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COPYRIGHT 2006 All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of The Condé Nast Publications Inc.
Of the many images that the prolific actor and director Charles Laughton left behind in his relatively brief lifetime--production stills, head shots, off-the-cuff newspaper photographs--the most effective are Carl Van Vechten's 1940 portraits of the artist. Although he is out of costume and out of character, the Yorkshire-born star brings to these photographs something of his signature role, as Quasimodo in the heart-wrenching 1939 film "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." In Van Vechten's artful, awkward images, Laughton seems uncomfortable in his body, a soft mound of clay; leaning forward, he does not know what to do with his hands, his mouth. He peers at the photographer's lens with a degree of panic, as though pleading for a character to hide behind. Like many great actors, Laughton was well aware that playing a part--inhabiting someone else's drama--gave him the extra layer of skin he needed in order to express himself.
The Canadian-born actor Oliver Platt has a way of moving through space--tentatively, suspiciously, delicately--that recalls Laughton's haunted presence. At forty-six, Platt, who is currently a cast member on the television comedy "Huff," among other things, looks like an overgrown version of the boy who is...
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