On this day: Butch Cassidy, Catherine de Medici, the '63 Oscars, and more
Thursday, April 13, 2017 at 10:00AM On this day in history as it relates to showbiz
1519 Catherine de Medici, Queen consort, born. She's been played in movies and TV by Kerry Fox, Megan Follows, Françoise Rosay, Maria Palmer, and many more but none so brilliantly as Virna Lisi in her Cannes winning performance in the sensational French epic Queen Margot (1994)
1570 Guy Fawkes born in England. V for Vendetta's "V" wears his face as a mask.
1743 Founding Father Thomas Jefferson born in Virginia. He's been played in movies and TV by actors like Nick Nolte, Jerry O'Connell, Stephen Dillane, Sam Waterston, Ken Howard, and many more...
1866 Butch Cassidy born in Beaver Utah. Paul Newman plays a super more handsome version of him in the classic Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
1919 Howard Keel, musical star, born. If we still exist in 2019 we'll do a Centennial party!
1924 Happy 93rd birthday to the great musicals director Stanley Donen (Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Singin' in the Rain, Funny Face)
1937 Happy 80th birthday to Edward Fox. Though the actor has won 3 BAFTAs and was BAFTA nominated for Best Picture winner Gandhi, he has curiously never been nominated for an Oscar.
1950 Happy 67th to actor Ron Perlman (TV's Beauty and the Beast, before Disney got around to it!) born in the Bronx
1954 Happy 63rd to animator Glen Keane. Among his many rich Disney accomplishments are the character design of the most beautiful Disney princess Pocahontas (1995), the character design of the most adorable Disney princess Ariel in The Little Mermaid (1989), and supervising the animation of the titular hero animation in Aladdin (1992)
1964 Tom Jones wins Best Picture and Sidney Poitier becomes the first black male acting winner in a competitive category (nobody likes to talk about the special Song of the South Oscar for but it did happen!). In one of Oscar's all time most annoying moments, they recognized the brilliance of Hud, the with 7 nominations and 3 wins but somehow forgot to nominate it for the award it should have won: Best Picture (ARGH!).
P.S. Yes I'm aware the 1963 Smackdown is due -I just watched two of the three movies so soon.
1970 "Houston we have a problem" things went awry for the crew of Apollo 13 as this day was ending as dramatized in Ron Howard's best or second best film
1971 Dina Korzun (40 Shades of Blue, Last Resort, Peaky Blinders) born on this day in Russia
1974 Ruben Ostlund, who directed the very fine Force Majeure born on this day in Sweden
1984 Friday the 13th, the Final Chapter opens in movie theaters. It lies. There were 8 more chapters thereafter. Jonathan Demme's studio-ruined Swing Shift also opened on this day. We recently discussed it.
1985 "We Are the World," the charity single from USA for Africa featuring a who's who of 1980s chart toppers enjoys its first week at #1
1988 Alison Williams of Girls and Get Out fame born on this day in Connecticut
2001 Bridget Jones's Diary opened in theaters on its way to major hit status and a Best Actress nomination for the Zeéeeee
2012 Horror satire Cabin in the Woods opened in theaters
2013 Justin Timberlake's "20/20 Experience" is the #1 album in the land.
2018 The thriller A Quiet Place, directed by John Krasinski and starring his wife Emily Blunt, is set to open on this day.
Reader Comments (9)
"If we still exist in 1919 we'll do a Centennial party!"
I think you mean 2019.
I still love that nomination for Zellweger.
If Apollo 13 isn't Ron Howard's best film, which other film are you thinking of?
Agreed on Hud. Such an odd Oscar miss - at least nomination-wise. It's still the only film to win two acting Oscars & a third Oscar and not be nominated for Best Picture.
Can I just throw in actor (and father) Paul Sorvino, who turns 78 today, and composer Vladimir Cosma (I particularly love his score for Diva, but then again I love just about everything about Diva), who turns 77?
Alec Baldwin as Thomas Jefferson on "30 Rock" is my favorite portrayal of him (Tracy Morgan a close second)
What will happen to my life if you aren't around in 2019 to discuss Meryl's 4th,Anette 1st,Cate's 3rd,Julianne's 2nd,Pfeiffer's 1st and so on..
Oh man, Queen Margot is amazing. I'm not usually a fan of violence, but in this movie, all the blood and intrigue just wash over you in dazzling fashion. Fantastic performances all around, not just from Virna Lisi.
Edward L.: I'm fairly certain that Splash ranks as Howard's best in Nathaniel's book.
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers is one of those films which my mother and I used to watch on repeat when I was a kid. It always brings up fond memories for me.
It's kind of hard to believe that the Academy Awards ceremony used to be held so late in the year, especially considering how fatigued I usually am by awards talk even before the nominations are announced at the end of January.
Troy H -- this is true. But it's important to remember that there weren't months of precursors before the mid 90s or so, only the Golden Globes. And we didn't use to get the nominations until February. It all exploded in the Aughts making the season seem much longer than it used to.
Edward L -- yes, Splash is my favorite but i recognize that Apollo 13 might be a slightly better film. They're easily his two best though.
Nat, are we in love again with the Zéeee ?