Until she became an icon of high camp (
The Eyes of Laura Mars, Mommie Dearest,
Supergirl) Faye Dunaway was that rare Hollywood commodity: an actor who had both incredible range and near-superhuman beauty. For a while I thought she may have been the most beautiful woman ever to appear on film. The delicacy of the body, the expressiveness of the eyes, the line of the nose and lips, the quality of the skin all suggest a statuary--perhaps icy--perfection. But in film after film (
Bonnie and Clyde,
Chinatown, Network, Three Days of the Condor) Dunaway's stunning looks served as a powerful foil for characters who possessed incredible soulfulness and depth--full of heartache, loss, uncertainty, and fear.
Consider this: would any major studio today allow that beauty to suffer the violence it does at the close of
Bonnie and Clyde or even
Chinatown?
Could she make it today? Absolutely--but would she want to?
Favorite role: Diana Christensen,
Network; Runner-up: Mrs.Louise Pendrake,
Little Big Man.
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