The Only One

So my lovely wife was watching North by Northwest last night—she's like that—and I was passing through the living room during the scene pictured above, and, and my wife said, "He really is an amzing comic actor, isn't he?"

"Well sure," I said. "He's Cary Grant."

And then it hit me. Well, yes. Of course. He is/was Cary Grant. The people who whine about the dweebiness of the male leads in this summer's romantic comedies and cry "Where is this generation's Cary Grant?"—the answer to their question is very simple. It's got nothing to do with whether they make 'em like they used to anymore or not. It's got everything to do with Cary Grant's singularity. No generation is going to produce another to call its own. So you're never going to get "yours." Except he is yours. You just have to watch the movies. (Except maybe The Pride and the Passion.)

I understand that insisting on a player's historical uniqueness is very philosophically reactionary of me, but that's just too bad.

Comments

[Ryland Walker Knight]

He is, and always has been, my favorite of all actors, across time. Although I'm rather partial to a few other rather "singular" screen actors, all of whom I find to be a kind of "perfect" screen actor, in one way or another:
Bill Murray
Al Pacino
Jack Nicholson
Jean-Paul Belmondo
Erland Josephson
yup, James Dean
um, Bogie
er, Denzel
ahem, Clive Owen
and plenty more, I'm sure.
Do I dare include the Zodiac boys...
Robert Downey Jr
Jake Gyllenhaal
Mark Ruffalo
?
Or, peep this: not only do I believe in Prestigious
Christian Bale
but I also esteem
Hugh Jackman.
On the real.

I know this list is a little off topic but I assure you that I like all these men on screen for their onscreen presence in a similar fashion to that of THE Cary Grant, only less so.

[Justine]

I have to agree with you on this one, Cary Grant is irreplaceable... and if you didn't want to be with him, you wanted to be him.

[Dave K.]

And George Clooney? Chopped liver?

[bemo]

No no. You mean David Spade.