Getting their heads in the game
NY Public Library shows off the face of fame
I T’S the photo that can make or break an actor’s career: the head shot — that indispensable casting tool. Lincoln Center’s New York Public Library for the Performing Arts has collected more than 1 million of them, dating back to the circa1860 daguerreotype of Edwin Booth, the older, saner brother of President Lincoln’s assassin. His portrait — showcasing the intense gaze befitting the foremost Shakespearean actor of his time — is one of nearly 200 on display in a new free exhibit.
Enter the Vincent Astor Gallery and you’ll find a dewy Katharine Hepburn, a 20something Harvey Fierstein and a virtually unrecognizable Diane Keaton and Bernadette Peters, back when they were very young — and very blond. Farther back are some 1953 photos of Paul Newman. Shot, alas, in black and white, they fail to capture his babyblue eyes, yet his star quality shines through.
“We have an amazing collection of head shots, and I wanted to show how they were used,” says curator Barbara CohenStratyner. And so she’s given us contact sheets and photo proofs with notes like: “Remove this hair.”
There’s even a jaunty soundtrack, including that classic of actorly longing, “I Hope I Get It,” from “A Chorus Line,” with its haunting lineup of performers hiding behind their head shots.
Jack Klugman fans (and we are legion!) will enjoy seeing how one shot — and a savvy agent — helped land him his big Broadway break. The show was “Gypsy,” and just about every actor around — from Errol Flynn to Buddy Ebsen — was being considered for the part of Gypsy Rose Lee’s hapless lover.
Everyone, it seems, but Klugman.
Undeterred, his agent, Richard Seff, sent the producers a brief letter and a terrific head shot — one in which Klugman managed to look handsome, happy and vulnerable, all at the same time.
Klugman got the part, opposite powerhouse Ethel Merman. What better preparation for TV’s “The Odd Couple”?
“Head Shots” runs through Aug. 8; nypl.org.