Today's Birthdays 4/10

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 4/9/08 at 10:48pm

Joseph Pulitzer 4/10/1847 - 10/29/1911 born in Hungary. publisher: St. Louis Dispatch, New York World; died in 1911: his will left $2 million for establishment of school of journalism at Columbia Univ. and a fund which established annual prizes for literature, drama, music and journalism.

George Arliss 04/10/1868 - 2/5/1946 master performer - starred in a series of historical vehicles, including Hamilton and Disraeli; 1928 The Merchant of Venice (Peggy Wood, Spring Byington); film's Voltaire; The House of Rothschild; Disraeli; my fav The Man Who Played God

Frances Perkins 4/10/1882 -5/14/1965 first woman U.S. presidential cabinet member: Secretary of Labor [1933-1945]

Bernard Gimbel 4/10/1885 - 9/29/1966 merchant: Gimbel’s Department Stores; source mat'l - Miracle on 34th St.

Harry Morgan 4/10/1915 - performer; once a mbr of the Group Theater - tv's & film's Emmy Award-winning actor: M*A*S*H [1979-80]; Dragnet, You Can’t Take It with You, Pete and Gladys, HEC Ramsey, December Bride, The D.A., Aftermash

Max Von Sydow 04/10/1929 - performer; Was offered the title role in Dr. No (1962). One of the very few actors to be nominated for an Oscar for a role in a foreign language film for "Pelle the Conqueror" (Pelle erobreren (1987)). - The Night of the Tribades (Eileen Atkins, Bibi Andersson, Werner Klemperer, Bill Moor); Duet for One (Anne Bancroft); film's Dune, The Exorcist, The Seventh Seal, The Emigrants, Flash Gordon, Hannah and Her Sisters, Hawaii, The Quiller Memorandum, Quo Vadis, Three Days of the Condor

Liz Sheridan 04/10/1929 - performer - Frank Merriwell; Hurry, Harry; Something's Afoot; Best Friend; Happy End; Ballroom; Once a Catholic (Rachel Roberts, Peggy Cass, Mia Dillon); tv's & film's Numb3rs; Seinfeld; ALF; Forget Paris

Omar Sharif (Michael Shalhoub) 4/10/1923 performer; World-class Bridge player, he has been known to anticipate or postpone shootings in order to be able to attend major bridge events. Of Egyptian/Palestinian descent. - film's Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Zhivago, Funny Girl, Funny Lady, Peter the Great, Anastasia: The Mystery of Anna, Beyond Justice, Crime & Passion

Peter MacNicol 04/10/1954 - performer, dir. - Crimes of the Heart; White Liars & Black Comedy (Nancy Marchand, Kate Mulgrew); tv's & film's Dracula: Dead and Loving It, Addams Family Values, Ghostbusters 2, Dragon Slayer, Chicago Hope, The Powers that Be, Ally McBeal; my fav Sophie’s Choice

Laura Bell Bundy 04/10/1981 performer - Hairspray; Wicked [replacement]; Legally Blonde

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

1957 Laurence Olivier is The Entertainer. John Osborne's drama exposing the final turns of a song-and-dance man plays at London's Royal Court Theatre.

1965 - Frank Loesser's new musical PLEASURES AND PALACES closes out-of-town at the Fisher Theatre in Detroit. Bob Fosse directed and choreographed Alfred Marks (replaced in previews by Jack Cassidy), Phyllis Newman, Hy Hazell and John McMartin in this story of Catherine the Great of Russia, based on Sam Spewack's 1961 one-night-flop play ONCE THERE WAS A RUSSIAN.

1968 Joel Grey is George M!. This Michael Stewart and John & Fran Pascal musical about the life of showman George M. Cohan will win 427 performances. Joe Layton choreographs and directs.

1986 - Bob Fosse provides direction, choreography and the book (based on the film "Big Deal on Madonna Street" by Mario Monicelli) for the new musical BIG DEAL, with a score comprised of many old hit songs. It opens tonight at the Broadway Theatre for a run of 8 previews and 69 performances. Among the cast: Cleavant Derricks, Loretta Devine, Wayne Cilento, Cady Huffman, Larry Marshall, Valarie Petiford and Stephanie Pope

2000 In London in 1965, three one-act plays by Noel Coward played under the title Noel Coward's Suite in Three Keys. On Broadway in 1974, the show (minus one play) became Noel Coward in Two Keys. Tonight, Hayley Mills, Judith Ivey and Paxton Whitehead open Off Broadway in Noel Coward's Suite in Two Keys at the Lucille Lortel Theatre.

2003 Broadway gets to "Be Italian!" again as a revival of the Maury Yeston-Arthur Kopit musical Nine, opens on Broadway, with Antonio Banderas leading a cast of more than a dozen women in the new David Leveaux staging, featuring Chita Rivera, Laura Benanti, Jane Krakowski and Mary Stuart Masterson. The production will go on to win the Tony Award as Best Revival of a Musical.

2005 The Pillowman with Michael Stuhlbarg, Billy Crudub, Jeffrey Goldblum and Željko Ivanek

ON THIS DAY IN:

1849 - Walter Hunt of New York City patented the safety pin. Most of us still use the device which comes in a variety of sizes and is quite handy to have around. Mr. Hunt, however, didn’t think so. He thought the safety pin to be a temporary convenience and sold the patent for a total of $400. How many costumes have been held together by safety pins?

1912 The luxury liner Titanic set sail from Southampton, England, on its ill-fated maiden voyage.

1967 - Bob Hope was the host/referee as Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf and A Man for All Seasons duked it out at the 39th Annual Academy Awards. The arena was the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, Los Angeles. Virginia Woolf came loaded with 13 nominations, her opponent, A Man for All Seasons, was the underdog with 8. At first it was blow for blow, Virginia Woolf winning Best Costume Design/Black-and-White (Irene Sharaff) and Seasons winning the award in the Color category (Joan Bridge and Elizabeth Haffenden); Seasons winning Best Cinematography/Color (Ted Moore) and Virginia Woolf winning in the Black-and-White division (Haskell Wexler). Then Virgina Woolf won for Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, Black-and-White (George James Hopkins, Richard Sylbert) while Seasons took the Oscar for Best Writing/Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Robert Bolt). They were tied. Best Supporting Actress: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Sandy Dennis), but Best Supporting Actor went to Walter Matthau in The Fortune Cookie. Virginia Woolf, ahead by one. The Best Music/Song Oscar went to Born Free (John Barry-music, Don Black-lyrics) from the movie of the same title. The fight was still on since neither Seasons nor Virginia Woolf was nominated in that category. It was time for the Academy Award for Best Actress. And the Oscar goes to Elizabeth Taylor for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. The 1966 movie about bad marriages and booze was now two ahead. Would the drama about Thomas More garner a Best Actor Oscar for Paul Scofield? Yes! Two awards left ... Would it be Mike Nichols, director of Virginia Woolf or Fred Zinnemann. Fred Zinnemann wins for Seasons and the two are tied. The envelope holding the title of the Best Picture of 1966 revealed the overall winner as A Man for All Seasons, Fred Zinnemann, producer.

1968 - This was not the usual Monday night Oscar celebration at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in LA. In fact, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences postponed the 40th Annual Academy Awards ceremonies two days because of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. Ironically, the Best Picture of 1967, In the Heat of the Night (Walter Mirisch, producer), and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (Best Actress: Katharine Hepburn) and Best Writing/Story and Screenplay/Written Directly for the Screen (William Rose), have racial themes. Heat won four more Oscars that evening including: Best Actor (Rod Steiger); Best Writing/Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Stirling Silliphant). Bob Hope, as host, livened up the somber ceremonies as did awards for Best Supporting Actor George Kennedy (Cool Hand Luke), Best Supporting Actress Estelle Parsons (Bonnie and Clyde); Best Music/Song, Talk to the Animals from Doctor Dolittle (Leslie Bricusse). Mike Nichols who lost to The Man for All Seasons the previous year, won this time, as Best Director for The Graduate. Other serious contenders for the golden statuette were: Casino Royale, Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Dirty Dozen, Divorce American Style, Camelot, The Jungle Book, Far from the Madding Crowd, Valley of the Dolls, In Cold Blood, Barefoot in the Park. Some were winners, some not so lucky.

1972 - Once again, the 44th Annual Academy Awards celebration was held at Los Angeles’ Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. And, once again, everyone was spellbound waiting to hear who won Best Picture. It wasn’t an easy decision. The nominees were: A Clockwork Orange, Fiddler on the Roof, The Last Picture Show, Nicholas and Alexandra and The French Connection. And the Oscar goes to ... The French Connection, Philip D’Antoni, producer. The Oscar also went to The French Connection for Best Director (William Friedkin); Best Actor (Gene Hackman); Best Writing/Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Ernest Tidyman); and Best Film Editing (Gerald B. Greenberg). All of the other Best Picture nominees (except A Clockwork Orange) also received Oscars: The Last Picture Show won for both supporting actor and actress (Ben Johnson and Cloris Leachman respectively); Fiddler on the Roof won for Best Cinematography (Oswald Morris), Best Sound (Gordon K. McCallum, David Hildyard) and Best Music/Scoring Adaptation/Original Song Score (John Williams); Nicholas and Alexandra won the awards for Best Art Direction/Set Decoration (John Box, Ernest Archer, Jack Maxsted, Gil Parrondo, Vernon Dixon) and Best Costume Design (Yvonne Blake, Antonio Castillo). Klute won one out of its two nominations: Best Actress (Jane Fonda) and Shaft won its only nomination: Best Music/Song (Isaac Hayes, Theme from Shaft. Other films from 1971 that received accolades ... but not necessarily Oscars: Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory; Sunday Bloody Sunday; Carnal Knowledge; Summer of ’42, Bedknobs and Broomsticks; Mary, Queen of Scots; and McCabe & Mrs. Miller. And much applause went to the hosts of the evening’s festivities: Helen Hayes, Alan King, Sammy Davis Jr., and Jack Lemmon.

1974 Actress Patricia Collinge died today at the age of 81. She was one of the original performers in The Players, the acting troupe founded by Edwin Booth. Among her numerous performances is her appearance opposite Tallulah Bankhead in the 1939 production of The Little Foxes.

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

Milla

[thatgirl712]

Posted: 4/10/08 at 8:13pm

Happy Birthday all.