Six Degrees of Separation: From novelist Patricia Highsmith to …

Patricia Highsmith 6°

… Marilyn Monroe
Highsmith’s novel The Talented Mr. Ripley, was the basis for the movie, The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), directed by Anthony Minghella (1), who also made Cold Mountain (2003), for which Renée Zellweger (2) bagged the Best Supporting Actress Oscar, her only Oscar win till date, and Zellweger worked with Tom Cruise (3) in Jerry Maguire (1996), and Cruise appeared in Rain Man (1988), alongside Dustin Hoffman (4), who gained famed when he played a young man being seduced by an older lady, whilst dating her daughter, in The Graduate (1967), and the older lady in question was played by Anne Bancroft (5), who earlier starred in the thriller, Don’t Bother to knock (1952), where Marilyn Monroe (6) played a psychotic babysitter, one of those rare movies where Monroe was given a chance to prove herself as an actress, and not just used as a sex symbol.

… Charlotte Rampling
Highsmith’s novel The Talented Mr. Ripley, was adapted into the French Film, Plein Soleil (1959/60), by René Clément (1), who also directed Is Paris Burning? (1966) starring Kirk Douglas (2), whose son Michael Douglas (3) appeared in Coma (1978), alongside Geneviève Bujold (4), and Bujold played Anne Boleyn (5) in the bio-pic, Anne of The Thousand Days (1969), as did Charlotte Rampling (6) in Henry VIII and His Six Wives (1972).

… Joan Collins
Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train, was adapted into a noir thriller, by Alfred Hitchcock (1); which was released in 1951; and Hitchcock directed Gregory Peck (2) in the psychological thriller, Spellbound (1945), and Peck played the lead in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), which was based on a novel by Harper Lee (3), who was portrayed by Sandra Bullock (4) in Infamous (2006), and Bullock, early on in her career, starred in the television mini-series Lucky Chances (1990), which was based on the first two books; on the ‘Santangelo’ saga, a series of nine novels; by Jackie Collins (5), who happens to be the younger sister of actress Joan Collins (6).

… M. Night Shyamalan
Highsmith’s novel Strangers on a Train, was referenced in an episode of the television crime drama Castle (2009-till date); where two ‘strangers on a boat’ meet and swap murders in the style of Highsmith’s acclaimed novel; and the titular character, of Castle, is played by Nathan Fillion (1), who’s constantly mistaken; both on the show, and in real life; to be Jason Bateman (2), who starred in Juno (2007), for which Diablo Cody (3) won an Oscar for the Best Original Screenplay, and Cody recently directed the movie, Paradise (2013), which stars Octavia Spencer (4), who won the Best Supporting actress Oscar, last year, for The Help (2011), which co-starred Bryce Dallas Howard (5), who appeared in The Village (2004), which was directed by M. Night Shyamalan (6).

… Joachim Lafosse  
Highsmith’s novel Ripley‘s Game, was adapted into the German film, Der Amerikanische Freund (1977), by director Wim Wenders (1), who directed Nastassja Kinski (2) in the American film Paris, Texas (1984), and Kinski starred in the cult-Horror flick, Cat People (1982), where British actor, Malcolm McDowell (3), played her brother, and McDowell had a cameo in; the best French silent venture (with sound, but no voice) of the 21st Century; The Artist (2011), where the female lead was played by French actress, Bérénice Bejo (4), who appeared in Le Passé (2013), alongside, French actor of Algerian descent, Tahar Rahim (5), who starred in the Belgian flick, À Perdre la Raison (2012); a movie based on a real life tragedy, where a woman feeling suffocated in her marriage, kills her children and tries to commit suicide; and this film was directed by Belgian director Joachim Lafosse (6).

… Jessica Tandy
Highsmith’s novel Ripley‘s Game, was the basis for the movie, Ripley‘s Game (2002), starring John Malkovich (1), who starred in Dangerous Liaisons (1988), which was directed by Stephen Frears (2), as was Dirty Pretty Things (2002); a movie about illegal immigrants living and working in a West London hotel; which starred Chiwetel Ejiofor (3), and Ejiofor appeared in the Woody Allen (4) comedy, Melinda and Melinda (2004), and Allen also directed Manhattan (1979), where Meryl Streep (5) played his lesbian ex-wife, and Streep came in the murder mystery movie, Still of the Night (1982), which co-starred Jessica Tandy (6).

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