The three actors I have chosen to classify from the movie Stagecoach are
John Wayne, Claire Trevor, and Andy Devine.
I have classified the actor John Wayne as both a Star and a personality. “Actors with distinctive personalities often wind up playing similar character in film after film” Goodykoontz, & Jacobs, 2014, p. 119). “Wayne was very picky about the roles he would play: never, never, never petty, never cowardly, rarely, even cautious” (Grenier, 1996, p.5/7). John Wayne always played the same type of hero in all his films, even when he switched from being a cowboy in Westerns to a war hero he still played the same character. Stagecoach, was the film that helped him become a star. John Wayne, I believe saw himself as this type of western hero and was this type of person in real life. This is the reason I saw him as a personality actor because he has always played this type of film.
Claire Trevor, to me would be classified as a Character actor, she appeared in many films and she could also be classified as a star. “She may best be remembered for “Key Largo,” for which she won the Oscar for the best supporting actress playing the part of Gayle Dawn, a has-been Cabaret singer” (New York Times, 2000, p. ¼). She played a saloon girl that was thrown out of town by the bluenoses and becomes one of the passengers on the way to Lordsburg in Stagecoach. She often played the saloon girl or a down on her luck type of personality. I think she enjoyed this type of role because even though she portrayed a downcast woman she seemed to always end up being a heroine.
Andy Devine, to me was a Character actor, he played the part as he himself says of a whiner in many films. Andy jokes, “When John Ford, the director, was explaining to me the part of Buck in the picture Stagecoach, he said, “This is supposed to be a big, dumb character. So you just act natural” I was-and Buck turned out to be my favorite role” (Saturday Evening Post, 1949). Andy, in the old films I’ve seen always seemed to be the sort of dim-witted sidekick.
Movie Clip of all the actors in Stagecoach, (1939)
Devine, Andy, (1949). The Roll I Liked Best, Saturday Evening Post, 4/9/1949, Vol. 221 Issue 41, p120-120 1/3p.
GoodyKoontz, B. & Jacobs, C. P. (2014). Film: From Watching to Seeing, Bridgepoint
Education, Inc. San Diego, CA:
Grenier, R. (1996). The Cowboy Patriot. The National Interest, (45), 84.
http://search.ebscohost.proxy-library.ashford.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsgcl.18827116&site=eds-live
New York Times, Late Edition, (2000). Claire Trevor, 91, Obituary, New York Times Publisher