In a league of his own
QUESTION Has an actor’s career been ruined by a film?
SEAN CONNERY is fondly remembered for playing some of the defining roles in cinematic history, but he would come to deeply regret choosing to appear in The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen instead of The Lord Of The Rings.
Having turned down the role of Gandalf the Grey, Connery opted to play a hunter and adventurer in the 2003 superhero film based on a comic book series. It sank with critics and audiences.
Disillusioned, Connery announced his retirement in 2005.
One sad case of a career-ruining film was the impact of Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace on Jake Lloyd, who played young Anakin Skywalker.
Child actor Lloyd’s career had barely begun, but he was made the scapegoat for many of the issues in George Lucas’s sci-fi prequel. He decided to quit acting at the age of 12.
Emilie McRae, Trowbridge, Wilts.
QUESTION How does helium change the sound of your voice?
INHALING helium is dangerous because it can cause your body’s oxygen level to drop to dangerously low levels, which can be life-threatening.
Helium alters the speed of sound. Acoustic velocity depends on the density of the gas it passes through. In air at sea level, sound travels at 343m a second.
Helium is much less dense, so the speed of sound is 973m a second. The nitrogen and oxygen molecules that make up the bulk of air are much heavier than helium atoms, so they don’t oscillate back and forth as quickly.
Human voice production is created by air vibrating the vocal folds in the larynx. The sound is modified by the acoustic properties of the throat, mouth and nose, which make up the vocal tract.
One way of altering pitch can be by changing the length of the vocal tract, which is how we produce speech.
Pitch can also be varied by altering the speed of sound of the gas through the airway. Filling the vocal tract with helium produces a high- pitched Donald Duck sound.
Dr K. Singh, Leicester.
QUESTION Which actor most accurately represents Poirot’s moustaches?
FURTHER to the earlier answer, in stark contrast to Kenneth Branagh’s massive moustaches, which are surprisingly the most accurate depiction on film of Hercule Poirot, Irish actor Austin Trevor was clean-shaven when he became the first actor to portray the detective on screen in the 1931 film Alibi.
Another poor attempt at depicting Agatha Christie’s hero was John Malkovich’s grey goatee in the BBC’s grim 2018 adaptation of The ABC Murders.
Patricia Arnold, Harrogate, N. Yorks.
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