On this day in showbiz history...
1719 Leopold Mozart, Amadeus's father is born in Augsburg Germany. In the 1984 movie phenomenon, one of the biggest hits of its year and the winner of 8 Oscars, he's played by Roy Dotrice and factors in heavily to the film's haunting imagery (and poster). Or to quote Salieri as played by F Murray Abraham:
So rose the dreadful ghost from his next and blackest opera. There, on the stage, stood the figure of a dead commander. And I knew, only I understood that the horrifying aparition was Leopold, raised from the dead! Wolfgang had actually summoned up his own father to accuse his son before all the world! It was terrifying and wonderful to watch. And now the madness began in me. The madness of the man splitting in half. Through my influence, I saw to it Don Giovanni was played only five times in Vienna. But in secret, I went to every one of those five, worshipping sounds I alone seem to hear. And hour after hour, as I stood there, understanding how that bitter old man was still possessing his poor son even from beyond the grave. I began to see a way, a terrible way, I could finally triumph over God.
Uff such a great movie.
Classic screen beauties, unforgettable musical moments and other Best Picture nominees after the jump...
1840 Claude Monet the impressionist painter is born. He's never had a proper biopic but he's factored into television series now and then played by actors like Julian Glover and Richard Armitage.
1851 Herman Melville's Moby Dick is published. It's one of the most famous novels in existence that's never had anything like a definitive film version though people have tried, arguably most noticably with John Huston's Moby Dick (1956) starring Gregory Peck. Last year Ron Howard's In The Heart of the Sea (2015) used Moby Dick's inspiration as its backdrop with Ben Whishaw as the author.
1881 Charles J Guiteau is put on trial for assassinating President Garfield. Why doesn't anyone ever adapt Sondheim's Assassins to film? Here's Denis O'Hare and Neil Patrick Harris doing "The Ballad of Guiteau" from the Broadway revival. (O'Hare was Tony nominated but I actually thought NPH was more deserving for the same show)
1904 Dick Powell is born. Initially famous for musicals like 42nd Street and Gold Diggers of 1933 he eventually shifted to film noirs for his second act as a star.
1906 The iconic silent star Louise Brooks is born. She made two of the best silents ever with Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl
1921 Brian Keith, famous TV/Movie dad is born. Movie hits include The Parent Trap and With Six You Get Eggroll and TV classics include Family Affair (2 Emmy nominations)
Louise & Veronica
1922 Famous noir beauty Veronica Lake is born. Seventy-five years later Kim Basinger wins an Oscar playing a look-a-like callgirl (who really doesn't look like her at all)
1941 Alfred Hitchcock's Suspicion opens in movie theaters. It reaps three Oscar nominations (including Best Picture) winning Best Actress for his Rebecca star Joan Fontaine. Sister Olivia de Havilland was reportedly furious that her younger sister beat her to a Best Actress win.
1945 Paul Hirsch, won the Oscar for editing the original Star Wars which he shared with Richard Chew and George Lucas's then wife Marcia Lucas. Interesting trivia: all three of those editors were nominated twice in their careers but not with each other the other time.
1951 Three birthdays: One of China's greatest directors Zhang Yimou is born. His list of classis is ridiculously long but if you've never seen Raise the Red Lantern, Ju Dou, or Hero (and that's just scratching the surface) boy are you in for a treat when you do. This was also the day that 70s/80s sex symbol/dancer/actress Sandahl Bergman (All That Jazz/Conan) and movie theme song guy Stephen Bishop (Tootsie, White Nights) were born.
1959 Paul Attanasio, two time Oscar nominated screenwriter is born.
1960 Ray Charles "Georgia On My Mind" goes to #1 on the charts. Jamie Foxx later wins the Oscar playing the singer songwriter in the 2004 biopic.
1962 Laura San Giacoma is born. Weirdly isn't Oscar nominated during two consecutive years of key supporting actress roles in hot movies sex lies and videotape (1989) and Pretty Woman (1990)
1972 Josh Duhamel is born. Originally aiming for film stardom he eventually finds TV stardom instead
1975 A Boy and His Dog opens, the sci-fi cult classic starring Don Johnson opens
1976 Stone cold classic Network premieres in NY and LA
1979 Olga Kurylenko, future Bond girl (Quantum of Solace) is born
1981 Gay sex symbol Russell Tovey (Looking, The Pass, Being Human) is born. Were those adorable ears like that from birth?
1986 Hoosiers opens, quickly becoming a fan favorite sports drama. Dennis Hopper receives one of the film's two Oscar nominations, due in no small part surely to his diametrically opposed role in Blue Velvet that same season.
1991 Michael Jackson's "Black or White" video premieres which ends by featuring the then very new and exciting "morphing" visual effect that quickly becomes old hat at the movies and on TV commercials.
1996 The Broadway revival of Chicago opens at the Richard Rodgers Theater in NYC eventually leading to a Best Picture winning adaptation 6 years later. It's still running 20 years after its opening and 14 years after the movie (the longest running revival of all time!) so explain to me again why modern Broadway musicals like Wicked, Book of Mormon, and Hamilton always claim that a reasonably timed movie adaptation will kill their box office?
2001 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone opens in the UK beginning the franchise that still won't leave us alone fifteen years later as round two is about to begin with Fantastic Beasts.
2003 Master and Commander opens. After a non stellar box office showing (given that gargantuan budget) the seafaring adventure ends up as an Oscar powerhouse with 10 nominations and two surprise wins (Cinematography and Sound Editing) in the year in which pretty much everything else was awarded to Lord of the Rings.
Daniel Craig meets Helen Mirren... excuse me, the actual Queen. Helen Mirren was just playing her in theaters at the same time.
2006 Casino Royale, Daniel Craig's debut as 007 premieres in London quickly silencing the loud majority that thought blonde Danie Craig was all wrong for the role.
2013 Gangster Whitey Bulger is sentenced to two consecutive life terms plus five years. Hollywood wastes no time dramatizing his life with the Johnny Depp movie Black Mass hits theaters just shy of two years later
2016 Today's Full Moon is supposed to be the brightest full moon (a "supermoon") since 1948!