Happy Bastille Day! Isn't it weird that violent/bloody days often become holidays later on?
On this day in history as it relates to the movies...
Howard Hughes The Outlaw (1943)
1862 The Artist Gustav Klimt is born. Later Dame Helen Mirren will fight for custody of one of his most famous paintings in the bad movie Woman in Gold (2015).
1868 Explorer Gertrud Bell is born. Nicole Kidman played her in an ill-fated unreleased Werner Herzog movie Queen of the Desert
1881 Outlaw Billy the Kid is shot and killed outside Fort Sumner. Numerous stars have played him in movies including Roy Rogers (Billy the Kid Returns), Kris Kristofferson (Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid), Emilio Estevez (Young Guns), and Paul Newman (The Left-Handed Gun). The most famous film version of his story may well be The Outlaw (1943) the Howard Hughes film which starred Jack Buetel as Billy and Jane Russell, in her star-making role, as his girl. You'll probably remember the funny scenes about this scandalous film (and Jane Russell's controversial cleavagae) within Martin Scorsese's The Aviator (2004)
more after the jump including Harry Dean Stanton's 90th birthday...
Harry Dean Stanton photographed by Michael Buckner in 2013 for Getty Images
1912 Folk singer Woody Guthrie is born. The Oscar winning film Bound for Glory (1976) chronicles his early years.
1926 Character actor Harry Dean Stanton is born. He's amassed over 180 credits on tv and in film. Happy 90th birthday, Harry! (Yes, he's still with us)
1928 Nancy Olson is born. 22 years, 8 months, and 15 days later she competed for Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars for Sunset Blvd (1950)
1930 Polly Bergen is born
1965 Mariner 4 flies by Mars, sends back photos.
1966 Brian Selznick is born. His bestselling Caldecott winner "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" becomes the Oscar winning Scorsese film
1989 When Harry Met Sally opens in theaters
1995 Nine Months starring Hugh Grant and Julianne Moore opens
1997 Johnny Bravo debuts on the Cartoon Network
1998 Beastie Boys "Hello Nasty" album is released. It's first single "Intergalactic," wins both a Grammy for hip hop song and an MTV award for best hip hop video for its spoof of kaijū movies.
2003 Valerie Plame is outed as a CIA operative to discredit her husbands article on the invasion of Iraq. This is all dramatized in the failed Oscar bait drama Fair Game (2010) starring Naomi Watts and Sean Penn.
2007 Actors Jerry O'Connell and Rebecca Romijn are married in California
2008 The Dark Knight premieres in New York City (will open in theaters 4 days later)
2017 This date is currently marked for War for the Planet of the Apes, directed by Matt Reeves and starring the usual motion capture subjects.
DO YOU REMEMBER ANY OF THESE EVENTS?
(The ones after, um, the 19th century I mean.)