#Brandon de wilde nude naked movie

He would also do what a lot of actors do when their film careers dry up and that is regional theater. Wayne did spend a lot of time trying to get him to man up.įrom here on out, deWilde did a lot of television and a few poor films. He was hopelessly miscast and adrift as John Wayne's son in In Harm's Way. It concerned a family who dreams of creating a sanctuary for geese. back again as a clean-cut country boy, the son of Brian Keith and Vera Miles, awkwardly wooing Linda Evans. In 1965 he did the last two films worth mentioning. It would last seven years and would produce a son. Nonetheless, around this time he married for the first time. Regardless, he was one of those actors whose name kept cropping up in certain circles. They certainly may have started with his less-than-studly role in Blue Denim. Such roles may have given birth to the gay rumors that circulated about deWilde. In each film, he was enamored of an older woman who did not return his teenage lust (Eva Marie Saint in All Fall Down and Patricia Neal in Hud). Neither character deserved to share the oxygen with their young, adoring relative and I wanted to wipe the drool from deWilde's mouth as he dealt with them. Warren Beatty plays his older brother in All Fall Down and Paul Newman his uncle in Hud.

In each he is an innocent who is enamored of a handsome, douchebag relative. I think the latter, like Shane, is a classic, and the former is so damned good that I will never understand why it didn't do better. He gave two forceful but understated performances in his next two films (two that shine along with his first two) that in some ways were very similar, All Fall Down and Hud. But did he have the chops, the sex appeal to make it as a young male star? Was it possible that his career as an adult would be short-circuited because of this? He was a good child actor, there was no doubt. For the first time, I saw deWilde as antiseptic, well-scrubbed, a bit fey, way too earnest, with a decided lack of virility. It was all played out a little too pat and blasé. Perhaps he and Lynley had the right looks of innocence but neither particularly struck me as horny or even eager. Of course, having seen it 10 years or so ago, I had to laugh at the sanitized thing before me. He was 17 when he joined Carol Lynley in what I surely thought at the time was some pretty hot stuff on teen pregnancy. While I grew up, so did deWilde and his participation in the teenage, highly-anticipated Blue Denim (1959) proved the little boy roles were long gone. Take a look at the film's iconic final scene: Brandon would cop an Academy Award best supporting actor nomination for his stellar work. Young Brandon more than held his own against the likes of Alan Ladd, Van Heflin, Jean Arthur (in her final movie) and Jack Palance, who scared the Shredded Wheat out of me. And there was no doubt about the love he felt for a man who seemed to need the boy's love as much as the other way around. His face easily registered fear when he sat under the swinging door of a saloon watching a (glorious) fight. He was perfect for the part of the boy who idolizes a mysterious gunman who shows up at a homestead family's small ranch in time to help Joey's parents and others fight greedy neighbors. His most famous role was up next when George Stevens hired him for the showy part of Joey Starrett in one of the finest westerns ever made, Shane.

#Brandon de wilde nude naked movie

In 1952, the actors repeated their roles for the Fred Zinnemann film and Brandon became a movie star. There was a part for the girl's younger cousin and after soothing over the parents' worries, seven-year old Brandon would win the part. Julie Harris would play the lead with Ethel Waters as the lady who watches over her. They were determined to provide their son with as normal an upbringing as they knew how.Įnter a family friend and Broadway producer who was mounting the 1949 play, A Member of the Wedding, about a dreamy-eyed tomboy longing to leave her dismal little hometown to go off with her newly-married brother. His father, Fritz, was a Broadway stage manager and mother Genie was a part-time actress. He was, as they say, born in a trunk, but his theatrical parents were not enthusiastic about bringing him into the business. The kid who uttered those immortal lines was, of course, Brandon deWilde.