Showbiz History: Dunkirk Evacuation, Suffragette Trampling, and Celebrity Offspring
Monday, June 4, 2018 at 9:00AM Happy June 4th, y'all. Here are several things that happened on this day in history that you can be celebrating or thinking about today as you go about your busy lives. Happy birthday if it's your special day you awesome Gemini, you!
1907 His Girl Friday herself Rosalind Russell born in Connecticut.
1913 Emily Davison, a suffragette, purposefully steps in front of a horse at King George V's Derby and is trampled to death. Though the recent film Suffragette (2015) was not a true story, many of its details were true including this turning point moment in the suffragette movement...
-EMILY!
-Never surrender. Never give up the fight!
Which begs the question as to why it was fictionalized since the true stories are so infinitely compelling. Emily was played by the wonderful actress Natalie Press (My Summer of Love, Red Road and the Oscar winning short film Wasp) who weirdly hasn't been working much at all for the past handful of years (Has she been on stage in London or something?)
1932 John Drew Barrymore is born into the family acting dynasty. Though he would not inherit the level of stardom of his father (John), uncle (Lionel) and aunt (Ethel), appearing mostly in B pictures he would however get a few starring roles and give us Drew Barrymore, who would continue the family tradition to major stardom.
1936 Happy 82nd birthday to Bruce Dern, born on this day in Chicago. He will go on to one of the longest careers in showbiz, earn two Oscar nominations (Coming Home and Nebraska) and father the incredible Laura Dern.
1940 British troops finally evacuated from Dunkirk whilst Winton Churchill wins an Oscar for his "we shall fight on the beaches" speech and pilot Tom Hardy takes a victory/surrender walk on the beach. Wait I'm mixing up the events and last year's hit movies... but the point is that was on this day 78 years ago!
1942 Mrs Miniver has its world premiere in New York. It will open in London and the US shortly thereafter and become a massive hit everywhere winning 6 Oscars including Best Picture and Best Actress for Greer Garson. The Battle of Midway also began on this very day during World War II. Filmmaker John Ford was stationed on the island at the time and his color footage of the events would become the Oscar winning documentary short The Battle of Midway -- he's one of the filmmakers that factors heavily into Mark Harris's book "Five Came Back" which became a miniseries on Netflix.
←1951 Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh marry. Both were rising stars at the time, on the cusp of headliner status. We don't know what the couple got as wedding gifts but none of them were as good as what they gifted back to the world before they were divorced: a wonderful actress (Jamie Lee Curtis) and more than a handful of bonafide all-timers: Some Like It Hot, Sweet Smell of Success, Touch of Evil, Psycho, Spartacus, and The Manchurian Candidate.
1951 ...on that same day in San Francisco the artist Wendy Pini of Elfquest fame is born. After numerous false starts we still don't have an Elfquest movie. (sigh)
1967 Super handsome First Nations actor Michael Greyeyes (The New World) born in Canada. He's co-starring with Jessica Chastain in Woman Walks Alone this year.
Baby Angelina with her gorgeous parents in the late 70s
1975 Angelina Jolie is born in Los Angeles to movie star father Jon Voight and actress Marcheline Bertrand. Her father will win an Oscar when she's only three and her parents will divorce when she's only four.
← 1982 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan starring Ricardo Montalban's cleavage opens in movie theaters. It's a big hit.
1994 Wet Wet Wet's single "Love is All Around" from Four Weddings and a Funeral started an incredible 15 week run at the top of the UK charts -- weird that that song wasn't Oscar nominated? Or was it not eligible?
2017 Ariana Grande headlines a benefit concert for victims of an earlier terrorist bombing at her concert in Manchester raising $9 million dollars. The event is broadcast in several countries.
Reader Comments (7)
Love Is All Around was a cover of a 1960s (I think) hit by a UK band, The Troggs, so definitely ineligible for that reason.
Nathaniel, Love is All Around is a remake of a 1960's song, hence its not being eligible.
Also on this day: the trailer for Widows dropped!!!
Michael R -- AH! thank you. I had forgotten that entirely.
The time is ripe for another great Jamie Lee Curtis performance.
Cash -- always ripe for that!
I'm always sad when I think of how forgotten Greer Garson has become. She deserves so much better. Her typecasting as heroic and noble belies the depth of her talent. And Mrs Miniver is a damn good movie.