Today's Birthdays 7/2

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 7/1/04 at 9:50pm

Hermann Hesse 7/2/1877 German novelist and poet; awarded Nobel Prize for Literature (1946) for me it all started w/STEPPENWOLF

Tyrone Guthrie 07/02/1900 - May 15, 1971 producer, writer, director - The Matchmaker; TAMBURLAINE THE GREAT (Anthony Quayle, Coleen Dewhurst, William Shatner); The Tenth Man (Gene Saks, Jack Gilford)

Alan Webb 07/02/1906 performer - orig The Night of the Iguana; UTBU (It's "Unhealthy To Be Unpleasant") [w/Margaret Hamilton, Tony Randal, Doris Rich & Thelma Ritter]

Danny Scholl 07/02/1921 - 6/21/1983 performer - Texas, L'il Darlin'; CALL ME MISTER

Medgar Evers 7/2/1925 American civil-rights activist; assassinated in 1963, source material

Joseph Harris 07/02/1927 producer, gen. mgr – DANCING AT LUGHNASA

Brock Peters 07/02/1927 performer – Mister Johnson (Robert Earl Jones [James's pop], Earle Hyman); The Body Beautiful; Kwamina; 1972 Lost in the Stars (Damon Evans [what became of Damon? Wonderful voice. We had the same voice teacher at 1 time. After he'd already been on B'way & on TV as Lionel Jefferson, he went back to school to study classical singing! Sang Sportin' Life in London's WE, but lost track of him afterwards.]; film's TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, Brock Peters’ character Tom Robinson is defended by Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck) when he is falsely accused of raping a white woman.

Peter Conlow 07/02/1929 performer, choreographer - NEW FACES OF 1956 (w/Inga Swensen, Jane Connell, John Reardon); Copper & Brass (Nancy Walker); Take Me Along

Kenneth McMillan 07/02/1932 - Jan 8, 1989 performer – Streamers; AMERICAN BUFFALO

Ron Silver 07/02/1946 performer; President of Actors' Equity Association (1991-2000) - HURLYBURLY; Social Security; Speed the Plough

Kathryn Erbe 07/02/1966 performer; Wife of Terry Kinney - THE GRAPES OF WRATH; The Speed of Darkness; 1995 A Month in the Country (Helen Mirren)

Jarrod Emick 07/02/1969 performer - DAMN YANKEES; BOY FROM OZ

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON JULY 02:

Show Girl 7/02/1929 - Ruby Keeler starred in Flo Ziegfeld’s production of Show Girl which opened in New York City. Critics liked the show.

Tartuffe 07/02/1968 at the Vivian Beaumont - perf'd in French! How was it?

Singin' in the Rain 07/02/1985

ON THIS DAY:

1881 President James A. Garfield was shot by Charles J. Guiteau at the Washington railroad station; Garfield died that September.

1947 An object crashed near Roswell, N.M. The Army Air Force later said it was a weather balloon, but eyewitness accounts gave rise to speculation it might have been an alien spacecraft.

1961 Author Ernest Hemingway shot himself to death at his home in Ketchum, Idaho

1963 - The Importance of Being Earnest, starring Mia Farrow, opened. Farrow got good reviews from the critics and a new show biz career was underway.

1987 Michael Bennett performer, director, choreographer, dies, at 45, from complications caused by AIDS. Bennett made his Broadway debut as a dancer at 18 in Subways are for Sleeping, also worked on Follies (choreographed and co-directed with Harold Prince), A Chorus Line, and Dreamgirls.

1997 Actor James Stewart died at age 89. 1 of my all time fav actors. Have been searching for man like him for years! Always loved seeing him read his little poems on The Johnny Carson Show. stage's & film's MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, HARVEY [film & stage]; Philadelphia Story; Divided By Three (Judith Anderson)

(sources, IBDB, NYT On This Day, playbill.com & 440.com’s Those Were The Days)

Milla