I heard somebody describing him as being "the American Sean Connery."
I feel like this is a pretty good way of describing him. Thoughts?
shareYesh!
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MovieChat Forums > Sam Elliott Discussion > I heard somebody describing him as being...
No, I don't think he's ever proudly proclaimed that he hits women like Connery did.
shareI can definitely see that! More effortless charm than most actors half his age!
shareA reminder that great movie stars (men especially) are as much about the VOICE as the face.
Back in the day, these movie stars had great voices and could be imitated: Cary Grant, James Stewart, James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart..John Wayne.
Modernly: Sean Connery, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sly Stallone , Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino.
And yet: we can all do a Sean Connery impression...but who can do a Sam Elliott impression? (Perhaps saying "The dude abides" or "Beef...its what for dinner.")
On the other hand, a lot of our new "young stars" -- you can't DO impressions of Tom Hanks(unless you do Forest Gump), Leo, Matt Damon, Bradley Cooper. I"ve heard some Brad Pitt impressions, though.
Come to think of it, years ago, nobody could do a Paul Newman impression. Or a Steve McQueen impression. Or a Robert Redford impression...
they didn't have distinctive voices.
Sam Elliott has a distinctive voice.
That's a really good point about the voice being as important as the face.
Clint Eastwood is another that comes to mind, lots of people love to imitate his fake tough-guy voice. It's as iconic as his squint.
You're also 100% on about today's generation of actors not having a distinctive voice. No one tries to imitate Mark Wahlberg or Tom Holland. No one even bothers trying to imitate Chriss Pratt or Chris Hemsworth or Chris Evans or Chris Pine. They're all vocally interchangeable save for the ones with accents, and even then the accents aren't terribly distinctive.
Even minority actors seem to have fallen by the wayside. People used to imitate Denzel and Jackie Chan all the time, as well as Bruce Lee, Samuel L. Jackson and Laurence Fishburne... or who could forget about Morgan Freeman and James Earl Jones?
But these days even the minorities are completely forgettable with non-distinctive voices. Chadwick Bosman, Steven Yeun, Simu Liu and Henry Golding are all about as memorable vocally as a random gold fish in an aquarium.
You make a lot of excellent points. Although... slightly disagree about you listing Chadwick Boseman. That talented man had great range. We not got enough of him. Very depressed he isn't with us anymore to see more of his incredible talent on film.
Can't think of any current gen actor/actresses with such distinct voices. I suppose Kevin Hart or Scarlett Johansson. Maybe. Awkwafina... Haha.
That's a really good point about the voice being as important as the face.
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Thank you.
I"ve read up a bit on this topic over the years and it seems that one reason "the Golden Era" had so many actors and actresses with such great voices was that with the coming of the SOUND movie...voices were as important to moviegoers as the looks of the actors. Studio bosses, producers, and directors, sound out actors with interesting voices as much as for looks.
I forgot Henry Fonda. That's another one.
On the female side: Bette Davis. Katherine Hepburn. Tallullah Bankhead(not much of a movie career, but she did one for Hitchcock.) Marilyn Monroe.
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Clint Eastwood is another that comes to mind, lots of people love to imitate his fake tough-guy voice. It's as iconic as his squint.
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Absolutely. "Go ahead, make my day...do ya feel lucky, punk?" (I know , two different movies.)
I read somewhere once -- and maybe it was a fake tale -- that Clint Eastwood studied Marilyn Monroe's whispery vocal patterns in developing his own! If a true story, had to be from a friend Clint told this to. I don't know if its true.
Interesting: at a certain point in time -- I pinpoint it to 1986 when Clint played a grizzled 50-something marine drill sergeant in Heartbreak Ridge -- the whispery voice ALMOST disappeared and was replaced with a "sandpaper growl" which only got more gravelly with each passing year (though the trademark whisper is still there even in his 90s, hiding beneath the growl.)
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You're also 100% on about today's generation of actors not having a distinctive voice. No one tries to imitate Mark Wahlberg or Tom Holland.
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In Holland's case -- as with so many other actors from England or Australia, the REAL voice is different than the American voice they use as certain characters.
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No one even bothers trying to imitate Chriss Pratt or Chris Hemsworth or Chris Evans or Chris Pine.
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Ha -- four Chris's. How DO we keep them apart. Their looks and personalities, of course. Pratt seems the leader of the pack with his two franchises(Jurassic World and Guardians of the Galaxy) but he's under some fire.
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They're all vocally interchangeable save for the ones with accents, and even then the accents aren't terribly distinctive.
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I'm on thin ice, personally, being able to tell a London accent(Michael Caine) from a Welsh accent(Richard Burton) from a Scottish accent(Sean Connery) ...but all three of those guys got imitated a LOT(well, Burton not so much) so THEY had distinctive accents. Michael Caine's looks declined over the years - he started out as a sexy heartthrob in Alfie -- but he never lost that VOICE.
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Even minority actors seem to have fallen by the wayside. People used to imitate Denzel and Jackie Chan all the time, as well as Bruce Lee, Samuel L. Jackson and Laurence Fishburne... or who could forget about Morgan Freeman and James Earl Jones?
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But these days even the minorities are completely forgettable with non-distinctive voices. Chadwick Bosman, Steven Yeun, Simu Liu and Henry Golding are all about as memorable vocally as a random gold fish in an aquarium.
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I suppose if there is a "why?" that MIGHT be answered here it is that a lot of our young American actors came in on their looks, and did not really do much stage work (Broadway or otherwise) or get much vocal training. I suppose "back in the day" talent scouts went looking for voices as much as faces (James Stewart and Henry Fonda started on stage.)
A lot of young actors pretty much come from suburban homes and not much is done FOR their voices.."they are one of us."
That said, I will add this:
There are a lot of actors and actresses who DO have distinctive voices -- we just can't imitate them. Back in the day, Dick Van Dyke had a GREAT voice -- sort of a variation on a radio DJ's sense of tone and depth. But no one could imitate it. Still, that voice helped Van Dyke become a star.
McQueen, Newman, and Redford couldn't be imitated, but THEIR voices(and inflections) were good to listen to.
I dunno. Its a an odd topic for me. Clearly one side is DEFINITELY true: Stewart, Fonda, Wayne, Cagney, Bogart -- their voices could be copied and they were stars.
But McQueen, Newman, Redford, Leo, Damon, Affleck...there voices CANNOT be copied and they ARE stars.
No.
Never had the physical presence, charm, sense of humor, star quality, or sheer testosterone! Damn good actor, always nice to see him appear, but there's a reason he never had Connery's career.