Mary Badham is 56 today. You know her as Jean Louise ‘Scout’ Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. She was nine going-on 10 when they made the film and she received a best supporting actress Oscar nomination. Badham has just five other film and TV credits.
Yo-Yo Ma is 53.
Sherman Alexie was born 42 years ago today on the Spokane Indian Reservation.
The book that made him famous was his first collection of short stories called The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1993). He adapted it into a screenplay for the movie Smoke Signals (1998). Smoke Signals was the first commercial feature film entirely written, directed, and acted by Native Americans. His newest book is a young adult novel called The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007).
He said, “Indians have a way of surviving. But it’s almost like Indians can easily survive the big stuff. Mass murder, loss of language, and land rights. It’s the small things that hurt the most. The white waitress who wouldn’t take an order, Tonto, the Washington Redskins.”
Alexie’s books and stories are good stuff, and the movie delightful.
Cornell University welcomed its first students 140 years ago today.
Go Big Red!!!!
Sherman Alexie is an awesome writer. A hearty second to the “good stuff.”
I’ll always remember Mary Badham as Sport Sharewood in The Twilight Zone episode The Bewitchin’ Pool.
Cornell College’s doors had already been open for 15 years and had been graduating women for 10. (nothing against Cornell U. and their fine Prez)