Today's Birthdays 2/15

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 2/15/08 at 9:05pm

Galileo Galilei 2/15/1564 - 1/8/1642 Italian natural philosopher, astronomer and mathematician was born in Pisa. source mat'l

Henry Steinway 2/15/1797 - 2/7/1871 German-bn. American piano builder

Charles Lewis Tiffany 2/15/1812 - 2/18/1902 jeweler who had a lot of breakfasts at his store; name synonymous with highest quality jewelry, source mat'l

Susan B. Anthony 2/15/1820 - 3/13/1906 American crusader for the woman suffrage movement, source mat'l

Walter Donaldson 02/15/1893 - Jul 15, 1947 composer - Sweetheart Time; Whoopee! (orig. Eddie Cantor, Peggy Bancroft, Buddy Ebsen, Ruth Etting)(1979 Susan Stroman); Big Deal

Harold Arlen 02/15/1905 - Apr 23, 1986 husband of Anya Arlen, lyricist, composer - Earl Carroll's Vanities series; George White's Music Hall Varieties series; Life Begins at 8:40 (Beatrice Lillie, Bert Lahr); Hooray For What!; Bloomer Girl; St. Louis Woman; House of Flowers; Jamaica; Saratoga (Howard Keel, Carol Lawrence); film's w/Ted Kohler: Stormy Weather, It’s Only a Paper Moon; w/Gershwin & Mercer: That Old Black Magic; Oscar-winning songwriter: Somewhere Over the Rainbow [1939]

Kevin McCarthy 02/15/1914 performer, brother of Mary McCarthy, husband of Augusta Dabney (1941-1961) divorced - Abe Lincoln in Illinois; Bravo! (Oscar Homolka); The Day the Money Stopped (Mildred Natwick, Richard Basehart); Advise & Consent; A Warm Body (Doris Rich, Franklin Cover, Lois Markle); Happy Birthday, Wanda June (Marsha Mason); Poor Murderer (Julie Garfield, Laurence Luckinbill); Alone Together (Janis Page); film's Ghoulies 3, The Howling, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Buffalo Bill and the Indians, Matinee, Final Approach

Roland Kibbee 02/15/1914 - Aug 5, 1984 writer, performer - Achilles Had a Heel (Mary Martin); Home Sweet Homer (Yul Brynner, Joan Diener, Russ Thacker, Martin Vidnovic)

Keene Curtis 02/15/1923 - Oct 13, 2002 Performer, Stage Manager - The Dark Is Light Enough (Katharine Cornell, Tyrone Power, Jr.); You Can't Take It With You (Rosemary Harris); 1968 The Cherry Orchard (Uta Hagen, Donald Moffat, Nancy Walker); A Patriot for Me (Maximilian Schell, Salome Jens, Tom Lee Jones [debut]); The Rothschilds; Division Street (Christine Lahti, John Lithgow)

Harvey Korman 2/15/1927 performer - The Tower Beyond Tragedy (Judith Anderson, Eric Fleming, Marian Seldes; tv's & film's Emmy Award-winning performer/music/variety show: The Carol Burnett Show [1972, 1974]; The Tim Conway Show, Blazing Saddles, High Anxiety

Claire Bloom 02/15/1931 performer, wife of Rod Steiger (1959 - 1969) divorced; 1 daughter, Anna Justine (b. 1960) - King Richard II; Romeo and Juliet; Rashomon (Oscar Homolka, Rod Steiger, Akim Tamiroff); 1971 A Doll's House; 1971 Hedda Gabler; Vivat! Vivat Regina! (Eileen Atkins); 1976 The Innocents; tv's & film's Separate Tables, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Queenie, Alexander the Great, Anastasia, Brideshead Revisited

Marisa Berenson 02/15/1946 performer; granddaughter of Elsa Schiaparelli, sister of Berry Berenson - 2001 Design for Living; film's Cabaret, Barry Lyndon

Jane Seymour 02/15/1951 Wife of Michael Attenborough (1971 - divorced), James Keach - orig. Amadeus; tv's & film's Dr. Quinn; Live & Let Die; Somewhere In Time

Tony Adams 02/15/1953 - Oct 22, 2005 producer; Husband of Avril Adams (? - ?) divorced, Debrah Farentino (? - ?) divorced, Anne Runolfsson (? - 2005) his death; Film producing credits include Blake Edwards' "Pink Panther" movies, "S.O.B., "10," and "Victor/Victoria". Off-Broadway credits include "The Immigrant" (the musical) and "Minor Demons". He was a founding board member of the world relief organization, Operation USA, which shared the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for its part in the "International Campaign To Ban Landmines". He also co-founded Show Coalition, a Hollywood political action committee and raised funds for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. - Victor/Victoria

James Riordan 02/15/1965 performer - 2001 Dance of Death; 2002 The Elephant Man; off-b The Countess

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

1933 One Sunday Afternoon stars Lloyd Nolan and Francesca Bruning as plain people struggling through hard times. James Hagan's drama will run at the Little Theatre in New York for 143 performances.

1939 Lillian Hellman forages the old South and comes up with The Little Foxes.Tallulah Bankhead leads the cast in this drama that will run for 410 performances at the National Theatre in New York.

1950 Before TV's "Hazel" typecast her as a frumpy maid, Shirley Booth won a Tony for starring in William Inge's drama, Come Back, Little Sheba. Co-star Sidney Blackmer would also take home a Tony for this Theatre Guild production. Best Play, however, went to T.S. Eliot's The Cocktail Party.

ON THIS DAY IN:

1933 President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt escaped an assassination attempt in Miami that claimed the life of Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak.

1965 - This was a sad day in music, as singer Nat ‘King’ Cole died in Santa Monica, CA. The music legend was 45. Cole was born in Alabama and raised in Chicago. He first recorded in 1936, then formed the King Cole Trio in 1939 (he was the group’s pianist). He began his phenomenal solo career in 1950. Cole had feature roles in the films St. Louis Blues and Cat Ballou, and made many appearances in Hollywood and on TV. His own network show was abruptly canceled in the mid-1950s when sponsors refused to advertise on a program hosted by a black entertainer. Nat Cole was posthumously awarded a Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 1990.

1984 Stage legend Ethel Merman, Broadway's original Mama Rose in Gypsy dies in her hometown New York City at 76. The actress' other memorable works include Anything Goes, Red, Hot and Blue!, Something for the Boys, Call Me Madam and Annie Get Your Gun.

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

Milla