Month: April 2008

Today is the birthday

… of Shirley Temple Black. The actress turned diplomat is 80. Shirley Temple was in approximately 50 films before she turned 18. She received a special juvenile Oscar in 1935.

… of Lee Majors. He’s 69. Soon the $6-million man will be found on eBay for $7.95.

… of Michael Moore, 54.

… of Judy Davis. The two-time Oscar nominee is 53.

… of Valerie Bertinelli. Once Barbara Cooper on One Day at a Time (1975-1984), she’s 48.

… of George Lopez. He’s 47.

… of Melina Kanakaredes, 41.

It was on the date in 1791 that James Buchanan, the former worst president ever of the U.S., was born.

Stephen A. Douglas, the short guy who debated Lincoln during the 1858 election—and won the election, was born on this date in 1813. Douglas died shortly after Lincoln’s inaugural as president in 1861.

And April 23, 1564, is generally accepted as the birth date of William Shakespeare.

Shakespeare used one of the largest vocabularies of any English writer, almost 30,000 words, and he was the first writer to invent or record many of our most common turns of phrase, including “foul play,” “as luck would have it,” “your own flesh and blood,” “too much of a good thing,” “good riddance,” “in one fell swoop,” “cruel to be kind,” “play fast and loose,” “vanish into thin air,” “the game is up,” “truth will out” and “in the twinkling of an eye.”

Shakespeare has always been popular in America, and many colonists kept copies of his complete works along with their Bibles. Pioneers performed his work out West. Many of the mines and canyons across the West are named after Shakespeare or one of his characters. Three mines in Colorado are called Ophelia, Cordelia, and Desdemona.

The Writer’s Almanac from American Public Media

Jack Nicholson is 71 today.

Nicholson has been nominated for an Academy Award 12 times, eight times for best actor in a leading role and four times for best actor in a supporting role. He won for best actor for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1976) and As Good As It Gets (1998). He won for best supporting actor for Terms of Endearment (1984). Nicholson has been nominated for an Oscar for films made in the 60s (Easy Rider), 70s, 80s, 90s, and 00s (About Schmidt).

The best actress Oscar went to a co-star each time Nicholson won — Louise Fletcher for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Shirley MacLaine for Terms of Endearment and Helen Hunt for As Good As It Gets.

According to IMDB, Nicholson “was raised believing his grandmother was his mother and his mother was his older sister. The truth was revealed to him years later when a Time magazine researcher uncovered the truth while preparing a story on the star.”

Glen Campbell is 72 today, as is Estelle Harris, Estelle Costanza on Seinfeld.

Peter Frampton is 58.

And Charles Mingus was born in Nogales, Arizona, on this date in 1922.

Irascible, demanding, bullying, and probably a genius, Charles Mingus cut himself a uniquely iconoclastic path through jazz in the middle of the 20th century, creating a legacy that became universally lauded only after he was no longer around to bug people. As a bassist, he knew few peers, blessed with a powerful tone and pulsating sense of rhythm, capable of elevating the instrument into the front line of a band. But had he been just a string player, few would know his name today. Rather, he was the greatest bass-playing leader/composer jazz has ever known, one who always kept his ears and fingers on the pulse, spirit, spontaneity, and ferocious expressive power of jazz.

All Music Guide

Mingus died in 1979.

Vladimir Ilich Lenin was born on this date in 1870.

. . . of Elizabeth R. She’s 82. (R for Regina, i.e., Queen.) Her name is Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor.

. . . of Elaine May, 76.

. . . of Charles Grodin, 73.

. . . of Iggy Pop, 61.

. . . of Tony Danza, 57.

. . . of Andie MacDowell, 50.

. . . of Tony Romo, 28.

Charlotte Bronte was born on this date in 1816.

John Muir was born on this date in 1838.

Ron Howard’s brother is 49 today.

Ron Howard’s brother is credited with more than 170 films and television programs including roles in many of his brother’s films — Cocoon, Apollo 13 and Cinderella Man come to mind. Many will remember Ron’s brother as the 8-year-old kid in the TV series Gentle Ben. The Howard sibling was also the voice of Roo in the Disney Winnie the Pooh films, and more recently the voice of the balloon man in Curious George.

The Howard brothers: Ron (right) and Ron’s brother

Photo from The Clint Howard Show

See NewMexiKen’s very special salute to Ron Howard’s Brother.

. . . of Justice John Paul Stevens, 88 today. He went on the Court in 1975.

. . . of Mr. Sulu. That’s actor George Takei of Star Trek. He’s 71

. . . of Ryan O’Neal, nominated for best actor for Love Story, but never again. He’s 67.

. . . of Coach Steve Spurrier, 63.

. . . of Andrew Tobias. He’s 61.

. . . of six-time Oscar nominee and two-time winner Jessica Lange. Lange won best supporting actress for Tootsie and best actress for Blue Sky. She’s 59.

. . . of Ron Howard’s brother, 49. (See separate entry.)

. . . of Carmen Electra, 36.

Daniel Chester French was born on this date in 1850.

French studied in Boston and New York prior to receiving his first commission for the 1875 statue The Minute Man. Standing near the North Bridge in Concord, in the Minute Man National Historical Park, this work commemorates events at the North Bridge, the site of “the shot heard ’round the world”. An American icon, images derivative of The Minute Man statue appeared on defense bonds, stamps, and posters during World War II.

With the success of The Minute Man came opportunities to study abroad. After a year in Italy, French opened a studio in Washington, D.C. Additional trips to Europe and a friendship with fellow sculptor Augustus Saint Gaudens resulted in more ambitious work beginning with the impressive General Lewis Cass executed for the U.S. Capitol in 1888.

By the turn of the century, French was America’s preeminent monumental sculptor. The Angel of Death Staying the Hand of the Sculptor, created for Boston’s Forest Hills Cemetery; John Harvard, located at Harvard University; and a standing Abraham Lincoln at the west entrance to the Nebraska State Capitol are a few of the important monuments French produced during a long and productive career.

Library of Congress

Adolph Hitler was born on this date in 1889.

Harold Lloyd was born on this date in 1893.

“The King of Daredevil Comedy,” Harold Lloyd is best remembered today as the young man dangling desperately from a clock tower in the 1923 classic Safety Last. At the height of his career, Lloyd was one of the most popular and highest-paid stars of his time. While his achievements have been overshadowed by the work of contemporaries Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, he made more films than the two of them combined. With hits like his 1922 film Grandma’s Boy, Lloyd became a strong force in bringing about the advent of the “feature-length” film.

American Masters

Lionel Hampton was born on this date in 1908.

Hampton was not the first jazz musician to take up vibraphone (Red Norvo had preceded him in the late 1920s), but it was he who gave the instrument an identity in jazz, applying a wide range of attacks and generating remarkable swing on an instrument otherwise known for its bland, disembodied sound. Undoubtedly his best work was done with the Goodman Quartet from 1936-1940, when he revealed a fine ear for small-ensemble improvisation and an unrestrained, ebullient manner as a soloist. The big band format was probably better suited to the display of his flamboyant personality and flair for showmanship, but after a few early successes, especially the riff tunes Flying Home, Down Home Jump, and Hey Bab-Ba-Rebop, the group was too often content to repeat former triumphs for its many admirers. Hampton has at times also appeared as a singer, played drums with enormous vitality, and performed with curious success as a pianist, using only two fingers in the manner of vibraphone mallets.

PBS – JAZZ A Film By Ken Burns

Luther Vandross was born on this date in 1951. His album Never Too Much is one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s Definitive 200 (albums that every music lover should own). Vandross died in 2005.

. . . in Massachusetts. (Well, I guess it’s the third Monday now, but whatever.)

Today we celebrate the birthday

. . . of TV’s Wyatt Earp. Hugh O’Brian is 83.

. . . of Elinor Donahue. Donahue has nearly 100 credits listed at IMDB, but foremost she was the oldest daughter on famed 1950s sitcom “Father Knows Best.” Betty “Princess” Anderson is 71.

. . . of Ashley Judd, 40.

. . . of Oscar-nominee (2001) Kate Hudson. More than almost famous at 29.

. . . of Oscar-nominee (2005) Catalina Sardino Moreno. She’s full of grace at 27.

. . . of Maria Sharapova, 21.

Ole Evinrude was born on this date in 1877. Guess what he invented.

Eliot Ness was born on this date in 1903.

Ever since Eliot Ness first published The Untouchables in 1957, the public has fallen in love with the adventures of this authentic American hero. His book was a runaway best seller because it was the exciting true story of a brave and honest lawman pitted against the country’s most successful gangster, Al Capone. The television series that followed in the 1950’s and the Kevin Costner movie in 1987 built fancifully on the same theme.

The Crime Library

Vera Jayne Palmer was born on this date in 1933. We know her as Jayne Mansfield.

Grace Kelly became Her Serene Highness Princess Grace on this date in 1956.

By 1956, Grace Kelly was calling it quits after a movie-acting career of only five years—but what a career it was. Her 11 films included the 1952 classic High Noon, the 1956 musical High Society, and the Alfred Hitchcock-directed masterpieces Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, and To Catch a Thief. She had won an Oscar for her role in 1954’s The Country Girl—and all this before her twenty-seventh birthday.

American Heritage.

The uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto started 65 years ago today. The Writer’s Almanac from American Public Media has background.