Today's Birthdays 1/20
Today's Birthdays 1/20
#1Today's Birthdays 1/20
Posted: 1/19/07 at 11:24pm
Walter Piston 1/20/1894 - 11/12/1976 American composer/teacher. Lawdy how I hated studying Piston at school, counterpoint & harmony. And it shows today, lol. Do they still use his books at Juilliard?
Harold Gray 1/20/1894 - 5/9/1968 "Orphan Annie" cartoonist, source mat'l - Annie
George Burns 01/20/1896 - Mar 9, 1996 Say good morning, George. Actually it was "Nathan" then -- Nathan Birnbaum born today. As George Burns, he and Gracie Allen will become headliners of vaudeville. Together they will appear in films and their own television show. On his own, Burns will also have a successful film career; did he actually write material for Carol Channing?; source mat'l - When Johnny Comes Marching Home; Say Goodnight Gracie
Leon Ames 01/20/1902 - Dec 12, 1993 performer - A House in the Country; Little Darling (Barbara Bel Geddes); Winesburg, Ohio (Dorothy McGuire, James Whitmore); fav film Meet Me In St. Louis
Federico Fellini 1/20/1920 - 10/31/1993 director, screenwriter: Oscar-winning Best foreign-language [Italian] films: La Strada [1956], The Nights of Cabiria [1957], 8 1/2 [1963], Amarcord [1974], source mat'l - Nine
DeForest Kelley 1/20/1920 - 6/11/1999 performer - tv's & film's Star Trek series, Apache Uprising, The Law and Jake Wade, Gunfight at O.K. Corral, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, Fear in the Night
Patricia Neal 01/20/1926 performer - Another Part of the Forest; 1952 The Children's Hour (Kim Hunter); A Roomful of Roses; The Miracle Worker; Academy Award-winning actress: Hud [1963]; All Quiet on the Western Front, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Heidi, In Harm’s Way
Peter Donat 01/20/1928 performer, husband of Marijke DeJong (1983 - present), Michael Learned (1956 - 1972) divorced - The First Gentleman (Walter Slezak, Inga Swenson); The Entertainer (Laurence Olivier, Joan Plowright); There's One in Every Marriage (Roberta Maxwell)
Carl Gordon 01/20/1932 performer - The Great White Hope [replacement]; Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death; The Piano Lesson; 2003 Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
David Lynch 1/20/1946 director - film's & tv's Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, Dune, The Elephant Man; in 2007 soon to be speaking in Alice Tully Hall
Bill Maher 01/20/1956 performer, writer - Bill Maher: Victory Begins At Home; tv's & film's Politically Incorrect; Club Med; Ratboy; Murder, She Wrote; Newhart; Larry King
Mary Illes 01/20/1962 performer - 1993 She Loves Me; The Scarlet Pimpernel [replacement]; 2000 The Music Man; Natl' Tour of "The Secret Garden"
SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:
1950 Dance Me A Song with Bob Fosse, Wally Cox, Jimmy Kirkwood, Joan McCracken, Biff McGuire, Erik Rhodes & Donald Saddler
1954 The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial is tried at the Plymouth Theatre. Herman Wouk adapted his novel which stars Lloyd Nolan, Henry Fonda, & John Hodiak. Charles Laughton directs.
1975 A gay bathhouse is the setting of Terrence McNally's high-energy farce, The Ritz, which stars Jack Weston as a bewildered straight man forced to hide out there, & Rita Moreno as spirited entertainer Googie Gomez. It runs 398 performances at the Longacre Theatre, & wins Moreno the Tony for Best Supporting Actress. She's the last person to win it, however: Her speech about supporting "nothing but my beads," leads the Tonys to change the name of the category to Best Featured Actress.
1982 The Little Prince and the Aviator with Michael York & Anthony Rapp
ON THIS DAY IN:
On Jan. 20, 1981, Iran released 52 Americans held hostage for 444 days, minutes after the presidency had passed from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan. Did say “hummmm?”
1989 British comedienne, Beatrice Lillie, dies today. Lillie first performed in New York in 1924 (Charlot's Revue). Her film credits include 1967's "Thoroughly Modern Millie."
1993 Actress Audrey Hepburn died at age 63.
2002 Carrie Hamilton, daughter of Carol Burnett, with whom she co-authored Hollywood Arms, dies today at age 37. The show will go on to open on Broadway in the fall.
2003 Iconic Broadway caricaturist Al Hirschfeld dies at age 99. Having captured the spirit of New York life, particularly actors in performance, since the 1920s, he was known for hiding his daughter's name, "Nina," in his sketches. At least one Broadway show, My Fair Lady, used a Hirschfeld drawing as its logo. Within months of his death, the Martin Beck Theatre will be renamed the Al Hirschfeld Theatre in his honor.
(sources: IBDB, IMDB, NYT's ON THIS DAY, 440.com’s Those Were The Days, Playbill.com)
Milla
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