Just when you thought it was safe to laugh off Robin Givens, along comes the video release of ”A Rage in Harlem.” Her incendiary performance as the gold-digging con artist Imabelle may not make people forget her tumultuous, tabloid headline-grabbing marriage to Mike Tyson, but it`s a start.
It`s not easy to overcome being labeled ”the most hated woman in America,” as People magazine dubbed her, so Givens` transformation from ridiculed media personality to serious actress may take more time. But she is in good company.
Some of today`s most respected actors and biggest stars had to travel similar paths. Home video preserves their triumphs.
Today, Hollywood likes Sally Field, it really likes her, but such was not always the case. The star of TV`s ”Gidget” and ”The Flying Nun” was a self-professed ”national joke.”
But her multifaceted, Emmy Award-winning performance in ”Sybil” helped pave the way for her dramatic big-screen breakthrough in Bob Rafelson`s quirky ”Stay Hungry” (1976). Her portrayals of the politicized textile worker in
”Norma Rae” (1979) and the indomitable farm woman in ”Places in the Heart” (1984) earned her Academy Awards.
Field`s co-star in ”Stay Hungry” also surprised critics. It wasn`t much of a stretch for former Mr. Olympia Arnold Schwarzenegger to portray a body builder, but he was Olivier compared with his screen debut six years earlier. ”Hercules in New York” was recently released by MPI Home Video. That`s Arnold on screen as the Greek god who visits Earth, but that`s sure not his voice. His lines were ineptly dubbed. These days Arnold, the world`s No. 1 box office star, speaks for himself.
One of the most dramatic career turnarounds has been achieved by Cher. For a real study in contrasts, check out any of her fine performances in
”Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean” (1982),
”Silkwood” (1983) or ”Mask” (1985).
Then rent ”The Sonny and Cher Nitty Gritty Comedy Hour,” a 1970 television special available on V.I.E.W. Video.
Could she possibly have imagined that 17 years later, she would, as the star of ”Moonstruck,” win an Academy Award?
As one of ”The Tonight Show`s” Mighty Carson Art Players, Carol Wayne was best known as Art Fern`s amply endowed assistant on the Tea Time Movie.
Her tragic and mysterious drowning in 1985 makes her touching performance as a sad artist`s model in the 1984 drama ”Heartbreakers” all the more poignant.
Goldie Hawn got her start on ”Laugh-In,” where she often appeared as the giggling, bikini-clad go-go dancer. Her charming performance as Walter Matthau`s ”dumb” blond mistress in ”Cactus Flower” (1969) earned her an Academy Award.
Her packaging of the 1980 hit ”Private Benjamin” made her a Hollywood power.
The transition to the big screen has not been so smooth for Farrah Fawcett. It took her Emmy-nominated performance as a battered wife in ”The Burning Bed” (1984) for her to shed her ”Charlie`s Angels” image.
She also earned kudos for her chilling performance as a cold-blooded woman accused of killing her children in the made-for-TV ”Small Sacrifices.” Home video digs up skeletons in an actor`s otherwise distinguished career.
Jane Fonda, with two Academy Awards and an Emmy to her credit, can run, but never hide, from ”Barbarella,” the politically incorrect 1968 science-fiction sex farce.
Jessica Lange and Andie McDowell made inauspicious film debuts opposite jungle beasts in ”King Kong” (1976) and ”Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes” (1984).
Like Schwarzenegger, McDowell`s voice was not heard in her first film. Producers hired Glenn Close to dub her lines.
At least she was seen. Kevin Costner`s supposed breakthrough performance in ”The Big Chill” (1983) was cut out of the film. He does, though, make a cameo as a corpse.
