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| A beautiful Southern blonde with real, old-fashioned movie-star appeal, Dunaway reached her highest level of popularity in an era when leading men were showing more "realistic" traits. Subsequently, her glamour rubbed off on considerably less elegant types such as Dustin Hoffman and Jack Nicholson. But Dunaway is an extremely skilled actress who was every bit as capable as any of her costars, so there was never any incongruity in even the least likely pairings. A theater arts major from Boston University's School of Fine and Applied Arts, Dunaway made her screen debut in The Happening and quickly followed with Otto Preminger's Hurry Sundown (both 1967), immediately drawing attention to herself. But she made the biggest impression (and got an Academy Award nomination) in another film that year, Bonnie and Clyde paired with Warren Beatty in a crime film that romanticized its bankrobber protagonists and then annihilated them in an unprecedented on-screen massacre that galvanized audiences. Most of her subsequent 1960s roles were successful but unspectacular; she played a savvy investigator opposite jaded millionaire Steve McQueen in The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), and the young love interest of Kirk Douglas' adman-gonegoofy in Elia Kazan's leaden The Arrangement (1969). The 1970s brought her a number of meaty roles, including a turn opposite Dustin Hoffman in 1970's Little Big Man and the tragic female lead of Chinatown (1974) opposite Jack Nicholson. Her on-set clashes with director Roman Polanski became the stuff of Hollywood legend. Her work in the film netted her a second Academy Award nomination. Two years later she actually won a Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of a ruthless network-TV executive in the outrageous satire Network (1976). She also appeared in The Three Musketeers (1974) and The Four Musketeers (1975) as villainous Milady de Winter; in Three Days of the Condor (1975), sheltering hunted man Robert Redford; and in Eyes of Laura Mars (1978), as a high-fashion photographer. Then, somehow, her career lost momentum. The quality of her performances hadn't declined, but the quality of her parts had. The 1980s found her laboring in the likes of The First Deadly Sin (1980), The Wicked Lady (1983), Supergirl, (1984, a super turkey), Ordeal by Innocence (1984), Burning Secret Midnight Crossing (both 1988), and Wait Until Spring, Bandini (1989). The decade was redeemed-partially-by two outstanding performances: Dunaway camped it up playing movie star and abusive mom Joan Crawford in Mommie Dearest (1981), and took an uncharacteristically gritty turn as an alcoholic lowlife in Barfly (1987, opposite Mickey Rourke), winning serious critical attention again. She has worked steadily, generally in supporting roles, since that time. She did enjoy a well-written lead opposite Richard Widmark in a made-for-TV movie, Cold Sassy Tree (1989), and was properly chilling as the sexless wife of Robert Duvall in The Handmaid's Tale (1990). Recent credits include Double Edge (1992), The Temp (1993), Arizona Dream (1995, filmed in 1991), and Don Juan DeMarco (1995). In the fall of 1993 she made her TV sitcom debut as the star of the short-lived "It Had to Be You." |
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