Today's Birthdays 6/9

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 6/8/08 at 10:47pm

Cole Porter 06/09/1891 - Oct 15, 1964 writer, composer lyricist; source mat'l - show's & film's Anything Goes, Kiss Me Kate, Can Can, Silk Stockings, De-Lovely

Lore Noto 06/09/1923 1923 - Jul 8, 2002 producer, performer - Off-Broadway show, The Failures, closed after one performance, but whose next show, The Fantasticks, would become the longest-running musical ever -- nearly 42 years. Noto played Hucklebee (boy's father) in the show for 17 years (6,348 performances). His only subsequent production, Broadway's The Yearling, closed after just 3 performances. He died six months after The Fantasticks closed.

Jackie Mason 06/09/1931 dir., performer, writer - A Teaspoon Every Four Hours; Prune Danish; Jackie Mason's Laughing Room Only; Jackie Mason: Freshly Squeezed

Michael J. Fox 6/9/1961 performer - tv's & film's Back to the Future I, II, III; Family Ties; The Secret of My Succe$s; Doc Hollywood; The American President; Spin City; Boston Legal

Aaron Sorkin 06/09/1961 writer, producer; His first play, "Removing All Doubt", was not an immediate success, but his second play, "Hidden in This Picture" debuted in 1988 at the West Bank Cafe Downstairs Theater Bar. A longer version of "Hidden in This Picture", called "Making Movies" opened at the Promenade Theater in 1990; Wrote a 1988 Rolling Stone Magazine article about the top acting schools in the U.S. One of the featured schools was the State University of New York at Purchase (S.U.N.Y. Purchase) where Janel Moloney (who is the niece of Christine Ebersole & played Donna on "The West Wing") happened to be attending at the time. - A Few Good Men; The Farnsworth Invention; tv's & film's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip; Charlie Wilson's War (Tom Hanks); West Wing; The American President; A Few Good Men; Malice; script dr. for "Schindler's List"

Josh Hamilton 06/09/1969 performer - The Coast of Utopia 1, 2, 3; tv's & film's All My Children; Alive; Third Watch; Broken English

Natalie Portman 06/09/1981 performer; She was discovered by an agent in a pizza parlor at the age of 11. - The Diary of Anne Frank; film's Mars Attacks!, The Prince of Egypt, Star Wars: Episodes I, II & III; Cold Mountain, V for Vendetta; Paris, je t'aime; My Blueberry Nights; The Other Boleyn Girl (Scarlett Johansson, Kristin Scott Thomas); Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

1920 Fall and Rise of Susan Lenox

1924 She Stoops to Conquer with Helen Hayes, Francis Wilson (1st Pres. of AEA) and Basil Sydney (Maryl Ellis' ex)

2000 Perhaps you shouldn't say the infamous 'Scottish Play' on Broadway. William Shakespeare's Macbeth begins previews tonight at the Music Box Theatre and will only run 8 previews and 13 performances before closing June 25. The production stars "Frasier"'s Kelsey Grammer and also features Diane Venora, Michael Gross and Kate Forbes.

ON THIS DAY IN:

1870 Author Charles Dickens died at age 58.

1974 Theatrical legend Katharine Cornell died today. She appeared with the Washington Square Players as early as 1917. Her career spanned the next forty years. She toured the country with her husband, director Guthrie McClintic. Among the actors to whom she gave early career boosts were Orson Welles and Marlon Brando.

1992 - Entertainer Ben Vereen was critically injured when he was struck by a van while walking along the Pacific Coast Highway near Malibu, California. The driver, producer/composer David Foster, was not charged. Some hours earlier, Vereen had run into a tree while driving his own car. He blames that mishap for the later accident. He said, "I had hit my head on the steering wheel but felt fine. Later that evening as I was walking in Malibu, I had [a] stroke as a result of that accident." Vereen says he then stumbled into the roadway and was hit by the van. Talk about having a lousy day...

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

Milla