Today's Birthdays 4/22

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 4/21/07 at 11:59pm

Queen Isabella I, 4/22/1451 - 1/26/1504 sponsored the voyages of Christopher Columbus, was born in Madrigal, Spain.

Henry Fielding 4/22/1707 - 10/8/1754 playwright, author: The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling

Vladimir Nabokov 4/22/1899 - 7/2/1977 Russian-born American novelist and critic - Lolita

Martyn Green 04/22/1899 - Feb 8, 1975 performer, English singer and actor; Gilbert and Sullivan star - Shangri-La; Child of Fortune (Edmund Purdhom, Betsy Von Furstenberg);Canterbury Tales; The Incomparable Max (Richard Kiley, Clive Revill, Michael Egan)

Eddie Albert [Eddie Albert Heimberger] 04/22/1908 - May 26, 2005 performer, a particular favorite of mine! Father of Edward Albert. Hired by the government, he went on "sailing" expeditions and reported Nazi and Japanese activity in the Baja, California and Mexico areas He once joined a Mexican circus act owned by the Escalante Brothers and while touring as a "flyer" in a trapeze act for $8 a day, gathered intelligence. Albert actually quit Warner Bros. at one point in order to do this. The outbreak of World War II sent Albert into the U.S. Navy as a junior officer, and he distinguished himself during 1943 in the fighting on Tarawa. Assigned as the salvage officer in the shore party of the second landing wave (which engaged in heavy fighting with the Japanese), his job was to examine military equipment abandoned on the battlefield to see if it should be retrieved; but what he found were wounded men who had been left behind under heavy fire. Albert took them off the beach in a small launch not designed for that task, earning commendations for his bravery. A bona fide hero, he was sent home to support a War Bond drive (though he never traded on his war experiences, and didn't discussing them in detail on-camera until the 1990s). From the mid-'40s, the actor had acquired a deep, personal interest in politics, and produced a series of educational films intended to introduce grade-school students to notions of democracy and tolerance. By the '60s, he was also deeply involved in the environmental movement. Turned down the lead series roles in "My Three Sons" (1960) and "Mister Ed" (1961) in order to actively pursue his movie career. - O Evening Star; Brother Rat; Room Service; orig The Boys from Syracuse; Miss Liberty; The 7 Yr Itch [replacement]; The Music Man [replacement for Robert Preston]; No Hard Feelings (Stockard Channing, Nanette Fabray, Conrad Janis); 1983 You Can't Take It With You [replacement]; tv's & film's Green Acres (Eva Gabor); Yes, Giorgio; Teahouse of the August Moon, Roman Holiday; Brother Rat series; On Your Toes; The Heartbreak Kid; 1 of my fav tv series Switch (Robert Wagner)

Yehudi Menuhin 4/22/1916 - 3/12/1999 1 of the great violinists: child prodigy: solo with San Francisco Orchestra at age of 7, played with New York Symphony Orchestra at ten

Charlotte Rae 04/22/1926 performer - 1954 Threepenny Opera; The Golden Apple [replacement]; Li'l Abner; The Beauty Part (Bert Lahr, Alice Ghostley, Larry Hagman, Fiddle Viracola); Pickwick; Morning, Noon and Night; The Chinese and Dr. Fish; orig Boom Boom Room; tv's Facts of Life

Jack Nicholson 4/22/1937 performer - Academy Award-winning actor: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest [1975], Terms of Endearment [1983], As Good as It Gets [1997]; Five Easy Pieces, The Shining [I've still never been able to watch this movie], Batman, Broadcast News, Chinatown, Easy Rider, Prizzi’s Honor, The Witches of Eastwicke, Little Shop of Horrors, A Few Good Men

Jason Miller 04/22/1939 - May 13, 2001 Father of Jason Patric, husband of Linda Mae Gleason (1963 - 1973) divorced, son-in-law of Jackie Gleason; Writer, Performer - That Championship Season (Charles Durning, Paul Sorvino, Richard Dysart); Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwright: That Championship Season [1973]; actor: Mommy, Murdered Innocence, Small Kill, Light of Day, Toy Soldiers, Monsignor, The Exorcist series, The Ninth Configuration

Alan Campbell 04/22/1957 performer, husband of Lauren Kennedy - Sunset Boulevard (Glenn Close, George Hearn, Alice Ripley, Bryan Batt, Lauren Kennedy); Contact [replacement]

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

1830 Rip Van Winkle

1895 Broadway debut of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, starring Henry Miller as Jack Worthing.

1912 The Vaudeville team of Ed Gallagher and Al Shean make their debut in The Rose Maid at Broadway's Globe Theatre. Shean's nephews, the Marx Brothers, will follow in his footsteps.

1969 Michael Simone directs a triple-bill of Luigi Pirandello plays The Man with the Flower in His Mouth, The License and The Jar Off-Broadway at the Sheridan Square Playhouse. Mitchell Jason and Danny De Vito are in the cast.

1970 Park - the fabulous Julie Wilson, Don Scardino, Joan Hackett, David Brooks

1974 Jumpers - Brian Bedford, Jill Clayburgh

1984 Beethoven's Tenth - Peter Ustinov, Leslie O'Hara, George Rose

1987 All My Sons with Richard Kiley, Jayne Atkinson, Jamey Sheridan, Kit Flanagan & Joyce Ebert

1993 Pete Townsend's rock opera The Who's Tommy opens on Broadway at the St. James Theatre. Des McAnuff directed the production starring Michael Cerveris as the catatonic kid-cum-cause célèbre title role that Roger Daltrey played in the 1975 film.

1999 Frank Wildhorn, Gregory Boyd and Jack Murphy bring The Civil War back to life. This saga, with music by Wildhorn and staged by Jerry Zaks, opens tonight at Broadway's St. James Theater. The 26 member ensemble is led by Michel Bell, Matt Bogart and Gilles Chiasson. The show will close after only 61 performances despite Tony award nominations for Best Musical.

ON THIS DAY IN:

1509 Henry VIII became king of England following the death of his father, Henry VII.

1889 the Oklahoma Land Rush began at noon as thousands of homesteaders staked claims.

1970 - The first Earth Day was observed -- with the purpose of reclaiming the purity of the air we breathe, the water we drink and the environment we live in. With the slogan “Give Earth a Chance,” Earth Day continues to be celebrated on this anniversary or on the vernal equinox.

1985 - Washington and Lee University researchers reported this day that Martha Washington had 29,650 pounds when she and George were married. Now, before you smart alecks start making cracks about the ‘Father of Our Country’ liking cuddly women, we’d like you to know that 29,650 pounds was worth $5.9 million on their wedding day.

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

Milla