Peter Latham wonders: "Arguably, the most important character in The Unforgiven" is Clint Eastwood's wife. Her personality is reflected in his actions. The film begins and ends with scenes of their home while a voice-over describes their relationship.Yet the wife (years dead in the story) is never seen. I thought the device worked well. Are there other examples of "unseen actors?" What function do they serve? Do they work as well, less well, or better than in the "Unforgiven"?" Offhand, these "unseen actors" seem to fall into different categories. THE UNFORGIVEN actually would seem to be one in a long series of films (and stories) about men who are more or less obsessed by the memory of their dead wives or lovers (and occasionally the sex roles are reversed, although the men are more often away because of war--TENDER COMRADE, for example). There is at least a superficially direct relationship between the scenes in THE UNFORGIVEN and John Wayne's graveyard soliloquys in SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON. The prototype for this trope might be Poe's poem THE RAVEN (and even Roger Corman's campy version of the same). Read Poe's essay "The Philosophy of Composition" and the power of a dead woman to motivate a male protagonist is clearly articulated there. On the other hand, you have the "presence" of missing or dead people in many mystery films, where the search for the killer and/or victim/body motivates most of the film, even if we catch a glimpse of the character otherwise. The title character of THE THIN MAN (who is not Nick Charles/William Powell) is perhaps prototypical here. A variation might occur when the object of the mystery (the "dead" person) turns up alive later in the film--LAURA and THE THIRD MAN, for example. It's rather typical in classical Hollywood films to find famous people portrayed only by reference or a glimpse (eg. a sillhouette or just a hand or leg)-- Jesus in both the Heston BEN-HUR and MONTY PYTHON'S LIFE OF BRIAN, for example, but also President Roosevelt in YANKEE DOODLE DANDY or other representations of presidents or famous people. Sometimes, a famous dead person will leave a trace in the form of a metonymical sign--in ELVIRA MADIGAN, for instance, Elvira has bought a painting with Toulouse-Lautrec's famous monogram in one corner. Another variation might be the quest film, where the "presence" of the quest object hovers over most of the film, only to have the character appear only briefly at the end. THE MASK OF DIMITRIOS, both HEART OF DARKNESS and APOCALYPSE NOW, and even ROGER AND ME could fit here. A missing person's presence might also occur in a sequel. The "old" Don Corleone in THE GODFATHER II, for example (although that issue is complicated by the fact that the "young" Vito is very present and by the question of whether we are to see the first two GODFATHERS, at least, as a seemless whole, as Coppola did edit them for TV/video. The doppelganger motif is another common example of the "presence of an absence," even if we see the " missing" person briefly, as in THE PASSENGER. And then there's the mystery/quest object whose "reality" is in question for much of the film--BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING or the "child" in WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF. Under the "dead lovers" category above, I should also mention one of the most notorious examples: Anne Rutledge in YOUNG MR. LINCOLN. Nothing like a dead woman to bring out the heart in a man!--a point worthy of consideration. One last example: the disembodied voice of a character whose presence is integral to the premise of the whole film, commenting on what he/she sees: "Joseph" in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE or Celeste Holm's voice in LETTER TO THREE WIVES. Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN) ---- To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]