If the AMPAS (oscars) had a clue they would honor these great stars of the older musicals. John Kerr is outstanding in Tea & Sympathy and South Pacific.
Always underrated but irreplaceable in these two legendary movies. Give him an honorary award at the Oscars this year & have some respect for these performers of the past. He is still alive and I know he would appreciate it. No, I have never met the man.
If the Academy ever gave John Kerr an honorary Oscar for his acting, I'm pretty sure I would never watch the show again.
share[deleted]
I didn't think much of his performance in South Pacific. Though he was better in Tea and Sympathy, he was never a great actor.
shareHe is/was a superb stage actor. He was also wonderful back in the days of live TV.
Movie acting is like a patchwork of performances. The directors love the control but the only fine acting performances today are on the stage.
In a fair world, Kerr would have gotten the choicest and more important movie roles which would have translated to Oscars, and not Honorary ones, either. He could have been another Charlton Heston or Steve McQueen if he had been marketed correctly, but he was allegedly advised by his agent to nix on the FRIENDLY PERSUASION role that went to Anthony Perkins, eventually, in favor of the movie, GABY, which was supposed to make him more of a "leading man," but obviously it didn't go down that way.
Just think, Kerr could have played Norman Bates into his formatative years if he had only taken that part in FRIENDLY PERSUASION.
The primary drawback to his acting career was a lack of acting ability.
shareKerr turned down the role of Charles Lindberg because of Lindberg's politics. Maybe after that, the studios got cold towards him. It was around the same time as South Pacific.
shareJohn Kerr couldn't sing. Ridiculous to cast him in a singing role. I'm sure there were plenty of singing actors that could have done it.
share