Was beauty more important than character for actors and actresses before?
Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish, Ingirid Bergman, Grace Kelly, Marlene Dietrich, Lya De Putti, Lauren Bacall, Vivien Leigh, etc are beautiful rather than characteristic.
Also Joseph Cotten, Gregory Peck, Gary Cooper, Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Robert Taylor, Tyrone Power, Errol Flynn, etc are wonderful or handsome rather than characteristic. So was beauty much more important than character for actors and actresses in classical hollywood cinema(up to 1960s)?
In general, yes. Character actors were usually supporting actors and paid far less than the major stars.
But there were exceptions. One was Marjorie Main, a big, somewhat burley woman who starred in a series of comedies about “Ma & Pa Kettle”. She was one of the most popular actresses of her time.
Wallace Beery, a big, lovable lug with a face like a basset hound, was also a big star for his time, as was W.C. Fields.
And both Bette Davis and Katharine Hepburn were not drop-dead beauties, by Hollywood standards. They were reasonably pretty in their youth, but gained their biggest roles playing tough, intelligent career women.
Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable
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