"Who's John Barrymore?"

The subjects of two Telluride Film Festival documentaries, actors Norman Lloyd (left) and Mimi Weddell (right), each 92 years young, pose for a photo at the festival this weekend. Lloyd is the subject of Matthew Sussman’s “Who Is Norman Lloyd?” which looks at his career ranging from vaudeville to television, to work with Charlie Chaplin, Orson Welles & Alfred Hitchcock. Weddell, subject of Jyll Johnstone’s “Hats Off,” is a movie, TV and print fixture (seen briefly in “Sex and the City,” “The Purple Rose of Cairo” and “Hitch”) who still pounds the pavement in New York City auditioning, mostly for roles that amount to brief cameos. “Rise Above It” is the phrase that the vibrant Weddell has written in various places of the small Manhattan apartment she shares with other members of her tight-knit family and her large array of hats. Johnstone followed the actress for more than a decade to capture the crowd-pleasing portrait. Asked on Sunday to reveal her favorite actress, Weddell quickly responded Vanessa Redgrave and then she recounted a recent encounter meeting a young aspiring actress who asked her when she was born. Weddell revealed that she was born the same day in 1915 as John Barrymore, but the young woman asked Weddell, “Who’s John Barrymore?” Pausing for effect, Weddell smiled, “Amazing, isn’t it!” (Photo and caption by Eugene Hernandez/indieWIRE. Reprinted with permission, copyright 2007.)

09.03.2007