Maureen O’Hara is 87 today. Once voted one of the five most beautiful women in the world, Miss O’Hara is proabably best known now as Natalie Wood’s unbelieving mother in the classic Miracle on 34th Street; or perhaps as Esmeralda to Charles Laughton’s Quasimodo in the Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Robert De Niro is 64 today. De Niro has been nominated for the Best Actor in a Leading Role Oscar five times, winning for Raging Bull in 1981. He also won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role as the young Vito Corleone in Godfather II. De Niro’s nominations were for Taxi Driver, The Deer Hunter, Awakenings and Cape Fear.
Sean Penn is 47 today. Penn has been nominated for the Best Actor in a Leading Role Oscar four times, winning for Mystic River. Penn’s other nominations were for Dead Man Walking, Sweet and Lowdown and I Am Sam.
Novelist Jonathan Franzen is 48 today. The Corrections won the 2001 National Book Award.
Football coach Jon Gruden is 44.
After seeing Mae’s jewelry the coat check girl exclaims, “Goodness, what lovely diamonds!” Mae replies, “Goodness had nothing to do with it.” That’s Screen Legend Mae West in Night After Night. Ms. West was born on this date in 1893.
“Once voted one of the five most beautiful women in the world, Miss O’Hara”
okay, she was a stunner. but…
who was doing the voting, seven window-dressers? who was counting the votes, her mama? why did they stop at five? who was No 6?
nmk, i’ve not been able to answer these questions, but did come across an amazing passage in her autobiography:
“I am living in the hope that somebody will chance to remark that I have given a good performance as an actress, and not simply say something about how good I looked in the production…I want a part to play now in which I can win approval for accomplishment. I have grown to detest praise for any beauty I may have…”
–Maureen O’Hara, interview with Los Angeles Times, mid-1940’s.