Today's Birthdays 12/19
Today's Birthdays 12/19
#0Today's Birthdays 12/19
Posted: 12/18/05 at 11:13pm
Mrs. Fiske 12/19/1865 – 2/15/1932 Mary August Davey, who acted under the names Minnie Maddern, Minnie Maddern Fiske and Mrs. Fiske. Performer, director and producer of many dramas before and after the turn of the 20th century, most notably Becky Sharpe, Salvation Nell, Tess of d'Urbervilles, A Doll House and Hedda Gabler. In later years she became more interested in humanitarian activities. A strict vegetarian, militantly opposed to medical experimentation on living animals, she was considered a fanatic for her time in her war on the wearing of furs. The actress to whom Addison DeWitt refers when he tells Eve Harrington: "That gesture went out with Mrs. Fiske."
Fritz Reiner 12/19/1888 - 11/15/1963 Hungarian-born American conductor, 1 of the greats
Sir Ralph Richardson 12/19/1902 - 10/10/1983 performer - stage debut in 1921 as Lorenzo in The Merchant of Venice, and go on to become one of the major actors of Great Britain in the post-World War II period. - 1935 Romeo and Juliet (Tyrone Power, Jr., Katharine Cornell, Maurice Evans); 1946 King Henry IV, Part I & II (Olivier); 1946 Uncle Vanya (Olivier, Margaret Leighton); 1946 Oedipus Rex; 1946 The Critic; 1946 The Waltz of the Toreadors (Sudie Bond); 1963 The School for Scandal (John Gielgud); No Man's Land (Terence Rigby)
Edith Piaf 12/19/1915 - 10/11/1963 French cabaret singer, actress, source mat'l - Edith Piaf; An Evening With Yves Montand
Edmund Purdom 12/19/1924 - Husband of Linda Christian (1962 - 1963) divorced, performer - 1951 Caesar and Cleopatra and Antony and Cleopatra (Olivier & Leigh); Child of Fortune (Pippa Scott, Betsy Von Furstenburg, C. Stafford Dickens)
Sidney Armus 12/19/1924 - 6/21/02 performer - Wish You Were Here; The Cold Wind and the Warm (Sandy Meisner, Morris Carnovsky, Vincent Gardenia, Suzanne Pleshette, Maureen Stapleton, Eli Wallach); Harold (Anthony Perkins, John Fiedler); Never Live Over a Pretzel Factory (Lorna Thayer, Martin Sheen); orig The Odd Couple; Conversations With My Father; tv's & film's Gloria; The Thomas Crown Affair; All My Children; Heartburn
Mark Charlap [aka Morris or Moose Charlap] 12/19/1928 - Apr 8, 1974 composer - The Conquering Hero (Tom Poston, Margery Beddow, Elizabeth Kerr, Jane Mason); Kelly (Wilfrid Brambell, Anita Gillette, Brandon Maggart); Peter Pan; Whoop-Up (Paul Ford, Michael Kermoyan, Estelle Parsons, Sylvia Syms(!))
Galt MacDermot 12/19/1928 Composer, Musical Director, Orchestrator, Conductor - Hair (Diane Keaton, Melba Moore); Cotton Comes to Harlem; Two Gentlemen of Verona (Raul Julia, Stockard Channing, Jeff Goldblum); Dude (Nell Carter); Via Galactica (Irene Cara, Raul Julia); Vieux Carré (Sylvia Sidney); The Human Comedy (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Rex Smith); Take This Bread, Karl Marx Play, Isabel’s a Jezebel
Howard Sackler 12/19/1929 - 10/12/1982 writer - The Great White Hope (James Earl Jones, Jane Alexander, Hector Elizondo); Goodbye Fidel (Jane Alexander, Kathy Bates [debut], Gale Sondergaard); Pulitzer Prize-winning author: The Great White Hope [1969]; Fear and Desire, Jaws 2
Cicely Tyson 12/19/1933 performer - Jolly's Progress; The Cool World; Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright; A Hand Is on the Gate (Roscoe Lee Brown, James Earl Jones); Carry Me Back to Morningside Heights; Trumpets of the Lord; 1983 The Corn Is Green (Peter Gallagher was yummy); tv's & film's Emmy Award-winning actress: The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman [1973-74], Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All [1993-94]; Roots, Fried Green Tomatoes, Heat Wave, Sounder
Mel Gussow Dec 19, 1933 - d. Apr 29, 2005 Theatre critic and cultural reporter for The New York Times, graduate of Middlebury College and Columbia Graduate School of Journalism
Jamie Sanchez 12/19/1938 performer - orig West Side Story; Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feeling so Sad; 1979 King Richard III (Al Pacino)
Elaine Joyce 12/19/1945 performer, wife of John Levoff (1985 - ?) divorced; Neil Simon (September 1999 - present); Bobby Van (1968 - 1980) his death - Sugar (Cyril Ritchard, Robert Morse, Tony Roberts)
Robert Urich 12/19/1946 - Apr 16, 2002 performer, brother of Tom Urich, husband of Heather Menzies - replacement 1996 Chicago [sexiest replacement]; tv's & film's Spenser: for Hire, Final Descent, Boatworks, The Lazarus Man, Danielle Steel’s A Perfect Stranger, Vegas, Magnum Force
Larry Cahn 12/19/1955 performer - 1980 The Music Man; 1987 Anything Goes; 1992 Guys and Dolls; Epic Proportions [I loved this show] (Kristen Chenowith); The Graduate
Mary Catherine Garrison 12/19/1973 performer - 2004 Assassian; 2000 The Man Who Came to Dinner
SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:
1933 Owen Davis' Jezebel, about a high-spirited Southern belle whose decision to wear a scarlet dress destroys her life, opens today Ethel Barrymore Theatre, and stays for just 32 performances. It becomes a major hit, however, when Bette Davis does it for the movies in 1938.
1951 Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh have a high-profile flop with Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra at the Ziegfeld Theatre for 67 performances.
1957 Robert Preston and Barbara Cook make musical theatre history in The Music Man at the Majestic Theatre. Meredith Willson triple headers writing the book, lyrics and score from a story he and Frank Lacey devised. It marches on for 1,375 performances. 2000 would see a highly-acclaimed Broadway revival starring Craig Bierko and Rebecca Luker.
1985 A musical version of the children's classic The Wind in the Willows opens a disappointing 4-performance run at the Nederlander Theatre, but boasts a cast that features Nathan Lane as Toad, David Carroll as Rat, Vicki Lewis as Mole, P.J. Benjamin as Chief Weasel, and a supporting cast that includes Nora Mae Lyng, John Jellison, Donna Drake and Scott Waara; choreographed by Margery Beddow, asst choreographer Jimmy Brennan; dir. Tony Stevens
1989 Dustin Hoffman plays Shylock in a major revival of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. Notable moment, one of Shylock's tormentors spits on him full in the face. {gotta tell ya, this 1 was really baaad)
1996 Sarah Jessica Parker plays gawky Princess Winifred in a Broadway revival of Once Upon a Mattress. It runs 188 performances at the Broadhurst Theatre.
2001 Barely three months after the 9/11 attacks, Pulitzer-winner Tony Kushner opens his play about Afghani politics and terrorism, Homebody/Kabul Off-Broadway.
2002 Dinner at Eight
ON THIS DAY IN:
1928 J. Hartley Manners dies today in New York City. Born in England, Manners worked as an actor and arrived in America with Lillie Langtry. He authored more than 30 plays, and the best known is Peg O' My Heart , written for his wife Laurette Taylor.
1961 - Judgment At Nuremberg opened in New York City with a star-studded cast including Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Montgomery Clift, Judy Garland, Marlene Dietrich, and Maximillian Schell (he won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance). The film received an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay plus nine other nominations.
(sources: IBDB, NYT's ON THIS DAY, 440.com’s Those Were The Days, Playbill.com)
Milla
Updated On: 12/19/05 at 11:13 PM
