Today's Birthdays 5/29

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 5/29/08 at 5:16pm

Patrick Henry 5/29/1736 - 6/6/1799 American orator and patriot of the American Revolution: "Give me liberty, or give me death!"

G.K. Chesterton 05/29/1874 - 6/14/1936 English critic, poet, essayist, novelist and writer of short-stories - Magic (Frank Conroy); 1942 Magic (Eddie Dowling, Julie Haydon, John McKee, Bram Nossen, Farrell Pelly);

Ludmilla Toretzka 05/29/1884 - May 1967 performer - 1929 Uncle Vanya (Fanchot Tone); Bitter Oleander (Eugenie Leontovich); Sunup to Sundown (Sidney Lumet); 1938 The Merry Wives of Windsor (Lex Barker, Estelle Winwood); orig The Rose Tattoo (Maureen Stapleton, Eli Wallach, Martin Balsam, Don Murray); Horses in Midstream (Cedric Hardwick); Four Winds (Add Todd, Conrad Nagel); A Call on Kuprin (Dabney Coleman, Ludmilla Tchor); tv's & film's Decoy; Naked City; The Men in Her Life (Loretta Young, Conrad Veidt, Dean Jagger, Otto Kruger, Ann Todd)

Beatrice Lillie 05/29/1894 - 1/20/1989 Lady Peel; English comedienne; starred in British and American revues; wife of Robert Peel - Andre Charlot's Revue of 1924 (Jack Buchanan, Gertrude Lawrence, Jessie Matthews [Bway debut]); Oh, Please (Helen Broderick, Charles Winninger); She's My Baby (Irene Dunne [love her!], Geraldine Fitzgerald, William Frawley, Clifton Webb); Too True to Be Good (Leo G. Carroll, Claude Raines); Walk a Little Faster (Bobby Clark); At Home Abroad (John Payne, Eleanor Powell, Craig Stevens, Ethel Waters, Vera Allen, Eddie Foy, Jr., Reginald Gardiner); The Show is On (Bert Lahr); Seven Lively Arts (jazz great & Mildred Bailey's ex Red Norvo, Dolores Gray, Nan Wynn, u/s Helen Gallagher); Inside U.S.A. (Jack Haley, Jack Cassidy, Lewis Nye, Carl Reiner); An Evening With Beatrice Lillie; Auntie Mame [replacement]; High Spirits (Tammy Grimes, Edward Woodward); film's On Approval, Thoroughly Modern Millie

Bob Hope 05/29/1903 - Jul 27, 2003 performer; husband of Dolores Reade (1934 - 2003) his death - Sidewalks of New York (Ruby Keeler); Bob Hope at The Palace; Roberta (Fay Templeton, Lyda Robertsi, Sydney Greenstreet, Alan Jones, Fred MacMurray); Ziegfeld Follies of 1936 (Fanny Brice, Eve Arden, Josephine Baker,Judy Canova); Red, Hot and Blue (Jimmy Durante, Ethel Merman); film's made his first feature film appearance in The Big Broadcast of 1938 singing Thanks for the Memory, which became his theme song. Bob Hope hit it big, however, in 1940 with his first ‘road’ picture, The Road to Singapore. Co-starring with Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour, he hit the road to Zanzibar, Morroco, Utopia, Rio, Bali (the first in color), and the last, Hong Kong in 1962.

Stacy Keach Sr. 5/29/1914 - 2/13/2003 father of actors Stacy and James Keach; performer - tv's & films'The Parallax View, High Velocity, Fighting Back, Armed and Dangerous, The Rockford Files, Bonanza, Longstreet, Maverick

John F. Kennedy 5/29/1917 - 11/22/1963 married to Jaqueline Bouvier [two sons, one daughter]; nickname: JFK, Jack; youngest, first Roman Catholic, first to win Purple Heart, first to serve in U.S. Navy, first to win Pulitzer Prize [book: Profiles in Courage], fourth U.S. President to be assassinated, secondnd buried at Arlington National Cemetery; assassinated Nov 22, 1963

Burt Bacharach 05/29/1929 composer; husband of Paula Stewart (? - ?) divorced, Carole Bayer Sager (? - ?) divorced, Angie Dickinson (1966 - 1980) divorced - Marlene Dietrich; Promises, Promises; The Look of Love

Nick Mancuso 5/29/1948 performer; married to Patricia Hope (1981 - 1983) (divorced) 1 child, Nadia Capone (? - present) 1 child; Was artistic director for the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre, at the same time building up his classical resume at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. - tv's & film's Dr. Scorpion; Ticket to Heaven; Heartbreakers; Time of Fear; Call of the Wild; Veiled Truth; The Wrong Mr. Johnson; Branded

Karla DeVito 05/29/1953 performer, Wife of Robby Benson (1982 - present); 2 children - The Pirates of Penzance; orig Big River [replacement]; tv's & film's Modern Love (Robby Benson, Rue McClanahan, Frankie Valli, Kaye ballard, Burt Reynolds, Louise Lasser)

Annette Bening 5/29/1958 performer - Coastal Disturbances (Timothy Daly); film's Richard III, The American President, Love Affair, Bugsy, Postcards from the Edge, The Grifters, Valmont, The Great Outdoors, Mars Attacks!, American Beauty; Running with Scissors; Being Julia; 2008 The Women

Roger Kachel 05/29/1961 - Apr 5, 2006 performer; According to Dance Magazine, Mr. Kachel learned every male role in Cats over the course of 11 years, having performed in four different "Cats" companies as a swing member. After Cats, he began a second career as a baker, joining Ron Ben Israel Cakes. - Replacement in both Cats & Starlight Express

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE

1933 Uncle Tom's Cabin - Otis Skinner

1951 Oklahoma! - Patricia Northrop, Ridge Bond, Henry Clarke, Walter Donahue, Jacqueline Sundt

1963 Pal Joey - Mercedes Ellington, Bob Fosse, Rita Garener, Viveca Lindfors, Kay Medford

1998 Kevin Knight, who directed the London premiere of Birdy, brings the American premiere to Philadelphia Theatre Company. Naomi Wallace's adaptation of William Wharton's novel is set in Philadelphia, just after World War II and examines the friendship between the sensitive, bird-obsessed Birdy and body building-obsessed Al and their struggle with identity.

ON THIS DAY IN:

1765 Patrick Henry denounced the Stamp Act before Virginia's House of Burgesses, saying, "If this be treason, make the most of it!" (Later on that evening a biiig birthday party was held in his honer)

1951 Performer Fanny Brice died today in Hollywood. She was first engaged by Florenz Ziegfeld for his Follies in 1910. She would become one of his lead acts. In 1928 she first appeared in a film. She created the character Baby Snooks, the center of her famed radio show. Her life was immortalized in the Broadway musical, Funny Girl, starring Barbra Streisand. She was 60 years old.

1979 Mary Pickford died at the age of 87.

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

Milla