Actresses portraying Mary

[mercurialmade62]

Actresses playing Mary Kelly

Well, ANYONE could make a better fist of it than Heather Grahame in 'From Hell'............that accent was STINK! And as for sanctifying Mary Kelly, I rather think a 25 year old woman who is ground down by the harsh circumstances of the times she was born into and then gets hacked to death in the most vicious manner possible deserves some compassion. There but for the grace of God..........ect!

[CraigInTwinCities]

Well, ANYONE could make a better fist of it than Heather Grahame in 'From Hell'............that accent was STINK! And as for sanctifying Mary Kelly, I rather think a 25 year old woman who is ground down by the harsh circumstances of the times she was born into and then gets hacked to death in the most vicious manner possible deserves some compassion. There but for the grace of God..........ect!

Mercurial,

Heather Graham needs to stick to light comedy, agreed. As to your other comments, well...

I appreciate the compassion you're TRYING to show, but let's be honest...

"There but for the grace of God?" Really?

Truth would be more like, "There but for the love of drink..."

Or maybe, "There but for a lot of poor life choices..."

I don't mean to sound harsh, if I do. It's just that I don't see the point in canonizing into near-sainthood the most anonymous and mysterious of Jack's victims, merely because she was (possibly) the youngest and (potentially) the most attractive (we are led to beleive.)

To me, Liz Strde, Cate Eddowes and the rest are all equally deserving of respect. Just because they were 20 years on or so from where MJ was, doesn't mean they're less unfortunate.

And also, not to sound like ol' Ebenezer of the Dickens classic, but each of the McNaughton Five were as much victims of their own bad choices and victims of the love of booze as they were victims of circumstance, society or Jack.

At least three (if I recall right off the top of my head) of these women were in such poor health, they'd have been dead within a year anyway. Most were in such bad health not for lack of opportunity, but for wasted opportunities. Most had been/were married; most had held respectable jobs that they lost because they preferred getting roaring drunk. Yes, they ended up in terrible circumstances that no one deserves, have no doubt about that... but the more we learn of the lives of the McNaughton Five, the clearer it becomes that they were victims long before Jack drew a single drop of blood... and were in some ways victims of self as much as anything.

"There but for the grace of God?" I'm not so sure... I think I can only agree with that IN PART. Also, the implication is that God somehow failed to protect these five women with His grace, which paints a fairly callous and capricious picture of the Almighty.... Their deaths rest on Jack's hands, not God's.

God's grace plays a role, I'll admit... but so do the choices and actions of us all, don't you think?

[CraigInTwinCities]

Hello Craig!

Since we are neither producers nor script-writers here, we can always use the "worm-hole" thinking!

So; Kate Winslet, why not?!

All the best
Jukka

Jukka,


My only hesitation would be she's past the proper age for MJK. Truth is, Emily Watson of HARRY POTTER fame would be a better choice, in many ways... and once she's done with the Potter films, would be just about the right age, in 2011/2012.

[j.r-ahde]

Hello Craig!

What I meant by worm-hole is the idea, that;

we can bring anyone from any time to act as MJK (in theory! )!

The least I can say, is, that;

my personal impression of MJK is, that she had a slightly adolescent-looking face. This is based on the sketch about her on the front door of nr. 13...

So, a pretty girl with an adolescent-flavour and slightly chubby to modern beauty standards (this includes more than the bust! ) and could be of any age between 20-30 by outlook; there is my choice!

All the best
Jukka

[Stewart P Evans]

Heather Graham

Here's a shot of me with the director Albert Hughes and Heather Graham (in her Mary Kelly garb) outside the National Theatre in Prague during the shooting of From Hell. You will see that she is a very nice girl and it was great pleasure to meet her.

[j.r-ahde]

Hello Stewart!

Yes, she's goodlooking! Her face is a bit, how to say it; slightly narrower than the real-life MJK's! But otherwise she could have been rather close...

The thing, that always bothers me, while reading the reviews of "From Hell"; they complain HG not to talk the real cockney accent.

Holy Healthy Criticism; did the real-life MJK then?!

All the best
Jukka

[Natalie Severn]

Here's a shot of me with the director Albert Hughes and Heather Graham (in her Mary Kelly garb) outside the National Theatre in Prague during the shooting of From Hell. You will see that she is a very nice girl and it was great pleasure to meet her.

[ATTACH]2054[/ATTACH]

Great shot of you all Stewart.However,what the chances that Mary Kelly resembled this lovely film actress? The real Mary would have been a little hard faced I reckon,but you never know---Walter Dew and Mrs Phoenix were quite complimentary about her.
Best
Norma

[j.r-ahde]

Hello Natalie!

I wonder, if we are talking about the same thing with different words here about MJK's face...

One thing, talking about actresses anyway; portraying MJK needs, besides pretty and wide face plus being buxom, that she should be tall!

Thinking about real-life Mary being almost as tall as the men of her time!

All the best
Jukka

[Chava]

And how do we know she was 'buxom'? The other 5 were just as deserving of pity etc as Kelly was, but because she was in her 20s, all you Kelly groupies are all gaga and 'how tragic' and 'pretty' etc. You don't know what she looked like. Chances are she looked a damn' sight older than she was because she had had a rough life and she liked a drink. Chances are she smelt because most people in that group didn't wash enough. Chances are if you saw her in the street you'd either not notice her or cross the street to avoid her.

All this Kelly worship sets my teeth on edge because while you're glorifying her, you're ignoring 4 other women who also died in nasty circumstances and whose lives were horribly similar to Kelly's. Don't they deserve 'which actress plays...' threads as well? No, of course not. Because they all had committed the cardinal sin of being in their 40s while Kelly was 25 or so. And probably not cute, probably not attractive, certainly drunk and possibly disorderly. But all of this you will forgive her because she was young and therefore sexy. Are you not aware how fast people aged in the days before the national health and decent nutrition and dental care? Chances are she looked like 40 miles of bad road.

[CraigInTwinCities]

I've voiced many of the same objections, Chava.

I mentioned Emily Watson due to acting resume and the fact that she's not a classic beauty. Whatever she lacks (proper hair color, too thin) could be made up for by prepping for the role, or makeup.

And I have in the past mentioned a dream cast that included other victims. I think the BIG CRASH may have wiped that out, though...

But are Ripperologists guilty of canonizing Kelly above all others? I believe so, too often... see my article in the still-current RIPPER NOTES #28.

That article will be my last published work on MJK for some time to come, since I am in the middle of some hip-deep research for a JACK article with an entirely different focus... I'd mention what it's about, but it's far too early...

Well... I'll give a hint with the use of six initials...

JTR... BTK...

[Stewart P Evans]

Glorifying?

And how do we know she was 'buxom'? The other 5 were just as deserving of pity etc as Kelly was, but because she was in her 20s, all you Kelly groupies are all gaga and 'how tragic' and 'pretty' etc. You don't know what she looked like. Chances are she looked a damn' sight older than she was because she had had a rough life and she liked a drink. Chances are she smelt because most people in that group didn't wash enough. Chances are if you saw her in the street you'd either not notice her or cross the street to avoid her.
All this Kelly worship sets my teeth on edge because while you're glorifying her, you're ignoring 4 other women who also died in nasty circumstances and whose lives were horribly similar to Kelly's. Don't they deserve 'which actress plays...' threads as well? No, of course not. Because they all had committed the cardinal sin of being in their 40s while Kelly was 25 or so. And probably not cute, probably not attractive, certainly drunk and possibly disorderly. But all of this you will forgive her because she was young and therefore sexy. Are you not aware how fast people aged in the days before the national health and decent nutrition and dental care? Chances are she looked like 40 miles of bad road.

I'm not glorifying anyone, I merely commented on what a nice girl Heather Graham is. As a serving police officer for nearly 30 years I have had to deal with many prostitutes, drunk and sober, and of all ages ranging from mere teenagers to some in their fifties. And they still age fast because of their lifestyles and drug abuse. So I really do not need to be told anything about them or their problems and the causes of those problems.

[celee]

Hi,

Lysette Anthony has always been my favorite actress who has played Mary Kelly.

Kelly was younger and most likely better looking then the others. I think Inspector Dew described her as attractive and clean. However, I doubt she was a saint and I would be willing to bet that if some of the Kelly "groupies" ever got the chance to meet her they would be disapointed with her charactor.

Your friend, Brad

[j.r-ahde]

Hello Chava!

And how do we know she was 'buxom'? The other 5 were just as deserving of pity etc as Kelly was, but because she was in her 20s, all you Kelly groupies are all gaga and 'how tragic' and 'pretty' etc. You don't know what she looked like. Chances are she looked a damn' sight older than she was because she had had a rough life and she liked a drink. Chances are she smelt because most people in that group didn't wash enough. Chances are if you saw her in the street you'd either not notice her or cross the street to avoid her.

All this Kelly worship sets my teeth on edge because while you're glorifying her, you're ignoring 4 other women who also died in nasty circumstances and whose lives were horribly similar to Kelly's. Don't they deserve 'which actress plays...' threads as well? No, of course not. Because they all had committed the cardinal sin of being in their 40s while Kelly was 25 or so. And probably not cute, probably not attractive, certainly drunk and possibly disorderly. But all of this you will forgive her because she was young and therefore sexy. Are you not aware how fast people aged in the days before the national health and decent nutrition and dental care? Chances are she looked like 40 miles of bad road.

We know she was buxom, because the contemporary people told her to look like that! All we know fro sure - also including you - is, that she had a face slashed beyond recognition!

I can only talk on my behalf, but; I can honestly say, that on the former boards I was also saying, that she could have been buxom, while entering the East End and then became stout, after heavy drinking there!

All right, I find MJK the most interesting. But I am not worshipping her at all, it's just her being unknown. If her real backround would be found someday, I would like to hear it.

Then; feel free, dear friend, to start "which actress...?" threads with the other victims!



(Which one for Liz? Greta Garbo?

In fact, you can confirm this from my friend; I wished to see a tv-movie presenting all the victims life-stories from a kid til the East End, already before I joined Casebook in January 2006! )

OK, back to the theme of this thread; Lysette Anthony looks great. But she doesn't match my image of MJK!

All the best
Jukka

[Neal Shelden]

What surprised me about the film "From Hell" was the way the casting was all wrong on the women. Susan Lynch (despite being from Ulster) would have made a perfect Mary Jane Kelly instead of Stride, who should have been played by the late Katrin Cartlidge who actually played Chapman, who should have been played by Lesley Sharp who played Eddowes, who should have been played by Annabelle Apsion who played Nichols, that should have been played by Samantha Spiro who played Tabram.

[j.r-ahde]

Hello Neal!

Yes, Susan Lynch would have been pretty close. She should have dyed her hair, though!

I just cannot help continuing the theme on this thread started by Chava, though;

If my earlier thoughts sounded strange, it was because of my return from my shift-work, sorry!

But what it comes to MJK being the thread-queen of the victims, I think there is more than her just being young and pretty (at least compared to the others);

Without her clever and probably forever unsolved cover-up she would probably be just another victim, despite being younger and obviously prettier than the others. And that she could keep her secrets, despite her tremendous drinking; even Joe Barnett didn't know about the letter she received from Ireland. Most obviously it would have revealed too much about her, so she most obviously burnt it in the fire-place!

Back to the theme; I think, that Susan George was good as Catherine Eddowes.

What it comes to my favourite MJKs, I think I've said enough so far!

All the best
Jukka