Today's Birthdays 8/13 - Happy Friday the 13th!

[do_re_milla]

Posted: 8/13/04 at 10:48am

Mary Duncan 08/13/1895 - May 9, 1993 performer - orig. SHANGHAI GESTURE; film's MORNING GLORY (Kate Hepburn)

Bert Lahr 08/13/1895 Dec 4, 1967 performer - LIFE BEGINS AT 8:40; DUBARRY WAS A LADY; 2 ON THE AISLE (Dolores Grey, Margery Beddow, Dorothy Etheridge); WAITING FOR GODOT (E.G. Marshall, Kurt Kasznar, Alvin Epstein); FOXY (Larry Blyden, John Davidson); film “The Wizard of Oz” also ROSE MARIE; THE NIGHT THEY RAIDED MINSKY'S

Alfred Hitchcock 08/13/1899 - Apr 29, 1980 director - tv's & film's ‘The Master of Suspense’: director: Psycho, Vertigo, The Birds, Rear Window, Rebecca, To Catch a Thief, Frenzy, Notorious, Suspicion, The Thirty-Nine Steps; TV host: Alfred Hitchcock Presents

Buddy Rogers 08/13/1904 - Apr 21, 1999 performer, Mary Pickford's hubby - HOT-CHA! (Bert Lahr, Lupe Velez, Eleanor Powell); LAFFING ROOM ONLY (Betty Garrett, Dolores (aka Dody) Goodman; Marianne Oliphant); film's Abie’s Irish Rose, Varsity, Mexican Spitfire at Sea, My Best Girl

Barbara Bennett 08/13/1906 - Aug 8, 1958 performer, daughter of Richard Bennett, sis of Constant & Joan Bennett - THE STORK

Gene Raymond 08/13/1908 - May 2, 1998 performer, married to Jeanette MacDonald - - 1928 SHERLOCK HOLMES; A Shadow Of My Enemy (Ed Begley); film's ZOO IN BUDAPEST, Hit the Deck, Flying Down to Rio; host: TV’s Reader’s Digest, Hollywood Summer Theatre, Fireside Theatre

John Beal 08/13/1909 - Apr 26, 1997 Director, Performer - origs. LEONARD SILLIMAN'S NEW FACES OF '52 (Alice Ghostley, Ronny Graham, Eartha Kitt, Carole Lawrence, Paul Lynde) In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Philip Bosco, Sandor Szabo); THE CHANGING ROOM [standby](George Hearn, John Lithgow); 1993 3 MEN ON A HORSE (Julie Hagerty, Jack Klugman, Nora Mae Lyng, Tony Randal, Jerry Stiller)

Kurt Kasznar 08/13/1913 - Aug 6, 1979 Producer, Writer, Director, Performer - origs. LOOK AFTER LULU (Tammy Grimes, Roddy McDowell, Jack Gilford, Philipa Bevens); SOUND OF MUSIC; BAREFOOT IN THE PARK (Elizabeth Ashley, Robert Redford, Mildred Natwick)

Claudia McNeil 08/13/1917 - Nov 25, 1993 performer - RAISIN IN THE SUN; WINESBURG, OHIO (Dorothy McGuire, Leon Ames, James Whitmore)

George Shearing 08/13/1919 brilliant jazz pianist

Fidel Castro 8/13/1926 Cuban guerrilla-dictator

Pat Harrington 08/13/1929 performer - HAPPINESS IS JUST A LITTLE THING CALLED A ROLLS ROYCE (Hildy Brooks); TV'S Emmy Award-winning comedian, actor: One Day at a Time [1983-84]; The Jack Paar Show, The Steve Allen Show, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, The Danny Thomas Show

Kathleen Battle 8/13/1948 Metropolitan Opera diva: performed w/NY Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris

Alma Cuervo 08/13/1951 performer - origs. IS THERE LIFE AFTER HIGH SCHOOL (Harry Groener, Maureen Silliman, u/s Scott Bakula); QUILTERS (Lynn Lobban); A MONTH OF SUNDAYS [u.s] (Jason Robards, Lynn Thigpen, Patricia Elliott); GHETTO (George Hearne, Helen Schneider, Donal Donnelly); TITANIC

Herb Ritts 08/13/1952 - Dec 26, 2002 photographer - orig LOLITA (Donald Sutherland, Blanche Baker, Ian Richardson, Shirley Stoller (wonderful actress, good gal!)

Euan Morton 08/13/1977 performer - Taboo

SHOWS THAT OPENED ON THIS DATE:

1921 Lynn Fontanne has her first major hit in the starring role of Dulcy, the comedy by George S. Kaufman and Marc Connolly. Despite her success, she will rarely perform without future husband Alfred Lunt again.

1992 The Real Inspector Hound and The Fifteen Minute Hamlet
- The Fifteen Minute Hamlet
- The Real Inspector Hound
(Patricia Conolly, J. Smith-Cameron, Jane Summerhays)

ON THIS DAY IN:

1907 - The first taxicab took to the streets of New York City. A whole new language was born -- both spoken and by hand.

1934 - Cartoonist Al Capp began his famous comic strip, Li’l Abner. In those early days, the cartoon strip was carried in eight newspapers. Eventually, it would be in more than 500, and would be the basis for a Broadway play and a Hollywood movie, too.

1981 Ira Levin’s thriller Deathtrap becomes Broadway's longest-running show of that genre tonight, as it plays its 1,445th performance. Currently featured in the cast of the production at the Music Box Theatre are Farley Granger, Elizabeth Parrish, Ernest Townsend, and Marian Seldes. Deathtrap opened at the Music Box on Feb. 26, 1978, with Seldes, John Wood, and Victor Garber in the cast. Tony nominations were awarded for the play, director Robert Moore, Seldes, and fellow original cast member Victor Garber.

(sources: IBDB, NYT On This Day, & 440.com’s Those Were The Days, Playbill.com, movies.Yahoo.com)

Milla Updated On: 8/13/04 at 10:48 AM