Today's Birthdays 2/2

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 2/2/05 at 9:52am

Nell Gwyn 2/2/1650 - 11/14/1687 English actress & mistress of Charles II (1650-1687)

Fritz Kreisler 2/2/1875 - 1/29/1962 Austrian-bn. virtuoso/composer: Caprice Viennois, Tambourin Chinois, Liebesfreud, La Gitana

James Joyce 2/2/1882 - 1/13/1941 Irish novelist, source mat'l - James Joyce's The Dead; Exiles; Ulysses in Nighttown (Zero Mostel, Margery Beddow, Tommy Lee Jones)

Jascha Heifetz 2/2/1901 - 12/10/1987 Russian-bn. Amer. violinist, 1st public appearance at age of 6

Ayn Rand 2/2/1905 - 3/6/1982 Russian-bn. American writer/philosopher, social commentator, source mat'l - Night of January 16; The Unconquered (Dean Jagger, Ludmilla Toretzka, Cliff Dunstan); film's The Fountainhead (Gary Cooper, Patricial Neal); Atlas Shrugged

Gale Gordon 02/02/1906 - Jun 30, 1995 performer - Daughters of Atreus (Maria Ouspenskaya, Cornel Wilde, Eleonora Mendelssohn, Olive Deering); tv's The Lucy Show, The Lucille Ball Comedy Hour, My Little Margie, Our Miss Brooks

Jussi Bjorling 2/2/1911 - 9/9/1960 Swedish tenor my ULTIMATE, MOST FAVORITE TENOR! - Turandot [best Nessun Dorma!] (Nilsson, Tebaldi); Romeo et Juiliet (Sayao); Tosca (Milanov); Trovatore (Milanov, Barbieri, Warren); Madama Butterfly (De los Angeles, incredibly beautiful)

Burton Lane 02/02/1912 - Jan 5, 1997 Lyricist, Composer - Earl Carroll's Vanities; Hold on to Your Hats; Laffing Room Only; Finian's Rainbow; On a Clear Day You Can See Forever; We Bombed in New Haven; Carmelina; film's Finian's Rainbow; On a Clear Day; contributed songs to over 30 films: Babes on Broadway, Royal Wedding, Ship Ahoy, St. Louis Blues; credited with discovering Judy Garland

Liz Smith 02/02/1923 Performer, journalist: journalist: gossip columnist, author - Angela Lansbury - A Celebration; 2002 Funny Girl; Natural Blonde

Elaine Stritch 02/02/1925 Writer, Performer - Loco; Call Me Madam; 1952 Pal Joey; 1954 On Your Toes (Bobby Van, Vera Zorina); Bus Stop; The Sin of Pat Muldoon; Goldilocks; Sail Away; Company; 1994 Show Boat; 1996 A Delicate Balance; Elaine Stritch At Liberty; tv's & film's Emmy Award-winning actress: Point of View/Law and Order [1993]; Three Violent People, Providence, September; The Edge of Night; My Sister Eileen; 2's Company

Robert Mandan 02/02/1932 performer - Speaking of Murder (Lorne Greene, Estelle Winwood); Maggie Flynn (Shirley Jones, Jack Cassidy); But, Seriously...; Applause; Mail (Michael Rupert, Brian Mitchell, Mary Bond Davis, Michele Pawk)

Tom Smothers 02/02/1937 performer - Brother of Dick Smothers [replacement]; tv's The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, The Smothers Brothers Show, The Steve Allen Show

Farrah Fawcett 02/02/1947 performer - partner of Ryan O'Neal (1980 - 1997) no longer together; wife of Lee Majors (1973 - 1982) divorced - Bobbi Boland (never opened officially); tv's Charlie's Angels, The Burning Bed

Brent Spiner 02/02/1949 performer - A History of the American Film (Walter Bobbie, Swoosie Kurtz, Kate McGregor-Stewart); Sunday in the Park with George; 1984 3 Musketeers; 1997 1776; Life (x) 3

Christie Brinkley 2/2/1954 performer, model, ex-Mrs. Billy Joel - Cover Girl Cosmetics; actress: National Lampoon’s Vacation

Cady Huffman 02/02/1965 performer - Big Deal (Wayne Cilento, Larry Marshall, Stephanie Pope); Will Rogers' Follies; Steel Pier; The Producers; Short Talks on the Universe

Jennifer Westfeldt 02/02/1971 performer - Wonderful Town

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

1920 Eugene O'Neill's first full-length drama, Beyond the Horizon, plays at the Morosco Theatre. This drama of the Mayo brothers and the woman they both love stars Richard Bennett, Robert Kelly, and Elsie Rizer. It will go on to win the Pulitzer Prize.

1926 James Rennie is The Great Gatsby at the Ambassador Theatre. Also starring Florence Eldridge and Elliot Cabot, this adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel by Owen Davis will run 14 weeks. George Cukor provides the direction.

1927 Opening night of Ziegfeld's first non-revue musical, Rio Rita, by Guy Bolton and Fred Thompson. It's the inaugural production at the new Ziegfeld Theatre, and runs 494 performances.

1966 Opening night of Frederick Knott's murder mystery Wait Until Dark, about a blind woman stalked by a killer. It runs 374 performances and becomes a staple in stock.

ON THIS DATE:

1653 New Amsterdam - now New York City - was incorporated. If you can make it in New Amsterdam, you can make it anywhere.

1969 Boris Karloff, who came to life on film as Frankenstein's monster, dies today at 82 in Sussex, England. He made his first stage appearance in 1910. In 1941 he appeared in the comedy Arsenic and Old Lace at the Fulton Theatre in New York.

1987 - In a poll conducted by People magazine, readers selected Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant as their favorite, all-time acting greats.

1996 - Producer, Choreographer, Director, Performer Gene Kelly died in Los Angeles after complications from two strokes. He was 83 years old. Kelly is immortalized as that guy who sang and danced in the rain in "Singin’ in the Rain" (1952). He danced as he splashed in the puddles, but he also choreographed exactly how he would splash, and he directed exactly how the camera should zoom in on his face as he did so. Kelly also starred in "An American in Paris" (1951) and enjoyed many other film and TV roles.

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

Milla