Today's Birthdays 12/17

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 12/17/08 at 7:25pm

Katina Paxinou 12/17/1900 - Feb 22, 1973 wife of Alexis Minotis, performer - 1942 Hedda Gabler (Margaret Wycherly, Ralph Forbes); Sophie (Louis Sorin); The House of Bernarda Alba (Kim Stanley); The Garden of Sweets (Ted Beniades, Madeleine Sherwood, Boris Tumarin, Lou Antonio)

Patrice Wymore 12/17/1926 performer, Wife of Errol Flynn (October 1950 - October 1959) his death; 1 daughter Arnella died in 1998 - Hold It! (Red Buttons); All for Love (Bert Wheeler, Paul & Grace Hartman, June Graham)

Julia Meade 12/17/1928 performer - entertainer: Club Embassy; The Tender Trap; Double in Hearts; Roman Candle; Mary, Mary [replacement]; 1959 The Front Page; TV hostess: Spotlight Playhouse, Gas Company Playhouse; film's Zotz!; Pillow Talk (1 of my favs, how can I forget the song Rock sings to all his girls, "You are My Inspiration, Marie...[fill in the name for the next girl])(Thelma Ritter, Nick Adams, Tony Randall). Spent a Xmas eve & 1 New Yrs Eve at parties w/Miss Meade, nice lady.

Tommy Steele 12/17/1936 performer - Half a Sixpence (John Cleese, Carrie Nye, Carol Richards singer: Rock with the Caveman; actor: The Happiest Millionaire, Half a Sixpence

Susan Watson 12/17/1938 performer, sister of Janet Watson, sister-in-law of Tom Jones, wife of Norton Wright - Bye Bye Birdie; replacement in Carnival!; Ben Franklin in Paris (Robert Preston, Barbara Bossert); A Joyful Noise (Karen Morrow, John Raitt, Tommy Tune); Celebration (Keith Charles, Michael Glenn-Smith, Ted Thurston, Michael Glenn-Smith); 1970 Beggar on Horseback; 1971 No, No, Nanette

Novella Nelson 12/17/1939 Director, Performer, Production Crew, Producer - Purlie; That Championship Season; 1981 The Little Foxes (Elizabeth Taylor, Maureen Stapleton)

Bernard Hill 12/17/1944 performer - film's Mountains of the Moon, Shirley Valentine, Bellman and True, Drowning by Numbers, No Surrender, The Bounty, Gandhi; Lord of the Rings Series; Save Angel Hope; Franklyn; Valkyrie

Barry Livingston 12/17/1953 performer - 1975 The Skin of Our Teeth (Elizabeth Ashley, Alfred Drake, Martha Scott); tv's My Three Sons, Sons and Daughters; Mad Men; You Don't Mess with the Zohan; The New Adventures of Old Christine; Eli Stone

Bill Pullman 12/17/1953 The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia?; The Curse of the Starving Class (Kathy Bates); film's & tv's While You Were Sleeping; The Virginian; Your Name Here; Peacock

On ATC - Happy Birthday ctmoonmaid!

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

1953 Franchot Tone stars as a psychoanalyst who gets comically entangled with his patients in Oh, Men!, Oh, Women! Written and directed by Edward Chodorov, with a cast that includes Anne Jackson, Larry Blyden, Betsy von Furstenberg, and Gig Young, this show will run nearly 48 weeks at the Henry Miller Theatre.

1962 Actor and playwright Thomas Mitchell dies today at age 70. Mitchell cowrote the comedy Little Accident with Floyd Dell. Later in his career he concentrated on acting, performing on stage in An Inspector Calls, and in numerous films including, "Gone With the Wind."

1980 Broadway opening night for Amadeus, Peter Shaffer's drama about the tragic difference between talent and genius. Tim Curry plays Mozart and Ian McKellen plays Salieri in the play, which opens at the Broadhurst Theatre and runs 1,181 performance. The 1984 film version will win eight Oscars, including Best Picture.

1998 The new musical Parade, directed by Hal Prince, opens today, starring Carolee Carmello and Brent Carver. Jason Robert Brown composed the music and lyrics, and Alfred Uhry wrote the book. The plot concerns the true story of Leo Frank, a Jewish man wrongly accused of murder and lynched by an angry Atlanta mob in 1915. Parade will go on to win Tony Awards for Best Score and Best Book of a Musical. It is named Best Musical by the New York Drama Critics Circle, but runs just 85 performances.

ON THIS DAY IN:

1843 - A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens was published in London and immediately sold out. He wrote the story in just two months, beginning in October, 1843 and finishing at the end of November. It was the first of five Christmas books by Dickens. Its successors were The Chimes (1844), The Cricket on the Hearth (1845), The Battle of Life (1846), and The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain (184 .

On 1903 - The first successful powered airplane flight took place near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. First Orville, then Wilbur Wright kept their invention flying ... each flight lasted just under one minute.

1936 - Ventriloquist Edgar Bergen kidded around with his pal, Charlie McCarthy (who was a bit wooden, we remember...), for the first time on radio. The two debuted on The Rudy Vallee Show on NBC. Soon, Bergen became one of radio’s hottest properties, and was called Vallee’s greatest talent discovery.

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

Milla
Updated On: 12/17/08 at 07:25 PM