Trent Dawson Movies
Actor Trent Dawson attained widest recognition for his extended portrayal of Henry Coleman on the daytime soap opera As the World Turns but also evinced a deft hand, off-camera, for Elizabethan stage roles. A native of Baton Rouge, LA, Dawson landed an early bit part during his late teens, by virtue of the fact that an A-list Hollywood production -- Herb Ross' tearjerker Steel Magnolias (1989) -- was shot near his hometown. (Dawson turns up uncredited, as a choir member in the film.) The performer attended Boston University for a short time but subsequently took a year-long sabbatical in Europe, and ultimately earned his degree in drama from the University of Colorado at Boulder. In that venue, Dawson became entranced by the works of the great Bard (participating avidly in the Colorado Shakespeare Festival), and indeed spent his immediate post-collegiate years acting in Broadway productions of Love's Labour's Lost, As You Like It, Macbeth, and other Shakespearean plays, as well as innumerable regional productions of contemporary efforts such as Pal Joey and School for Scandal. Dawson signed for his Coleman role on World in the autumn of 1999 and carried the part for many seasons; for his efforts, he earned Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 2006 and 2007. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
The title refers to those seemingly frail Southern belles who survive any and all deprivations through whims of iron. Robert Harling's original stage play was set exclusively in a Louisiana beauty parlor where an all-female cast of characters laughed, cried and compared menfolk. The film expands the playing field by including scenes at picnics, hospitals and the like, and by visually depicting the males who never appeared in the stage version. Dolly Parton plays the goodnatured beauty-shop owner, while Shirley MacLaine is the cantankerous town eccentric, decked out in grungy overalls and speaking fluent Trash. Well-to-do Sally Field bravely endures several assaults to her sensibilities, not the least of which is the illness (and subsequent death) of daughter Julia Roberts. The performances are first-rate, with the possible exception of Daryl Hannah's overemphatic portrayal of a gawky hairdresser. The film stumbles a bit in its depiction of the male characters as fools and deadheads, and in the final overlong hospital scenes involving the comatose Roberts, which play like a road company version of Terms of Endearment. Otherwise, Steel Magnolias is a prime example of ensemble filmmaking, lovingly coordinated by director Herbert Ross. (Sidebar: Herbert Ross was reportedly rather rough on Julia Roberts, deriding her lack of experience. The rest of the female cast rallied around Roberts and told the director to lay off or pay the price). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sally Field, Dolly Parton, (more)
