6 random things that happened on this day, November 29th, in showbiz history
1898 C.S. Lewis born in Belfast, Ireland. His Narnia books would be adapted for screens both large and small and he even got his own biopic of sorts in Shadowlands (1993) starring Sir Anthony Hopkins. I always believeed that Hopkins would have been Oscar nominated for this if it hadn't arrived the same year as Remains of the Day (since you can't be nominated twice in any one acting category in the samee year). On an unrelated note: my personal favourite C.S. Lewis work is "The Screwtape Letters" but "Chronicles of Narnia" gets all of the attention.)
The Nuremberg trials, movie star deaths, and one vanishing act by marriage after the jump...
1945 Seventy-five years ago today, a documentary on Nazi concentration camps by Oscar's most beloved auteur John Ford was shown as evidence in the Nuremberg trials. Those trials would return to the cinema in 1961 as an Oscar-nominated motion picture.
1981 Natalie Wood tragically drowns at 43 while sailing with current co-star Christopher Walken (they were on break from the sci-fi film Brainstorm) and her husband R.J. Wagner (then starring on the hit TV show "Hart to Hart"). Her death has been a morbid pop culture fascination for years with the case continually reopened... or at least continually reopening in the court of public opinion. Her yacht "Splendor" that she was on that night was demolished in January of this year.
1986 Natalie Wood wasn't the only bonafide Hollywood superstar to pass away on this day in history. Just five years later to the day Cary Grant died at 82 years of age.
Fonda & Elfman, a few months before their wedding2003 Movie score composer Danny Elfman (and the former leader singer of the new wave band Oingo Boingo) marries the actress Bridget Fonda. Little did we know at the time that she was never coming back to the movies (though Elfman kept working in them). We had assumed her absence in 2002 was a glitch in programming since she'd had four films released in 2001. But, as it turns out, 2001 was her swansong. She's apparently been a stay at home mom this whole time. The couple has one child who is now a teenager. Will any director be able to lure her out of retirement in a few years when she's an empty nester? (*Cough Tarantino*)
2010 Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" single drops eventually becoming an extraordinarily leggy blockbuster single (spending over a full year on the charts). It goes on to win both Record and Song of the Year at the 2012 Grammys.
Today's birthday suit
Today would have been Chadwick Boseman's 44th birthday. He was born in South Carolina on this day in 1976, but tragically left us just three months ago from colon cancer. We're beyond thrilled that he got such an amazing final showcase in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. Can't wait for y'all to see it next month.
Actors celebrating birthdays today: Diego Boneta (30), Gemma Chan (38), Lucas Black (38), Fawad Khan (39), Janina Gavankar (40), Anna Faris (44), Lin Chi-Ling (46), Naoko Mori (49), Ryu Seung-Ryong (50), Jennifer Elise Cox (51) Ellen Cleghorne (55), Don Cheadle (56), Andrew McCarthy (58), Kim Delaney (59), Tom Sizemore (59), Oscar nominee Cathy Moriarty (60), Jackie Hoffman (60), Jeff Fahey (68), Zouzou (77), Amanda Walker (85), and three time Oscar nominee and mother of Laura Dern, Diane Ladd (85)
Other showbiz people celebrating birthdays: Stuntman David Will No (48), brilliant cinematographer Sean Bobbitt (62), Comedian Howie Mandel (65), and Oscar winning director Joel Coen (66).
Gone but not forgotten: Writer Louisa May Alcott (Little Women) born on this day in 1832, Director Busby Berkeley (Gold Diggers of 1935, Babes in Arms, Strike up the Band) born on this day in 1895. Remember how they were going to make a biopic about him starring Ryan Gosling? Whatever happened to that?!, Actress Kay Johnson (Madame Satan, Of Human Bondage) born on this day in 1904, Actor Steve Oliver (The Naked Zoo, Streets of San Francisco, Peyton Place) born on this day in 1941, and Garry Shandling (The Larry Sanders Show) born on this day in 1949.