8 random things that happened on this day, January 26th, in showbiz history...
1931 Cimarron premieres in NYC. It becomes the first western to win Best Picture
1961 The Mark opens in theaters. You have to see the trailer to believe it (film distributors were so excited at the new raciness of the 1960s). Stuart Whitman, a rising star of the time and a last minute replacement for Richard Burton, received an Oscar nomination playing a ex-con child molester who is suspected of a new crime...
Max von Sydow and Linda Blair at the Golden Globes for "The Exorcist"
1974 The 31st annual Golden Globes Awards are held with The Exorcist and American Graffiti winning the Drama and Comedy categories (future Oscar winner The Sting wasn't nominated for any prizes). The Globes also nominated Paper Moon's little Tatum O'Neal in the correct category (lead - there's only one scene in the movie that doesn't include her) which freed up the other little girl of that awards season, Linda Blair, to win Best Supporting Actress for The Exorcist. We had SO MUCH FUN discussing that particular Oscar race years ago with Dana Delany and other special guests.
1985 The 42nd annual Golden Globe awards are held with Amadeus and Romancing the Stone winning the Best Film prizes and Murder She Wrote and The Cosby Show the TV favourites. This was the first of Kathleen Turner's two consecutive Golden Globe wins for Best Lead Actress in a Comedy... she did not have similar luck at the Oscars (sigh). Every single movie category (barring the comedy categories which Oscar doesn't have) except International Film repeated their wins at the Oscars.
2001 The romantic comedy The Wedding Planner with JLo and McConaughey and the cheerleader crime comedy Sugar & Spice both open in movie theaters. Remember those ones?
2003 The Sundance Film Festival ends with American Splendor taking the Grand Jury prize and The Station Agent the Audience Award. Both had some awards success later in the year but Oscar voters mostly ignored both of them, save a lone screenplay nomination for Splendor.
2009 Jamie Foxx drops his single "Blame It (on the Alcohol)" which becomes a huge hit and Grammy winner. The music video was an all movie star affair starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Forest Whitaker, Samuel L Jackson, Ron Howard, and Jamie Foxx with other stars making cameos.
2014 The Sundance Film Festival ends with Whiplash winning the Grand Jury and Audience Prize. The feature will make Damien Chazelle a star director and win J.K. Simmons an Oscar.
Today's Birthday Suit
Happy 72nd birthday to one of our favourite character actors, David Strathairn. He's currently co-starring in Nomadland where he offers companionship to fiercely independent Fern (Frances McDormand) on her journey.
Strathairn made his debut in 1979's influential indie Return of the Secaucus Seven (pictured left) and career highlights since have been numerous but we're especially partial to Silkwood, A League of Their Own, Passion Fish, River Wild, and Good Night and Good Luck. Next up he'll play Toni Collette's drunk carny husband in Nightmare Alley for Guillermo del Toro.
Other Showbiz Birthdays today: The iconic Paul Newman (Hud, The Hustler), Scott Glenn (Silence of the Lambs, The Bourne Ultimatum), Cameron Bright (Birth, The Twilight Saga), Turkish auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, Winter Sleep), Oscar winning screenwriter Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liaisons, Atonement), Oscar winning eye-candy genius Catherine Martin (Moulin Rouge!, The Great Gatsby), Sweden's Björn Andrésen (Death in Venice, MidSommar), Director Mimi Leder (On the Basis of Sex, Deep Impact), French director and serial husband of actresses Roger Vadim (Barbarella, ...and God Created Woman), France's Melvil Poupaud (Laurence Anyways, A Christmas Tale), Director George Tillman Jr (The Hate U Give, Soul Food), sexy Gilles Marini (Sex & The City, Brothers & Sisters), Kathryn Leigh Scott (House of Dark Shadows), Joan Leslie (Yankee Doodle Dandy, Sergeant York), Charles Lane (It's a Wonderful Life, You Can't Take It With You), South Korea's Park Hae-il (Memories of Murder, The Host), Egypt's Suad Husni (Saghira El Hob, Khally Balek Min ZouZou), Composer and former Prince band member Wendy Melvoin (Purple Rain, Nurse Jackie), talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, and hockey legend Wayne Gretzky.