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Article Excerpt
Of the many images that the prolific actor and director Charles Laughton left behind in his relatively brief lifetime--production stills, head shots, off-the-cuff newspaper photographs--the most effective are Carl Van Vechten's 1940 portraits of the artist. Although he is out of costume and out of character, the Yorkshire-born star brings to these photographs something of his signature role, as Quasimodo in the heart-wrenching 1939 film "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." In Van Vechten's artful, awkward images, Laughton seems uncomfortable in his body, a soft mound of clay; leaning forward, he does not know what to do with his hands, his mouth. He peers at the photographer's lens with a degree of panic, as though pleading for a character to hide behind. Like many great actors, Laughton was well aware that playing a part--inhabiting someone else's drama--gave him the extra layer of skin he needed in order to express himself.
The Canadian-born actor Oliver Platt has a way of moving through space--tentatively, suspiciously, delicately--that recalls Laughton's haunted presence. At forty-six, Platt, who is currently a cast member on the television comedy "Huff," among other things, looks like an overgrown version of the boy who is...
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