A LITTLE RELIEF LIST

As longtime readers of this blog know, I had brain surgery in November of 2009 and one of the results was that a lifetime listmaking compulsion disappeared.

Ever since my earliest memories I've compulsively made lists, in my poetry and prose, in conversations, in my mind when it wasn't otherwise occupied (and even sometimes when it was), including when I was falling asleep at night or trying to (which was when I made my most focused lists to help me tire my mind out, like listing only two word titles of favorite movies for every letter in the alphabet etc.).

Before the operation the largest number of posts for any label was "lists"—but afterward that changed. Not only did the compulsion disappear, even the inclination, but also any capacity to make a list. I'd think of a broad category, like favorite movies or songs etc. and come up with one or two names and then entirely lose interest!

But last night, I actually thought of a list and ended up coming up with many names, so I thought I'd post it for whatever comparative interest it might have for anyone reading this. What came to mind was the idea of movie actors whose work I dig so much I can watch anything, even movies I don't like, if these actors are in them (excluding actors I know personally from work or life, there's too many and I'm afraid my post-op brain would leave some out unintentionally):

Buster Keaton
Jimmy Cagney
Jean Harlow
Humphrey Bogart
Myrna Loy
Spencer Tracy
Gary Cooper
Ingrid Bergman
Cary Grant
Katherine Hepburn
Jimmy Stewart
Carole Lombard
Fred Astaire
Greer Garson
Jane Greer
Robert Mitchum
Theresa Wright
Veronica Lake
Martha Vickers
Ida Lupino
Marlon Brando
Marilyn Monroe
Dorothy Dandrige
Audrey Hepburn
Paul Newman
Grace Kelly
Frank Sinatra
Lee Remick
Sidney Poitier
Kim Novack
Vanessa Redgrave
Gerard Depardieu
Hugh Grant
Denzel Washington
Daniel Day-Lewis
Andie MacDowell
Don Cheadle
George Clooney
Scarlett Johansson
Matt Damon
Keri Russell
Marion Cotillard
Jennifer Connelly
and many more I'm sure

[PS: like Gene Tierney, Robin Wright, Catherine Deneuve, Rachel McAdams, Jean Seberg, Ann Sheridan, Barbara Stanwyck, Irene Dunne, Evan Rachel Wood, Isabelle Adjani, Julie Delpy, Minnie Driver, Kate Winslet...]