Back to the ship of dreams….

Actress Gloria Stuart has died, at the age of 100. She is most famous for her portrayal of Rose Dawson, at the age of 101, in the “present day” scenes of Titanic. Not only was she the oldest actress ever nominated for an Oscar, but Titanic is the only film to ever have two actresses nominated for Oscars for playing the same character. I love this, from the obituary:

Ms. Stuart wrote a memoir, “I Just Kept Hoping” (1999), in which she said of her late-blooming career, “When I graduated from Santa Monica High in 1927, I was voted the girl most likely to succeed. I didn’t realize it would take so long.”

I never saw Stuart in anything else, but her performance in Titanic was just fantastic. She provided the film’s emotional grounding, in the way she tells the story that she’s never told anyone at all, until the moment happens to come that almost requires her to do so. Stuart is what keeps the film from becoming a lot of maudlin, melodramatic schlock. One of my favorite moments comes early on, when she is allowed to look at objects recovered from her very own stateroom, objects she recognizes and remembers but hasn’t seen since the great ship went down. She gazes at her hand mirror in wonder, and then looks into the glass, whereupon she sets it down, simply saying, “The reflection’s changed a bit.”

And now I want to watch Titanic again. I kind of want to watch it with The Daughter, but I just don’t think she’s old enough for it yet. A few more years….

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