Today's Birthdays 4/6

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 4/5/08 at 10:01pm

Raphael 4/6/1483 - 4/6/1520 died on his 37th birthday; Italian painter and architect of the Italian High Renaissance - Marriage of the Virgin, School of Athens

Walter Huston 4/6/1884 - 4/7/1950 father of John Huston, grandfather of Anjelica Huston, performer, producer - origs: Mr. Pitt; Desire Under the Elms; Elmer the Great; Dodsworth (Fay Bainter); 1937 Othello (Brian Aherne, Nan Sunderland); Knickerbocker Holiday (Richard Kollmar); Apple of His Eye (Tom Ewell, Mary Wicks); film's Academy Award-winning actor: Treasure of the Sierra Madre [1948]; Duel in the Sun, December 7th: The Movie & my fav Dodsworth

Leo Robin 04/06/1900 - Dec 29, 1984 lyricist - Hit the Deck (Brian Donlevy); Gentlemen Prefer Blondes; The Girl in Pink Tights (Gregory & Maurice Hines, Marni Nixon); Lorelei; A Day in Hollywood / A Night in the Ukraine

André Previn 04/06/1929 Husband of Mia Farrow (1970 - 1978 divorced; composer - A Party with Betty Comden & Adolph Green; Coco (Katherine Hepburn, Graciela Daniele, Anne Reinking, Graciela Daniel, René Auberjonois, & Joan Copeland was Kate's standby); pianist, composer; Oscar-winning film scores: Gigi, Porgy and Bess, Irma La Douce, My Fair Lady; conductor: Pittsburgh Symphony, London & LA Philharmonic Orchestras

Billy Dee Williams 04/06/1937 performer - The Cool World; A Taste of Honey; Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright (Alvin Ailey, Roscoe Lee Browne, Claudia McNeil, Cicely Tison); I Have A Dream; orig Fences [replacement]; Brian’s Song, Lady Sings the Blues, The Return of the Jedi, Batman, The Imposter, The Empire Strikes Back, Alien Intruder, Mahogany

Roy Thinnes 4/6/1938 performer - film's From Here to Eternity, The Invaders, Outer Limits, The Hindenburg, Code Name: Diamond Head

Barry Levinson 4/6/1942 director - tv's & film's Academy Award-winning director: Rain Man [1988]; Disclosure, Bugsy, Good Morning, Vietnam, The Natural, Diner; director, writer: Toys, Avalon, Tin Men; writer: Best Friends, Inside Moves, And Justice for All, High Anxiety, Silent Movie; Emmy Award-winning writer: The Carol Burnett Show [1974, 1975]; Emmy Award-winning producer: Displaced Person, American Playhouse [1985]; Emmy Award-winning Director: Gone for Goode, Homicide-Life on the Street

Michelle Phillips 4/6/1944 performer - singer: group: The Mamas and the Papas; tv's & film's The Last Movie, Dillinger, Knot’s Landing

Kenneth Kantor 04/06/1949 performer - The Grand Tour; 1980 Brigadoon; 1983 Mame; The Phantom of the Opera [replacement]; 1992 Guys and Dolls; 1996 A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum; Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Marilu Henner [Mary Lucy Denise Pudlowski] 04/06/1952 performer - orig Grease [replacement]; Over Here!(Maxene & Patty Andrews, John Travolta, Anne Reinking); 1976 Pal Joey (Dixie Carter, Joan Copeland tv's & film's Taxi; Evening Shade, Cannonball Run 2

Paul Rudd [the other one] 04/06/1969 performer - Three Days of Rain; The Last Night of Ballyhoo; 1998 Twelfth Night; o/b Bash (Calista Flockhart); tv's & film's Sisters; Clueless; Wild Oats; The Object of My Affection; 200 Cigarettes

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

1952 Don Juan in Hell - get a load of this cast: Agnes Moorehead, Charles Boyer, Cedric Hardwick, & Charles Laughton (who also dir'd)

1955 3 For Tonight -- and 11 weeks of nights more. This revue starring Harry Belafonte, Marge and Gower Champion, and Hiram Sherman plays at the Plymouth Theatre on Broadway.

1959 - Hal Holbrook opened in the critically acclaimed, off-Broadway presentation of Mark Twain Tonight. Quotes from the famous humorist include: “It is best to read the weather forecast, before we pray for rain.”; “The more things are forbidden, the more popular they become.”; “Modesty died when clothes were born.”; “Be good and you will be lonesome.”; and “Familiarity breeds contempt -- and children.”

1995 Opening night for Having Our Say, Emily Mann's chronicle of the real-life stories of the Delaney sisters, both of whom lived to be more than 100 years old. They tell what it was like to grow up young, gifted and black in the post-Reconstruction South, and how one of them became one of the first black female doctors in the U.S. Mary Alice and Gloria Foster star.

2000 In Chicago, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest comes back to the stage as the Steppenwolf Theatre Company revives the play by Dale Wasserman based on Ken Kesey's novel. Gary Sinise stars as McMurphy and Amy Morton as Nurse Ratched in the mental hospital drama that will play in London before reaching Broadway in spring 2001 at the Royale Theatre.

ON THIS DAY IN:

1931 - Little Orphan Annie, the comic strip character developed by Harold Gray, came to life on the NBC Blue network. About 5 decades later, the comic strip inspired a Broadway play and a movie, both titled, Annie.

1959 - America’s funny men, Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis and Mort Sahl, and comedic actor Tony Randall, along with the Great Britain’s outstanding actors, David Niven and Laurence Olivier, entertained the guests of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Science at the 31st Annual Academy Awards ceremony. The audience filled the RKO Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles with applause for the Best Picture of 1958: Gigi (Arthur Freed, producer). Gigi also won Oscars for Best Director Vincente Minnelli; for Frederick Loewe’s (music), and Alan Jay Lerner’s (lyrics) for the Song, Gigi; for Best Music/Scoring of a Musical Picture (André Previn); for the Best Writing/Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Alan Jay Lerner); for Best Cinematography/Color (Joseph Ruttenberg); for Best Art Direction/Set Decoration/Black-and-White or Color (William A. Horning, E. Preston Ames, Henry Grace, F. Keogh Gleason); for Best Costume Design/Black-and-White or Color (Cecil Beaton); and for Best Film Editing (Adrienne Fazan). One would think there weren’t any awards leftover for any other movies. But, the Best Actor award went to David Niven for Separate Tables as did the Best Supporting Actress Oscar (Wendy Hiller). Susan Hayward was honored for her Best Actress role in I Want to Live! and Best Supporting Actor was Burl Ives in The Big Country. Other notable movies of 1958 ... some award winners, some not ... Auntie Mame, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Old Man and the Sea, Some Came Running, Teacher’s Pet, South Pacific, The Young Lions, Bell, Book and Candle, Vertigo, Damn Yankees, Marjorie Morningstar, and The Defiant Ones.

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

Milla