Today's Birthdays 1/6

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 1/6/08 at 9:54pm

Joan of Arc (Jeanne D’Arc) 1/6/1412 - 5/31/1431 Maid of Orleans: French heroine: liberated the city of Orleans from the English; burned at the stake as a witch; Roman Catholic saint, source mat'l

John Durang 01/06/1768 - 1816 performer, father of Ferdinand Durang, grandfather of Edwin Forrest Durang, related to Christopher Durang, 1st American-born professional actor. Performed in the John Bill Ricketts' Circus in 1793 in Philadelphia.

Junius Brutus Booth 01/06/1868 - Dec 6, 1912 performer - Robespierre; The Marriage Game

Tom Mix 1/6/1880 - 10/12/1940 performer - film's Ranch Life in the Great Southwest, On the Little Big Horn or Custer’s Last Stand, A Prisoner of Cabanas, Sagebrush Tom, The Chef at Circle G, Going West to Make Good, Rough-Riding Romance, Tom Mix in Arabia, Rustler’s Roundup, The Miracle Rider; over 300 films

Khalil Gibran 1/6/1883 - 4/10/1931 Lebanese-born American novelist and poet

Joey Adams 1/6/1911 - 12/2/1999 comedian: “He’s the kind of doctor who feels your purse -- watch it!” “A bore never opens his mouth unless he has nothing to say.”

Loretta Young 1/6/1913 - Aug 12, 2000 performer - film's & tv's Academy Award-winning actress: [1 of my all-time favs] The Farmer’s Daughter [1947]; Emmy Award-winning actress: Letter to Loretta [1959]; The Loretta Young Show, Big Business Girl, The Crusades, Doctor Takes a Wife, A Night to Remember, Rachel and the Stranger

Danny Thomas 1/6/1914 - 2/6/1991 Marlo’s Dad; film's & tv's Emmy Award-winning Best Actor: Make Room for Daddy [1954]; I'll See You In My Dreams (loved Doris Day in this movie); philanthropist: St. Jude’s Children’s Research Center, Memphis, TN

E. L. Doctorow 01/06/1931 author, source mat'l: Welcome to Hard Times, Ragtime - Ragtime

Rosaleen Linehan 01/06/1937 performer - Dancing at Lughnasa; Tartuffe (wonderful as Orgon's mom)(Jeffrey Carlson, Brian Murray, Henry Goodman)

Bonnie Franklin 01/06/1944 performer - Applause; tv's One Day at a Time; The Kettles in the Ozarks; The Law

Rowan Atkinson 01/06/1955 writer, performer - Rowan Atkinson at the Atkinson; tv's & film's Black Adder; 4 Weddings & a Funeral; Mr. Bean series; Not the Nine O'Clock News

Pascale Faye 01/06/1964 performer - Victor/Victoria; 1992 Guys & Dolls; 1996 Once Upon a Mattress; Contact; Movin' Out (Scott Wise, Elizabeth Parkinson, Ashley Tuttle, John Selya)

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

1930 An American soldier on leave and a chorus girl meet on Waterloo Bridge. Robert E. Sherwood's drama stars Glenn Hunter and June Walker. I looooved Vivien Leigh's movie of this play with Robert Taylor! 1 of the saddest movies I ever saw.

1937 Walter Huston stars in Othello at the New Amsterdam Theatre in New York.

1950 Burgess Meredith stars in the opening night of the musical fantasy Happy as Larry, which had been a major hit in London but suffers a three-performance flop on Broadway.

1954 Mademoiselle Colombe with Julie Harris, Eli Wallach, Sam Jaffe

1963 Oliver! with Georgia Brown, Clive Revill, Bruce Prochnik, David Jones

1974 Liza

1980 Kate Nelligan stars as a former member of the French resistance who searches for meaning in her postwar life in David Hare's drama Plenty, which opens tonight on Broadway, and runs 92 performances at the Plymouth Theatre.

1994 The Government Inspector with Tony Randall, Lainie Kazan

ON THIS DAY IN:

1540 England's King Henry VIII married his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves. The marriage lasted about six months.

1952 - A regular feature of Sunday funny papers debuted. Peanuts was seen above the fold in newspapers across the U.S. The Charles Schulz creation became the most successful syndicated comic strip in history.

1990 Michael Shawn, choreographer for Legs Diamond, is awarded a $175,000 settlement from the Nederlanders today. Shawn claimed he was fired because he tested positive for the AIDS virus.

1993 Ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev died at age 54.

1993 Jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie died at age 75.

(sources: IBDB, IMDB, NYT's ON THIS DAY, 440.com’s Those Were The Days, Playbill.com)

Milla