Showbiz History: Wait until dark for full frontal Oscar nominees
Tuesday, October 27, 2020 at 8:00AM 8 random things that happened on this day, October 27th, in showbiz history
Sonny & Cher in 1964
1964 Sonny & Cher marry. Huge fame follows the next summer with the release of their debut album and their first #1 hit I Got You Babe"
1967 Opening weekend for the thriller Wait Until Dark. It's a hit at the box office and snags star Audrey Hepburn, playing a blind woman, her fifth and final Oscar nomination at the age of 38...
1973 "Midnight Train to Georgia" by Gladys Knight hits #1 on the Billboard charts. The following year it wins the Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance. It's been covered many times though weirdly it doesn't show up in many movies.
1978 It was opening weekend for indie horror flick Halloween. Made on a shoestring budget it becomes hugely profitable, solidifies the tropes of the "slasher" genre (arguably introduced 18 years earlier in Psycho), proves the breakout picture of director John Carpenter, savvily casts Janet Leigh's (Psycho) own daughter Jamie Lee Curtis (in her motion picture debut), and launches a franchise that's still with us today.
1995 A memorably over-stuffed weekend with Gregg Araki's The Doom Generation, female-led thriller Copycat, Woody Allen's Mighty Aphrodite, the Eddie Murphy/Angela Bassett comedy Vampire in Brooklyn, the fantasy drama Powder, and Oscar-bound Leaving Las Vegas all new in movie theaters. None of the weekend's new films were potent enough to unseat the previous weekend's holdover hit, Get Shorty.
2017 It was opening weekend for DC's superhero extravaganza Justice League. With a $657 million worldwide gross, it falls fall short of billion dollar expectations. Wonder Woman's solo adventure the same year grosses nearly $200 million more.
2019 Just last year on this day the Academy's annual Governors Awards (aka the Honorary Oscars) were being handed out: Wes Studi, Geena Davis, Lina Wertmuller, and David Lynch received the statues.
Today's Birthday Suit
Happy 67th birthday to Equus star Peter Firth. He was the first man (of only nine) ever Oscar-nominated for a screen role that included full frontal nudity. He was 24 at the time. Please see Equus if you haven't because it is a trip. The list of men so nominated is super short and goes like so...
• Peter Firth in Equus (1977)
• Robert DeNiro in The Deer Hunter (1978)
• Robin Williams in The Fisher King (1991)
• Jaye Davison in The Crying Game (1992)
• Edward Norton in American History X (1998)
• Jude Law in The Talented Mr Ripley (1999)
• Geoffrey Rush in Quills (2000)
• Viggo Mortensen in Eastern Promises (2007)
• Eddie Redmayne in The Danish Girl (2014)
• Viggo Mortenesen in Captain Fantastic (2016)
And as far as we're aware that's the full extent of the list. But you'll let us know if we missed anyone?
Other actors celebrating birthdays today: Gianni Decenzo (19), Teilor Grubbs (19), Imbar Lavi (34), Kivanç Tatlitug (37), Patrick Fugit (38), Takashi Tsukamoto (38), Han Hye-jin (39), David Walton (42), Elias Toufexis (45), Joanna Scanlan (59), Peter Firth (67), Robert Picardo (67), Roberto Benigni (68), and John Cleese (81)
Other showbiz people celebrating birthdays today: Writer/Director/Producer Theodore Melfi (50), Editor Matt Cheese (55), Costume Designer Michael O'Connor (55), Rock star Simon Le Bon (62), Director Tsai Ming-liang (63), Writer Fran Lebowitz (70), Producer Ivan Reitman (74)
Bonus Birthday suit: Oscar winner Teresa Wright
Gone but not forgotten: Oscar winner Teresa Wright (Mrs Miniver, Shadow of a Doubt) born on this day in 1918, Musical comedy star Nanette Fabray (The Band Wagon) born on this day in 1920, Oscar nominee Ruby Dee (American Gangster, A Raisin in the Sun) born on this day in 1922, Oscar winning cinematography Ronnie Taylor (Gandhi, Cry Freedom) born on this day in 1924, Jean Pierre-Cassel (Murder on the Orient Express, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgouisie) born on this day in 1932, and Oscar nominee Carrie Snodgress (Diary of a Mad Housewife) born on this day in 1945.
Reader Comments (9)
About an hour into The Deer Hunter, Best Actor nominee Robert De Niro runs through the darkened neighborhood, ripping off clothing as he runs. Once nude he lies on his back in a park.
Just rewatched "Wait Until Dark" this weekend and it's great. One of the original trailers promises that during the climax the theater lights will be completely dimmed to the legal limit. Was not aware that something like that would use exploitation marketing tactics, and have doubts about whether anyone was really legislating how dark theaters were allowed to be!
I know it's a typo, but under 1995, I want to see the film called Copcat!
Considering the traditional Hollywood aversion to male frontal nudity, 9 nominations seems actually quite progressive.
Teresa Wright had the best start anyone ever had in movies. Oscar nominations for her first three films then made masterpieces Shadow of a Doubt and The Best Years Of Our Lives.
While I know that Jaye Davidson was placed into the actor categories during the year that “The Crying Game” was in awards contention, do we know if that performer would claim that category now? I’m genuinely asking. Awards structures are so terribly structured for trans roles and any performer who may not fully conform to the binary. In today’s more evolved (though still in progress) climate gender, would Davidson demand better options?
The Doom Generation... one of the best films I saw as a teen only because a classmate of mine in high school saw it and said it was the worst film he had ever seen. I loved it though I was grossed out by Jonathan Schaech licking his own cum on his hand.
Albert Finney has a sobering cold shower in Under the Volcano (1984)
RV - great question (I wondered how the Emmys would place Indya Moore for Season 1 of Pose, though it proved irrelevant as nobody other than Billy Porter was nominated).
To my knowledge, Davidson identifies as male and always has - he was a model and cast because he was so beautiful that the audience would assume he was female without question. See Stargate for an even more enhanced display of his beauty!