Today's Birthdays 6/22

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 6/22/04 at 12:21pm

Erich Maria Remarque 06/22/1898 - 9/25/1970 German novelist; wrote "All Quiet on the Western Front"; Husband of Paulette Goddard (1958 - 1970) his death; writer - Full Circle (Bibi Andersson, Leonard Nimoy, Peter Weller); film's "All Quiet..."

Billy Wilder 06/22/1906 - 3/27/2002 source mat'l, writer, dir - Promises, Promises; Sugar; Sunset Blvd; film's Academy Award-winning director: The Apartment [1960], The Lost Weekend [1945]; Sunset Boulevard, Stalag 17, Witness for the Prosecution, The Seven Year Itch, Some Like it Hot, Sabrina, Irma La Douce, The Front Page, Buddy, Buddy

Michael Todd 6/22/1909 - 3/22/1958 American producer and showman; husband of Elizabeth Taylor (February 2, 1957 - March 22, 195 his death; Joan Blondell (1947 - 1950) divorced; killed in plane crash - The Hot Mikado; Mexican Hayride; Catherine Was Great; Up in Central Park; As The Girls Go (Bobby Clark, Irene Rich, Kathryn Lee [Mrs. Bing Crosby]); The Live Wire; film's producer: Oklahoma!, Around the World in 80 Days; developed [w/American Optical Company] Todd-AO system using 65mm cine cameras at 30 fps and wide angle photgraphy [approx 150 degrees]

Joseph Papp 6/22/1921 - 10/31/1991 founder and longtime executive director of the New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theatre. Aside from the annual free productions of Shakespeare in New York's Central Park, NYSF will present annual subscription seasons of works by two generations of theatre artists, with a special emphasis on work by and about minorities - Pulitzer Prize-winning [3] producer; also winner of 28 Tony awards and 6 New York Critics Circle Awards; over 400 productions including: Hair, A Chorus Line, Two Gentlemen of Verona, That Championship Season

Ralph Waite 6/22/1929 performer - Marathon '33 (Julie Harris, Doris Roberts); Blues for Mr. Charlie (Rip Torn); The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald; The Watering Place (William Devane, Shirley Knight); 1981 The Father (Frances Sternhagen); tv's & film's The Waltons, Roots, Cliffhanger, The Bodyguard, Cool Hand Luke, Five Easy Pieces

Kris Kristofferson 6/22/1936 songwriter: Me & Bobby McGee, For the Good Times, Help Me Make It Through the Night; performer - film's Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, A Star is Born, Semi-Tough, Fire Down Below, Dance with Me, Limbo, Perfect Murder, Perfect Town

Meryl Streep 06/22/1949 performer; when I spent a summer at the O'Neill Institute, I had the same room & bed that had at 1 time had been occupied by Meryl Streep & earlier by Al Pacino! ahhhhh! - Happy End; 1977 The Cherry Orchard (my 2d Bway show!); A Memory of Two Mondays / 27 Wagons Full of Cotton; Trelawny of the "Wells"; tv's & film's Academy Award-winning actress: Sophie’s Choice [1982], [supporting actress] Kramer vs. Kramer [1979]; Silkwood, Postcards from the Edge, Death Becomes Her, Bridges of Madison County, The River Wild, Music of the Heart

Bruce Campbell 6/21/1958 performer, somebody hold me back, I looove this guy - tv's & film's The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. [1 of my all-time fav TV series!]; Hercules: The Legenday Journeys; Xena: Warrior Princess; Tornado!; The Hudsucker Proxy; Army of Darkness; Sundown; Maniac Cop series; Evil Dead series

Tracy Pollan 06/22/1960 performer, wife of Michael J. Fox - Pack of Lies; Jake's Women; tv's Family Ties, A Stranger Among Us

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

1920 Opening night of the starry Ziegfeld Follies of 1920 at the New Amsterdam Theatre, featuring performances by Fanny Brice, W.C. Fields and Moran & Mack; and music by Irving Berlin, Harry Tierney and Victor Herbert. It will run 123 performances.

1965 A musical classic returns to the New York stage as the Music Theatre of Lincoln Center revives Kismet at the New York State Theatre. Alfred Drake returns to the role he originated in the Broadway production of the musical for the length of this six-week run.

1978 The gay-themed revue, Crimes Against Nature, begins a 10-week engagement at the Actors Playhouse in New York. Created by the Gay Men's Theatre Collective of San Francisco, the show deals with both current events and more personal homosexual concerns.

1998 Seven playwrights, commissioned by the New York-based Acting Company, see their Love's Fire open at Off-Broadway's Joseph Papp Public Theatre. John Guare, Marsha Norman, Eric Bogosian, William Finn, Tony Kushner, Ntozake Shange and Wendy Wasserstein were all asked to contribute one-act plays inspired by Shakespeare's sonnets. The result, directed by Mark Lamos, play a limited run through July 5.

ON THIS DAY IN:

1815 Napoleon Bonaparte abdicated for the second time.

1945 The World War II battle for Okinawa ended; 12,520 Americans and 110,000 Japanese were killed in the 81-day campaign.

1969 Singer-actress Judy Garland died at age 47.

1970 President Richard Nixon signed a measure lowering the voting age to 18. Very important, because we believed if you were old enuf to die for your country, you were old enuf to vote for your leaders who were sending you out to die.

1976 Godspell, the third longest-running show in Off-Broadway history ends its run at 2,124 performances to transfer to Broadway's Broadhurst Theatre, where it will open tonight. The Stephen Schwartz musical directed and conceived by John-Michael Tebelak is based on the Gospel according to St. Matthew. It will close after switching to the Plymouth Theatre and end at Ambassador Theatre Sep. 4, 1977.

1987 Fred Astaire, one half of Hollywood's Astaire-Ginger Rogers dancing duo, dies today. As a Broadway dancer, Astaire appeared on Broadway in such musicals as Over The Top, opposite his sister, Adele, and The Gay Divorce. Among the many Hollywood musicals in which he danced opposite Rogers was 1935's "Top Hat."

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

Milla Updated On: 6/22/04 at 12:21 PM