Evening star., 1955-01-26

Hardly a DAY passes Jnat sol
wood does not turn up at a To-
table. 1t is as if the movie
studios in providing fewer films
to review, were putting players
on the road as compensatory
column material.
Latest passerby in the parade
of Hollywood visitors is Richard
Egan. who stars with Jane Rus
sell in Underwater" the latest
speciment of what Producer
Howard Hughes regards as the
most judicious use of Miss Rus
sell. 1t turns out, not surprising
ly but with something Of dra-
matte contrast nevertheless, that
Mr.. Egan has lot of other SUBJ
jects than Miss Russell to dis
cusS.
Such as Aristotle. Othello, too.
And F. Cowles Strickland. the
most memorable fellow ever as
sociated with Washington's once
lively Civic Theater.
Mr.. Strickland is now teach
ing and directing plays at Le-
land Stanford University's re-
nowned campus theater. has
been doing so for the past dec
ade. That's where Mr.. Egan
ran into him, few years after
the war, when 1t occurred to
him that it would be nice to
have Master of Arts degree in
drama.
1T is not easy" Mr.. Egan
reminisces. Ito be an educated
actor. At least, 1t wasn't for
me. To pay my way through
Stanford and a Masters. / had
to teach English at the Univer-
sity of San Francisco. So /
would teach all morning in San
Francisco. hop a bus, train or
hitch-hike to Paio Alto, for
afternoon classes with Strick
and his faculty colleagues.
After classes, I would grab a
bite to eat and then we would
get into play rehearsal until
midnight. Nothing simple, un-
derstand. The classics. did
'Othello, The Miser.' the Greeks
and most of the other difficult
ones. After that, I'd get back to
San Francisco, flop into bed for
q few hours, and get up bright
and early to teach at 8 o'clock,
Well. the morning was bright at
any rate"
Yet. hard as it was in his case,
Mr.. Egan is all for the univer-
sity-trained actor.
you start basically and work
up." he says. "And when went
to Hollywood in 1949, I felt l
had some useful IDEAS and a
lot of rugged practice"
"Othello," under Prof Sttick-
land was more than role Egan
played. #
IT took him as thesis sub
ject," the actor says Il went
back to Garrick, Kean. Salvini
and worked up through Edwin
Booth studying their different
interpretations: You can get aW-
fully dizzy reading critics over
q period Of 300 years, but in ret
respect. it seems a good idea
to have done it,
\ kk& R
Mr.. Egan, who Is under con-
tract to Goth Century-Fox for
two films yearly, with one out
side job of his own choice, is
an actor still In quest of edu-
cation.
He's an enthusiast particularly
for foreign travel II like Ian
guages; the challenge of them.
When ! made The Devil Makes
Three in Germany with Gene
Kelly and Pier Angel / gave
German try. using the Arny's
handbook. Walters were INV chief
victims. For Italian, used not
only the handbook, but all the
records I could lay my hands on.
! also used Mrs. Angel. Piers
mother, and a Jesuit brother of
mine who is studying in Italy.
! did better with Italian. but ]
am looking forward to making
q picture in England"
Mr.. Egan's recent picture titles
have been running to "U's"
lately, but he does not think il
represents a trend. After I'm
derwater," he will be seen in
"Untamed." The latter he made
with another Irish-American
actor. fellow name of Tyrone