Today's Birthdays 2/21

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 2/21/05 at 3:36pm

Anais Nin 2/21/1903 - 1/14/1977 French-bn. American author, source mat'l

W. H. Auden 2/21/1907 - 9/29/1973 English-bn. American poet, lyricist & writer - The Dance of Death; The Pepper Mill; The Duchess of Malfi (Elisabeth Bergner, John Carradine); Pulitzer Prize-winning poet: The Age of Anxiety [1948]; Poems, The Orators, an English Study, The Dog Beneath the Skin, Look, Stranger!, The Double Man, Nones, Enchafed Flood, Forewords and Afterwords, Thanksgiving for a Habitat; Bollingen Poetry Prize [1954]; National Medal for Literature [1967]

1925 - Sam Peckinpah 2/21/1925 - Dec 28, 1984 director - tv's & film's Broken Arrow [TV: 1956], Zane Grey Theater, The Rifleman, Major Dundee, The Wild Bunch, The Getaway [1972], Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Convoy

Patricia Benoit 02/21/1927 performer - Glad Tidings (Melvyn Douglas); Have I Got a Girl for You! (Paula Laurence, Dick Van Patten)

Rue McClanahan 02/21/1935 performer - Jimmy Shine (Dustin Hoffman, Cleavon Little); Father's Day (Brenda Vaccaro, Marian Seldes, Bigg McGuire, Donald Moffat, Ken Kercheval); 2001 The Women; tv's Emmy Award-winning actress: The Golden Girls [1986-1987], Maude, Mama’s Family

Gary Lockwood 2/21/1937 - performer - tv's & film's 2001: A Space Odyssey, Terror in Paradise, Firecreek, Splendor in the Grass; orig Star Trek series (Where No Man Has Gone Before episode); The Magic Sword; Wild in the Country

Keith Prentice 02/21/1940 - Sep 27, 1992 performer - orig Sound of Music; Sail Away

David Geffen 02/21/1943 producer - Dreamgirls; orig Master Harold & the Boys; Cats; Social Security (Olympia Dukakis, Marlo Thomas); M. Butterfly; Jack: A Night on the Town with John Barrymore; By Jeeves; 2003 Little Shop of Horrors; film's Beetlejuice, Risky Business; record executive: Geffen Records; partner in Dreamworks film production company with Jeffrey Katzenberg, Steven Spielberg

Tyne Daly 02/21/1946 performer, daughter of James Daly, sister of Timothy Daly - That Summer - That Fall (Irene Papas, Jon Voigt); 1989 Gypsy; The Seagull; tv's & film's Emmy Award-winning actress: Cagney and Lacey [1982-83, 1983-84, 1984-85, 1987-88]; Christy, On the Town, Your Place or Mine, A Matter of Life and Death, Speedtrap, Intimate Strangers, The Enforcer, Larry, Angel Unchained, The Butter and Egg Man, John and Mary, The Virginian, Judging Amy

Alan Rickman 02/21/1946 performer - Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Lindsay Duncan); Private Lives; film's Robin Hood

William Petersen 02/21/1953 performer, I think he's sexy (even if he's put on a few lbs.) - 1996 The Night of the Iguana (Cherry Jones, Marsha Mason); tv's & film's CSI; Manhunter/Red Dragon; Return to Lonesome Dove; The Rat Pack; The Contender; To Live & Die in LA; The Beast

Christine Ebersole 02/21/1953 performer, cabaret performer, wife of Peter Bergman (1977 - 1982) divorced, Bill Moloney (1988 - present) - Angel Street (Dina Merrill) [replaced Christine Andreas]; On the 20th Century [replaced Judy Kaye] (John Cullum, Kevin Kline); 1979 Oklahoma!; 1980 Camelot (Richard Burton); Harrigan 'n Hart (Harry Groener, Mark Hammill, music by Max Showalter); Getting Away With Murder (Terrence Mann, John Rubinstein); 2000 Gore Vidal's The Best Man; 2001 42nd Street; 2002 Dinner at 8; Steel Magnolias; tv's & film's Saturday Night Live; The Cavenaughs; Tootsie; Amadeus; Rachel Gunn, R.N.; tv's Gypsy

Kelsey Grammer 02/21/1955 performer - 1981 Macbeth; 1982 Othello (Christopher Plummer, James Earl Jones, Dianne Wiest); 2000 Macbeth; tv's Emmy Award-winning actor: Frasier [1994, 1995]; Cheers, Another World

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

1958 Legendary flop musical Portofino gives the first of its three performances at the Adelphi Theatre. Helen Gallagher stars in the show, written by Louis Bellson, Will Irwin, Richard Ney and Sheldon Harnick.

1961 The Changeling by Middleton and Rowley is revived for the first time since the 17th century. London's Royal Court production stars Robert Shaw, Mary Ure and Zoe Caldwell. Tony Richardson directs.

1972 Moonchildren beam into the Royale Theatre in New York. Michael Weller captures the Flower Power sweeping America's colleges. This production will close after only two weeks.

1991 Neil Simon preserves his stronghold on Broadway as Lost in Yonkers opens at the Richard Rodgers Theatre. The Tony- and Pulitzer-winning comedy drama stars Mercedes Ruehl, Irene Worth and Kevin Spacey.

2002 Elaine Stritch opens her solo show, Elaine Stritch: At Liberty at Broadway's Neil Simon Theatre. The show would go on to win the 2002 Tony Award as Best Special Event.

ON THIS DAY IN:

1925 - The first issue of The New Yorker was published.

1976 Actress Frieda Inescourt dies today. After a British debut, she appeared in sophisticated Broadway comedies such as You and I by Philip Barry. She was 75 years old.

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

Milla