Showbiz History: Maureen O'Hara, Bruce Lee, The Wizard of Oz...
Monday, August 17, 2020 at 10:53AM 7 things that happened today in showbiz history...
1920 CENTENNIAL Maureen O'Hara, inarguably Ireland's biggest 20th century female movie star, was born in Dublin. She went on to a career filled with numerous classics -- many of which we've written about here at TFE. We *finally* have another Irish female star of her magnitude (probably) in Saoirse Ronan provided she doesn't burn out early (which we don't think she will)...
1939 The Wizard of Oz premieres at Loews Capitol Theater in New York City. It had had its world premiere a week earlier in... Green Bay Wisconsin (?!?). Judy Garland performed live after each screening in NYC for three solid weeks. Yes, MGM worked their young superstar to the bone.
1964 Bruce Lee (23) marries Linda Emery (19). Their relationship is portrayed in detail in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993) starring Jason Scott Lee and Lauren Holly
1979 Monty Pyton's The Life of Brian premieres. "Always look on the bright side of life... ♫♪♪"
Cameron and Bigelow having a moment after her Oscar win for The Hurt Locker. (She beat him)
1989 Superb directors Kathryn Bigelow (38) and James Cameron (35) marry. He was already a star with Terminator, Aliens, and The Abyss under his belt. She had just had a cult breakthrough with her second feature Near Dark (1987). They were divorced in 1991 but we got two sensational action pictures out of their brief marriage: Bigelow's Point Break and Cameron's T2: Judgment Day, both of which Cameron produced, premiered in the year of their split.
1990 David Lynch's Wild at Heart opens in theaters after its Palme d'Or win at Cannes earlier that summer.
2018 The Wife begins its long legged run in theaters on the way to a $20 million global gross and what SPC hoped would be a long delayed Oscar win for Glenn Close. Alas, it was not to be.
Today's Birthday Suit
Happy 77th to Robert DeNiro, pictured here with Gérard Depardieu (yes, Depardieu was once a thirst trap!) and Stefania Casini in Bernardo Bertolucci's 1900. You can click on the picture but it's definitely NSFW. The 70s were so wild -- this is between his two Oscar wins!
Also Born On This Day: Austin Butler, Belinda Carlisle, Martha Coolidge, Brady Corbet, Taissa Farmiga, Samuel Goldwyn, Rachel Hurd-Wood, Keston John, Frederick Lau, Helen McRory, Kati Outinen, Sean Penn, Yoo Seung-Ho, Fritz Wepper, and Mae West
Reader Comments (9)
I don't want Glenn to win Best Supporting Actress via Zoom.
As good as Glenn Close was in The Wife, she doesn't make my Top 10... though neither do Gaga, McCarthy or Colman (in that order but above Close), all of whom I also liked a lot...
2018 was so strong for Leading Actress... my own line-up (just because)...
1) Nicole Kidman - Destroyer
2) Samantha Morton - Two For Joy
3) Maggie Gyllenhaal - The Kindergarten Teacher
4) Emma Stone - The Favourite
5) Toni Collette - Hereditary
6) Rachel Weisz - The Favourite
7) Kiki Layne - If Beale Street Could Talk
8) Amandla Stenberg - The Hate U Give
9) Viola Davis - Widows
10) Regina Hall - Support The Girls
I have 1900. Incredible film despite some of the confusing nature of its politics. Maureen O'Hara is a great and is she still alive?
When I read this, I was indignant that Nathaniel had forgotten Deborah Kerr when he said Maureen O'Hara was the century's biggest Irish movie star. I See a Dark Stranger was the first Deborah Kerr movie I ever saw, and I always assumed Kerr was Irish like her character in the movie.
Decades-old mistake finally corrected!
She may well be the only white girl who has ever touched De Niro’s peen.
Whoever's using my name to post mean-spirited comments, please stop. I just had to delete another one.
Also, for the record, I love Nicole Kidman.
For what it's worth, Claudio, I think we'd all assume the mean spirited comments were fake.
I missed the comments and I assume they were obviously fake as Claudio is nothing if not extremely civil in the comment section. Why would you even impersonate somebody easily verifiable to Nathaniel and the moderators? Numbskullery.
Did anybody play "the wife" as solidly and memorably as Maureen O'Hara? Seriously. When those old movie stars needed a girlfriend they went after the likes of Audrey Hepburn, but when they needed a fully equal partner to spice up their midlife crisis movie, no one delivered like Maureen O'Hara.
Stefania Casini is one very lucky actress indeed!