Howard Owens

We just finished watching The Life of Emile Zola staring Paul Muni. It's the third or fourth Muni we've watched recently.

Muni isn't a name you hear much about these days -- and it was only through a mention by a co-worker at the Star that I thought to add him to the Tivo wishlist -- but he was a hell of an actor. These days people lionize Bogart and Gable, but Muni was an actor decades ahead of his time. While men like James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson largely played themselves from movie to movie, Muni really acted. He adapted himself to the role and transformed his personality to fit the part. He has more in common with Dustin Hoffman or Al Pacino than John Wayne or Spencer Tracy.

The only thing I can figure is Bogart, Wayne, Robinson, Cagney et. al were towering personalities, where Muni lost himself in his roles, so people identify less with him than the iconoclastic figures of the era. I don't know much about who the Nick Cages and Kevin Spacys admire from the mid 20th Century, but I've got to believe actors who really know acting know all about Paul Muni.

P.S. In honor Bob Denver, we're now watching an episode of Gillian's Island that Tivo was nice enough to save for us.