| Tom Hulce debuted in the James Dean’s drama “9/30/55 /24 Hours Of The Rebel, 1978. Tom acted in the film and did not attract special attention, till Milos Forman invited him to do the title role in the screen version of Peter Shaffer’s stage play “Amadeus” (1984) and till that time nobody knew Tom Hulce.
On the threshold of dramatic possibilities, the actor has shown the metamorphosis of the infantile cheerful Mozart author of “Requiem”, who encountered death face to face. However, as it often happens, Hulce could not repeat the triumph of “Amadeus” and to date remains as a one- off film star though Hulce acted in many films after Forman’s.
From the 1980’s films, it is possible to make special mention of the historical drama about World War II “Shadowman” (1988), directed by Piotr Andrejew) and the family film by Ron Howard “Parenthood” (1989).
In 1991, A.Konchalovsky invited Hulce to do a leading role in a film on Stalin, which was Konchalovsky’s first film after emigration related to Russia, “The Inner Circle/The Projectionist”.
Hulce, rather successfully having entered into the totalitarian texture of the Kremlin’s luxury and municipal poverty, fits himself into the Soviet mentality of the character and convincingly portrays the transformation of his character as the inevitable consequence of constant direct contact with absolute power.
Later on, Tome Hulce acted in Peter Weir’s film “Fearless” (1993) in the fine company of Jeff Bridges, Isabella Rossellini, John Turturro and Rosie Perez; in Kenneth Branagh’s Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994), who, by the way, was one of the candidates for the role in Amadeus, who was rejected by Forman due to the Americanization of the project; in the experimental film by Jean-Jacques Annaud’s “Wings Of Courage”(1995), which was a 3D film and shot in the “IMAX” format; and at last, in 1997, Hulce lent his voice to the animation Quasimodo in the Disney blockbluster “The Hunchback Of Notre-Dame”.
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American actor Tom Hulce celebrated his 55th birthday past Saturday. He wanted to be a singer as a small child, but switched to acting when his voice changed. Perhaps due to his interest in music, Hulce's most brilliant acting performance was as Mozart in "Amadeus", which got him nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Ironically, he lost the award to his co-star F. Murray Abraham who played Salieri. We wish Tom a very happy 55th birthday, and many new roles!
