Today's Birthdays 2/11

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 2/11/08 at 11:55am

Thomas Alva Edison 2/11/1847 - 10/18/1931 American inventor holding 1,093 patents (including the cylinder [great, great gradfather of the ipod]) source mat'l

Philip Dunne 2/11/1908 - 6/2/1992 director: Wild in the Country, Ten North Frederick; playwright: The Agony and the Ecstasy, Ten North Frederick, Pinky, and 3 of my favs: The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Forever Amber, How Green was My Valley; founder of the Screen Writers Guild

Max Baer 2/11/1909 - 11/21/1959 American boxer, ‘The Livermore Larruper’: boxer; father of Beverly Hillbillies’ actor Max Baer Jr.; film's The Prizefighter And The Lady (Walter Huston, Otto Kruger) I thought Baer had an earnest charm in his acting

Joseph Mankiewicz 2/11/1909 - 2/5/1993 IMHO 2 words for this man buh rilliant! Academy Award-winning playwright, director: A Letter to Three Wives [1949](loved it!), All About Eve [1950](a real classic); The Honey Pot, Cleopatra, Guys and Dolls, The Barefoot Contessa (Ava Gardener incredibly sensuous & Rossanno Brazzi had lots of pathos), Julius Caesar, People Will Talk (off-beat & interestingly eccentric); playwright: The Keys of the Kingdom, I Live My Life, Forsaking All Others, Diplomaniacs; director: Sleuth, Suddenly Last Summer (frenetically fabu), Five Fingers, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (Gene Tierney was never more beautiful).

Sidney Sheldon 2/11/1917- Jan 30, 2007 writer - 1943 Merry Widow (Marta Eggerth, Jan Kiepura, David Wayne, Gene Barry); Jackpot; Dream With Music; RED HEAD(!); Roman Candle (Inger Stevens, Julia Meade); tv's & film's Bloodline, The Doomsday Conspiracy, The Other Side of Midnight

Eva Gabor 2/11/1921 - 7/4/1995 Hungarian performer, pianist, daughter of Jolie Gabor, sister of Zsa Zsa, & Magda Gabor - The Happy Time; The Glass Clock (George Curzon); 1958 Present Laughter; tv's & film's Green Acres, Gigi, The Last Time I Saw Paris

Kim Stanley 02/11/1925 - 8/20/2001 wife of Curt Conway (1949 - 1956) divorced, Alfred Ryder (1957 - April 16, 1995) separated, Bruce Hall (1945 - 1946) divorced - orig The House of Bernarda Alba; Picnic; Bus Stop; A Clearing in the Woods (Robert Culp); A Touch of the Poet (Helen Hayes, Betty Field); A Far Country (Sam Wanamaker, Steven Hill, Salome Jens, Patrick O'Neal); Natural Affection (Tom Bosley, Monica May, Harry Guardino); tv's & film's Emmy Award-winning actress: A Cardinal Act of Mercy - Ben Casey [1963], Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - American Playhouse [1985]; The Right Stuff

Leslie Nielsen 2/11/1926 performer; Nephew of the late actor Jean Hersholt; Tested for the role of "Messala" in Ben-Hur (1959) [now that would have been interesting casting!] - Seagulls Over Sorrento (John Randolph, Rod Steiger); tv's & film's Golden Girls (he & Dorothy were made for ea. other!) Police Squad, Airplane, Airplane II, Naked Gun series, Dead and Loving It, Forbidden Planet, Wrongfully Accused; Scarey Movie series; Lip****z Saves the World; Music Within; Robson Arms; Superhero Movie

Conrad Janis 02/11/1928 performer, musician - Dark of the Moon; The Next Half Hour; The Brass Ring; Time Out for Ginger; Make A Million; Sunday in New York; Marathon 33; 1969 The Front Page; No Hard Feelings; Same Time, Next Year [replacement]; tv's & film's Murder, She Wrote; Frasier; The Brass Ring (Sidney Blackmer, Paul Ford); A Visit to a Small Planet; Sunday in NY (Robert Redford); No Hard Feelings (Eddie Albert, Stockard Channing, Nanette Fabray); Bad Blood; Another Pretty Face; Sweetwater

Tina Louise 02/11/1935 [imdb lists it as 1934] performer; A former model and nightclub singer, red-haired beauty Tina Louise trained at the Actors Studio [lifetime mbr] and the Neighborhood Playhouse; as of 2001, Tina Louise is a volunteer reading teacher in the NY school system. Personal Quote: "Mr. Abbott, do you mean I have to walk and talk at the same time?" - to director George Abbott during first dress rehearsal of "Fade Out, Fade In." - Two's Company; Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter; Li'l Abner; Fade Out-Fade In; tv's Gilligan’s Island, Rituals, Jan Murray Time, Dallas; All My Children; West From North Goes South; Little Pieces

Burt Reynolds 2/11/1936 performer - Look, We've Come Through (Zohra Lampert, Clinton Kimbrough, Collin Wilcox); tv's & film's Emmy Award-winning actor: Evening Shade [1991], Gunsmoke, Deliverance, Smokey and the Bandit, Cannonball Run, The Longest Yard, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas; My Name is Earl; In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale; Randy and the Mob; Delgo

Barbara Andres 02/11/1939 performer - Jimmy; Rodgers & Hart (Jimmy Brennan, Tovah Feldshuh); On Golden Pond; Doonesbury; 1996 A Delicate Balance; tv's & film's What About Bob; Law & Order; Doonesbury: A Broadway Musical; The Sopranos; Law & Order[s]; Thirteen Conversations About One Thing

Philip Anglim 02/11/1953 performer - The Elephant Man; 1981 Macbeth (Michael Dash (Juilliard classmate), Kelsey Grammer, Dana Ivey); tv's & film's [tv] 1982 Macbeth; [tv] The Elephant Man; The Horse Dealer's Daughter; The Thornbirds; Star Trek: Deep Space Nine; Dallas: War of the Ewings

Jennifer Aniston 02/11/1969 performer, Daughter of John Aniston - The 24 Hour Plays 2006; tv's & film's She's the One; The Object of My Affection; Office Space; Friends; Friends With Money; He's Just Not That Into You; Management; Traveling

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

1929 Eugene O'Neill takes on industrialization in his drama Dynamo, starring Claudette Colbert and Dudley Digges, presented by The Theatre Guild at the Martin Beck Theatre for the first of 50 performances.

1953 Hazel Flagg - the irrepressible Helen Gallagher, Ross Martin, Thomas Mitchell, Benay Venuta, Sheree North

1979 They're Playing Our Song opens on Broadway at the Imperial Theatre. The musical with book by Neil Simon is based on the life of composer Marvin Hamlisch and lyricist Carole Bayer Sayer, a real-life composer-lyricist couple at the time.

ON THIS DAY IN:

1945 - President Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin signed the Yalta Agreement during World War II

1960 - Jack Paar walked off NBC’s Tonight Show. The previous night, Paar had told a joke during his monologue, and although Paar didn’t say “toilets,” but “water closets,” it offended the NBC censors, who cut the joke (a total of four minutes) out of the show. Paar was incensed when he found out, so on this night he complained about the NBC censors, said “good night” and left. (He returned on March 7, following a trip to Hong Kong, and stayed around for another two years as host of Tonight.)

1976 Actor Lee J. Cobb, the original Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, dies today at age 65. He acted a great deal in films but in the 60s returned to the New York stage playing King Lear at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre in Lincoln Center.

2006 Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and wounded a companion during a weekend quail-hunting trip in Texas.

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

Milla