Jill Clayburgh: A magical, memorable actress

Written by Mark Schumann, Father of Three
Friday, 19 November 2010 10:01

Each week, the Reel Dad checks the nutritional value of a movies for families to share. This week, we celebrate the films of the late Jill Clayburgh, a magical actress who recently died, leaving a celebrated movie legacy.

She was the loveliest of actresses, with a quality so gentle, a smile so genuine, eyes so warm, and a personality so appealing. To many moviegoers, she is an iconic image of the 1970s, when she made most of her best-known films. To theatergoers, she was an original lead in the musical Pippin and, on television, she most recently chewed scenery in the short-lived drama, Dirty Sexy Money. And, one evening several years ago, we saw her quietly sitting at a movie theater in Manhattan, a plainly dressed woman out to see a film with her husband. Never mind that he was a famous playwright (David Rabe) and she was the ultimate married woman, the late Jill Clayburgh. And when she recently died, she left a collection of marvelous movie moments from decades ago that we can forever enjoy on DVD. Here are a few of my favorites.

An Unmarried Woman (1978). If she had never made another film, Clayburgh would have secured a place in movie history for her indelible performance of a woman tossed into the divorce wars by a philandering husband. Years later, moments of Clayburgh’s performance simply will not fade away, from when she dances by herself in her bedroom to when she gossips with her girlfriends to when she exposes herself to her psychiatrist to when she and her shattered daughter attempt to repair the wounds by loudly singing at the piano. It’s unfortunate, actually, that this iconic performance lost the Academy Award for Best Actress to Jane Fonda for Coming Home. Clayburgh could have used this ultimate recognition for her outstanding work.

Starting Over (1979). A year later, Clayburgh created another delightful character facing romantic challenge in this warm comedy costarring Burt Reynolds and Candice Bergen. Once again she was nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award and, once again, she walked away with a film by delivering a precise, funny portrayal of an optimistic romantic who dares to become involved with the ultimate unmarried man played by Reynolds. Her performance is no carbon copy of the earlier An Unmarried Woman. Instead she creates something so very special at the other end of the feminist spectrum and, between the two roles, creates a set of cinema bookends so strong and endearing that nothing she could do later in her career would ever compare.

Silver Streak (1976). Today, few may remember this sleek comedy about a train but, in its time, it was a movie to see. Not because, necessarily, it was all that well written or directed. The film, in fact, kind of plods along from one set piece to another. But it’s so well performed, and the cast is so ideal, that any deficiencies can be easily overlooked. Clayburgh is magnet as the heroine of the piece, alluring, comical, caring, the perfect foil for the comic antics that highlight the first onscreen pairing of Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor. It was a different time and this comedy captured its energy.

First Monday in October (1981). Today, the idea of the woman on the US Supreme Court is no longer a novelty (although it does not happen quite as often as it should). In cinema land, in 1981, a female justice was quite an unusual happening. In fact the film came out just about the time Sandra Day O’Connor was actually named the Court’s first female member. In the reel version of the milestone, Clayburgh beautifully captures the challenge of the moment in this moving adaptation of the Broadway play.

Gable and Lombard (1976). Clayburgh first caught attention on the big screen for her outrageous caricature of the legendary actress Carole Lombard in this silly, but fun, guilty pleasure. She is, actually, so much better than the material that she seems to drop in from another movie. And the emotion of her performance is totally out of sync with the wooden portrayal of Clark Gable from the dull James Brolin. We knew, at the time, that better things were yet to come from this actress. And she delivered, time and time again.

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