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Why Hollywood Has No Successors For Dolly, Curry, Or Cullen

Thank God movies and records made Dolly, Curry, and Cullen immortal — because the odds are not in our favor that we will see the likes of their entertainment for a while. 

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Last week was a harsh one for culture lovers. In less than 48 hours, we lost a trio of titans. 

Dolly Parton’s death was obviously the hardest blow. She wasn’t just a gifted country music singer. She wasn’t even a star. She was an icon, an embodiment of America, as much as John Wayne. 

For his part, Tim Curry was one of the last of the old-school character actors like Roddy McDowall and Joseph Calleia, a man who could play opposite Kermit the Frog or Sean Connery and fit perfectly, regardless of genre. Peter Cullen was probably the least known of the three, but multiple generations loved him as the life force of the heroic Optimus Prime in multiple incarnations of Transformers. His return to voice Optimus was a major reason why Michael Bay’s big-screen adaptations of Transformers succeeded. 

Their deaths would be hard on any occasion. But they hit harder now because it’s obvious they have no successors. Worse, there is no longer a structure in place to create successors. 

Talking about successors sounds cold, reducing a person to a mere product. However, for much of Hollywood’s existence, grooming successors for its stars was just part of show business. As Denis Gifford put it in his 1973 book, The Pictorial History of Horror Movies: It was an iron law of Hollywood that every star needed a successor. 

Some of the clearest examples of this law come from the early horror movies. Lon Chaney Sr. was the first true horror star, after he brought the Hunchback of Notre Dame and the Phantom of the Opera to life. When Chaney left Universal for MGM, Universal didn’t panic but replaced him with Conrad Veidt (best remembered today as Major Strasser in Casablanca) to star in The Man Who Laughs, since Veidt, after Chaney, was the best-known actor of macabre roles. A more permanent solution was found when director James Whale discovered an unknown bit player named Boris Karloff and cast him in........

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