So was his schtick all a phoney?

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Sigh... a rather disappointing response.

Did Humphrey Bogart talk in a different way off screen? Does Tom Hanks have a different voice in real life? No, they are extensions of how they are.

I am talking about an entire personality and way of speaking here, from the late 1950s onwards. Lemmon seemed to alter his after finding success in one movie, and adopted that manner thereon. That said, Bogart's schtick was a bit phoney too come to think of it, he was from a posh set originally.

...'schtick', style, method, approach, persona, whatever. Have you ever tried acting? Sometimes the characterization is 'an extension' of yourself, sometimes you have to get busy and work out a special formulation. If one style works it's smart to keep using it, to perpetuate the career.
But are you putting Lemmon down for his style? Just because it may have been more unlike his regular personality? Does it make him a 'phoney', as you could say for many performers, even Marion Cottilard in La Vie En Rose? Or are you crediting him with more talent than many other actors?
Comedians do tend to affect a persona repeatedly, I will grant you that, but if you ever watch serious Brando in interviews he isn't the tough guy type he became famous for playing in his early career, so that was a dominant method for him back then. Maybe he should have stayed with that because many of his later roles didn't have the impact the ones in the 1950's did. Would that have made him less admirable, though?
I don't think so.


"Did you make coffee...? Make it!"--Cheyenne.

It was his first drama in movies as you would class Mister Roberts technically as a comedy drama. His other movie work was his natural voice so it was the other way around. In Fire Down Below, he put on a more husky tone but I myself didn't notice any difference. Now I come to think of it, he had a husky tone in Cowboy as well so I think it was just drama he toned down his usual quirky voice, which was his natural voice. Catch a few interviews on Youtube for his normal voice. It's no different, he never put on a voice. Well he did tone up a lot for Some Like It Hot as his character was so crazy! He was from the Moon, as Jack once said.


Marilyn Monroe: I don't want to be rich. I just want to be wonderful.

Ah well, that's all fair enough then.

I think James Stewart is another one who sort of acted up a bit, when being interviewed, his laconic drawl. But that is what we all do to some extent when cultivating a personality. I don't think he was too much like that, I mean his role in WW2 was pretty senior, I don't think he was that bewildered sounding in real life.

Of course, to create a persona like Lemmon is sort of gold dust, you wouldn't blame him for sticking with that way of speaking. No one else really quite does it.

Yes. Agree 100% Well said