Today's Birthdays 10/4 - Damon Runyon, Susan Sarandon, Armand Assante, Liev Schreiber

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 10/4/03 at 7:46pm

Damon Runyon 10/04/1880 - Dec 10, 1946 Writer, Source Material, Director, "The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown" will go on to form the basis for the musical Guys and Dolls - A SLIGHT CASE OF MURDER; GUYS & DOLLS; script writer: The Lemon Drop Kid, Little Miss Marker, Sorrowful Jones, Guys and Dolls, Pocketful of Miracles

Buster Keaton 10/4/1895 - 2/1/1966 performer, grandfather of actor Michael Keaton - film's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Hollywood Clowns, Man in the Silk Hat, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, When Comedy was King, Sunset Boulevard

Charlton Heston 10/04/1924 performer, president: National Rifle Association [NRA] - ANTONY & CLEOPATRA (Katharine Cornell,Godfrey Tearle); THE TUMBLER (Rosemary Harris, Martha Scott); film's Ben-Hur, El Cid, The Ten Commandments, Planet of the Apes, Airport ’75, Midway, Omega Man, Antony & Cleopatra

Susan Sarandon 10/04/1946 partner of Tim Robbins (1988 - present), wife of Chris Sarandon (1968 - 1979) divorced, performer - AN EVENING WITH RICHARD NIXON AND...; film's THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW; BULL DURHAM; THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK; PRETTY BABY; DEAD MAN WALKING; ATLANTIC CITY

Armand Assante 10/04/1949 performer - BOCCACCIO (Michale Zaslow); COMEDIANS (John Lithgow, Jonathan Pryce, David Margulies); 1977 ROMEO & JULIET (Pamela Payton-Wright, Paul Rudd, Jan Miner); film's Mambo Kings, Hoffa, Blind Justice, Fatal Instinct, Trial by Jury, Private Benjamin, Jack the Ripper, The Lords of Flatbush

Alan Rosenberg 10/04/1950 performer, husband of Marg Helgenberger (Sept 1989 - present) 1 son, husband of Robin Bartlett (divorced) - WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE (Faith Prince, Jerry Stiller); tv's & film's The Last Temptation of Christ, The Preppie Murder, L.A. Law, Witch Hunt, Cybill, Chicago Hope, The Guardian

Francis J. Cruz 10/04/1954 performer - MISS SAIGON [with the show during the entire run](Liz Callaway, Jonathan Pryce, Lea Salonga)

James Hayden 10/04/1954 - Nov 8, 1983 performer, died of drug overodose during run of "American Buffalo" on Broadway - 1983 A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE (Tony Lo Bianco); AMERICAN BUFFALO

Liev Schreiber 10/04/1967 performer - IN THE SUMMER HOUSE (Dianne Wiest, Frances Conroy); 2000 BETRAYAL (Juliette Binoche, John Slattery, Mark Lotito); 2003 HENRY V; film's Jakob the Liar, Buffalo Girls, The Sunshine Boys, Ransom, Scream

Alicia Silverstone 10/04/1976 performer - THE GRADUATE (Jason Biggs, Kathleen Turner, Victor Slezak); film's Clueless, The Babysitter, Batman & Robin

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

Private Lives 10/04/1948 - Tallulah Bankhead, Donald Cook, Barbara Baxley (debut); Theresa Quadri

Marcel Marceau 10/04/1955 - Marcel Marceau, Alvin Epstein

1955 Jean Giradoux's "Iliad"-based Tiger at the Gates opens, starring Michael Redgrave and Diane Cilento, both of whom earn Tony nominations, along with director Harold Clurman and the play itself.

1960 A Taste of Honey opens tonight at the Lyceum Theatre. This play, about a working class white girl who sleeps with a black man in her provincial town and becomes pregnant, features the likes of Angela Lansbury, Joan Plowright, Nigel Davenport and Billy Dee Williams. Playwright Shelagh Delaney is only 19. The play runs 49 weeks.

The Caretaker 10/04/1961 - Alan Bates, Robert Shaw, Donald Pleasence

Pickwick 10/04/1965 - Elizabeth Parrish, Sir Harry Secombe, Charlotte Rae

1972 The songs of Noel Coward get an airing tonight in the revue Oh, Coward! at the New Theatre. Barbara Cason, Roderick Cook and Jamie Ross star in this show, which will run 294 performances.

The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby 10/04/1981 - Roger Rees

Hedda Gabler 10/04/2001

ON THIS DAY IN:

1931 - “Extra! Extra! Read all about it!” Gumshoe Dick Tracy debuted in The Detroit Mirror. A week later, The New York Daily News and hundreds of others picked up the Chester Gould comic strip.

1954 - Comedienne Spring Byington began the successful network TV series, December Bride -- on CBS. The show had started on radio in 1952 before making the switch to black and white TV.

1956 A new CBS series, "Playhouse 90," begins tonight. Many would call it the pinnacle of live drama on television. Throughout its run the series will give voice to such writers as Tad Mosel, Rod Serling and Paddy Chayevsky, and showcase versions of such plays as The Miracle Worker and The Days of Wine and Roses.

1957 - Leave It to Beaver premiered on ABC-TV. “...And starring Jerry Mathers as the Beaver,” Hugh Beaumont (Ward Cleaver), Tony Dow (Wally), and Barbara Billingsley as Mrs. June Cleaver. The Cleavers lived a surreal-American life. June even did the housework in three strands of pearls, fashion plate dresses, makeup and high heels. Life was so grand!

1970 - Janis Joplin died from a drug overdose. She was 27. Joplin, known for her passionate, bluesy, vocal style, was the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company. She became a superstar with hits like, Down on Me, Pearl (her nickname) and Every Little Piece of My Heart; but Me and Bobby McGee was her only certified top 40 hit. The Bette Midler movie, The Rose, was based on Joplin’s life.

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

Milla Updated On: 10/4/03 at 07:46 PM