OTD: Babs, Shirley, and "Cool" from West Side Story
Monday, April 24, 2017 at 8:00AM On this very gay day (4/24) in history as it relates to showbiz...
1873 Silent film director Robert Wiene, best known for The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920) born in Breslau (Note: other online sources disagree with the IMDb on this birthdate but it's always fun to think about Caligari)
1927 Oscar winning cinematographer Pasqualino de Santis born in Italy. Classics include Romeo and Juliet, The Damned, Death in Venice, and L'Argent
1930 Richard Donner, superstar director/producer of the 1980s, behind films like The Goonies, Lethal Weapon, and the first two Supermans. Apparently retired after 16 Blocks (2006) with Bruce Willis
1931 The Public Enemy starring James Cagney and Jean Harlow was enjoying its opening weekend at movie theaters. It was a big hit, ending in the top ten of its year. Variety claimed it was "low brow material" attempting to be high brow by its craftsmanship. If only critics knew in the moment -- they almost never do even now -- that "low brow" genres regularly produce classics.
1934 Shirley Maclaine, one of the all time greats, born in Virginia. Classics include The Apartment, Terms of Endearment, Being There, Postcards from the Edge, and Sweet Charity
1936 Tucker Smith, who I had a huge baby gay crush on (without realizing that's what it was) as a child via his "Ice" role in West Side Story (pictured center above), born in Philadelphia. Despite being so memorable in West Side Story (he transferred from the Broadway show though he wasn't playing "Ice'" on stage)with his "Cool" number, movie roles were few and far between. Sad Trivia: according to the internet he was in Gilda Radner's cancer support group in the 80s (mentioned in her autobiography). They died within 6 months of each other in the late 80s :(
1942 Barbra Streisand, superstar, born in Brooklyn. Shoulda won her second Oscar for The Way We Were (1973) don'cha think?
the world needs more costume design as distinctive as Jean Paul Gaultier putting Bruce Willis in cut away backless tank tops
1952 Jean-Paul Gaultier, fashion and costume designer (The Fifth Element. Wheeee) and Madonna collaborator born in France. Told you April 24th was a super gay day!
1964 Two time Oscar nominee Djimon Hounsou (In America, Blood Diamond) born in Benin. So many famous films though lately he's annoyingly regulated to "minor startlingly attractive villain who is quickly dispensed with" in films like The Legend of Tarzan and Guardians of the Galaxy.
1974 Derek Luke (Antwone Fisher, 13 Reasons Why) born in Jersey City
1981 Take This Job and Shove It a comedy starring Robert Hays (hot off Airplane!) and Barbara Hershey (hot off being Barbara Hershey, so...um... always) opens in movie theaters
1987 Walter Hill's Extreme Prejudice starring Nick Nolte
1990 Kim Tae-Ri born in South Korea. Recently wowed as the naive sapphic con artist in The Handmaiden (2016). Next up is a film called Little Forest (leading role) as a woman who leaves the city to reconnect with nature
1993 The Bodyguard soundtrack was enjoying its umpteenth non-consecutive #1 position on the Billboard album charts. For a while it seemed like we'd never stop hearing Whitney wailing that endless note from the theme song. But my fav song from that soundtrack is totally "I Have Nothing"
1998 Tarzan and the Lost City recently reviewed... I can't help myself with Tarzan movies, shut up) and Sliding Doors from that brief time period we still mourn when Gwyneth Paltrow was an actress.
2009 A strange weekend at the movie theaters with Beyonce in Obsessed, Channing Tatum in Fighting, and whatever was happening and whoever was doing what exactly in Joe Wright's misbegotten The Soloist all at once. True story: when I first saw the commercial for the new movie Unforgettable I thought it was a remake of Obsessed.
2015 The Age of Adaline with Blake Lively hits movie theaters.
Reader Comments (11)
Ummm... the director of 'Caligari' is called Robert Wiene (not Weine), and according to nearly all sources available to me, he was born on April 27th (the IMDb seems to be the only dissenting voice here; I have to say with some surprise, though, my usually very reliable 'Reclam's Lexikon des Deutschen Films' doesn't even have an entry for him, despite listing dozens of directors I've never even heard of...; I also found one source - filmportal.de - which not only states April 27th to be his birthday, but also points out that there is another date frequently falsly claimed to be his birthday - but that date would be November 16th 1880).
I could offer you another German director and another horror movie maker as a replacement, though: Bernhard Grzimek, one of the few German Oscar winners (he won Best Documentary Feature 1959 for 'Serengeti Shall Not Die', still regarded as a classic in Germany) was born on this day in 1909, and the legendary director and producer William Castle was born on this day in 1914.
MrW -- well i'll just go with IMDb and fix my spelling error
Happy birthday to Shirley MacLaine, my all-time favorite actress. One of those rare multi-nominees who you could argue probably deserved considerably more than Oscar offered her.
No, Ellen Burstyn should have won for The Exorcist, opening the following race to Gena Rowlands. Streisand shouldn't have won even the first time.
But I doubt Gena would have won even if Burstyn was already an Oscar winner, because no performance in film history would be in Gena's way if voters had seen the movie. Maybe Burstyn would win back to back.
Yes, Barbra should have won for The Way We Were. I find A Touch of Class to be almost unwatchable.
The Tucker Smith mention (I agree, he was sexy) piqued my interest about the other guy in the picture with Smith and Russ Tamblyn. Apparently Tony Mordente was married to Chita Rivera and had a pretty long career. He's still with us!
Streisand lost her second Best Actress bid because of how she won her first. By campaigning for membership while only a first time nominee to use voter privilege to ensure victory. Which of course led to the legendary tie between herself and Katharine Hepburn. Oscar voters are petty.
Cal Roth-it's also possible Dunaway wins in 1974 if Burstyn takes 1973, though that leaves 1976 open...though it's honestly hard to see Dunaway losing to anyone for Network, so maybe she'd just have two trophies.
@John T
Yeah, I agree.
But there's another scenario: Dunaway wins for Chinatown, Spacek wins for Carrie and Gena wins for Gloria. (But I doubt it again: poor Gena, MTM would win for Ordinary People)
Yeah-it's hard to see Moore losing if Spacek isn't taking 1980's trophy, particularly with that Best Picture win. I feel like Rowlands was one of those brilliant actresses who probably timed their nominations in unfortunate years (kind of like Liv Ullmann). Thankfully Gena got the Honorary, at least.