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List of Legendary Actors who also directed films

Did you know that so many of our favorite actors are directors as well? May be all are not as glorious and successful as Charlie Chaplin or Clint Eastwood but some of these Hollywood actors who also directed films deserves a pat on their shoulders.

Let’s see how many of these movies have you seen which are directed by these legendary actors.

Actor turned Director                Popular films directed

(Note: many of the actors have directed more films than mentioned here but i have listed only the popular ones)

Kirk Douglas                                  Scalawag (1973), Posse (1975)

Richard Burton                            Doctor Faustus (1967)

Diane Keaton                                Unstrung heroes (1995)

Billy Bob Thornton                    Sling Blade (1996)

Danny DeVito                              Throw Momma from the train (1987)

John Wayne                         The Alamo (1960), The Green Berets (1968)

Liv Ullmann                                     Sofie (1992), Faithless (2000)

Barbra Streisand                         Yentl (1983), The prince of tides (1991) 

Paul Newman                                 The glass Menagerie (1987)

Bill Murray                                       Quick Change (1990)

Alec Baldwin                                      Shortcut to Happiness (2003)

Ed Harris                         Pollock (2000), Appaloosa (2008)

Denzel Washington                      The great Debaters (2007)

Ethan Hawke               Chelsea Walls (2001), The Hottest state (2006)

Forest Whitaker         Waiting to Exhale (1995), Hope Floats (1998)

Sylvester Stallone                     Rambo (2008),The expendables (2010)

Jodie Foster                              Little man Tate (1991),The beaver (2011)

Ben Stiller                                   The Cable guy (1996), Zoolander (2001)

Ralph Fiennes               Coriolanus (2011), The invisible woman (2013)

Jack Nicholson                        Goin’ South (1978), The Two Jakes (1990)

Morgan Freeman                       Bopha! (1993)

Drew Barrymore                       Whip It (2009)

Antonio Banderas        Crazy in Alabama (1999), Summer Rain (2006)

Nicolas Cage                                  Sonny (2002)

Angelina Jolie                               In the land of blood and honey (2011)

Anthony Hopkins                      Dylan Thomas: Return Journey (1990)

Dustin Hoffman                          Quartet (2012)

Keanu Reeves                              Man of tai Chi (2013)

Tom Hanks                                     That thing you do! (1996)

Johnny Depp                                 The Brave (1997)

Robert De Nero      A Bronx Tale (1993), The Good Shepherd (2006)

Al Pacino                                             Chinese coffee (2000), Salomé (2013)

Kevin Costner          Dances with wolves (1990), The postman (1997)

Mel Gibson                                        Braveheart (1995), Apocalypto (2006)

Sean Penn                                          The pledge (2001), Into the wild (2007)

George Clooney                            The ides of March (2011) 

Ben Affleck                                        Argo (2012), Gone baby gone (2007)

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Elizabeth and Richard – the most popular couple of Hollywood!

Elizabeth and Richard – a love story never to be forgotten.

written by Souranath Banerjee.

It all started in the sets of ‘Cleopatra’:

The year was 1962 and the most expensive Hollywood drama of that time ‘Cleopatra’ was under production.

The film casted handsome Richard Burton who was 37 and married to Sybil Williams, and the ravishing beauty Elizabeth Taylor, who was 30 and was married to Eddie Fisher (her forth marriage till then).

It is said that their first on-screen kiss lasted so long that the director actually had to ask them if he might say the word ‘cut’. It was the start of one of the craziest and most sensational love stories the world has ever witnessed.

The Vatican denounced the couple (as they were both married and openly having an affair) and termed their relationship as “erotic vagrancy”. But this whole Vatican episode just added to their popularity – by then they were the highest paid and most talked-about couple in the world.

In 1963 ‘Cleopatra’ was released and in 1964 Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor got married (for their first time). Their love story was always the priority for the press – they appeared in 11 films together, married and divorced twice to each other and lived their lives in the lavish Hollywood style.

Now when I use the word ‘lavish’ I really mean it. For example – in 1969 Richard Burton bought a diamond for Elizabeth Taylor for 1.1 million dollars which received a worldwide publicity and since then famously known as the Taylor-Burton Diamond.

‘Who’s afraid of Virginia wolf’

Certainly ‘Who’s afraid of Virginia Wolf’ is their best film together; both Burton and Taylor were nominated for the Oscars – Elizabeth won the award for best actress (her second time) while Richard missed out yet again. (Richard Burton’s luck wasn’t the best when it came to Oscars; he was nominated seven times but never won any).

Directed by Mick Nickolas the film focuses on certain equations between married couples. In the film Elizabeth (Martha) and Burton (George) portray a love and hate relationship, they are married and they often show their love by insulting and torturing each other. Drunk to their core most of the times, they play vicious games which leads to dangerous alleys from where there is no turning back.

Now it is rumored that Burton and Elizabeth played their real life characters in the film ‘Who’s afraid of Virginia Wolf’; that they actually enjoyed abusing each other openly, as if it was a form of a foreplay.

Perfect casting huh!    

Chance of a third marriage?

It was rumored that Elizabeth wanted to marry Burton for a third time when they were working together in a stage production of Noel Coward’s Private lives. But that was not meant to be.

The two of them though obsessed with each other still enjoyed their dose of arguments and insults. One night Elizabeth was too drunk (or may be just to spite Burton), she didn’t turn up for the theatre performance. Burton was outraged to such heights that he made a sudden decision to marry his make-up artist Sally Hay. This episode is very well recreated in the recent TV movie Burton and Taylor.

The best on-screen and off-screen couple of Hollywood, their love story is like an adult fairytale, mad enough for the world to remember through ages.

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