Today's Birthdays 1/5
Today's Birthdays 1/5
#0Today's Birthdays 1/5
Posted: 1/4/06 at 8:27pm
Sherlock Holmes 1/5/1855 detective, source mat'l
Constantin Sergeyevich Stanislavsky 1/5/1863 - 8/7/1938 Russian actor, producer, teacher, author and philosopher of theater
Jean-Pierre Aumont 01/05/1909 - Jan 23, 2001 performer, writer, source mat'l; served in WWII and earned both the Legion of Honor and the Croix de Guerre - My Name Is Aquilon (Arlene Francis, Lily Palmer); A Second String (Shirley Booth, Nina Foch, Carrie Nye); Tovarich (Vivienne Leigh); Murderous Angels (Richard Easton, Louis Gossett); A Talent for Murder (Claudette Colbert); film's Maria-Chapdelaine, Napoleon, The Happy Hooker, Windmills of the Gods, Becoming Colette
George Reeves 01/05/1914 - Jun 16, 1959 committed suicide - Winged Victory; tv's & film's Superman (tv & film); Gone With The Wind; The Good Humor Man
Friedrich Duerrenmatt (1/5/1921- 12/14/1990), Swiss playwright whose best-known work, The Visit produced on Broadway in 1958 with Lunt and Fontanne, and subsequently adapted as a musical by Kander and Ebb.
Robert Lansing 01/05/1928 - Oct 23, 1994 performer; husband of Anne Pivar (1982 - 1994), Gari Hardy (1968 - 1971) divorced; 1 child, Emily McLaughlin (1956 - 1969) divorced; 1 child; Borrowed his stage moniker from the capital city of Michigan. Was President of the Players Club from 1991 to 1993 - The Lovers (Pernell Roberts, Morris Carnovsky, Hurd Hatfield, Darren McGavin, Joanne Woodward); The Great God Brown (Fritz Weaver); Finishing Touches (Barbara Bel Geddes, The Little Foxes); 1981 Little Foxes (Elizabeth Taylor, Maureen Stapleton, Anthony Zerbe
Alvin Ailey 01/05/1931 - 12/1/1989 Choreographer, Performer; Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater: 79 ballets in repertoire - establishing a place for blacks in modern dance - House of Flowers; Jamaica; Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright (Cicely Tyson, Diana Sands, Claudia McNeil, Roscoe Lee Browne); La Strada (Bernadette Peters)
Robert Duvall 01/05/1931 performer, producer; Duvall began attending The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre In New York City on the G.I. Bill in 1955, studying with Sanford Meisner along with Dustin Hoffman, with whom Duvall shared an apartment. Both were close to another struggling young actor named Gene Hackman. Meisner cast Duvall in the play "The Midnight Caller" by Horton Foote, a link that would prove critical to his career as it was Foote who recommended Duvall to play the mentally disabled Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), his motion picture debut. - 1965 A View From the Bridge; Wait Until Dark (Lee Remick); American Buffalo (John Savage); tv's & film's To Kill A Mockingbird; The Godfather; Lonesome Dove; Tender Mercies; The Great Santini; Apocalypse Now; Network; MASH; The Outer Limits; The Natural; Colors; Bulitt; also loved him in Open Range
Diane Keaton (Hall) 01/05/1946 performer; exPartner of Woody Allen - Hair; Play It Again, Sam (Woody Allen); film's Annie Hall; Sleeper, Hair, Love and Death; Baby Boom; The Godfather; Something's Gotta Give; The Family Stone
A.R. Rahman 01/05/1965 composer, Born A. S. Dileep Kumar, he converted to Islam in 1988 and took an Islamic name, Allah Rakha Rahman - Bombay Dreams
Bradley Cooper Jan 5, 1975 performer - 3 Days of Rain (Julia Roberts, Paul Rudd [II]); tv's & film's The Last Cowboy; Carnival Knowledge; Wedding Crashers; Kitchen Confidential
SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:
1939 The Group Theatre produces The Gentle People at the Belasco Theatre. Irwin Shaw's drama about two men standing up against mob rule stars Sam Jaffe, Roman Bohen, and Franchot Tone.
1975 The Wiz, Charlie Smalls' adaption of The Wizard of Oz opens today at the Majestic Theatre and proves to be a sleeper hit, eventually running 1672 performances and winning the Tony Award as Best Musical. The score includes "If You Believe," "Be a Lion" and the disco hit, "Ease on Down the Road." Cast with black actors and set in an African-American mileu, the show proves a springboard for the career of Stephanie Mills as Dorothy, and features Tiger Haynes, Hinton Battle, Ted Ross, Andre de Shields and Dee Dee Bridgewater is supporting roles. A film version will star Diana Ross and Michael Jackson.
1984 Jeremy Irons and Glenn Close star in Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing at the Plymouth Theater. The play also stars Christine Baranski and Kenneth Welch. The Real Thing will win 1984's Tony Award for Best Play, as well as acting awards for Irons, Close, and Baranski, as well as an award for director, Mike Nichols.
ON THIS DAY IN:
1928 Twenty-nine year old Elizabeth Scott wins the architectural design competition for a new Stratford Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. Scott, the lone female entrant, incorporates some of the remains of the burnt building, but her Art Deco design breaks with the former Victorian tradition.
1961 - “Hello. I’m Mr. Ed!” “A horse is a horse, of course, of course”... you know the lyrics. Mr. Ed, the talking horse, debuted for what would be a six-year run. The show starred Alan Young as Ed’s owner, Wilbur Post. Wilbur’s wife, Carol, was played by Connie Hines. Good old neighbor Roger Addison was Larry Keating. The voice of Mr. Ed was... no, not Alan Young... rather, Allan ‘Rocky’ Lane... of course, of course.
1990 Arthur Kennedy, who appeared in the original companies of Arthur Miller's Ally My Sons, Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, and The Price, dies today.
2003 Also today, playwright Jean Kerr dies at age 80. Her comedy, Mary Mary, is one of Broadway's longest-running non-musicals ever, at 1572 performances. She had a best-seller (later adapted as a film and TV series) with "Please Don't Eat the Daisies," a book about her life in Larchmont, NY, with her husband, New York Times theatre critic Walter Kerr.
(sources: IBDB, IMDB, NYT's ON THIS DAY, IMDB, 440.com’s Those Were The Days, Playbill.com)
Milla
Updated On: 1/4/06 at 08:27 PM
