Acting Tall

Many years ago, I took a tour around Universal Studios, Hollywood. Having survived being eaten by a cousin of the shark who starred in ‘Jaws’, and felt the immense and anarchic power of a (simulated) earthquake, I particularly enjoyed the more low key glimpse of the back-lot sets that had featured in past films, particularly Westerns.

Our guide pointed out a specific doorway. It was lower than the average door frame. Why was that? Because it had been built for Marion Morrison, better known as John Wayne. Given the kind of roles he played, it was easy to assume he was a big man. This is not necessarily so, even though sources online state his height at an impressive 6ft 4” (1.93m), it has been claimed he was only 5ft 6 (1.67m) – pretty short for a Western hero. But when he stood in those tailored doorways, he loomed large.

A memory of this led me to wonder about the heights of actors, and according to the estimable Guinness World Records 2013, the late Matthew McGrory, who featured in Time Burton’s elegiac ‘Big Fish’ (2003), towered at 7 6” (2.29m), making him the tallest actor to have appeared in the movies.

As for actresses, there have been quite a few in modern times who cut an impressive figure at 6 feet, and these include Sigourney Weaver (‘Aliens’,’ Avatar’) and Geena Davis (‘Thelma and Louise’).

Perhaps the last word on size in the movies for this blog should go to Gloria Swanson, whose immortal character of Norma Desmond had a memorable riposte in Billy Wilder’s ‘Sunset Boulevard’ (1950). When her onetime lover and soon to be victim Joe Gillies remarks, “You’re Norma Desmond. You used to be in silent pictures. You used to be big”, Norma tartly comments: I am big. It’s the pictures that got small.”