Even more significant is the casting of Pat O'Brien (it was his final film role), a former contract player for Warner Brothers who co-starred with his pal Jimmy Cagney in several films.

Jackson and Fran Drescher also play minor supporting roles and there are some offbeat cameo appearances like author Norman Mailer in the small role of doomed architect Stanford White.Īs for the seasoned veterans, Donald O'Connor, best known as Gene Kelly's sidekick in Singin' in the Rain (1952), appears as Evelyn Nesbit's dance instructor. The huge cast includes Mandy Patinkin, Howard Rollins, Debbie Allen, Jeff Daniels (in his screen debut) and a young Elizabeth McGovern delivering an Oscar-nominated performance as the scandalous Evelyn Nesbit, the girl in the 'red-velvet swing.' Samuel L. But a closer examination of the cast reveals not only a number of legendary actors at the end of their careers, but another generation just entering the acting profession. Ragtime is perhaps best remembered today as the film that brought James Cagney back to the big screen after a twenty-year absence. In addition to Walker's plight, the narrative also weaves in numerous subplots featuring such historically prominent characters as Stanford White, Evelyn Nesbit, Houdini and Booker T. The plot centers around a ragtime piano player, Coalhouse Walker, who demands justice after his car is damaged in a racially motivated act of vandalism. Doctorow novel, is a complex story involving real and fictitious characters in New York City in the early twentieth century.

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