When I asked what actor was in Men Don't Leave,
Titanic, and Primary Colors, I got enough "Leonardo DiCaprio" guesses I worried for a second maybe he was in all three and I'd finally committed the dreaded "Double Threes Answer" foul-up I've been fearing. But a quick double check confirmed that while of course Leo was in Titanic, no he was not in Men Don't Leave (perhaps confusion with This Boy's Life?) or Primary Colors. Whew.
Most of you did get it correct, but the most correct fastest was faithful redblogger and reader who rocks Matthew S.! Matthew gets the construction-paper medal while in second was steady Threes placer Jim and in third was Arianaa. Congrats, all!
So who was in all three of those films? Light up the Inviso-Text for the answer!
It was indeed Kathy Bates, appearing this weekend in the terrific The Blind Side as a Memphis-based tutor–not much of a geographic stretch for Bates, who was born there. Before her big break-out role in 1990's Misery, Bates was working as an actor on stage and in film and television for two decades–she had bit parts in Two of a Kind and Arthur 2, and did guest spots on TV shows such as St. Elsewhere, L.A. Law, and China Beach.
In 1990, Bates also appeared in the under-rated, under-seen family drama Men Don't Leave, starring Jessica Lange, Joan Cusack, Arliss Howard and young Charlie Korsmo and Chris O'Donnell. Men Don't Leave was the second film from Risky Business director Paul Brickman, one of the great "lost" directors of the past 20 years. The very talented Brickman hasn't made a film since then.
Of course in 1997's Titanic Bates played the "unsinkable" Molly Brown, and in the following year's thinly veiled Clinton roman a clef Primary Colors, she was Libby Holden, the campaign adviser and old friend of the "Stantons." Holden was very loosely based on the real-life Betsey Wright, Governor Bill Clinton's chief of staff in Arkansas.
Bates recieved a supporting-actress Oscar nomination for Primary Colors–she was also nominated in 2002 for About Schmidt and won the best-actress Oscar for playing super-fan Annie Wilkes in Misery.
