Today's Birthdays 4/7
Today's Birthdays 4/7
#1Today's Birthdays 4/7
Posted: 4/7/09 at 12:04pm
Bert Wheeler 04/07/1895 - 1/18/1968 comedy partner of actor Robert Woolsey, performer - Ziegfeld Follies of 1923; Rio Rita (Robert Woolsey, Ada-May); New Priorities of 1943; Laugh Time (Ethel Waters, Frank Fay); 3 Wishes for Jamie (John Raitt); The Gang's All Here (E. G. Marshall)
Walter Winchell 4/7/1897 - 2/20/1972 vaudeville performer, journalist, gossip columnist: New York Mirror, radio commentator: “Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. America and all the ships at sea.”
Billie Holiday 04/07/1915 - July 17, 1959 performer - Holiday on Broadway
James Garner [James Scott Baumgarner, Jim Baumgarner] 04/07/1928 performer - The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (Henry Fonda, John Hodiak, Lloyd Nolan, Russell Hicks); tv's & film's Rockford Files, Maverick, The Americanization of Emily, Victor/Victoria, Tank, A Man Called Sledge, Duel at Diablo, The Distinguished Gentleman, My Fellow Americans, Space Cowboys, and his sexiest role - Cash McCall
Wayne M. Rogers 04/07/1933 performer, Broadway producer - Einstein and the Polar Bear; Grown Ups; Duet for One; 1982 Little Me (James Coco, Victor Garber, James Brennan, Bebe Neuwirth); 1983 Brighton Beach Memoirs; 1985 The Odd Couple (Sally Struthers, Rita Moreno, Tony Shalhoub [debut]); tv's & film's M*A*S*H, Cool Hand Luke, Passion in Paradise, Pocket Money, The Killing Time, Chiefs, The Gig
Ian Richardson 04/07/1934 - 2/9/2007 Director, Performer, Production Crew - The Persecution and Assassination of Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade; 1976 My Fair Lady (Christine Andreas); 1981 Lolita (Donald Sutherland, Blanche Baker, Shirley Stoller); tv's & film's House of Cards [2 words ba-rilliant!]; Man of La Mancha; Canterbury Tales (Joss Ackland, Corin Redgrave); Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; Brazil; The Woman in White; BAPS; Highlander; Bleak House; Joyeux Noël
Francis Ford Coppola 04/07/1939 dir., prod., Creative Consultant; brother of Talia Shire, nephew of Anton Coppola - David Copperfield: Dreams and Nightmares; Academy Award-winning director: The Godfather: Part II [1974], screenwriter: Patton [1970], The Godfather [1973], The Godfather: Part II [1974]; The Godfather: Part III, Apocalypse Now, Finian’s Rainbow, Peggy Sue Got Married
Jeff Brooks 04/07/1950 performer, Husband of Sherry Anderson - A History of the American Film; Loose Ends; Lend Me a Tenor; Nick & Nora; 1992 Guys and Dolls; Beauty & the Beast
Hugh O'Connor 04/07/1962 - 3/28/1995 Carroll O'Connor's adopted son, committed suicide; Stage Manager, performer - Brothers (Carroll O'Connor, Frank Converse); tv's In the Heat of the Night
John Leone 04/07/1964 performer - Jersey Boys; Les Miz [replacement]
SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:
1949 Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein musical classic of love and war, South Pacific, unfolded on a lush tropical island swarming with Seabees, nurses, natives and coconut trees on this night. Actually, it was not a tropical island, but the stage of the Majestic Theatre in New York City. Ezio Pinza starred as the suave French plantation owner with a shady past and Mary Martin portrayed the bubbly, pretty, but naive Navy nurse. Mary Martin washed her hair a zillion times as she sang, I’m Gonna Wash that Man Right Out of My Hair in 1,925 performances. 1950 Tony Awards went to the show and its producers, performers, director (Joshua Logan) and composers nine statuettes. It also earned a Pulitzer Prize in the same year and in 1958 was made into a movie. South Pacific caused a lot of Happy Talk and this night, so many years ago, was certainly Some Enchanted Evening.
1964 Noel Coward stages the musical High Spirits which Hugh Martin and Timothy Gray based on Coward's Blithe Spirit. Beatrice Lillie and Tammy Grimes are featured at the Alvin Theatre on Broadway. There will be 375 performances.
1970 Paul Zindel's The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds opens Off Broadway at The Mercer O'Casey Theatre. The play, about a mother whose husband leaves her to raise two teen daughters, features Sada Thompson. Actress Swoosie Kurtz makes her debut in the production.
1994 Hell hath no fury like Diana Rigg! The actress opens in the title role of Euripides' Medea at the Longacre Theatre on Broadway. The show will run 82 performances under the direction of Jonathan Kent.
2002 Suzan-Lori Parks' Topdog/Underdog opens on Broadway. One day later the drama about brothers named Booth and Lincoln will win the Pulitzer Prize.
2005 On Golden Pond with James Earl Jones & Leslie Uggams
2009 Rock of Ages
ON THIS DAY IN:
1950 Walter Huston died today in Hollywood, CA at age 66. Later known more for his film acting, Huston began his career on the stage in 1902. He appeared in Desire Under the Elms, Dodsworth, and Knickerbocker Holiday. His son John went on to be a successful movie director, and his granddaughter Angelica is an Academy Award - winning actress.
1970 - If you weren't lucky enough to be at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in LA on this night, you were probably watching the 42nd Annual Academy Awards ceremonies on TV. John Wayne, a movie veteran of over 200 films, won his only Oscar: Best Actor for his role in True Grit. It is estimated that movie-goers paid over $500 million to see John Wayne in his many films which include: The Big Trail, Reap the Wild Wind, The Long Voyage Home, Red River, The Quiet Man and The Sands of Iwo Jima (the only other film to earn him an Oscar nomination). Another movie veteran, Cary Grant, received his only Oscar this same night. It was an honorary award for his unique mastery of the art of screen acting with the respect and affection of his colleagues. (Grant had been nominated for Best Actor in Penny Serenade [1941] and None but the Lonely Heart [1944].) Other Oscar firsts at this celebration of the films of 1969 went to: Burt Bacharach for Best Music, Original Score for a Motion Picture/not a Musical (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) and for Best Music/Song (Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the award shared with Hal David/lyrics); Maggie Smith, Best Actress in Prime of Miss Jean Brodie; Gig Young, Best Supporting Actor in They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?; Goldie Hawn, Best Supporting Actress in Cactus Flower; John Schlesinger, Best Director for Midnight Cowboy. As in most Academy Award ceremonies, the picture with the Best Director also won the top prize, Best Picture: Midnight Cowboy (Jerome Hellman, producer).
1994 Civil war erupted in Rwanda, a day after a mysterious plane crash claimed the lives of the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi.
2004 Times Square Turns 100 Years Old
(sources: IBDB, IMDB, NYT's ON THIS DAY, 440.com’s Those Were The Days, Playbill.com)
Milla
