“Hands Down,” Jo Ann Van Fleet Was/Is A Great

Jo Ann Van Fleet is one of the great, so called supporting actors/ actresses of all annals.

Among her great performances were turns as the mother of characters played by brooding, troubled, obviously attractive characters,

played by James Dean and Paul Newman, roughly a dozen years apart first in “East of Eden,” (Dean) and then in “Cool Hand Luke” with Newman.”

My “play” on hands down links Ms. Van Fleet and concerns about her hands, famously “con” gloves when Dean’s “Cal” is in her office in “East of Eden” and wanting so much to improve her hands and nails in a fine episode of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” (“Reward to Finder”) opposite Oscar Homolka. 

A truly great performer, Jo Van Fleet, is pictured above.