On this day in history as it relates to showbiz...
1865 President Lincoln is assassinated. He's surely the President that's hit the movies the most often, most successfully in Steven Spielberg's fantastic Lincoln (2012)
1894 The first commercial motion picture house opens using Thomas Edison's "kinetoscope" device. You had to look through a peephole though so it was only one viewer at a time, though the venue had 10 of the machines. Coincidentally Thomas Edison will be played by Benedict Cumberbath in this year's Oscar hopeful The Current War which is about Edison's battle with George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon) over sustainable electricity in America...
1904 Sir John Gielgud, one of the great British actors, was born. He won the Oscar for Arthur (1981) but his filmography stretches all the way from the silent era through Elizabeth (1998)
1925 Oscar regular Rod Steiger (On the Waterfront, The Pawnbroker, In the Heat of the Night) born
1933 Actress Shani Wallis, who I'm still mystified wasn't Oscar nominated for Oliver! (1968), is born.
1939 John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" is published. It becomes a classic movie the very next year
1941 The great mysterious Oscar-winning goddess Julie Christie (Darling, Away From Her, McCabe and Mrs Miller) is born in British India. Happy 76th, diva!
1955 Wonderful writer/director Don Roos (The Opposite of Sex, Happy Endings, Web Therapy) is born. Did you know that he's married to actor Dan Bucatinsky (All Over The Guy, 24: Legacy, Scandal). Get this - their first date was to a Michelle Pfeiffer premiere: Love Field (1992)
1956 Actors Vera Miles and Gordon Scott, who co-starred in Tarzan's Hidden Jungle the year before, marry. Incidentally she was "Jill" not "Jane". As their marriage was falling apart they both made their best movies: Gordon in Tarzan's Greatest Adventure (1959) and Vera in Psycho (1960)
1957 Undervalued French-Canadian actor Lothaire Bluteau born. He's wonderful in Black Robe, Jesus of Montreal, and Bent. Recently he's been doing TV like Vikings, 24, and The Tudors
1958 Stanley Kubrick marries Christiane Harlan, his third wife. Third time's the charm. They remain together until his death in 1999
1961 Actor Robert Carlyle of Trainspotting, Priest, The Full Monty, and Once Upon a Time fame is born
← 1967 It's the 50th anniversary of a movie I've never heard of called It's a Bikini World. The title alone... I mean, GIMME.
1968 Anthony Michael Hall, Bratpacker, born. Happy 49th!
1969 On Shani Wallis's 36th birthday, her movie Oliver! wins Best Picture. But another race stole the glory: The 1968 Oscars featured the first and only tie in Best Actress (which Anne-Marie covered a few years back here and here): Barba Streisand (Funny Girl) and Katharine Hepburn (Lion in Winter) both won the Oscar, leaving fellow nominees (Patricia Neal in The Subject was Roses, Vanessa Redgrave as Isadora, and Joanne Woodward in Rachel Rachel) in a 3 way instead of 4 way tie for... um... losing.
Who would you have voted for?
1973 The youngest Best Actor winner of all time, Adrien Brody (The Pianist) is born in Queens
1977 Sarah Michelle Gellar aka Buffy born. Happy 40th, Chosen One!
1980 Kramer vs Kramer wins Best Picture 1979. It's also a year where all the acting winners were either repeats or would become multiple winners. Melvyn Douglas wins his second Oscar for Being There. While Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep (Kramer vs Kramer), and Sally Field (Norma Rae), all win their first with their second statues to come within the next decade.
1989 John Cusack first lifts that boombox over his head in movie theaters in the then minor but now classic romcom Say Anything which was the feature directorial debut of Cameron Crowe.
1995 Rob Roy opens in theaters starring Liam Neeson and Jessica Lange with Tim Roth stealing the show (and an Oscar nomination). It was completely overshadowed by another Scottish epic (Braveheart) that year but it's a way better film.
← 1996 Abigail Breslin born. Just 10 years later she'd be up for the Supporting Actress Oscar for Little Miss Sunshine
2017 The eighth film in the Fast and Furious franchise opens in theaters today. How would you rank the previous seven?