Gentlemen: Actors who were your Boyhood Heroes?

[3113]

Hey, guys. I'm doing a bit of research here for a young male character, and I'd like to survey you on something here. Ignoring real-life people who might have been your "Hero" growing up like, say, Martin Luther King, jr. or your dad....

Which movie or television star was your "Hero" either in and of themselves or given the character they played? I'm thinking of how kids used to idolized George Reeves on television when he played the Superman, and would have excitedly rushed up to get his autograph, and eagerly helped old ladies across the street and eaten their Wheaties if George had told them to do so on his show. That kind of hero worship which is half-fictional. I say half because you're idolizing the character the actor is playing, but also the actor because, in your mind, no one else can play that character. The two are one in the same even if they're not.

Most importantly, I'm looking for that actor which symbolized to you the kind of "man" you wanted to be when you grew up. Doing and being the kind of things you wanted to do and be. And I'm especially interested in those who were your role models when you were in your early teens.

So who would you have nervously and excitedly rushed up to with your autograph book back in the day? Or want to thank now for inspiring you? What did they have that you wanted and admired back then?

 

[voluptuary_manque]

As a teenager? No movie actor, sorry. The closest person I had as an idol would have been my high school chorus teacher. He had lost a hand and had to give up the trumpet so he became a choir teacher instead. He was the best and got the best out of us. I especially remember on competition we went to. Mr. Schmidt's father had passed away and he had to go back to the mid-West. But the Silver Lute Singers went to the competition anyway, walked up on stage near the end of the show with no director. Our lead explained that our director had suffered a death in the family and that our program that night was dedicated to him. Everyone else relaxed because without a director a bunch of kids can't really compete, can they? Hah! Our tenor with perfect pitch gave us the beginning note, we passed it around and put on a show the like of which few had seen. Standing ovation? Man!

We owed it all to the loving but demanding training Mr. Schmidt put us through. And when he died . . .

 

[oggbashan]

Lawrence Olivier in the title role of the film Henry V (1944).

Og

 

[rgraham666]

My boyhood hero wasn't an actor.

Douglas Bader was my hero.

 

[oggbashan]

My boyhood hero wasn't an actor.

Douglas Bader was my hero.

I met him several times. He was a very determined man and dedicated to making sure that disabled people made the best use of their abilities.

He wouldn't take "no" or "I can't" for an answer from anyone.

Og

 

[JagFarlane]

Hey, guys. I'm doing a bit of research here for a young male character, and I'd like to survey you on something here. Ignoring real-life people who might have been your "Hero" growing up like, say, Martin Luther King, jr. or your dad....

Which movie or television star was your "Hero" either in and of themselves or given the character they played? I'm thinking of how kids used to idolized George Reeves on television when he played the Superman, and would have excitedly rushed up to get his autograph, and eagerly helped old ladies across the street and eaten their Wheaties if George had told them to do so on his show. That kind of hero worship which is half-fictional. I say half because you're idolizing the character the actor is playing, but also the actor because, in your mind, no one else can play that character. The two are one in the same even if they're not.

Most importantly, I'm looking for that actor which symbolized to you the kind of "man" you wanted to be when you grew up. Doing and being the kind of things you wanted to do and be. And I'm especially interested in those who were your role models when you were in your early teens.

So who would you have nervously and excitedly rushed up to with your autograph book back in the day? Or want to thank now for inspiring you? What did they have that you wanted and admired back then?

Hmmmm I would have to say....Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones. Indiana Jones was a figure larger than life. Yet...he was real...you could actually see someone doing some of the things he did. He didn't always win the fist fight, yet he used his brain to win many other fights. He always did what he thought was right. And the man behind the character, Harrison Ford himself, from what I know of him, is a good man as well...I do know that he has been known to participate in searches for lost people near his home, using his private helicopter to fly overhead.

 

[john-the-author]

Mason Williams, for both his music and his writing. I now actually live a couple miles from him and have featured him in one of my books (he loved it!) but I've been too shy to meet him.

Pete Seeger. I *have* met him, briefly, and gotten his autograph on one of my banjos.

 

[oggbashan]

Another one

Harold Lloyd

 

[Weird Harold]

Mason Williams, for both his music and his writing. ...

Mason Williams graduated from the same high-school as I did (albeit a good bit earlier than I did.) My doubles partner on the high-school tennis team was the drummer in his band for a while.

For the original question: Roy Rodgers, Gene Autrey, Fess Parker as Daniel Boone and/or DaveyCrocket, (yes I had a coonskin cap as a kid,) Pernelle(sp) Roberts as Adam Cartwright on Bonanza (because he's something like a third cousin via my mother's sister's husband,) Clint Eastwood as Rowdy Yates on Rawhide, or John Wayne in anything.

I was never the type to be a star-struck autograph hound and had largely lost much of the "hero-worship" by the time I was 18. However, the hollywood "cowboy ethos" of my childhood had a very large (and lasting) effect on my values and personal morality.

PS: this is a very, very time sensitive question -- movie heroes are temporary phenomenons for the most part, usually lasting only a few months to a few years at most (whether the actor continues working or not.)

 

[MarshAlien]

David McCallum as Illya Kuryakin. I probably thought I looked good in black.

 

[amicus]

3113...I read your query as an 'authorly' one, but I suggest you don't really want a 'subjective' answer, rather an avenue toward objectivity that perhaps might open a discussion on why young boys seek and find 'hero's' after which to pattern themselves.

Somewhere over the years I read a survey over what people in general saw as a virtue in other people and hence in the fictional world of books and movies.

As I recall, the overwhelming majority agreed that a strong, courageous individual willing to risk and even sacrifice his life and health for another, became their role model in life.

Of recent, I have heard, 'do the right thing', as the virtue people were looking for and admiring in movie characters and real life.

It is no doubt a debatable issue as the modern, ahm, feminist trend is toward those larger than life figures that sacrifice individual pursuits for the collective or the greater good; the Mother Teresa or Martin Luther King advocates who sacrifice their individual existence for the betterment of mankind.

This aspect also rises in Anime and Manga or even American cartoon characters as the 'superwoman' or 'supergirl' figure takes center stage and becomes a role model.

But as you framed the question in terms of 'a young man', I think human nature nudges one towards the strong male character that rescues the damsel in distress taking risk to himself.

Modern, trendy literature guru's have insisted that current hero's be flawed in one or more ways, to show their 'humanity', to make them more human so as to relate better to common people. That disgusts me personally.

I suggest your question begs a deeper understanding of those things we define as human values and virtues and the innate desire by young males to make a difference on the side of 'good' and 'right', in the world they find themselves participating in.

I think the reason such works as 'The Ring Trilogy' by Tolkien, and the 'Star Wars' series of more modern times gained such popularity is the conflict between a well defined good and evil and the struggle to overcome human fears and weaknesses and face evil with courage.

So, whether it is Superman or John Wayne, Clint Eastwood or Steve McQueen, the virtues and values, to me, remain very similar.

Good luck on creating your character...it is always a challenge.

regards...

Amicus...

 

[3113]

Harold Lloyd

Interesting choice!

Understand, the reason I'm asking for actors is that I'm looking for some common elements in looks and actions (however fictional) that might be inspirational to a young man. As much as I appreciate the "real heroes" you might have admired, they don't do me any good if they were known to you, but not to me. No matter how well you describe them, I'm never going to know them or really understand your connection to them. With an actor, I can say, "Oh, yes, seen that actor in that movie. I get it."

 

[DesertPirate]

John Wayne

 

[oggbashan]

Buster Keaton and Douglas Fairbanks Snr.

My choice of Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton and Douglas Fairbanks is mainly because their stunts were real with no doubles, stuntmen or film trickery.

Og

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Buster Keaton and Douglas Fairbanks Snr.

My choice of Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton and Douglas Fairbanks is mainly because their stunts were real with no doubles, stuntmen or film trickery.

Og

I have to agree with Buster Keaton. He was an amazing genius and underrated when compared with Chaplin. Chaplin was pretentious, trying to make Art out of entertainment. Keaton did it without trying.

 

[Boxlicker101]

I read a lot of comic books and heard a lot of radio programs and saw a lot of movies when I was a child. They featured Tom Mix and Roy Rogers and Batman and Superman and Captain Marvel and Gene Autrey and many others. Captain Marvel Bunny, when I was very young.

They were heroes but it would be an extreme overstatement to say they were my idols. Once I stopped reading the adventures of Captain Marvel Bunny, I became aware that they were no more than drawings on paper or images on a screen and the things they did were strictly made up.

If I could have been said to have idols, they would have been American fighting men who kicked ass in Europe and the Pacific and, later, in Korea.

 

[amicus]

Box, you left out Boston Blackie, The Durango Kid, Sunset Carson and Lamont Cranston as 'The Shadow'...grins...

ami

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Box, you left out Boston Blackie, The Durango Kid, Sunset Carson and Lamont Cranston as 'The Shadow'...grins...

ami

What about Johnny Dollar?

 

[Boxlicker101]

Box, you left out Boston Blackie, The Durango Kid, Sunset Carson and Lamont Cranston as 'The Shadow'...grins...

ami

That was not a comprehensive list. I also left ut Red Ryder, The Flash, Captain Midnight, Submariner, Hopalong Cassidy, Tarzan, Popeye, and others.

Boston Blackie was a PI on the radio, and Lamont Cranston "Wealthy young man-about-town" was also on the radio. They may have been included in comic books also, but I don't remember any. I don't recall The Durango Kid and Sunset Carson.

 

[amicus]

Granted, my only surreptitious point was to whisper that we are showing our age, big time, with these remembrances...smiles...

Ami...

 

[NoJo]

Patrick McGoohan, (mainly for a reason that would give away my real life identity). He was a wonderfully angry psychotic maverick.

I wanted to be the laconic and suave Patrick McNee too. But that was mainly because I wanted to usurp his role in that wonderfully ambiguous realtionship with Emma Peel.

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

The only "hero" I can recall as a kid, wasn't an actor but, like many other guys of my generation, it was the baseball player, Mickey Mantle.

Rumple Foreskin

 

[S-Des]

John Wayne

Ditto

 

[rgraham666]

Patrick McGoohan, (mainly for a reason that would give away my real life identity). He was a wonderfully angry psychotic maverick.

I wanted to be the laconic and suave Patrick McNee too. But that was mainly because I wanted to usurp his role in that wonderfully ambiguous realtionship with Emma Peel.

I wanted Emma Peel too.

http://www.triptronix.net/ishbadiddle/emma.jpg

Yummy.

 

[millennium_bard]

John Wayne
Sean Connery
Both men for the image of self confidence they brought to their roles.

Cary Grant for his quick wit and sense of the absurd.

Robert A Heinlein and Louis L'Amour for their writings and their willingness to take time out of their busy lives to answer the letters of a boy neither one knew from Adams off ox.