by Nathaniel R
John Wayne in "The Big Trail (1930)" and in "True Grit (1969)"
This day in history is a big one of Hollywood's most popular stars, John Wayne. His career began, as most did in the early days of Hollywood, with uncredited parts in silent films but he became a leading man once the talkies hit. Perhaps he needed that distinctive slow-crawl dirt road voice to stand out? He had his first leading role at just 23 years of age with The Big Trail. True stardom didn't hit, though, until Stage Coach (1939) after which, he was top-billed for the remainder of his career. On this very day in 1969 True Grit premiered in Los Angeles. The role of Rooster Cogburn would net him his third Oscar nomination and prove to be something of a career capper when he took home the Best Actor Oscar. (Jeff Bridges would later be Oscar-nominated for the same role in the 2010 Coen brothers remake). Not one to rest -- Wayne holds the record of most leading roles for an American movie star with *gasp* 142 of them -- the western icon kept right on working through The Shootist in 1976. On this same day in history in 1979, ten years after people first met Rooster Cogburn, Wayne died of stomach cancer. He remains one of the most iconic stars in Hollywood history.
What else was happening on this day in showbiz history? Find out after the jump...
1880 Jeannette Rankin, the first woman elected to US Congress is born. Where's her biopic?
1919 Oscar nominee Richard Todd (The Hasty Heart, 1949) is born in Dublin
1933 Gene Wilder born in Milwaukee. Goes on to become a comedy legend and two time Oscar nominee. People are still trying to take Willy Wonka away from him and give it to other actors, but it's never going to stick. The role is his.
1939 Christina Crawford born and put up for adoption. Mommie Dearest Joan Crawford picks her up just under a year later. The rest is herstory.
1945 B movie queen Adrienne Barbeau is born
1964 The Unsinkable Molly Brown arrives in theaters. It goes on to box office success and six Oscar nominations including Best Actress for America's Sweetheart Debbie Reynolds but it misses a Best Picture nod.
1969 Peter Dinklage is born in New Jersey, a long way away from the seven kingdoms of Game of Thrones. On the same day across the bridge in NYC, actor Matt McGrath (Broken Hearts Club, Boys Don't Cry, and currently the standby for multiple gays in Broadway's Boys in the Band) is born.
1975 Robert Altman's remarkable Nashville premieres in New York City. Somehow it doesn't win all the Oscars and become a blockbuster as Pauline Kael predicted but she was totally right when she called it an 'orgy for movie lovers' adding:
It’s a pure emotional high, and you don’t come down when the picture is over.
1982 Grease 2 and E.T. The Extra Terrestrial square off on opening day in movie theaters. Guess which one wins?
← 1985 Twenty years after its initial bow and instant popularity Neil Simon's The Odd Couple returns to Broadway revised to star two women -- Rita Moreno and Sally Struthers take over as Olive and Florence (instead of Oscar and Felix) so as we see the idea of gender inverted blockbusters didn't begin this decade! It plays for 8 months but receives no Tony nominations. (The original won 4 Tonys)
1986 Ferris Bueller's Day Off arrives at movie theaters just as Shia Labeou is born. Twin troublemakers! Which do you prefer?
1993 Happy 25th anniversary to 1993's biggest hit Jurassic Park. More on that one a bit later. I reminisced about it for its 20th anniversary here in comic strip form.
2010 Winter's Bone opens in movie theaters making Jennifer Lawrence a name and kicking off the Academy's obsession with her. (JLaw currently holds the record of youngest person to reach 4 Oscar nominations which she achieved by the age of 25, beating previous record holder Jennifer Jones who did it by 27. If Saoirse Ronan is nominated again this next Oscar season she will take this record away from Jennifer Lawrence... do you think that'll happen?