Heroes who felt no fear, and villains who didn’t give a damn — these were the men who didn’t always play by society’s rules but nonetheless swept up audiences.
They are featured in the Newsmax original “Tough Guys: The Men Who Made Hollywood,” premiering Sunday at 9 p.m. ET.
When to Watch:
9 p.m. ET Tough Guys: The Men Who Made Hollywood
Sunday on Newsmax – Find It Here
The documentary features respected film historians guiding viewers through early Hollywood history and the men who brought life to gangster, outlaw, and heroic roles. They include standout leading men such as Wallace Beery, Lon Chaney, and Edward G. Robinson. James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart are also among those who played the “tough guy” role so iconically.
“Hollywood tough guys were made up of men with grit behind their eyes, and they represented an era when presence and timing outweighed ego,” said Philip Hopkins, president of Film Masters, a consortium of historians and film enthusiasts who seek to celebrate and preserve classic film.
“These men didn't just act — they performed their own life-threatening stunts and brought a raw, unpolished grit to the screen that defined the archetype for years to come,” Hopkins added. “In that brief, explosive moment of history, Hollywood’s tough guys stopped pretending — they simply were.”
Narrated by radio personality and former TV host of “The Movie Loft,” Dana Hersey, the documentary features the perspectives of film expert, author, and screenwriter C. Courtney Joyner, as well as film historian, TV producer, and co-host of the “Film Freaks Forever” podcast, Mark Jordan Legan.
The film also includes analysis of how these early actors transformed the genre and how much influence they had on the direction of the studio system. Other talking points include how Edward G. Robinson crossed so many genres and how Wallace Beery made more than 175 films despite being notoriously difficult to work with.
Whether playing the reluctant hero or the role of the “heavy,” audiences clamored to see larger-than-life stories play out on the big screen. Whatever caricatures these men filled, they brought drama to the movies, which wouldn’t be the same without them.
Hopkins simply referred to these men as “early pioneers of the ‘tough guy’ persona, who were foundational stars of cinema from the silent era and the early talkies.”
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