Friday, September 7, 2012

Mary Badham

Mary Badham only made four movies, and three of them most people have never heard of. And on top of that, her most famous television appearance was in the Twilight Zone episode called The Bewitchin' Pool, in which due to audio difficulties her voice was dubbed over by voice actress June Foray.

So that leaves one movie for which to really base her career on, and that one film is about as memorable as a movie can get. That of course being the classic, To Kill a Mockingbird, where her portrayal as the main character, Scout, manages to not only match Gregory Peck's Oscar winning performance, but often upstage him as well.


It's hard to find a person that doesn't love this movie and Mary Badham's natural characterization is one of the many reasons for the success of that film. She had the rare ability to make the audience forget they were watching an actor, which seems like a lost art form in the movies and television shows of today.

Mary Badham retired from acting as a teenager and one can't help but wonder that if she had stayed in the profession, what other opportunities would she have gotten. She would have seemed an obvious choice for the role of Mattie Ross in the John Wayne version of True Grit. And as she aged she would have fit in well in many of the films that helped make Sally Field a star, like Norma Rae and Places in the Heart.

Of course these are things we'll never know, and one of the many reasons why Mary Badham is Not Very Famous...but should be.

9 comments:

  1. I love seeing really good child actors. They're not hard to find. I do music (composing, performing) and sound design for community theater in Minnesota, and I have worked on plays with some amazingly talented kids. If Minnesota has that many talented kids, surely Hollywood does too. It just frustrates me to see kids in big budget films who just aren't good actors, or maybe they got bad direction. (I can't usually tell which is the case.) Again, I think it's casting directors who want a look rather than talent, but they aren't mutually exclusive.

    I've never seen To Kill a Mockingbird. I think I'll put that on my list!
    -DCS

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    1. Anonymous, you need to do yourself a favor and watch To Kill a Mockingbird. If you like watching good child actors, this movie has three great child performances, plus an Oscar winning one from Gregory Peck. It's also a wonderful film.

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    2. I just watched it! Wow, I always knew I'd like it, but I can't believe I waited until I was almost 46 years old to get around to it. You couldn't be more right, especially about Mary Badham. She makes that film worth watching just by herself. But I also think the actor who played defendant Robinson (cast list didn't say who played whom) also put in a great performance - obviously with great intensity, but lots of subtlety & dignity as well. Another Sydney Poitier (as you correctly said on your page about Ivan Dixon). Keep up your great work on this blog, and I'll keep reading it!
      DCS

      PS.
      My name's Don. I've been posting here as anonymous only because I didn't feel like signing in.

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    3. Thanks, Don. I'm glad you watched the film. I've never found anyone who hasn't liked it. The actor that played Tom Robinson was Brock Peters. Thanks for reminding me of him. I might have to include him in this blog in the near future.

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  2. I've watched the film twice now, and I'm halfway through my 2nd reading of the book. (I finished my 1st reading maybe 3 days ago.) Obviously the film had quite an impression on me!

    BTW, did the boy who played Dill have other film or television roles I might have seen him in? He looks familiar. I was more impressed with the other two kids, but Dill had a memorable look.

    Don

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  3. John Megna played Dill. He appeared in quite a few television shows and movies, but nothing real memorable. He's pretty good in an episode of the Alfred Hitchcock Hour, called The Magic House, which came out a couple of years after To Kill a Mockingbird. Sadly, John Megna died from complications of AIDS in 1995 at the young age of 42.

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    1. Oh how sad! He certainly had potential, and quite a distinctive look, and maybe I was less impressed with his performance in Mockingbird because he was so overshadowed by Mary Badham's extraordinary performance, and Phillip Alford's ("Jem") as well.

      How the Academy considered Scout to be a supporting role in that film I don't get, but I understand their reluctance to nominate child actors at all. But Mary truly had the goods. (IMO, so do both Fanning sisters, Dakota & Elle. See the film Phoebe in Wonderland for Elle's tour de force!)

      I also just found Mary's episode from the Twilight Zone & watched it. There are a few child actors in that episode that exemplify what I've been talking about - unnecessarily poor performances. June Foray is fantastic as a voice actress, bud dubbing a realistic child's voice is insanely difficult for adults to do, though she did better than most attempts I've heard. (She'll always be Rocket J. Squirrel to me!) June struggled with the drawl in places, which surprised me because I know she's better than that. I wonder why they didn't just get Mary back to do her own overdubs. By then (1963) it was obvious that she was a gifted actress and professional enough to do the job. Her real voice is heard in all the scenes set in Aunt T's house though.

      Don

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  4. Mary Badham is remembered for this one iconic role, just as Harper Lee is remembered for this one iconic book, To Kill A Mockingbird. Isn't the quality of the fame more important than its breadth? For me, to be remembered as having given one of the best child performances in the history of film in one of the finest movie's ever made derived from one of the most beautifully written and historically important books of the 20th Century would be an actor's dream come true.

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