On this day in history as it relates to showbiz...
Gloria Swanson surrounded by herself in SUNSET BLVD
1898 Oscar winning costume designer Norma Koch is born. She designed the costumes on both of the main movies that Feud: Bette and Joan revolves around, winning for Baby Jane though Feud seems to hand the costuming credit on that movie over to Bette Davis
1899 The iconic Gloria Swanson (Sunset Blvd) is born...
1902 Oscar winning cinematographer Charles Lang (Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, Some Like It Hot) is born in Utah. He was nominated for the Oscar an incredible 18 times, winning just once for A Farewell to Arms (1932)
The Knick Clip 3 - Apprehending Typhoid Mary from Soumajit Kundu on Vimeo.
1915 Typhoid Mary is arrested and sent to quarantine (where she would remain the rest of her life). The Knick (just cancelled) used this as a subplot. She was played by Melissa McMeekin who regularly pops up in David O. Russell's movies.
Beery & Swanson, an unhappy marriage1916 Gloria Swanson gets married for the first time at only 17 years old to future Oscar winning actor Wallace Beery, then 31. She was already a credited regular in silent shorts at that point though they're divorced by the time by the time she's a star three years later. She'll marry again five more times though never again on her birthday.
1940 Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca has its Los Angeles premiere. It will win the Best Picture Oscar 11 months later. We had so much fun writing about it here as a team.
1942 Seventies star Michael York (Cabaret, Logan's Run) is born in England
1952 Singin' in the Rain' has its world premiere in New York City.
...on this same day Maria Schneider of Last Tango in Paris and The Passenger fame is born in Paris and Oscar nominated Makeup artist Peter Montagna (Hitchcock) is born in Brooklyn. We're not crazy about Hitchcock but Montagna also has a rich history on TV working on Saturday Night Live, and two of our all time favorites: Once and Again and Buffy the Vampire Slayer
1957 Stephen Dillane is born in London. The actor is best known as Stannis Barantheon in Game of Thrones, but we like him best when he's married to complicated women played by great actresses as in The Hours and Savage Grace.
...On this same day the 1956 Oscars are held with Best Picture going to Around the World in 80 Days and Yul Brynner taking Best Actor for The King and I.
1960 Jennifer Grey (Dirty Dancing) is born in NYC
1963 Writer Director Chatterbox Quentin Tarantino is born in Tennessee
1971 Nathan Fillion, Captain Tight Pants himself, is born in Canada
1973 Cabaret wins the most Oscars ever for a film that actually loses Best Picture, 8 statues! The Godfather takes that one, as well as Actor and Adapted Screenplay at the 1972 Oscars. Marlon Brando famously sends Sacheen Littlefeather onstage to refuse his Oscar due to the entertainment industry's treatment of Native Americans.
1981 James Caan and Tuesday Weld star in Michael Mann's The Thief, new in theaters
1982 The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas closes on Broadway after a four year run. But fans can quickly get their fix in movie theaters as the film adaptation starring Dolly Parton opens four months later.
1987 Bruce Willis and Kim Basinger have a terrible Blind Date in movie theaters
1992 White Men Can't Jump, The Power of One, and The Cutting Edge are all new in movie theaters
1995 At the 1994 Oscars Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump) and Jessica Lange (Blue Sky) take the top acting prizes, and Dianne Wiest wins for Supporting Actress (Bullets Over Broadway). It's one of those rare years where most of the winners had already won. Only Martin Landau (Ed Wood) was the only first time winner of the four.
2002 Writer/Director Billy Wilder, one of the cinema's great titans, dies at 95 years of age. He left us so many classics!
2009 Monsters vs Aliens hits movie theaters