On This Day: Marie Curie, Steve McQueen, Bush v Gore
Monday, November 7, 2016 at 10:01AM On this day in showbiz history...
15 Agrippina the Younger, the sister of the infamous Caligula and wife of Claudius is born. She's been played in movies for film and television by actresses like Barbara Young (I Claudius), Lori Wagner (Caligula), and Ava Gardner (A.D.) among others
1867 Pioneering physicist Marie Curie is born in Poland. 76 years later her biopic Madame Curie is nominated for 7 Oscars including Best Picture and Best Actress (Greer Garson). It's worth noting that there's a new Polish biopic about her life opening next month in Europe starring Karolina Gruszka
1874 Political cartoonist Thomas Nast first uses the elephant to symbolize the Republican party in an illustration...
Elephants never did anything to deserve that. They are beautiful creatures!
1879 Leon Trotsky founder of the Red Army is born in Yelizavetgrad. He's been played in movies by actors like Daniel Massey (Stalin), Stuart Richman (Reds), and Richard Burton (The Assassination of Leon Trotsky) and popular character actor Brian Cox in his film debut in Nicholas and Alexandra (1971) !
1913 Author Albert Camus is born in Algeria. The Stranger has been adapted several times for film.
1943 Joni Mitchell, singer songwriter icon, is born in Alberta Canada. Inspires the greatest scene in Best Picture nominee The Kids Are All Right many years later
1950 Lindsay Duncan (Birdman, Le Weekend) is born in Edinburgh
1951 Movie stars Ava Gardner and Frank Sinatra make their volatile union official with a wedding
1966 Roman Polanski's comic thriller Cul-de-Sac (his follow up to Repulsion and he moved from Catherine Deneuve to her sister Françoise Dorléac as his female lead) hits US theaters - 50th anniversary!
1972 Twin actors Jason London (Man in the Moon, Dazed and Confused) & Jeremy Lodon (Party of Five, Mallrats) are born. They come to fame in the '90s but peak early. Also on this day actor Christopher Daniel Barnes is born. He played Greg Brady in the Brady Bunch movies but get this -- he was also the voice of Spider-Man in the animated series and Prince Eric in The Little Mermaid!
1975 Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell is born in Houston. Mark Wahlberg later plays him as the title character in the war drama Lone Survivor
1980 Movie icon Steve McQueen dies at only age 50 of complications from cancer
1986 Jonathan Demme's Something Wild with Melanie Griffith in a Louise Brooks wig, opens. Also hitting theaters that day are punk biopic Sid & Nancy, and underappreciated comedy Modern Girls.
1991 Sports icon Magic Johnson announces he is HIV-positive, a huge moment for helping the public to understand that it isn't "a gay disease"
1997 Paul Verhoeven's ultra violent sci-fi satire Starship Troopers opens. 19 years later they're threatening a reboot again.
2000 A key political day: it's catacyclismic Bush v Gore election day, the only one in our lifetimes that kept going on and on after its intended day (yikes) and resulted in award winning movies like Recount which nabbed Laura Dern a Golden Globe as much-hated Katherine Harris. This is also the day Hillary Clinton was first elected to the US Senate
2003 Two very popular movies Elf and Love Actually hit theaters
2016 TODAY! Have a great day and get up early to VOTE tomorrow.
Reader Comments (9)
"Inspires the greatest scene in Best Picture nominee The Kids Are All Right many years later" - yesssss. So true.
Also, any opinions on "Madame Curie"? Is it worth watching or is it just another boring biopic?
@ DJDeeJay
"Starring Greer Garson as Marie Curie": YMMV.
Love Actually gave us the greatest crying scene ever courtesy of Emma Thompson,isn't it time she was a a Dame.
@Paul: I loved her in Mrs. Miniver but not so much that I'll just see her in anything.
Madame Curie is wonderful! Not a traditional biography, more a movie tribute where the charm/talent/chemistry of the stars make it worth. And Greer Garson shines as usual in a story and character perfect for an actress like Juliette Binoche, Isabelle Huppert or Meryl Streep.
@Kimberly S - thanks!
I can't be objective when it comes to La Garson but she truly is spectacular in this film, which diverges enough from the genre's boilerplate to have really intriguing moments. It is a memorable tearjerker and provides her with the third of five consecutive Oscar noms for Best Actress.
steve mcqueen was only 50 when he died?? man, he crammed a lot of living into half a century [me, i'm pacing myself...]