Actor  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Revision as of 21:37, 11 November 2018

Adrienne Lecouvreur as Cornelia by Charles-Antoine Coypel

Great Train Robbery

At the Theater (The Melodrama) (c. 1860-64) - Honoré Daumier

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An actor or actress is a person who acts, or plays a role, in a dramatic production. The term commonly refers to someone working in movies, television, live theatre, or radio, and can occasionally denote a street entertainer. Besides playing dramatic roles, actors may also sing or work only on radio or as a voice artist.

An actor usually plays a fictional character. In the case of a true story (or a fictional story that portrays real people) an actor may play a real person (or a fictional version of the same). Occasionally, actors appear as themselves, as in John Malkovich's performance in the film Being John Malkovich.

History

The first recorded case of an actor performing took place in 534 BC (though the changes in calendar over the years make it hard to determine exactly) when the Greek performer Thespis stepped on to the stage at the Theatre Dionysus and became the first known person to speak words as a character in a play or story. Prior to Thespis' act, stories were only known to be told in song and dance and in third person narrative. In honour of Thespis, actors are commonly called Thespians. Theatrical legend to this day maintains that Thespis exists as a mischievous spirit, and disasters in the theatre are sometimes blamed on his ghostly intervention.

Actors were traditionally not people of high status, and in the Early Middle Ages travelling acting troupes were often viewed with distrust. In many parts of Europe, actors could not even receive a Christian burial, and traditional beliefs of the region and time period held that this left any actor forever condemned. However, this negative perception was largely reversed in the 19th and 20th centuries as acting has become an honoured and popular profession and art.

See also

• Acting
• Bit part
• Body double
• Cameo appearance
• Character actor
• Charisma
• Child actor
• Drama school
• Dramatis personæ
• Extra (actor)
• GOTE
• Improvisational theatre
• Leading actor
• Lists of actors
• Master of Fine Arts
• Matinee idol
• Method acting
• Meisner technique
• Mime
• Movie star
• Paradox of the Actor
• Pornographic actor
• Presentational acting and Representational acting
• Q Score
• Stunt work
• Supporting actor
• Thespis
• Understudy
• Vaudeville
• Viewpoints
• Voice Actor