Movie greats who would have turned 100 this week...

I'm just going to add to this thread every week when there are enough names to make it worthwhile. Dates given on IMDB, confirmed by other sources where possible.


Week of March 23-29


March 25:
David Lean – BRIEF ENCOUNTER, GREAT EXPECTATIONS, OLIVER TWIST, SUMMERTIME, THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, DR. ZHIVAGO - ’nuff said.

March 26:
Samuel Bronston – epic producer par excellence: KING OF KINGS, EL CID, 55 DAYS AT PEKING, FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. I knew who Bronston was before I knew who the directors of these films (Nicholas Ray, Anthony Mann) were.
[NOTE: The Film Encyclopedia gives no actual date but says he was born in 1909.]

March 28:
Gregoire Aslan – character actor active in Europe and, later, Hollywood, from 1938 to 1982. I remember him mainly as King Brob in THE THREE WORLDS OF GULLIVER, where he torments poor little miniature Gulliver, and as one of the prisoners in THE DEVIL AT 4 O’CLOCK, which also starred Kerwin Mathews. Of the films I’ve seen, he’s also in CLEOPATRA, LOST COMMAND, A MAN COULD GET KILLED, YOU CAN’T WIN ’EM ALL, THE GOLDEN VOYAGE OF SINBAD, and THE RETURN OF THE PINK PANTHER.

March 29:
Birthday Twins: Dennis O’Keefe, Arthur O’Connell

Dennis O’Keefe – busy all-purpose underrated leading man active in the 1940s and '50s, who could do comedies (HI DIDDLE DIDDLE, BREWSTER’S MILLIONS), musicals (DOLL FACE), dramas (THE COMPANY SHE KEEPS), war movies (THE FIGHTING SEABEES), westerns (THE EAGLE AND THE HAWK, PASSAGE WEST), globetrotting adventures (DRUMS OF TAHITI), horror (THE LEOPARD MAN), crime (INSIDE DETROIT, CHICAGO SYNDICATE) and film noir (T-MEN, RAW DEAL).

Arthur O’Connell – dependable veteran character actor familiar to everyone who watched movies (and TV) from the studio era to the mid-‘70s. In checking his filmography, I’m astonished to see that he was in CITIZEN KANE! He’s also in NAKED CITY (1948). The earliest movie I’ve seen where he has a substantial part is PICNIC (1955). He’s also in MAN OF THE WEST, ANATOMY OF A MURDER, GIDGET, 7 FACES OF DR. LAO, KISSIN’ COUSINS, THE GREAT RACE, THE SILENCERS, FANTASTIC VOYAGE, THE POWER, THERE WAS A CROOKED MAN, THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE, dozens more and dozens of TV episodes.

(I just noticed that three of the five here all worked with Anthony Mann: Bronston, O'Keefe and O'Connell.)

TCM claims that Joan Crawford turned 100 on the 23rd but IMDb says she was born in 1905.

When she died there was considerable dispute over her actual age, so I've learned to leave Joan out of these lists.

At least one giant this week…

April 1:
Bob Nolan – He and his musical group, the Sons of the Pioneers, were featured in umpteen Roy Rogers westerns, from 1941-48, and they usually got their own credit card saying, “Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers.” He often had a speaking part as well.

April 2:
Buddy Ebsen – Jed Clampett on “The Beverly Hillbillies,” “Barnaby Jones,” but also a dependable Hollywood song-and-dance-man and character actor for many years, including great turns in the war movies, BETWEEN HEAVEN AND HELL and Robert Aldrich’s ATTACK! He died only five years ago.

April 4:
Sydney Boehm – screenwriter and ex-reporter who specialized in hard-edged crime movies and westerns in the 1950s. He wrote or co-wrote many movies I like. Highlights include SIDE STREET, BRANDED, WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE, THE SAVAGE, THE BIG HEAT, THE RAID, ROGUE COP, VIOLENT SATURDAY, HELL ON FRISCO BAY.

April 5:
Bette Davis – one of the greatest movie actresses ever. ’Nuff said.

April 5:
Kurt Neumann – Bette Davis’ birthday twin, although he never got to direct her.
He’s best known as a director of competent low-budget genre films in the 1940s and 1950s, including three RKO Tarzan movies with Johnny Weissmuller and one with Lex Barker. He directed a very good Billy the Kid film starring Audie Murphy, THE KID FROM TEXAS. His ROCKETSHIP X-M was timed to beat DESTINATION MOON to theaters and many fans, including me, think it’s the much better film. Other films of his I’ve enjoyed include: SON OF ALI BABA, MOHAWK, KRONOS, and THE DEERSLAYER. His breakout film was THE FLY (1958), but he killed himself on Aug. 21, 1958, at the age of 50, before he could see how big a hit the film became.

"BETTE DAVIS, born 100 years ago this week" that's how this article, The Bold and the Bad and the Bumpy Nights (see link below), in today's Sunday NY Times commences.

Read and discuss among yourselves! :P


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/movies/3...&pagewanted=all

Week of April 6-12

April 7:
Percy Faith
Had a big hit with an instrumental recording of Max Steiner’s theme from Delmer Daves’ A SUMMER PLACE (1959). He also composed for movies although the only things he did that I’ve heard of are TAMMY TELL ME TRUE, I’D RATHER BE RICH, THE OSCAR and episodes of “The Virginian.”

April 8:
Hugo Fregonese
Argentine-born director active in Hollywood in the ’50s and in Europe in the ’60s. He directed a really good Civil War “western” (set in Vermont!) called THE RAID, about Confederate soldiers going undercover to rob a town’s banks, which starred Van Heflin, Anne Bancroft, Richard Boone, Lee Marvin and Peter Graves. It was written by Sydney Boehm, who turned 100 last week. Others he did: APACHE DRUMS, a siege western that was the last film produced by Val Lewton; BLOWING WILD, starring Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck and Anthony Quinn; BLACK TUESDAY, a gangster picture starring Edward G. Robinson that I’m eager to see, and also written by Boehm; THE MAN IN THE ATTIC, a Jack the Ripper-themed piece starring Jack Palance, which is going to be on TCM tomorrow (Monday April 7, at 6AM); SAVAGE PAMPAS, an Argentine-shot western starring Robert Taylor; and the unforgettable ASSIGNMENT TERROR, aka DRACULA VS. FRANKENSTEIN, a Spanish monster romp starring Michael Rennie and Karin Dor!
Hugo was married for a spell to Faith Domergue, Howard Hughes’ squeeze and the star of THIS ISLAND EARTH. The Film Encyclopedia gives his birthdate as April 18, 1908.

April 8:
Tito Guizar
Mexican singer/actor who did some work in Hollywood. I remember him from BLONDIE GOES LATIN (1941), where he sings and romances Blondie while she’s on a cruise separated from Dagwood. She clearly digs the attention; Tito makes her feel like a woman in a way Dagwood never did (and Penny Singleton, who turns 100 on Sept. 15, is actually quite attractive here). IMHO, the absolute best of the Blondie movies, and partly because of Mr. Guizar. The music in it is good, too.

April 12:
Virginia Cherrill
She played the blind flower girl in Charlie Chaplin’s classic, CITY LIGHTS (1931). (Lita Grey, a one-time Mrs. Charlie Chaplin, turns 100 next week.) Ms. Cherrill was married briefly to Cary Grant.

April 12:
Giorgio Ferroni
Italian genre director most famous here, I guess, for MILL OF THE STONE WOMEN, THE TROJAN HORSE, CONQUEST OF MYCENE (aka HERCULES VS. MOLOCH) and THE LION OF THEBES.

Not many this week:

April 20: Lionel Hampton – jazz great who played himself in a few films, including major screen time in Howard Hawks’ A SONG IS BORN (1948) and THE BENNY GOODMAN STORY (1955), where somebody else played Goodman. A racial barrier was broken when Hampton and Teddy Wilson performed onscreen with the Benny Goodman Orchestra in Warners’ HOLLYWOOD HOTEL (1937). I seem to remember Hampton playing the xylophone, but IMDB calls it the vibraphone. Hampton died in 2002 at the age of 95.

April 23: Myron Waldman – animator on countless Betty Boops and other Fleischer cartoons. After the Fleischer/Paramount split, Waldman worked on many Paramount/Famous cartoons including some Caspers. He died in 2006 at the age of 97.

April 25: Edward R. Murrow – the great CBS newscaster (“See it Now,” “Person to Person,” "Harvest of Shame") who appeared on camera to introduce Mike Todd’s AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (1956—Best Picture Oscar Winner). He did the same for SINK THE BISMARCK (1960). He was the subject of George Clooney’s GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK (2005) and was played by David Straithairn.

They would have turned 100…


Today, April 28:
Carl Laemmle, Jr. – son of Carl Laemmle, founder of Universal Pictures. We have Junior to thank for the original classic Universal horror cycle (DRACULA, FRANKENSTEIN, THE MUMMY, THE INVISIBLE MAN, BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, et al). He also produced ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT and James Whale’s version of SHOW BOAT (1936). Unfortunately, his efforts didn’t keep Universal from almost going bankrupt during the Depression and he was forced to leave the studio after SHOW BOAT. But then teenage singing star Deanna Durbin singlehandedly saved the company. And that only occurred because a casting director at MGM misinterpreted Louis B. Mayer’s order to sign Durbin and signed Judy Garland instead! Someone at Universal took advantage of the mistake and signed Durbin before Mayer realized what happened.


April 30:
Eve Arden – perennially wisecracking character actress active in Hollywood from 1933 to 1987! In STAGE DOOR, AT THE CIRCUS, dozens of Warner comedies, musicals and “women’s pictures” (she’s especially notable as Joan Crawford’s sidekick in MILDRED PIERCE) before going to TV and “Our Miss Brooks.” Also in GREASE and GREASE 2. The Film Encyclopedia lists her birth year as 1912. So I may have to do her over in four years. :P