Timeline of Acting

Julia KaiserResearch & Discovery

1910-1920

The people who took part in the 1910’s and 1920’s included not only actors and actresses, but they also included directors.

The groundbreaking technical and artistic aspect of the films were out broke by the wonderful work of Cecil B. Demill and David Wark Griffith.

One of the largest actors of this time who made a huge impact on the films was Charlie Chaplin.

In 1929, sound was added to films and voices were added to silent films.

1930-1939

The 1930’s deemed the “Golden Age of Hollywood” marked the end of the silent era.

Many actresses and actors failed to make the conversion from silent films to sound films, but others made the conversion.

By 1933, the economic slum of the great depression began to hit the movie industry and the movie attendance started to decrease.

In the 1930’s, the technology that was developed, gave the actors and actresses more freedom and creativity.

Techni-color was introduced in the late 1930’s and was first emerged in the films such as “The Wizard of Oz” and “Gone with the Wind”.

1940-1949

Many movies were war-like movies that were ideas taken from World War II.

Not many people know, but the War impacted the acting community greatly and many of the “big name stars and directors” either enlisted or performed before soldiers at war.

They took reality and made it in to fabulous movies such as Casablanca and Citizen Kane.

After the war, Russian theatre director Stanislavski introduced his acting method to Hollywood.

This method is where the method required a performer to use their own experiences to further shape their character which helped the actor give more complexity as a human.

1950-1959

The 1950’s brought a very rebellious and fresh new look to Hollywood.

As TV became more popular in this era, a lot of TV stars crossed over from TV to movies.

James Dean, Paul Newman, Marilyn Monroe, and Gene Autry became very popular at this time and Elvis Presley made his grand-debut in his 1959 film, Love me Tender.

1960-1969

At this era of time, the Stanislavski method that was introduced in the 1940’s was used at this time more than ever.

Actors seemed to have a better passion and a better understanding of their characters at this time.

Although these changes brought much good to the film industry, the industry started to have a huge financial decrease in the late 1960’s. This was caused by the new rule that rather than people going to see a movie and paying for it, they would just turn on their TV’s, and there it would be! The costs to make a film were also extremely raised. The film industry was not receiving much money so that is how they had a bit of a financial crisis.

1970-1979

Taking into action about the problems in the previous decade, the movies were progressing and many new and fresh ideas were taken into place.

The directors and writers became more interested in what other options they had to find new ideas on how to bring the movie business back in act.

Movies like “Jaws” and “Star Wars” are the perfect example on how the movie industry got back on track.

Musicals became very popular in the 1970’s and so did the new trend: sequels. The actors showed their vocal and dance skills in movies such as “Jesus Christ Superstar”, “Saturday Night Fever”, and “Fiddler on the Roof”.

Jamie lee Curtis had her start in “Halloween” and Marlon Brando and Al Pacino starred in the “The Godfather”.

1980-1989

This era continued the same momentum of the previous decades and invented the famous teen films such as “Flashdance” and “Back to the Future”.

Even though this decade lacked originality, some say, it still made a whole new outlook on the special effects in the films.

Steven Spielberg and George Lucas used the new technology wisely and used them in films such as “Back to the Future” and “E.T.”.

1990-1999

The growth that was shown in the 90’s was unbelievable. This was “the year” for acting.

The film industry was spending exceeded amounts of money and the star rates were through the roof.

Stars like Tom Cruise, Julia Roberts, Mel Gibson, Sandra Bullock, Will Smith and Arnold Schwarzenegger started to improve their career and became talented professionals rather than just “actors”.

2000- Present

While the technology still increases, many stars continue to impress us as in society.

Actors such as Sean Connery still maintain to keep in tact with the acting industry but the special effects team and the newer actors seem to hit the ratings a lot more.

Plastic surgery, unfortunately, made a huge impact on the physical aspect of the actors and most defiantly changed peoples point of view on the ones who decided to make that sort of change.

Movies like “Lord of the Rings” and the “Matrix” were the start of amazing computer graphics and were perfect example of how some future movies would be.

Pictures

Charlie Chapman Julia Roberts Tom Cruise Marilyn Monroe Elvis Presley Al Pacino Shirley Temple Sean Connery Sandra Bullock

Conclusion…

All in all, acting has made an amazing impact on today’s society. It provides laughter, entertainment and best of all, mixed emotions and life stories that will change your lives.

I have strongly enjoyed researching this topic and I hope you learned as much as I did.

Thanks for Watching!

Works Cited

Skippy the , , and bush kangaroo. "Actors in American film." Acting in American Films. National Journal , 2010. Web. 16 Apr 2010. <http://student.valpo.edu/djarratt/history.html>.

Docs, Google. "Timeline of Acting." Timeline. Google2010, 2010. Web. 16 Apr 2010. <http://www.google.com/search?q=the+history+of+acting&hl=en&tbs=tl:1&tbo=u&ei=w4zIS57hNJTQ8wSZvoWdCw&sa=X&oi=timeline_result&ct=title&resnum=11&ved=0CCUQ5wIwCg >.