Actors Have a Moral Responsibility

I caught a broadcast of Sergeant York today. I've seen it many times before, but I happily watched it again. Great movie. 

The love interest was played by Joan Leslie. She was all of 16 when the movie was made.

Joan was a lovely young lady, quite talented. She was in High Sierra with Humphrey Bogart when she was 15, and in Yankee Doodle Dandy with Jame Cagney when she was 17. She seemed destined for stardom.

But then she, a devout Catholic, began to object to some roles on moral and religious grounds. In 1947, when she was 22, the Catholic Theater Guild gave her an award because of her "consistent refusal to use her talents and art in film productions of objectionable character."  

As a result, she was essentially blackballed in Hollywood. She made a few more movies, but not major ones, and appeared sporadically on television. Stardom eluded her. But she married, remained married for some 40 years, raised two daughters, did a great deal of charitable work, and so on.

I admire her because she, an attractive and talented actress, chose to follow her conscience rather than sell out her beliefs and morals for the sake of success. 

Too many actors - male and female - don't follow her example. They portray characters who engage in all sorts of immoral activities on screen and stage, including appearing nude or semi-nude, simulating sex, engaging in sex outside of marriage, and so on. In doing so, they model this behavior for their audiences - including impressionable young people. 

Yes, I've heard the arguments that they are simply showing what is going on in the world. But that's just a rationalization. By playing such roles they are helping to promote and normalize this kind of behavior.

They have a responsibility to use their talents wisely and well. As Pope St. John Paul II observed, "Those who perceive in themselves... the artistic vocation as poet, writer, sculptor, painter, musician, and actor feel at the same time an obligation not to waste this talent but to develop it, in order to put it to service of their neighbor and the humanity as a whole."

Maybe if we had more Joan Leslies the performing arts might provide positive role models and help counter the trend toward decadence in our culture. 

Pax et bonum