Showbiz History: Hurston's work, Nicole's night, and Fame's debut
Thursday, January 7, 2021 at 9:32AM 
7 random things that happened on this day, January 7th, in showbiz history
1891 Best-selling author Zora Neale Hurston is born in Alabama. Where's her biopic? Hell, where are the movies based on her books and plentiful short stories? The only movie length adaptation has been the TV movie Their Eyes Were Watching God (2005).
1971 Today is the big "5-0" for Jeremy Renner, twice Oscar nominated (The Hurt Locker, The Town), but whose promising gifts were completely swallowed up by a desire to become a franchise star which was both successful in a supporting sense (9 years and counting as Hawkeye in the MCU) and not in the headliner sense (Mission: Impossible... Tom Cruise quickly taking the franchise back, Hansel & Gretel... one and done, The Bourne Legacy... Matt Damon quickly taking the franchise back)...
The actors career took several hits with disturbing allegations of his behavior offscreen but will next be seen in the DisneyPlus series Hawkeye.
1977 The Sentinel, a supernatural horror film starring a whole slew of Oscar nominees and winners like Chris Sarandon, Martin Balsam, Ava Gardner, Arthur Kennedy, Jose Ferrer, Burgess Meredith, Sylvia Miles, and soon to be Oscar winning Christopher Walken premieres in NYC. (The horror genre must have been hot after The Exorcist in Hollywood agency meetings of the mid 70s.)
the late Gene Anthony Ray and Debbie Allen in "Fame"
1982 Fame, the TV series based on the surprise hit movie about New York City's High School for the Performing Arts, debuts as a mid season replacement. Teachers Debbie Allen (Lydia), Albert Hague (Shorofsky) and Anne Meara (Sherwood) and students Lee Curreri (Bruno) and Gene Anthony Ray (Leroy) transferred over from the movie to the series but the rest of the actors were either replacements or playing new characters. It was an instant hit with Emmy voters, receiving 12 nominations (and winning five Emmys) for its first season with Debbie Allen a double nominee, winning for Best Choreography but losing for Best Actress. It ran for six seasons (the first half of which were Emmy nominated but then fresh mid 80s shows like Murder She Wrote, Moonlighting, and Miami Vice began to overthrow the usuals in Outstanding Drama Series). Baby Nathaniel -- it me! -- was obsessed.
Would be so wonderful if some service would stream it. Just putting that out there into the universe. Considering that the world is much more focused on diversity now than it was in the 1980s, it would be interesting to see an early then uncommon example of a multi-racial hit playing for today's audiences. How has the show aged?
1994 Two new comedies, Cabin Boy and The Air Up There open in US theaters
2011 Season of the Witch, one of Nicolas Cage's random actioners (he makes so many) opens to little fanfare. But January is known for random dumps apart from Oscar film expansions.
2018 The 75th Golden Globe Awards were held honoring 2017 movies and television with Three Billboards (drama) and Lady Bird (comedy) triumphant and Big Little Lies and Nicole Kidman (yay) dominating for the small screen.
Today's Birthday Suit:
Happy 37th birthday today to Max Reimelt, a very fine (in both senses of the word) German actor.
We loved him before his very NSFW international breakout as "Wolfgang" on the Waschowski sisters Netflix series Sense8 (2015) due to his award winning work in the gay romantic drama Free Fall (2013). Free Fall was supposed to get a sequel (no news on that in ages so it must have fallen through) but he has multiple films coming up including an unknown role in The Matrix 4 which is in post-production and due at Christmas time.
Other showbiz types celebrating birthdays or anniversaries today: Oscar nominated Ruth Negga (Loving, Ad Astra), super brilliant Aussie treasure Essie Davis (The Babadook, True History of the Kelly Gang, Australia), Oscar winner Nicolas Cage (Leaving Las Vegas), Oscar winning screenwriter William Peter Blatty (The Exorcist), 2020 breakout Haley Bennett (Swallow), Robert Ri'chard (Chocolate City, Coach Carter), Robert Sheehan (Umbrella Academy), Lauren Cohan (The Boy, The Walking Dead), Erin Gray (Buck Rogers), Kevin Rahm (Mad Men, Nightcrawler), Liam Aiken (A Series of Unfortunate Events), David Caruso (NYPD Blue), Brett Dalton (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), and the late great Irrfan Kahn (The Lunchbox, A Mighty Heart)...
Terry Moore in "Come Back Little Sheba"
And finally, a happy 92nd birthday today to Oscar nominated Terry Moore (Come Back Little Sheba, Peyton Place) who is one of the oldest living Oscar nominees.
Reader Comments (18)
CONFESS: Did you have a pair of leg warmers? I sure did!
Peggy sue -- lol.
I have seen the movie FAME a couple of times, with a rewatch recently. It was good if a little bit ridiculous, but it had a gay story right at the center and that was shocking for the time and for a mainstream hit. I've never seen a single episode of the TV show. Did they keep any of the gay presence in it?
I hate to say it, but for me Jeremy Renner is kind of a charisma suck in that he just doesn't have a strong appeal to me (and I suspect others). You can be a huge star and still suck charisma from the screen (looking at you Richard Gere). So for me, between the two actors with essentially the same name (and birthday), I'll take Jeremie Renier every time! ;-)
I can't really blame Renner for taking the work that he did in the last decade. He spent his early career in little indies and was mostly known for playing Jeffrey Dahmer. That probably impacted what roles were being offered to him. When he finally got some real buzz and attention from the industry he took the path of financial security.
Desus and Mero have forever ruined Renner for me in a hilarious way. Not that there was much to ruin because the most I've ever been able to muster for Renner is "oh he is there."
I know he seems franchise mad,every star thinks or is told they need one and he isn't that kind of star or actor.
Excellent though in the recent Wind River.
The Sentinel was an ok horror movie. Very derivative.
Where's her biopic? Hell, where are the movies based on her books and plentiful short stories?
You're asking these questions like white gatekeepers give a flying f about the contributions of nonwhite people.
The Sentinel is one of the better knock offs of The Exorcist, and yes, quite the cast. Sadly only available to rent or buy on Amazon.
Where is that Retro Streaming Service I want?!?!? WithOUT commercials in the middle?!?!?
THE SENTINEL seemed more ROSEMARY'S BABY than EXORCIST to me (not as good as either, of course). I feel like there should have been more creepy horror movies about creepy big city apartment buildings. There's the Polanski trilogy, SENTINEL and what...? Weren't there at least a couple of others?
I think Jeremy Renner is a good actor. No mention was made of his part in The American Hustle, where he played a politician on the take, and was actually quite good.
A theory: Jeremy Renner is an excellent actor whose so-called lack of charisma and thwarted megastardom are directly connected to his being in the closet (or the perception that he is closeted) during a transitional period with actors like John Travolta, Tom Cruise and Queen Latifah at one end and ones like Matt Bomer, Zach Quinto, NPH and Kristen Stewart at the other end.
He was Oscar-worthy in Dahmer, American Hustle and The Town.
The "Fame" seasons 1 and 2 DVDs can still be had for cheap, I think they ran into rights issues when the later seasons started adding cover songs rather than originals? Or there just wasn't demand to release the rest.
I have watched some of this semi-recently and would say it's still very charming - slower pace than teen shows today, but it's sweet-natured and there's tons of talent involved.
Having been around just after The Exorcist came out I can attest that it's success completely dominated the cinema for a couple of years afterwards with increasingly terrible ripoffs and variations being churned out ad nauseam. The Sentinel came somewhere in the middle, despite that cast it is rather terrible with an absolutely dreadful lead performance by Cristina Raines playing a character that is hard to sympathize with since she is more or less an idiot. Ava Gardner has prominent billing but her role is little more than a cameo.
Today is also the birthday of the divine Butterfly McQueen.
"The Sentinel " is terrible but the casting director had a great eye for young male actors with star potential...I have not seen "Fame " the movie in a long time- it had some great musical numbers . The gay story line might have been daring for it's day but now looks ridiculous- so yeah you have one token gay kid who can't find a boyfriend in the High school of Performing Arts?! Max Reimelt looks very hot coming out of that pool
fame was a franchise of rapidly diminishing returns - the original film* was great, the tv series ok and the stage show was abysmal
i never saw the film remake from
a few years ago[just checked] 2009 - good grief, where did that decade go?*the students from the 1980 film are combined egot winners: irene cara [oscar/grammy], paul mccrane [emmy], barry miller and boyd gaines [tonys]
You have done an excellent job so far. Actually, for getting success or in order to be a successful person need to do hard work. Without this, you can't get success easily. Hands off for you and your career.
Renner is flat out great in Wind River and American Hustle.