Today's Birthdays 1/17

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 1/17/05 at 5:21pm

Benjamin Franklin 1/17/1706 - Apr 17, 1790 statesman: oldest signer of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution; printer, author, publisher [Richard Saunders]: Poor Richard’s Almanack; scientist, inventor: Franklin stove, bifocals, lightning rods; established University of Pennsylvania; source mat'l - Ben Franklin in Paris

Anne Bronte 1/17/1820 - 5/28/1849 English novelist, Agnes Grey, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Al Capone 1/17/1899 - 1/25/1947 ‘Scarface’: gangster, head of crime empire during Prohibition

Mack Sennett 1/17/1880 - 11/5/1960 director, producer, performer - The Boys of Company "B"; Jerome Robbins' Broadway; silent movie director: Tillie’s Punctured Romance, Mack Sennett Comedies, Kid’s Auto Race, Mabel’s Married Life, Cannonball, Dizzy Heights and Daring Hearts

Noah Beery, Sr. 01/17/1882 - ? performer - Siberia; Up in Central Park

Nora Kaye 01/17/1920 - Feb 28, 1987 Performer, Production Crew, engaged to Jerome Robbins (A wedding date of April 16, 1951 was announced, however they never married), wife of Herbert Ross (1959 - 1987) her death,Isaac Stern (divorced), James T. Farrell, (author of "Studs Lonigan") - Virginia; Stars in Your Eyes; Two's Company; I Can Get It for You Wholesale; Tovarich; On a Clear Day


Betty White 1/17/1922 performer - Emmy Award-winning actress: The Mary Tyler Moore Show [1974-1975, 1975-1976], The Golden Girls [1985-1986]; The Betty White Show, Ladies Man; singer

Moira Shearer 1/17/1926 ballerina: appeared in ballet film: The Red Shoes

Eartha Kitt 1/17/1927 performer - Bal Negre; Leonard Sillman's New Faces of 1952; Shinbone Alley; Timbuktu! (Melba Moore); Faust, film: New Faces of 1952, Boomerang; note: Kitt’s birth certificate listing her actual birthdate as 1/17/27 was found in 1997. She has celebrated her birthday as Jan. 26 [1928] all of her life and says, “It’s been the 26th of January since the beginning of time and I’m not going to change it and confuse my fans.”

James Earl Jones 1/17/1931 performer, husband of Julienne Marie (? - ?) divorced; Cecilia Hart (1982 - present), son of Robert Earl Jones - Tony Award for Best Actor twice: for The Great White Hope in 1969 and Fences in 1987. Broadway appearances will include Othello, Les Blancs, A Lesson From Aloes, Of Mice and Men. Paul Robeson and MASTER HAROLD...and the boys. He's also known for voicing the character of Mustafa in Disney's film The Lion King, and for his telephone company commercials; film's actor: Star Wars [Darth Vader], The Hunt for Red October, The Lion King, Sneakers, Roots, The Great White Hope; “This... is CNN”

Shari Lewis 1/17/1933 - 8/2/1998 performer - Lamb Chop on Broadway; puppeteer: The Shari Lewis Show [featuring Lamb Chop, the puppet]

1933 - Sheree North 1/17/1933 performer, wife of Fred Bessire (1948 - 1952) divorced, John M. Freeman (1955 - ?); At 10, danced in USO shows; at 13, Hollywood musical shows; an Earl Carroll girl - Hazel Flagg (Helen Gallagher, Ross Martin); I Can Get It for You Wholesale

Andy Kaufman 01/17/1949 - May 16, 1984 performer - 1979 V.I.P. Night on Broadway; Teaneck Tanzi: The Venus Flytrap; tv's Taxi, The Midnight Special, Saturday Night Live, Andy’s Funhouse

Warren Leight 01/17/1957 Son of Donald Leight performer - Sideman; Mayor (Lenny Wolpe)

Daniel H. Jenkins 01/17/1963 performer, husband of Katherine Hiler (1992 - present), son of Ken Jenkins - orig & 2003 Big River; Angels in America I & II; Big (Barbara Walsh); Wrong Mountain

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

1911 Love is never easy, especially when a woman is the object of affection for The Scarecrow. Percy MacKaye used "Feathertop," Nathaniel Hawthorne's tale as a starting point for this drama, and Edgar Selwyn staged the production. Alas, the corn field was blighted after only 23 performances.

1918 Keeping Up Appearances - Margaret Campbell

1938 Opening night for ...one third of a nation..., a "living newspaper" revue of sketches about life during the Depression, created by the Federal Theatre Project of the WPA. It runs 237 performances at the Adelphi Theatre.

1967 The Promise, Aleksei Arbuzov's Russian play about three young people who've survived the siege of Leningrad, runs at the Fortune Theatre in London. Judi Dench, Ian McShane and Ian McKellen star. There will be 289 performances.

1968 A double-bill of Israel Horovitz plays runs at Astor Place Theatre in New York: The Indian Wants the Bronx starring John Cazale, Al Pacino, and Matthew Cowles, and It's Called the Sugar Plum starring Marsha Mason. James Hammerstein directs.

Medea 01/17/1973 - Irene Pappas

ON THIS DAY IN:

1969 Broadway composer Vernon Duke dies today. Duke's music filled theatres from the West End to Broadway. Among many memorable songs are "April in Paris" with E.Y. Harburg and "I Can't Get Started," with Ira Gershwin. He was 65 years old.

2004 Ray Stark, 88, the Tony Award-nominated producer who brought the musical, Funny Girl, to Broadway, and later to the movies (his mother-in-law was Fanny Brice), dies today of heart failure in West Hollywood.

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

Milla