Star system (filmmaking)

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The star system was the method of creating, promoting, and exploiting stars in Hollywood films from the 1920s until the 1960s. Movie studios selected promising young actors and glamorised and created personas for them, often inventing new names and even new backgrounds. Examples of stars who went through the star system include Cary Grant (born Archibald Leach), Joan Crawford (born Lucille Fay LeSueur), and Rock Hudson (born Roy Harold Scherer, Jr.). The star system put an emphasis on the image rather than the acting, although discreet acting, voice, and dancing lessons were a common part of the regimen. Women were expected to behave like ladies, and were never to leave the house without makeup and stylish clothes. Men were expected to be seen in public as gentlemen. Morality clauses were a common part of actors' studio contracts. Studio executives, public relations staffs, and agents worked together with the actor to create a star persona and cover up incidents or lifestyles that would...

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