52 Pick-Up

29. Alan Ladd Jr.

(producer, The Brady Bunch)

"I went to see Psycho not really knowing what it was, and I was never so scared in my life. How did it change my life? For a long time afterward, I was wary every time I got in the shower--I listened for any sound of the bathroom door opening!"

30. Laurence Fishburne

(actor, What's Love Got to Do With It)

"The Ten Commandments really knocked me on my heels. The parting of the Red Sea amazed me. Yul Brynner fascinated me, the way he was so stern, and then how gentle he was when he tried to bring his baby back to life. I especially admired how Brynner and Edward G. Robinson handled the mock-biblical dialogue. Here Robinson was famous for gangster movies, and Brynner for The King and I, yet they were totally convincing."

31. Craig Chester

(actor, Swoon)

"The movie that changed my life--after Xanadu, of course--was A Place in the Sun. It was the first time I saw Montgomery Clift and he was so brilliant and true, I decided to become an actor. His love scenes with Elizabeth Taylor were totally heartbreaking. The movie reinforced my belief that no matter how much you love somebody, fate always has the upper hand. Come to think of it, that's sort of the message of Xanadu, too, isn't it?"

32. Jason James Richter

(actor, Free Willy)

"I loved The Goonies; I thought it was a great movie. I still remember all the characters. It was the first time I wanted to be in a group up there on the screen--I said, 'I wanna be Mikey, I wanna be any of those guys.' It was a great adventure."

33. Ken Olin

(director, White Fang 2: Myth of the White Wolf)

"When I started acting, the performances in On the Waterfront probably had the biggest impact on me. I wanted to be part of having that kind of impact on other people."

34. Ed Begley Jr.

(actor, Greedy)

"Frank Capra's film It's a Wonderful Life. Why? It's about what is important, what is valuable: friends and family. Jimmy Stewart goes mad, wants to end his life, because he thinks it's worth nothing--he believes that he was his money. Life isn't about that, as he discovers."

35. Robert Radnitz

(producer, A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich)

"Eisenstein's Alexander Nevsky stands out in my memory. Why do I remember it? The battle on the frozen lake was a tremendous piece of filmmaking--it was so visual. Ask people for a movie they cannot forget and they will invariably describe some scene, but not quote the dialogue. That's because movies are a visual medium."

36. Donald Sutherland

(actor, JFK)

"There were a lot of films which had a profound effect on me, but only Paths of Glory had a message that wasn't spelled out in black-and-white. It wasn't some intellectual sentence that you could reduce down and put in, say, Sam Goldwyn's telegram-- that film's just a totally whole, extraordinary piece of work."

37. Jon Voight

(actor, Return to Lonesome Dove)

"One of the movies that fascinated me as a youngster was Sinbad the Sailor with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. It was the most spectacular movie for me as a kid--the sets, costumes, music, everything--the whole movie was just so magical. I just saw it the other night and it was every bit as good as I'd imagined it was. For the same reasons, I also loved The Adventures of Robin Hood with Errol Flynn, and The Count of Monte Cristo with Robert Donat."

38. Jackie Beat

(actor, Grief)

"I was completely blown away when I saw Carrie with my sister in 1976. I remember cringing during the blow-job scene (I was with my sister, for crissakes!) and literally being hypnotized by the ground-breaking prom sequence. Why don't more directors use split screens? If there's any moral to Carrie, it's that denial can turn a gift into a curse. How'd the movie change my life? Well, I used to publish a magazine called Carrie: The Magazine That Can Move Things. I named my dog Carrie, I even staged a live version using sock puppets called Carrie Is So Very ... Scary! Afterwards, Lily Tomlin said, 'That was great!' I have Carrie posters, stills, T-shirts, but it would be nice if someone could send me the script--hint, hint!"

39. Ernie Hudson

(actor, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle)

"I'd have to say Meet John Doe. I always thought Gary Cooper was a pretty straight-up guy in that film, the kind of guy I'd like to be."

40. Arthur Hiller

(director, Married to It)

"Open City hit me hard because I was back from the war, going to college in Toronto, and my folks were back in Edmonton. I found the film very realistic and very sad."

41. Sam Neill

(actor, Jurassic Park)

"When I was a kid, Notorious really struck me. It's probably still my favorite film. I think it has all the elements that make a great movie, and if I was to say there was one film that most influenced me to want to become part of the business, it's that one."

42. Harvey Fierstein

(actor, Mrs. Doubtfire)

"Stage Door definitely changed my life--after the first time I saw it, I'd fake illness to stay home from school to watch it anytime it was on TV. We had this show called 'The Million Dollar Movie,' and they used to show a movie twice a day, five days a week. The week they showed Stage Door I was the sickest little boy--I stayed home and watched it 10 times."

43. Walter Mirisch

(producer, The Apartment)

"Sunset Blvd. was the film that most impressed me. Why? It was brilliant, original and fascinating, and you know something? It's still fascinating today."

44. Ann Miller

(host, performer, That's Entertainment! III)

"When I was a girl in Texas, I saw Cecil B. DeMille's Cleopatra, and I fell madly in love with Henry Wilcoxon, who played Marc Antony He was so handsome and strong. Years later, I met him at the premiere of Gone With the Wind, and I just melted. I was so in awe of him."

45. Matthew Broderick

(actor, Glory)

"The first movies that really got me were the Chaplin movies my mother took me to. I thought Modern Times was the greatest thing I'd ever seen. I just fell in love with Chaplin."

46. James Belushi

(actor, Mr. Destiny)

"There are a couple of films that have affected me, and they both starred my brother John: National Lampoon's Animal House and The Blues Brothers. I thought they both changed the wave of comedy, started a whole new style of comic films. The Blues Brothers was a great musical, too--the image of John dancing is one I'll never forget. I'm still jealous about the way he could dance!"

47. Joanna Going

(actress, Wyatt Earp)

"The film Persona changed the way I thought about movies and what I expected and valued in them. I was profoundly affected by the acting and by the film's simplicity."

48. Tom Skerritt

(actor, "Picket Fences")

"I saw a picture a couple of years ago that moved me more than any other film, and in any number of ways: Platoon. I don't think I've ever been so affected by a movie--I couldn't drive home. Fortunately, my son was with me and was able to drive the car."

49 Jay Kanter

(producer, The Nightcomers)

"I saw The Birds at a screening at Universal, and I was terrified. It seemed so real--and even more so when, as I was driving home over Coldwater Canyon, an owl swooped down right in front of my windshield. Scared the hell out of me."

50. Olivia d'Abo

(actress, Greedy)

"I would have to say Harold and Maude because though it's bizarre, it expresses my feeling about life: Get as much as you can, because you never know when it's going to end."

51. Sammi Davis

(actress, The Rainbow)

"Rebecca is, to me, the ultimate film. It's perfect because it's so human, so filled with pure, sensitive emotion, that it captures you completely. Also, it has a really amazing balance of minuteness and enormity."

52. Brenda Vaccaro

(actress, "Red Shoe Diaries")

"I grew up in New York, so I went to the art houses. The picture that knocked me out was Rene Clement's Forbidden Games. It was war as seen through the eyes of two little kids. In the end, when the little girl can't find the boy, well, I don't think I'd ever felt the impact of what war could be like. For me as a youngster, it hit me hard."

Bob Thomas has reported on Hollywood for Associated Press since 1943. His book Walt Disney, An American Original was recently republished by Hyperion.

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