Movie star

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A movie star (cinema star or film star) is a celebrity who is well-known, or famous, for his or her starring, or leading, roles in motion pictures. The term may also apply to an actor or actress who is recognized as a marketable commodity, that is to say, a celebrity whose name is used to promote a film in ads such as trailers and posters.

Origin

In the early days of silent movies the names of the actors and actresses appearing in movies were not publicized or credited as they are now. Some of these performers had to help build the sets, do clean up and other chores around the film studio. As the movie-going public became more interested in the performers who attracted their attention, however, the curiosity to know more about them made the movie studios and producers rethink their policy.

As the demand increased, they began publicizing the names of their leading women and men, and bill them in the credits of their movies, such as Florence Lawrence, referred to as "the first movie star," who was previously known only as the "Biograph Girl" because she worked for Biograph Studios, and Mary Pickford, who was previously known as "Little Mary."

Movie studios employed performers under long-term contracts. They developed a star system as a means of promoting and selling their movies. "Star vehicles" were filmed to display the particular talents and appeal of the most popular movie stars of the studio.

Perks

Traditionally, those who achieve "star" status in the movie industry are given special treatment, perks and high salaries. Some have become extremely wealthy, such as Marilyn Monroe who is said to have been one of the biggest movie stars in history.

Other than those movie stars who began forming their own production companies to make more money, and those who received a percentage of the profits to star in a movie, such as Lana Turner for Imitation of Life (1959), reaping millions of dollars, the first movie star to be paid a fee of $1,000,000 to star in a movie was Elizabeth Taylor for Cleopatra (1963). For his appearance in the 1978 movie Superman, movie star Marlon Brando received almost $4,000,000 for eight minutes of screen time as Superman's father, Jor-El. The highest paid Hollywood actress is Julia Roberts while the highest fee paid to any actor is 100 million dollars for Bruce Willis (although usually the largest fees come about when a star agrees to forgo part of their usual payment in exchange for a certain percentage of the gross takings of a particularly successful film).

Furthermore, a movie star's popularity can allow for more artistic accommodation such as proceeding on personal projects, or supporting collaborators' that otherwise would not have support from the studios.

Movie stars also get what is known as "celebrity swag" when attending award ceremonies, winning an award and presenting awards. These are in the form of gift bags worth up to $30,000. The companies give the movie stars these items free in hope that they will get free publicity.

Downsides

Personal privacy is often a major issue as well; the individual can rarely appear in public for long without being surrounded and often harassed by strangers and/or the paparazzi.

Movie stars often are required by movie producers to poon TV, to newspapers etc to publicize their movies. They often stipulate that they will not talk about their private lives but only about acting and movies.

Modern Decline

The common consensus both within and outside of Hollywood is that movie stars in the past decade have been unable to match the universal appeal of "classic" movie stars (e.g. Charlie Chaplin, Humphrey Bogart, Audrey Hepburn, Steve McQueen, Jack Nicholson, Claudette Colbert, Cary Grant). To explain this phenomenon, some point to the growing trend of "niche marketing" Hollywood movies, producing stars with strong, but limited appeal to specific demographics. Others point to the unappealing public conduct of modern stars, or to Hollywood's tendency to hire career actors who possess little life experience.

Treatment outside the West

Movie stars in other regions too have their own star value. For instance, in Asian film industries, many movies often run on the weight of the star's crowd pulling power more than any other intrinsic aspect of film making.

Chinese movie stars

Chinese movie stars well-known in the West include Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Chow Yun-Fat, Gong Li, Zhang Ziyi, and the late Bruce Lee, who are also some of the most popular movie stars in Eastern Asia. A few movie stars from Hong Kong have global audiences, such as Jackie Chan, while others have a limited overseas audience but a more devoted following, such as Stephen Chow, though he has become more known in the West after Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle. Donnie Yen (Star of Iron Monkey)

Indian movie stars

The Indian film industry has its own set of rules in this aspect and there are often superstars in this region, who often command premium pay commensurate with their box office appeal. Among them, Chiranjeevi, Amitabh Bachchan, Rajinikanth, Salman Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Kamal Hassan, Aamir Khan, and Aishwarya Rai are arguably the most popular movie stars in Southern Asia.

References

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Last updated on Sunday March 09, 2008 at 13:57:51 PDT (GMT -0700)
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