Showbiz History: Matt Dillon endures, Reality Bites opens, and Three Billboards peaks
Thursday, February 18, 2021 at 10:00AM 6 random things that happened on this day, February 18th, in showbiz history...
1928 Sonja Henie wins her first of three consecutive gold medals in women's figure skating (a feat that's never been equalled in women's figure skating). Hollywood comes calling in the mid 30s (back when they used to make movie stars of famous athletes -- see also Buster Crabbe, Esther Williams, and Johnny Weismuller) and she headlines several hit films, starring with One in a Million in 1936...
1952 The 4th annual Emmy Awards are held but this is essentially the first one as its the when the Emmys became a national instead of a local in Los Angeles event. The inaugural winners of Comedy and Drama Series were The Red Skelton Show and Studio One (an anthology series as all the drama nominees were at the time)
1986 An anti-smoking commercial featuring Yul Brynner airs post-humously. The actor had died four months earlier and his wife had given the American Cancer Society permission to use the interview clip.
1994 Reality Bites hits theaters. Nathaniel (that's me) was there on opening night in Salt Lake City and went back to see it three more times that winter/spring. T'was obsessed with it and still think it's Winona Ryder's best performance. Christopher recently wrote about it's gay subplot.
2011 Silly sci-fi flick I Am Number Four starring Alex Pettyfer (in that brief window where he was a fast rising star)) arrives in movie theaters.
2018 71st BAFTAs are held with Three Billboards winning both of their top categories Best Film and Best British Film of 2017. Remember that brief time that people thought it was going to win the Oscar, too? Dodged a bullet. Not that Shape of Water should have won either. Lady Bird or Get Out were the ways to go!
Today's Birthday Suit
Happy 57th today to perennial hottie / underrated actor Matt Dillon whose sole Oscar nomination came for Crash though he was even more deserving earlier on with Drugstore Cowboy. Other films include but are not limited to: Little Darlings, The Outsiders, Rumblefish, Drugstore Cowboy, Singles, In & Out, There's Something About Mary, Proxima, Factotum, To Die For, The House That Jack Built. Up next is a political satire with Sheila Vand called Land of Dreams.
Other birthdays.today: Three time Golden Globe winner Cybill Sheperd (Taxi Driver, Cybill, Moonlighting) pictured left in her debut in 1971's seminal classic The Last Picture Show, Japan's Sakura Ando (Shoplifters, 100 Yen Love), Oscar winner George Kennedy (Cool Hand Luke, Airport), Oscar nominee Adolphe Menjou (The Front Page, Paths of Glory), Oscar nominee Mary Ure (Sons and Lovers, Look Back in Anger), Oscar nominee John Travolta (Pulp Fiction, Saturday Night Fever), teen icon Molly Ringwald (16 Candles, The Breakfast Club), Jeremy Allen White (Shameless), gay comic actor Billy De Wolfe (Perils of Pauline, Dear Ruth), Bulgaria's Christo Jivkov (The Passion of the Christ, David's Birthday) writer/director John Hughes (The Breakfast Club, Uncle Buck), Rose Williams (A Quiet Passion, Curfew), Oscar winner Jack Palance (City Slickers, Sudden Fear), Greta Scacchi (The Player, Emma), Spain's Laia Costa (Victoria, Only You), Kristoffer Polaha (Wonder Woman 1984, Jurassic World: Dominion), Jacqueline Toboni (The L Word, Grimm), Sinead Cusack (V for Vendetta, Stealing Beauty), the late great Oscar-winning director Milos Forman (Amadeus, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), France's Esther Garrel (Call Me By Your Name, The Great Pretender) yes she's Louis' sister, Logan Miller (Love Simon, Escape Room), France's Soufiane Guerrab (Lupin, Dheepan), Vietnamese actress Hiep Thi Le (Heaven and Earth, Cruel Intentions), not but two Hungarian directors that brought home Oscars for Best Foreign-Language Film Laszlo Nemes (Son of Saul) and Istvan Szabo (Mephisto), fabulous Lebanese director Nadine Labaki (Caramel, Capernaum), musician/artist Yoko Ono, Broadway star Christopher Sieber, hiphop giant Dr Dre, and Wheel of Fortune's famous letter-turner Vanna White.
Reader Comments (14)
Is this the second consecutive old-timey movie poster featuring Don Ameche and the Ritz Brothers?! They must have been huuuge back then
Sonja Henie is actually charmingly amateurish in her movies. I wonder if she did her own singing? The only movie that comes to mind is the one with John Payne, who is definitely an upgrade from the Ritz Brothers. The plots are extremely basic, yet the skating is good though you can see that level of skating amongst any group of 12 year old girls at this point.
Matt Dillon really is underrated. I think I first saw him in Tex and really thought he would go all the way. I guess he has, though general critical acclaim has never followed him.
My favourite Matt Dillon performance is To Die For.
As much as I like Get Out and Lady Bird (and The Shape of Water and Three Billboards, to a lesser extent), I'm all about Call Me by Your Name from the 2017 Best Picture line-up.
I think 2017 was a really strong lineup, with the exception of 3 Billboards, which I hated in spite of Frances McDormand, who I love. All of that said, Lady Bird was my pick for Best Picture. It's a practically perfect film. It's the only nominee I've watched multiple times.
How can you talk about alternatives to Three Billboards and not mention the real masterpiece of the year, PHANTOM THREAD ?
Dl -- because i'm not super into that one. I love that people are since I enjoy PT Anderson but his more recent films have left me much colder than his earlier ones.
2017 has to be about Lady Bird, the only film in recent years I had to watch twice within weeks. So many wonderful performances, starting with Saorise and Laurie Metcalf, who really should have beat out Alison Janney, one of my favorite actresses, but whose showy twitchy performance was at first dazzling but didn't stand up to multiple viewings. And I still stick with The Shape of Water as best film, which made you feel so good. Including the scene where the Sally Hawkins character masturbates offscreen, which shows she is in some ways just a typical human/woman.
I had no idea Molly Ringwald shares a birthday with the late John Hughes. My absolute favorite collaboration of theirs is "Pretty In Pink", which is Molly's too. Going off on a tangent here, but the last scene is my favorite: Molly gets Andrew McCarthy, but John Cryer ("Duckie") gets Kristy Swanson!
What a powerful, haunting commercial from Mr. Brynner: a stunning, unforgettable PSA. He was actually married 4 times, with children from almost all of them, dude got around. RIP.
Matt Dillon should've gotten the Oscar for The House That Jack Built as he was just incredible in that as that was the performance of his career.
Sonja Henie movies are all puffy pleasant trifles. She knew her limitations and realized people were coming for the skating not the plots. Zanuck was equally canny and paired her with handsome capable actors who could carry the undemanding scripts while Sonja twinkled and glided. You've seen one of her films you've pretty much seen them all but the best of the lot is Sun Valley Serenade. Aside from a solid cast surrounding her including John Payne, Joan Davis and Lynn Bari it has Glenn Miller and his entire orchestra as part of the story plus the Nicholas Brothers performing Chattanooga Choo Choo with Dorothy Dandridge.
I remember Yul Brynner's commercial running right after his passing. Chilling and sad but an admirable last gesture.
Matt Dillon - not a very appealing actor, rough hewn.
Joel6, I think that is the only Sonja Henie movie that sticks in my mind. John Payne worked well with her. Despite all the skating, I mostly recall the two of them possibly stranded in a cabin wearing Scandinavian sweaters and singing to each other.