Today's Birthdays 3/19

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 3/19/09 at 6:05pm

Moms Mabley 03/19/1894 - May 23, 1975 performer; Stage Name was "Jackie" Mabley, the name of an old boyfriend. - Fast & Furious (Etta Moten); Blackberries of 1932; Swingin' The Dream (Louis Armstrong, Dorothy Dandridge, Dorothy McGuire); films: Boarding House Blues, Emperor Jones, Amazing Grace, Killer Diller

Hugh Wheeler 03/19/1912 - Jul 26, 1987 writer - We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Shirley Knight, Doris Rich); A Little Night Music; Candide; Sweeney Todd; Meet Me in St. Louis; film's screenplay (adapted from Harry Kressing's novel THE COOK) for SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE (Angela Lansbury)

Patricia Morison 03/19/1915 performer, Her father is actor-playwright William Morrison; Was the actress with the longest hair in Hollywood (39 inches long). Universal pushed her as a 'rival' to Dorothy Lamour when she changed her hairstyle to a middle parting; served as Helen Hayes' understudy in the 1936 Broadway production of "Victoria Regina." She was never put on during the run, even when Hayes actually became ill. The theatre would simply close the show until the legendary star recovered; Had a very promising role in the classic Victor Mature/Richard Widmark crime thriller Kiss of Death (1947) as Mature's Italian wife who is raped and later commits suicide by putting her head in the kitchen gas oven. The censors cut her part out completely because they refused to allow a rape or suicide to be shown. Patricia's name still appears on the credits of the film - The Two Bouquets (Leo G. Carroll, Alfred Drake); Alah Be Praised! (Jack Albertson); Kiss Me Kate; film's The Magnificent Fraud, The Roundup, One Night in Lisbon, The Song of Bernadette, Lady on a Train, Song of the Thin Man, Tarzan and the Huntress

Pamela Britton 03/19/1923 - Jun 17, 1974 performer - origs Oklahoma [replacement]; Brigadoon

Patrick McGoohan 3/19/1928 - 1/13/2009 director, performer; Turned down two roles that eventually went to Roger Moore: Simon Templar in "The Saint" (1962) and James Bond in Live and Let Die (1973). - tv's & film's Secret Agent, Braveheart, Escape from Alcatraz, The Silver Streak, Ice Station Zebra, I Am a Camera; Columbo: Ashes to Ashes, A Time To Kill; actor, director: The Prisoner

Phyllis Newman 03/19/1933 Writer, Lyricist, Performer, wife of Adolph Green (1960 - 2002) his death - origs Wish You Were Here; Bells Are Ringing; Moonbirds (Wally Cox, Peggy Pope); Subways are for Sleeping; The Madwoman of Central Park West; Broadway Bound; tv's & film's Coming of Age, That was the Week That Was, Picnic, A Secret Space

Renée Taylor 03/19/1933 wife of Joe Bologna (August 6, 1965 - present); performer - Luv (Alan Arkin, Anne Jackson, Eli Wallach, dir by Mich Nichols); Agatha Sue, I Love You (Ray Walston, Corbett Monica); Lovers and Other Strangers; It Had to Be You; If you ever leave me...I'm going with you!; tv's & film's Emmy Award-winning writer: Acts of Love - and Other Comedies [1973]; entertainer: The Jack Paar Show; actress: The Nanny, Daddy Dearest, Mary Hartman Mary Hartman, The Producers, A New Leaf; The Boynton Beach Bereavement Club; Kalamazoo?; The Wedding Bells

Nancy Malone 03/19/1935 performer - Time Out for Ginger (Melvyn Douglas); 1956 Major Barbara (Glynis Johns, Charles Laughton, Burgess Meredith, Cornelia Otis Skinner, John Astin, Patricia Ripley); A Touch of the Poet; tv's & film's Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law; The Long Hot Summer, Naked City; The Deceivers (Barry Sullivan)

Ursula Andress 3/19/1936 performer - film's Dr. No, Casino Royale, Fun in Acapulco, What’s New Pussycat, Clash of the Titans

Glenn Close 03/19/1947 performer - 1974 Love for Love (Mary Beth Hurt, Charles Kimbrough, David Hart, John McMartin); Rex; The Crucifer of Blood (Nicolas Surovy); Barnum; The Real Thing; Benefactors; Death & the Maiden; Sunset Boulevard; tv's & film's Emmy Award: Serving in Silence: The Margarethe Cammermeyer Story [1995]; Fatal Attraction, The Big Chill, 101 Dalmations; Shield

Bruce Willis 3/19/1955 - performer - tv's & film's Emmy Award-winning actor: Moonlighting [1987]; Die Hard series, Pulp Fiction, Hudson Hawk, The Last Boy Scout, Billy Bathgate, In Country, Last Man Standing, The Fifth Element, Armageddon, The Sixth Sense

Neil LaBute 03/19/1963 writer; Broadway credit "Reasons to be Pretty". Off-Broadway credits Escape: 6 Ways to Get Away (1) & (2); "reasons to be pretty", "The Mercy Seat", "The Distance for Here", "The Shape of Things", bash: latter-day plays" and "This is How it Goes". Films include "In the Company of Men", "Your Friends and Neighbors", "Nurse Betty", "Possession", and "The Shape of Things".

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

1953 Jo Van Fleet and Martin Balsam are two of the inhabitants of Camino Real. Tennessee Williams' drama runs just seven weeks at the National Theatre in New York.

1959 - FIRST IMPRESSIONS opens at the Alvin Theatre for a 92 performance run, starring Polly Bergen, Hermione Gingold, Farley Granger, Christopher Hewett and Phyllis Newman under the direction of Abe Burrows. The book is by Burrows (based on the novel "Pride & Prejudice" by Jane Austen, and on the play by Helen Jerome), with music and lyrics by Robert Goldman, Glenn Paxton & George Weiss.

1962 Ray Bolger stars in the musical All-American, with a score by Strouse and Adams, and libretto by Mel Brooks. It runs 80 performances and introduces the song "Once Upon a Time."

1975 - The New Orleans musical DOCTOR JAZZ opens at the Winter Garden Theatre for 42 previews and only 5 performances, starring Bobby Van and Lola Falana under the direction of (and choreographed by) Donald McKayle. It features book and lyrics by Buster Davis, and music by Davis & Luther Henderson, and is producer Cyma Rubin's first production since her hit NO, NO, NANETTE four years earlier. It will be her last.

1998 Proving everything old can be very new again, Cabaret transforms the Henry Miller Theatre into the Kit Kat Klub. Directed by Sam Mendes and co-directed and choreographed by Rob Marshall, this revival opens tonight with Natasha Richardson, Ron Rifkin, Mary Louise Wilson and Alan Cumming. It will go on to win four Tony Awards including Best Revival of a Musical. The show will later move uptown to Studio 54, where it has seen several big-name stars such as Jennifer Jason Leigh, Mary McCormack, and Susan Egan play the role of Sally Bowles. It will also become one of the few Broadway revivals to run longer than the original.

2000 A new staging of Eugene O'Neill's A Moon for the Misbegotten, starring Cherry Jones and Gabriel Byrne, officially opens at Broadway's Walter Kerr Theatre. The revival and its stars earn Tony nominations, and Roy Dotrice wins for Featured Actor in a Play.

2003 Opening night for the R-rated puppet musical Avenue Q, by Robert Lopez, Jeff Marx and Jeff Whitty, at Off-Broadway's Vineyard Theatre. It will move to Broadway by fall.

2009 West Side Story

ON THIS DAY IN:

1951 - The Caine Mutiny, a novel by Herman Wouk, was published for the first time. Wouk won a Pulitzer for the novel. He followed it with several more successes: Marjorie Morningstar, The Winds of War, and War and Remembrance.

1953 - The Academy Awards celebrated their silver anniversary -- and came to television. NBC paid $100,000 for the rights to broadcast the event on both radio and TV. Hollywood’s best turned out to hand out the Oscar statuettes for the movies of 1952. The party was held at the RKO Pantages Theater, Los Angeles, with Bob Hope hosting. A dual celebration was staged in New York City, where Conrad Nagel was host. The Best Picture award went to Cecil B. DeMille’s The Greatest Show on Earth. Best Director was the legendary John Ford for The Quiet Man. The rest of the best: Actor: Gary Cooper for High Noon; Supporting Actor: Anthony Quinn for Viva Zapata!; Actress: Shirley Booth for Come Back, Little Sheba; Supporting Actress: Gloria Grahame for The Bad and the Beautiful; Art Direction-Set Decoration/Color: Paul Sheriff, Marcel Vertès for Moulin Rouge; Music/Song: Dimitri Tiomkin (music), Ned Washington (lyrics) for the song, High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin’), from High Noon.

2002 British actor Henry Goodman takes over one of the most coveted roles on Broadway: Max Bialystock in the musical The Producers. But he lasts only about a month, to be summarily replaced by understudy Brad Oscar.

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

Milla