On this day: Vivien's Oscar, Kevin's Bacon, Carter's Write-Down
Monday, March 20, 2017 at 9:00AM On this day in showbiz history
The Story of Miss Lonelyheart from Péter Lichter on Vimeo.
1913/1914 Did you know that Detective Doyle (Wendell Corey) and Miss Lonelyhearts (Judith Evelyn) from Rear Window shared a birthday? Now you do! (Uff, I love Rear Window so much)
1942 Rings on Her Finger, a screwball comedy starring Henry Fonda and Gene Tierney opens in theaters
1948 Gentleman's Agreement wins Best Picture at the 1947 Oscars but the enduring statues from that year are surely Edmund Gwenn's Supporting Actor win as Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34th Street and the Cinematography and Art Direction wins for the astounding Black Narcissus. What a picture!
1952 Vivien Leigh wins her second Best Actress prize at the 1951 Oscars for A Streetcar Named Desire. Absent from the ceremony, Greer Garson accepts for Vivien...
1950 William Hurt is born in DC
1957 Spike Lee is born in Atlanta
1958 Holly Hunter, is born in Georgia. Do you think she and William Hurt celebrated their birthdays together on the set of Broadcast News?
1975 Writer/director Ramin Bahrini is born. Strangely we haven't heard a peep about him since 99 Homes (2014) which was his most successful film yet in a fairly young career
1981 Jessica Lange and Jack Nicholson star in The Postman Always Rings Twice remake, which promises that "you will feel the heat," -- new in theaters. Jessica Lange actually only made ten films during her peak decade of movie stardom but she was nominated for six of them, this being one of the other four.
1987 Street Smart opens in theaters with Morgan Freeman and Kathy Baker becoming two of the year's critical darlings for their pimp and ho roles. Freeman went on to an Oscar nomination but Baker must have just missed. It's an interesting film to revisit.
1989 Happy 28th birthday to Xavier Dolan, born on this day in Montreal. He's already directed 7 features! Which is your favorite?
1998 Kevin shows his Bacon in Wild Things and Kathy Bates is headed to an Oscar nomination for her lesbian consultant in Primary Colors, both new in theaters
1994 Indecent Proposal wins the Golden Rasperry for Worst Picture
2009 Underappreciated multipe-genred Duplicity is released starring Julia Roberts and Clive Owen. Tim wrote about the picture, here.
2012 John Carter records a $200 million write-down, one of the biggest flops in Hollywood history
Reader Comments (17)
Jessica's Oscar wins aren't representative of her best performances. On the other hand, Vivien's are. It's so rare for actresses to win for their best or most iconic performances, but Vivian managed to.
Wild Things is truly WILD! I miss that 90's era of trashy thrillers so much lol.
Close is iconic in Fatal Attraction, but Hunter is win worthy in Broadcast News.
I don't think so. Hurt was kind of troubled in the 80s. Super hot but troubled.
There's something interesting going on in each of Bahrini's films; an underrated filmmaker.
"like REALLY good sex!"
Vivien Leigh has got to be one of VERY few actors to win for her two best performances. The only other actors I can think of who can claim that distinction are Dianne Wiest and Daniel Day-Lewis.
Can we just mentions that Vera Lynn is celebrating her 100th birthdy today? Her impact on film history might be minimal, but then again, her voice singing 'We'll Meet Again' is the last thing we hear in one of the very greatest films of all time - and centenarians are rather rare, after all.
Also, Carl Reiner turns 94 today - not quite a centenarian yet, but well on his way.
As for Dolan, I still haven't seen 'It's Only the End of the World' yet, but from the other five films he released so far, 'Laurence Anyways' would be my pick as the greatest yet, with 'Mommy' a very close second. He certainly is one of the most exciting directors working at the moment.
MrW -- can you be more specific? Not sure which film or what you're referring to. I assume she isn't an actor but a singer?
Kevin Spacey is the third one: winning for his performance in The Usual Suspects and American Beauty
Hilary Swank is the fourth one: Boys Dont Cry and Million Dollar Baby
The shower scene in Wild Things is.....yummy. Bacons Bacon is such an underrated supporting tool
Jessica was not nominated for TPART no Globes love nothing,I wonder why.
I consider it a real underappreciated turn,no one does sexy like Lange.
Dame Vera Lynn is more famous here in the UK as a singer in the 40's,a few films she did star in,very patriotic good ole boy English stuff,but a 100 is a 100
@ Nate:
Her recording of 'We'll Meet Again' plays over the closing montage of 'Dr. Strangelove'.
I don't get the hate for Indecent Proposal. I mean, it's not *great* by any means, but it's watchable so certainly not Razzie-level awful. (C'mon, did they not see Sliver?)
Vivien Leigh won Oscars for two of the most iconic roles of all time. Daniel Day-Lewis' wins are fine, but those characters are nowhere in the same universe as hers.
Shelley Winters claimed she heard her name called as the Best Actress winner of 1951. Perhaps she could have accepted on Vivien's behalf.
Jessica Lange was definitely not nominated for The Postman Always Rings Twice. If by her peak means the 80's, she was nominated for these films: Frances, Country, Sweet Dreams, and Tootsie. She should have been nominated for this film though, imo.
heiko, also Music Box.