On this day: Vivien's Oscar, Kevin's Bacon, Carter's Write-Down 
Monday, March 20, 2017 at 9:00AM
NATHANIEL R in Broadcast News, Jessica Lange, John Carter of Mars, Kevin Bacon, Oscars (40s), Rear Window, Street Smart, Vivien Leigh

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 

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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