MovieChat Forums > Smile (1977) Discussion > Why Didnt Barbara Feldon Act More?

Why Didnt Barbara Feldon Act More?


She was excellent in Get Smart and excellent in Smile. She had range and beauty. Too bad she never sought after nor was offered a bunch of substantial roles.

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I agree; there are quite a few movies that would have benefited from Feldon's presence (in place of the actresses actually cast).

The wikipedia article states that she's author of a published book called "Living Alone and Loving It"...which may provide a clue to the infrequency with which she accepted roles.

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I quite agree. And her voice -- so melodic and soothing -- is one of the loveliest and most appealing in the history of moving image media, IMO. I could listen to her read the phone book for hours on end.

I don't think there's any denying the fact that she could have had a 'bigger' career if she'd really wanted it. Maybe she wouldn't have been 'who' she wanted to be if that had been the case, who knows? Regardless, she's a real gem in a geology set that contains lots of fool's gold (at least IMO).

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She was rather typecast from her role on "Get Smart". People just couldn't stop seeing her as Agent 99.

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[deleted]

You have to remember the era, "tv stars" were almost never offered feature films during the 1960's and 1970's, especially after their show had ended. I guess it was snobbery more than anything because a lot of these women were quite famous and popular - Barbara Feldon, Barbara Eden, Elizabeth Montgomery, Donna Douglas, Tina Louise - I think even more so at the time than a lot of female "movie stars" who were getting the film roles. Barbara Feldon got lucky with SMILE, as very few of her tv contemporaries landed a major part in a major film at the time, usually if they did it was blatantly supporting roles (Tina Louise in THE STEPFORD WIVES) or independent movies not made by a major studio (Barbara Eden in HARPER VALLEY PTA).

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