Today's Birthdays 1/17
Today's Birthdays 1/17
Today's Birthdays 1/17#1
Posted: 1/16/07 at 9:36pm
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
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 - 4/1/1946 performer; Respected character actor of the silent and early sound period, specializing in cruel villains. The son of a Kansas City policeman, he and his younger brother Wallace Beery both left home in their teens, each seeking a career as a performer. Noah made his stage debut at the age of 16 and worked steadily in the theatre until his early 30s; He died in the arms of his brother Wallace Beery, on Wallace's birthday. - Siberia; Up in Central Park; film's 1920 The Mark of Zorro (Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.); 1925 Lord Jim; 1926 Beau Geste; Golden Dawn; She Done Him Wrong (Mae West, Cary Grant); Zorro Rides Again (John Carroll); The Girl of the Golden West (Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Leo Carillo, Walter Pidgeon, Buddy Ebsen, Monty Woolley)
Al Capone 1/17/1899 - 1/25/1947 aka ‘Scarface’; gangster, head of crime empire during Prohibition
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 - 1/31/2006 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, tv's & film's: Feast of All Saints; 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; tv's & film's actor: Feast of All Saints; 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]
Sheree North 1/17/1933 - Nov 4, 2005 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. She was groomed as a studio glamour girl who could substitute for the more famous but often unreliable Marilyn Monroe. In fact, North was later interviewed or cast in documentaries and shows about Monroe. She may be remembered as Lou Grant's sultry girlfriend on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and Kramer's mother Babs on "Seinfeld". - 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; Other theatre credits include "James and Annie" (ACTA nomination), "Glimmer, Glimmer, and Shine", and "No Foreigners Beyond this Point". Film work includes "The Night We Never Met" and "Me and Him". He is currently a co-executive producer on "Law and Order: Criminal Intent". - Sideman; Mayor (Lenny Wolpe); tv's & film's Law & Order; 100 Centre Street; The Night We Never Met; Stuck On You!
Denis O'Hare 01/17/1962 performer - Racing Demon; 1998 Cabaret; 2001 Major Barbara; Take Me Out; 2004 Assassins; 2005 Sweet Charity; tv's & film's Saint Maybe (Blythe Danner, Mary-Louise Parker); Garden State; 2005 Once Upon A Mattress; 100 Centre Street
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; tv's & film's The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial; Glory; Cradle Will Rock; Infested; Mary Poppins
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.
1957 The Waltz of the Toreadors with Sudie Bond, Mildred Natwick & Ralph Richardson
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.
1973 Medea with 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, IMDB, NYT's ON THIS DAY, 440.com’s Those Were The Days, Playbill.com)
Milla
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