{"id":5550,"date":"2015-01-03T08:00:22","date_gmt":"2015-01-03T14:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/?p=5550"},"modified":"2023-12-12T20:15:43","modified_gmt":"2023-12-13T02:15:43","slug":"morbid-fact-du-jour-for-january-3-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/?p=5550","title":{"rendered":"Morbid Fact Du Jour for January 3, 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s Corpulent Yet Truly Morbid Fact!<\/h2>\n

For an actor it was a terrible way to go; the perpetual villain, the forever superhero, the eternal comedian, the tired out sidekick. If you contracted the disease there was usually no cure. Actors would pull out all the stops to insure that they were not infected with the typecasting virus.<\/p>\n

Laird Cregar was born in 1916 in Philadelphia and educated in England. Shortly thereafter, he won a scholarship to California\u2019s Pasadena Playhouse which produced so many great stars during that era including George Reeves. His major break was when he was invited to a Hollywood party and started reading the part of Oscar Wilde, forcing everyone in the room to take notice. When he signed on with 20th\u00a0Century fox, they assured him that he would not be typecast, something Cregar feared intensely. And it seemed initially that was the case. Cast in a hodgepodge of dramatic roles from the flamboyant Natalio Curro in\u00a0Blood and Sand<\/em>\u00a0with Tyrone Power and Rita Hayworth, to the whimsical Gooseberry in\u00a0Hudson\u2019s Bay<\/em>, it seemed this rotund actor would find a well balanced cinematic career that would showcase his acting range.<\/p>\n

But things began to change in 1944.\u00a0 Although he did not receive top billing, Cregar was cast as Jack the Ripper in\u00a0The Lodger<\/em>\u00a0with Merle Oberon. Weighing over 325 pounds, Cregar takes over the screen both with his body and his face leaving you unable to take your eyes off him. \u00a0Coupling this performance with other villainous roles he had already played in films such\u00a0as\u00a0I Wake up Screaming<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0This Gun for Hire<\/em>, Cregar began to worry that he was being typed as a villain. He longed for the opportunity to play a leading man. Merle Oberon told Cregar during the filming of\u00a0The Lodger<\/em>\u00a0that he had a handsome face and could land leading man roles if he only lost the weight.<\/p>\n

Cregar pushed for the lead role of\u00a0Hangover Square<\/em>. The novel centers on contemporary England where a mentally ill classical composer murders a woman he has fallen in love with after learning that she has taken advantage of him. Cregar, an accomplished pianist, was also told he could play some of his own musical pieces in the film. But a year went by and while Cregar was off appearing in a play that year, the producers of\u00a0Hangover Square<\/em>\u00a0had reworked the screenplay so that it would take place in Victorian England, with the gaslights and mystery that made filming of that era so appealing. In short the story was made to look and sound very much like the previously successful film\u00a0The Lodger<\/em>. Compounding the disappointment, the promise to perform some of his own piano compositions fell to the wayside when Bernard Hermann was contracted to score the\u00a0Concerto Macabre. One of the more spectacular aspects of this film is that Cregar\u2019s hands are actually shown moving over the piano keyboard mimicking the actual movements that would match the music being played.<\/p>\n

In preparation for the role of composer George Harvey Bone, Cregar lost over 100 pounds.\u00a0 Hangover Square<\/em>\u00a0was subject to reshoots after the film was completed so there are times in watching the film that Cregar seems heavier then curiously slimmer. His body appears to be almost as schizophrenic as his mind, making his performance all the more extraordinary. Cregar gets top billing in this film for the first time, playing opposite Linda Darnell, and clearly seems to break the leading man ceiling despite the fact that he still weighs a hefty 225 pounds.\u00a0Hangover Square<\/em>\u00a0was a big box office hit for 20th\u00a0Century Fox and it seemed that Cregar was on his way to becoming a major star for the studio. The reshoots of\u00a0Hangover Square<\/em>\u00a0were completed at the end of November 1944. Two weeks later, Laird Cregar prepared his last will and testament and was admitted into the hospital to undergo surgery. There are conflicting stories as to whether the surgery was an elective one to undergo a procedure on his stomach to limit his consumption of food so as to lose more weight OR whether the procedure was to correct severe stomach problems, brought on as a result of the massive weight loss Cregar had sustained in such a short period of time, fueled by the use of amphetamines. Five days after the surgery, Cregar died of a heart attack at the age of 31.<\/p>\n

Although Laird Cregar\u2019s list of movie credits is short, consisting of only 16 films, his performances are absolutely mesmerizing. If you are a film noir fans, his body of work is a must see. While heart attack is the official cause of death, there is no doubt, knowing his story that he was yet one more victim of an era where too many Hollywood hopefuls died from an infected career for which no antibiotic or vaccine had ever been developed. Seeing his work today, we can only close our eyes as we do with George Reeves and wonder what could have been.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Culled from:\u00a0Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Morbid Treat Du Jour!<\/h2>\n

The other day I decided to treat myself to a yearly membership ($25) to the most fantastic collection of mourning photography on the web. \u00a0I thought I’d mention it in case any of you are unfamiliar with the Thanatos Archive. \u00a0It’s a great place for morbid souls.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/thanatos.net\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Morbid Sightseeing Moment We’ve All Been Waiting For!<\/h2>\n

Well, okay, maybe just me. \u00a0But talk about an Ooh! \u00a0Oooh!! \u00a0 Oooooh!!!! \u00a0moment! \u00a0I simply HAVE to get to England when this opens!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Black Museum<\/a>:\u00a0fter 150 years, public set to see exhibits from police\u2019s grisly crime museum<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s Corpulent Yet Truly Morbid Fact! For an actor it was a terrible way to go; the perpetual villain, the forever superhero, the eternal comedian, the tired out sidekick. If you contracted the disease there was usually no cure. Actors would pull out all the stops to insure that they were not infected with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,11,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-facts","category-sightseer","category-sundry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5550"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11405,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5550\/revisions\/11405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}