman - often a daughter or other relative.

So the question there is did life imitate art or did art imitate life?

John Gilbert is a hard-drinking writer who tries to quit booze in The Captain Hates the Sea (1934), but fails. That reflects his actual situation at the time, and even his experience making the film itself.