Today's Birthdays 6/23

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 6/22/08 at 9:01pm

Josephine 6/23/1763 - 5/29/1814 French consort of Napoleon and empress of France (1804-10); source mat'l

Edward Patrick David England’s Duke of Windsor/Edward VIII 6/23/1894 - 5/28/1972 the British monarch who abdicated in 1936 in order to marry American Wallis Simpson.

Jean Anouilh [Jean-Marie-Lucien-Pierre Anouilh] 6/23/1910 - 10/3/1987 French playwright - Becket; Ring Round the Moon (Lucille Watson, Denholm Elliott, Brenda Forbes); Antigone; Mademoiselle Colombe; The Waltz of the Torreadors

Irene Worth 06/23/1916 - 3/10/2002 performer - The Two Mrs. Carrolls (Elisabeth Bergner, Vera Allen, Victor Jory); Tony Award-winning actress: Sweet Bird of Youth [1976], Tiny Alice [1965]; Lost in Yonkers; The Golden Age (Jeff Daniels, Stockard Channing)

Larry Blyden 06/23/1925 - 6/6/1975 performer; Husband of Carol Haney (1955 - 1962) divorced, 2 children - Mister Roberts [replacement]; Wish You Were Here; Foxy; The Apple Tree; Absurd Person Singular (look at this cast! Sandy Dennis, Richard Kiley, Geraldine Page, Tony Roberts, Carole Shelley); tv's Harry’s Girls; TV moderator: What’s My Line [1972-75]

Bob Fosse 6/23/1927 - 9/23/1987 American theatre and film choreographer; father of Nicole Fosse, husband of Mary Ann Niles (1949 - 1951) divorced, Joan McCracken (1951 - 1959) divorced, Gwen Verdon (1960 - September 23, 1987) his death partner of Ann Reinking - Oscar Award-winning director: Cabaret [1972]; Tony Award-winning choreographer: Big Deal [1986], Dancin’ [1978], Sweet Charity [1966], Little Me [1963], Bob Fosse [1959], Damn Yankees [1956], The Pajama Game [1955]; director/choreographer: Pippin [1973]; Emmy Award-winning director: Singer Presents Liza with a ‘Z’ [1972-73]; autobiographical film: All That Jazz

Bert Convy 06/23/1933 - Jul 15, 1991 performer - Billy Barnes Revue; Nowhere to Go But Up; Fiddler on the Roof; The Impossible Years; Cabaret; Nine [replacement]; TV host: Win, Lose or Draw, Tattletales, People Do the Craziest Things; actor: Love of Life, The Snoop Sisters; singer: group: Cheers: Black Leather Jacket and Motorcycle Boots

Ted Shackelford 06/23/1946 performer - Murder Among Friends (Jack Cassidy, Janet Leigh); tv's & film's Sweet Revenge; Knots Landing; Dallas; The Young and the Restless

Bryan Brown 6/23/1947 performer; Rachel Ward (16 April 1983 - present) 3 children - tv's & film's Breaker Morant, Full Body Massage, Blame It on the Bellboy, F/X series, Dead in the Water, Gorillas in the Mist, Cocktail, A Town like Alice, The Thorn Birds, The Winter of Our Dreams, Palm Beach, The Irishman, Along Came Polly, The Poseidon Adventure; Styx

Frances McDormand 6/23/1957 performer; Joel Coen (1984 - present) 2 children - 1984 Awake and Sing! (Nancy Marchand, Dick Latessa, Harry Hamlin); 1988 A Streetcar Named Desire (Blythe Danner, Aiden Quinn, Frank Converse); 2008 The Country Girl; film's Fargo, Blood Simple, Mississippi Burning, The Wonder Boys, Almost Famous, Friends with Money

John Sloman 06/23/1954 performer - The 1940's Radio Hour (Mary-Cleere Haran); Mayor; Big (Daniel H. Jenkins, Barbara Walsh); The Music Man (Craig Bierko, Rebecca Luker); tv's & film's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit; 2005 The Producers; Hope & Faith; Marci X

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

1970 The Royal Shakespeare Company revival of Dion Boucicault's 19th-century comedy, London Assurance, starring Judi Dench, opens today at the Aldwych Theatre in London. Directed by Ronald Eyre, the production will soon become a repertory hit and ultimately transfer, on April 5, 1972, to the New Theatre in London's West End. The show will play 390 performances at that venue and will later transfer to Broadway's Palace Theatre.

1977 A revival of George Bernard Shaw's Candida opens at the West End's Alberly Theatre. Michael Blakemore directs a cast headed by Hollywood legend Deborah Kerr.

ON THIS DAY IN:

1868 Christopher Latham Sholes received a patent for an invention he called the "Type-Writer."

1972 President Richard Nixon and White House chief of staff H.R. Haldeman discussed a plan to use the CIA to obstruct the FBI's Watergate investigation.

1982 An outcry is heard as a group of prominent theatre writers, Arthur Miller and Stephen Sondheim among them, place an open letter advertisement in Variety to protest the minimal attention playwrights have received on the Tony Awards telecasts up to that time. An excerpt from that complaint follows: "No sane person would possibly believe that authors are less important to the theatre than are actors, directors, and producers. Nevertheless, from the onset of the televised Tony Awards, authors have either been entirely ignored or denied their proper recognition. This situation will no longer be tolerated."

1985 All 329 people aboard an Air-India Boeing 747 were killed when the plane crashed into the Atlantic Ocean near Ireland, apparently because of a bomb.

1993 Lorena Bobbitt of Prince William County, Va., sexually mutilated her husband, John, after he allegedly raped her.

1995 Dr. Jonas Salk, the medical pioneer who developed the first vaccine against polio, died at age 80.

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

Milla