Rob Morrow miscast?
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mforum-1 — 13 years ago(July 19, 2012 01:53 PM)
I thought Rob Morrow was brilliant as Dick Goodwin.
Several people have criticized Morrow's clipped and gravel voiced New England accent. I've seen old film footage Goodwin cross-examining Herb Stempel at the Congressional hearing and Rob Morrow had Dick Goodwin's eccentric speech patterns and Yankee accent nailed. Not many American screen actors have an ear for doing a highly nuanced regional accent. Granted Morrow grew up in New Rochelle NY but the Boston working class accent has little in common with stately form of English as spoken in the affluent Westchester County, where Rob Morrow grew up.
In fact three of the principal actors John Turturro, Ralph Fiennes and Rob Murrow in "Quiz Show" did very good voice impersonations of their real life characters as well as having a very close physical resemblance to their real life characters.
I can't imagine anyone other than Morrow doing a better job at playing Dick Goodwin. I've seen "Quiz Show" a half dozen times since it's theatrical release in 1994, and it's message has grown even more relevant since the rise of 24 hour news cycle, tabloid journalism and reality game shows. "Quiz Show" remains one of the great historical docudramas of the 20th Century. -
Alfriend — 14 years ago(January 18, 2012 11:56 PM)
LOL!!! That is what Richard Goodwin looked and acted like. Actually Morrow even with the make-up is still much better looking than the real Goodwin was, lol. And that accent is the way Goodwin speaks. It was a dead-on performance, not an imitation but a fine performance.
Goodwin is supposed to be nerdy and somewhat annoying in contrast to Van Doren's good looks and charm. Here's a photo of the real Richard Goodwin, unibrow and all. A brilliant man lives behind that awkward exterior and he wrote some of the greatest speeches of the decade of the 60's for two presidents. And the picture you're looking at is actually a bit touched up, lol.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_N._Goodwin -
chas437 — 13 years ago(September 06, 2012 09:45 AM)
Agreed. While Rob Morrow is not in a league with some of the other actors in this film, he works well in the role of the ernest young lawyer, out to make a name for himself. But, like you say, the accent is uneven throughout the film making it sound forced.
Overall the casting and acting in this film is about as good as any film in recent memory. I thought both Turturro and Scofield deserved nominations for Best Supporting Actor. Scofield would have won that award in almost any year, but he had the bad fortune to be nominated in the same year as Martin Landau's once in a generation performance as Bela Lugosi in "Ed Wood". -
mcintyro — 12 years ago(February 25, 2014 03:08 PM)
I am watching this film again as we speak, and he's as great as I remember him being.
When this film was made I was an extra in it (Front Desk Clerk at Roosevelt Hotel) in the scene with Rob Morrow and John Turturro.
Mr. Redford, a gracious down-to-earth artist, gave me some lines, which were cut. I was supposed to give Mr. Morrow an important letter and there was a dialogue exchange between me and him.
While the scene was eventually cut, Rob Morrow was great to work with, and he seemed to like what we did.
While I was upset that the scene was cut, I am proud that I had an opportunity to at least be a part of a fine film, impeccably acted, not only by Mr. Morrow, but the rest of the cast. -
Seanpdineen — 11 years ago(July 20, 2014 02:27 PM)
I thought he did an out of this world Job. He will be an excellent Hank Rearden. You might also want to look at Path to War Frankenheimer's swan song to see another Goodwin. In reality he has sort of been in wife's shadow for a while.
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grumpy_otter — 10 years ago(July 08, 2015 06:27 PM)
Not only do I think Morrow was miscast, I think the character shouldn't have been cast in the movie at all. Having three protagonists was so distracting. We want to root for the hapless Stempel; we want to root for the polished Van Dorenwho the hell is this third guy and why should we care?
I thought he was an unnecessary part of the film (yes, I know he's a real person) whose focus should have been on the 21 guys. I think it was a big misstep by Redford to focus on Morrow. -
ibbi — 10 years ago(November 20, 2015 02:47 PM)
Comparing him to all of the people around him who have gone on to have such successful careers he does look a little bit out of place, but I think he's well cast in the role. To me he needs that sort of common edge to him that Morrow brought. I think he filled the role fine, it's not a part that really ask that much of him as an actor.
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mmichaels-71660 — 9 years ago(October 08, 2016 04:12 PM)
I think that he gave a good performance. Yes, I guess a bigger name would have sold more tickets but the film was a success so I don't think it matters much
His character is young and experienced so I guessed they wanted a choose someone young and unknown. I don't think he was miscast, though.