Showbiz History: Marilyn & Joe, Jennifer & Elektra, Samuel & LaTanya
Thursday, January 14, 2021 at 9:00AM 7 random things that happened today, January 14th, in showbiz history
newlyweds leaving City Hall
1954 Marilyn Monroe, hot off of her superstar making year, elopes with baseball star Joe DiMaggio to San Francisco City Hall. He would be abusive and possessive and they would divorce the following year but stayed entangled for the rest of her life.
1970 The Supremes perform their final concert together in Las Vegas...
1976 The Bionic Woman premieres on TV, a spinoff of the sci-fi hit The Six Million Dollar Man. Star Lindsay Wagner will win Best Actress in a Drama Series at the Emmys the following year. She isn't well known today but she was a major TV star of 70s series and 80s telefilms.
1977 Fantasy Island first airs on TV in a movie-length version. It will begin its proper first season a full year later. As was the habit of TV series of the day, each episode was a standalone and focused on the guest stars who were often film stars from previous decades (see also The Love Boat). This first episode featured three time Oscar nominee Eleanor Parker, two time Golden Globe nominee Carol Lynley, Golden Globe winner Sandra Dee, and Golden Globe winner Hugh O'Brian.
40+ years and still together!
1980 Samuel L. Jackson, who was 31 years old and just starting to get TV roles (Ragtime, on the big screen, was next up) marries LaTanya Richardson. Happy 41st anniversary to the enduring couple who met during their college years. They're both actors. He's globally famous of course but she's a Tony nominee!
2005 Samuel L Jackson stars in Coach Carter, new in theaters. And Jennifer Garner stars as Elektra, new in theaters. The latter flopped and once again movie studios believed women couldn't carry superhero pictures... refusing to notice that the pictures themselves were the problem.
2011 Failed franchise lauch The Green Hornet, the Vince Vaughn comedy The Dilemma, and the Nicolas Cage period action film Season of the Witch were the new movies in theaters.
Today's Birthday Suit
Happy 80th birthday today to the one and only Faye Dunaway.
Which of her Globe nominated movie performances is your favourite? Hurry Sundown (1967), Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Puzzle of a Downfall Child (1970), Chinatown (1974), Three Days of the Condor (1975), Network (1976), or Barfly (1987)?
Other showbiz types with birthdays today: Oscar winning director Steven Soderbergh (Traffic, Erin Brockovich), four time Oscar nominated screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan (Grand Canyon, The Big Chill), Bebe Daniels (42nd Street, The Maltese Falcon), Grant Gustin (The Flash), Zach Gilford (Friday Night Lights, The Purge: Anarchy), Emayatzy Corinealdi (Middle of Nowhere, Baller), rapper / actor LL Cool J (Deep Blue Sea, Lip Sync Battle), director Melina Matsoukas ("Formation", Queen & Slim), Jason Bateman (Arrested Development, The Outsider), Carl Weathers (Predator, Rocky), Emmy winner Holland Taylor (Hollywood, The Practice), Oscar nominee Emily Watson (Breaking the Waves, Punch-drunk Love), singer/actor Joe Seneca (The Blob, Silverado), Juan Pablo Raba (Peppermint, Agents of SHIELD), two time Oscar nominated cinematographer Jeff Cronenwerth (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Fight Club, Social network), two time Oscar nominated editor Stuard Baird (Gorillas in the Mist, Superman), director Joseph Losey (The Boy with Green Hair, The Go-Between), Oscar winner Harold Russell (The Best Years of Our Lives), Oscar winning songwriter T Bone Burnett (Cold Mountain, Crazy Heart), Argentina's Chino Darín (El Angel, A Twelve Year Night), and Japanese novelist and actor Yukio Mishima (Temple of the Golden Pavilion, Afraid to Die).
Reader Comments (12)
Lovely video on Faye Dunaway was released by Be Kind Rewind. A must-watch!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VS47n0R0ZEQ
It's a shame what happened to Faye's career Post-Mommie Dearest. She was in some of the most iconic leading roles of the 70's. Very sad.
Barfly fucking rules.
Marilyn and DiMaggio on the surface were such a mismatched pair, and probably temperamentally wrong to be married which according to many reports they were inching their way back towards when she died, but their emotional connection was strong. For 20 years after her death he had roses delivered to her grave three times a week.
Faye was nominated for Hurry, Sundown!? She's ravishing in the picture but had virtually nothing to do in that dog of a film.
My favorite of the group of films she was nominated for is Three Days of the Condor but as far as her performance in any of them go I'm split between Chinatown and Bonnie & Clyde.
Best faye film Network if i'm being serious or Mommie Dearest for it's sheer rewatchability
Best Performance hard to say Diana somedays Evelyn on others,not a big fan of B and C,okay in Barfly overlooked in Puzzle of a Downfall Child.
I like her a lot in Three Days of the Condor, but if I've got to pick just one - Network.
joel6 -- well, it was in that defunct category "most promising actor or actress"... BAFTA also nominated her that year for the same type of category.
Lindsay Wagner was in a Hallmark Christmas Movie this past December.
Honorable mention: Faye in The Thomas Crown Affair (the closest she got to being a Hitchcock blonde).
Joe Dimaggio was married once before MM and had one child, yet never remarried after divorcing Marilyn Monroe! Yet how can you top that beautiful, effervescent, voluptuous woman? I think Faye Dunaway is a striking and fine actress, fave from list is "Network", followed by "Barfly." She is unforgettable as Joan Carwford in "Mommie Dearest" (I'll speak to you.....in the other room!").
Faye Dunaway rules! I still think Mommie Dearest is her crowning achievement. Over-the-top acting at its best.
Favorite Fayes: Bonnie and Clyde, Chinatown, Barfly, Mommie Dearest, The Happening
I don't think she deserved to win in any of her years nominated (my choices would have been Edith Evans in 67, Gena Rowlands in 74 and Liv Ullmann in 76. And before you all laugh me out of the discussion, I think she should have been nominated for Mommie Dearest in 81 bumping the undeserving Hepburn or Mason), She did come in as runner up for Best Actress from the NY Film Critics...