George C Scott or Jackie Gleason?
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stephan-128 — 13 years ago(July 23, 2012 12:13 AM)
I agree that Scott was great,(and one of the all time great actors of the century)and he obviously had the bigger role. Whether Gleason could have played Scott's role with as much menace is questionable. But every time Gleason is on screen he is just such a prescence. The last scene when Eddie comes in and we see him over Gleason's shoulder, Eddie has all the dialogue. But the fun is in watching Gleason's face. He does 4 little eye glances, over here, over therethey are so subtle, but they convey so much. He just inhabits this role as the ultimate "player", the big mahoff, so to speak. That comes from Gleason's own personal presence, and the way he plays it. So I actually prefer Gleason.
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CineramaMama — 13 years ago(July 27, 2012 06:15 AM)
It's a tough call here but Gleason does much more acting without moving his mouth or any part of himself than probably any other actor in history. That's why Orson Wells called him; "The Great One".
Unfortunately, in most of his roles, including his TV comedy hour in the '60s, he plays the broad, demonstrative loud-mouth; which he also does better than anybody. -
johnnyfry2 — 12 years ago(July 25, 2013 10:03 PM)
In this movie it's Gleason in my opinion. He nailed the part perfectly, the delivery of his lines, even his voice when he is leaning over shooting is as authentic as one could get it. To me it is his rendition of this character in the short period of screen time that pushes the movie beyond a good movie about pool into a classic. When you are have confusing allegiances as to who you should be rooting for when they play against one another you know he did his job.
Now, as for who is best based on their body of work, I would have to go with Scott. In this film though, he is more of a replaceable part then Gleason is. -
herbsuperb — 12 years ago(July 31, 2013 12:36 PM)
Gleason was excellent in 'The Hustler'. He was excellent in most things he was in. They don't call him 'The Great One' for nothing. That being said, the conflict between Newman and Scott is truly the soul of the film in my humble opinion. Scott was one of the finest film actors of all time. He made this film shine. Personally I would have loved to have seen Newman get Best Actor and Scott get Best Supporting Actor. Crime that neither did.
There are few actors I would rather see work than George C. Scott.
In any case, the film was an absolute triumph. I'll never get tired of seeing it. -
DrWhen — 12 years ago(August 17, 2013 03:55 PM)
It's not really a fair comparison because Gleason's character wasn't really a character in the dramatic sense. If the drama was about climbing a mountain, he would have been the mountain. It's a key element but not a developed character.
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kag2 — 12 years ago(December 05, 2013 08:54 AM)
Don't forget that while George C. Scott built a stellar career playing serious roles, the mostly-comic Jackie Gleason was also outstanding in The Hustler and a year later in Requiem for a Heavyweight.
Why didn't Gleason play more serious roles? -
swordofdoom-631-504444 — 11 years ago(August 12, 2014 07:10 AM)
Gleason should get some credit for performing almost all of Fats' pool shots himself. Willie Mosconi did the trick shots for the movie, and during downtime, Newman learned the fine points of pool from him, and by the end of production, Newman was a pretty darn good pool player. But Gleason was probably the best celebrity pool player of all time (although Tom Smothers could give him a good game).
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Forlorn_Rage — 10 years ago(August 29, 2015 08:10 PM)
Really? That's good to know. There was so much more cutting and editing during Gleason's parts, as opposed to Newman's, that I was wondering whether someone else too over in the cut shots of the pool shooting.
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johnm-dalton — 10 years ago(September 27, 2015 12:20 AM)
Scott's acting is fantastic, and Gleason's screen presence here is unmatched.
Hard to say. Scott refused the supporting actor nomination because he didn't believe in actors competing with each other. He may have had a good idea there. -
kag2 — 9 years ago(November 26, 2016 12:01 PM)
Having just re-watched it, I might go with Gleason. His facial expressions and presence make the two scenes he's in, a great contrast to the obnoxious, trash-talking Fast Eddie (first match), and the angry (at Bert) but more focused Eddie in the rematch.
Also, watch Fat's facial expressions AFTER he concedes the last match, while Fast Eddie talks to Bert about refusing to be owned, and refusing to forget his lady. Fats is far more deflated at being "owned" by Bert than by losing to a superb talent in Fast Eddie. Fats has much greater respect for Fast Eddie, who at this point is standing up to Bert in a courageous, gutsy way that Fats probably wishes he had.
Still, I would rate George C. Scott the best of the three in terms of dramatic acting. Newman was also very good, and Gleason too, although I believe he only did two dramatic roles (The Hustler, and Requiem for a Heavyweight), and was excellent in both.