Today's Birthdays 6/11

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 6/11/08 at 11:01am

Ben Jonson 06/11/1572 - 1637 writer, source mat'l - Richard Savage (Henry Miller); Foxy; The Alchemist (Nancy Marchand, Philip Bosco); Sly Fox (based on Valpone)

Richard Strauss 06/11/1864 - 9/8/1949 German Romantic composer Salome; Der Rosenkavalier - Saturday Night Fever

Jack Livesey 06/11/1901 - Oct 12, 1961 performer, brother of Roger and Barrie Livesey, Son of Sam Livesey - Yellow Sands; 1956 The Apple Cart; Look Back in Anger (Alan Bates)

Jacques-Yves Cousteau 6/11/1910 - 6/25/1997 French naval officer and oceanographer

Risë Stevens [Risë Steenberg] 6/11/1913 married to Walter Szurovy (6 January 1939 - 4 November 2001) (his death); mother of Nicolas Nicolas Surovy. One of the great opera mezzo sopranos, Carmen & Der Rosenkavalier - tv's & film's 1958 Little Women; The Chocolate Soldier (Nelson Eddy); Going My Way (Bing Crosby, Barry Fitzgerald); In 1964, she innaugurated the Music Theater of Lincoln Center as Anna Leonowens in a well-received revival of "The King and I," produced by Richard Rodgers, opposite Darren McGavin's King. Dixie Carter and my friend Ken Richards were in this prod'n. Participated in the first complete opera recorded by the Metropolitan Opera Company in 1947. The opera, released that same year by Columbia Records, was Engelbert Humperdinck's "Hansel und Gretel," sung in Constance Bache's English translation. Singing the role of Hansel, she was joined by fellow Met luminaries Nadine Conner (Gretel), Thelma Votipka (The Witch), Claramae Turner (The Mother), and John Brownlee (The Father). Max Rudolf led the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus for this recording, which remained in print through the early 1980s.

Richard Todd [Richard Andrew Palethorpe-Todd] 06/11/1919 performer - The Hasty Heart [replaced Richard Basehart] - film's Stage Fright; The Virgin Queen & my fav A Man Called Peter

Michael Cacoyannis 06/11/1922 director - And Things That Go Bump in the Night (Susan Anspach, Ellen Heckart; The Devils (Ann Bancroft, Jason Robards, James Coco, John Milligan); 1972 Lysistrata (Priscilla Lopez); The Bacchae (Irene Papas, Philip Bosco); 1983 Zorba (Anthony Quinn, Lila Kedrova, Rob Marshall, Debbie Shapiro, Robert Westenberg)

Douglas Campbell 06/11/1922 director, performer - Moby Dick (Rod Steiger); The House of Atreus

Athol Fugard Jun 11, 1932 Writer, Director, Performer - Sizwe Banzi Is Dead; The Island; The Island; A Lesson From Aloes (James Earl Jones, Maria Tucci, Harris Yulin); "MASTER HAROLD"...and the boys; Blood Knot

Gene Wilder 06/11/1933 performer; writer; husband of Mary Joan Schutz (1967 - 1974) divorced, Karen Boyer (1991 - present), Gilda Radner (1982 - May 20, 1989) her death - The Complaisant Lover; Mother Courage and Her Children; orig One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest; The White House; Young Frankenstein; tv's & film's The Producers; Young Frankenstein; Will & Grace; A&E's Cash Carter movies; Stir Crazy; Haunted Honeymoon; Start the Revolution Without Me; 1966 Death of a Salesman (Lee J. Cobb, Geo. Segal)

Donald Gantry 06/11/1933 - Nov 16, 1985 performer - One More River (Lloyd Nolan, Harry Guardino); 1975 Ah, Wilderness! (Geraldine Fitzgerald, Linda Hunt, Swoozie Kurtz, Paul Rudd (I), Teresa Wright); Chapter 2 (Anita Gillette, Judd Hirsch); The Queen and the Rebels (Colleen Dewhurst, Campbell Scott [Bway debut], Stanley Tucci [Bway debut], Fiddle Viracola); 1984 A Moon for the Misbegotten (Ian Bannen)

Adrienne Barbeau 06/11/1945 performer; wife of John Carpenter (1979 - 1984) divorced, Billy Van Zandt (1992 - present), a member of the San Jose Light Opera - origs Fiddler on the Roof [replacement]; Grease; The Property Known As Garland; tv's & film's The Drew Carey Show; The Fog; The Cannonball Run; Maude; Return to Fantasy Island; Cannonball Run; Swamp Thing; Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death

Matt McGrath 06/11/1969 performer - Working; 1992 A Streetcar Named Desire (Alec Baldwin, Alec Baldwin, James Gandolfini)

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

1974 The World of Lenny Bruce, opens at the Players Theatre. Frank Spieser's one-man show, in which he impersonates the satirist Lenny Bruce, will run for 17 weeks.

1985 Neil Simon's The Odd Couple gets a revised and reversed revival at the Broadhurst Theatre. Gene Saks directs Rita Moreno as Olive Madison and Sally Struthers as Florence Unger in the play that was originally written for men. The production will play 295 performances before closing on Feb. 23 of the following year.

ON THIS DAY IN:

1963 Buddhist monk Quang Duc immolated himself on a Saigon street to protest the government of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem.

1979 Actor John Wayne died at age 72.

1986 A divided Supreme Court struck down a Pennsylvania abortion law while reaffirming its 1973 decision establishing a constitutional right to abortion.

2000 Tony takes its toll as two shows close one week following the Awards. Elaine May's Taller Than a Dwarf, which opened on April 24 at Broadway's Longacre Theatre, did not receive any Tony nominations and Michael John LaChiusa's The Wild Party, which received seven noms, were both shut out and subsequently shut down.

2006 Tony Night

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

Milla