Classic Movies

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Just for fun, what old movie stars, old being between 1930's-1960's, do you think were possible Aspies ?

Well, Buster Keaton is the first that springs to mind, usually. But it's harder to think of stars being Aspie back then... character actors, supporting players, that's where I'd expect them to turn up.

It is HARD to tell. Even Charlie chaplin might have been. Then again, WHO KNOWS! Maybe John Ratzenberger is! I say that simply because he was kind of fed up with the type of person he played in cheers and, being turned down for cheers, he used that to try to get hired. They wrote him into the show! Outside of the stupid ideas he had on cheers, he seemed a bit AS. They COULD have made the ideas intelligent, but it would have turned the whole thing on its ear. After all, FRASIUR(sp?) was supposed to be the "intellectual". He also hosts a show ("Made in America") that seems like a kind of nice thing for someone with AS.

The only one I've read up on from that period that I think might have been on the spectrum was Greta Garbo. Check out Ninotchka - some of the jokes bring theory of mind and other stereotypes to mind.

I don't think Chaplin was, and don't know anything about Buster Keaton.

I think it was probably a bit easier to be autistic and work in Hollywood back then, because of the studio system. If they hired you, you were in for at least a year and they trained you when you weren't filming. It was more structured then. Now it's fend for yourself. But at the same time you need a mimimum amount of social skills to get in, and they like them young, so I doubt there were any autisitic men in front of the camera back then. Or now. Women seem to pass better, but we need social structure most of the time, so it's less likely that there'd be any autistic women now either. At least successful ones earning a living from it. But who knows? If you had a supportive enough family you might manage it.

I agree with Greta Garbo. She was intensely private, and even had the head of the studio removed from the set when she was ready to act. Although she was gorgeous, she never married. Whenever the studio refused to pay her what she wanted, she wouldn't argue, she'd simply comment that she was going to go back to Sweden. In her later years she lived as a recluse in New York City.

I think Chaplin was quite NT.

Keaton could be AS.

W.C. Fields, who started out in silent movies, was terribly difficult to get along with, and incredibly creative.

Jack Pierce, the make-up man who created the Frankenstein monster, could have been AS.

Jean Harlow? Katherine Hepburn?
Jimmy Stewart? James Whale?

Greta Garbo, for sure. And boy was she beautiful, from EVERY angle, just stunning, perfect bones.

[quote="AnonymousAnonymous"]Jean Harlow? Katherine Hepburn?
Jimmy Stewart? James Whale?[/quote]

Your Jean Harlow guess intrests me, any special reason you named her ?

I'd agree with Katharine Hepburn and Greta Garbo.

Not sure about Keaton and Fields. They were both abused as children and that can make people reclusive for different reasons.

James Stewart? No, he was intensely social and became depressed later in life to see some of his old social haunts had been torn down, etc. He dated a ton of women.

Possibly Henry Fonda, who was a good friend of Stewart's. But hard to say.

There is much less personal info on stars of those decades. Movie studios did too complete a job keeping the media stories sanitised.

Marilyn Monroe?
She was like a little girl, really bad self esteem, her personality was all an act.

I've read quite a bit about Monroe - other than recent books I've read about anything written about her at some point. I do not think she was As, just a damaged fractured personality.

A recent book claims she had Borderline Personality but I don't think so. I never read about her being purposely mean, for instance, or turning viciously on anyone. She had major depression at times but then the sleeping pills they put her on played havoc with her sleep and emotions.

She was fragile, but not As, my opinion.

Perhaps Lupe Velez ? She strikes me as a possibility from what I've read of her .

Lon Cheney Jr.

ruveyn

Perhaps Ed Wood ? There's a lot about that man that makes me wonder if he had AS

About Ed Wood. Just today I read something from someone who wrote a lot about him on message boards and his contribution to film describe what he considered to be Wood's overarching theme... when discussing whether he was an 'auteur'. He concluded that Wood's overarching theme is about outsiders unable to communicate with the wider world!

Wood was a very important figure in movies... much more than people think. Take the old horror stars. Before he made Bride of the Monster, Karloff, Lugosi and the rest would appear on TV from time to time but had not made horror pictures in years. After "Bride of the Monster", a bunch of these horror pictures came out like "The Indestructible Man", "The Black Sleep", "The Unearthly", "Voodoo Island", "Corridors of Blood"...

More important was his role in influencing the direction of American International and setting the stage for Roger Corman... it's believed that the AIP founders ripped him off. Wood was one of the first fans of B-pictures, Westerns and serials to make movies based on that... and even today it's the template for the escapist fare.

As for AS, what about Andy Milligan? I have seen this suggestion made in an off-hand way, but he definitely was not normal!

Cheeta