7 random things that happened on this day, September 17th, in showbiz history...
1931 Anna Maria Louisa Italiano born in The Bronx. She's goes on to become Anne Bancroft, one of the all time greats of stage and screen.
← 1957 Here's a truly odd bit of trivia. Sophia Loren was married by proxy on this day. Two male attorneys stood in for her and producer Carlo Ponti (who gave her stage name and groomed her public image -- they first met in 1950 when Sophia was only 16). Ponti was not legally divorced from his previous wife so the marriage was annulled to escape bigamy charges and then they married again in 1966, but legally this time; they remained married for the rest of his life! But how crazy, right?
1963 The Fugitive premieres on ABC...
The series is eventually remade as a motion picture 30 years later and is so popular that against all odds it becomes a Best Picture nominee!
1982 After a limited release cult classic Pink Floyd: The Wall opens wide in US movie theaters
1997 Happy 21st birthday to Xiatong Guan, born in Beijing. She's really entertaining as "The Princess" in Zhang Yimou's new film Shadow so hopefully a big career is ahead. I'll review that one shortly. I hope it gets a distributor because it's very watchable.
1999 American Beauty opens in limited release before a quick nationwide expansion. It's instantly popular and goes on to win 5 Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director (Sam Mendes), and Best Actor (Kevin Spacey) though Annette Bening famously loses Best Actress to Hilary Swank.
2010 Easy A and The Town both open in theaters. The former makes a star out of Emma Stone and the latter gets thisclose to a Best Pic nomination.
More Celebrity Birthdays
Oscar nominees: Neill Blomkamp and Baz Lurhmann.
Other actors: Danielle Brooks, Kyle Chandler, Ariel Holmes, Daniel Huttlestone (little Gavroche from Les Miz is now 19 years old), Roddy McDowall, Dustin Nguyen, Lupe Ontiveros, John Ritter, and James Urbaniak.
Other showbiz peeps: designer Nate Berkus, director Paul Feig, singer Constantine Maroulis, diva Cassandra Peterson ("Elvira"), actress/writer Rita Rudner, director Bryan Singer, country music legend Hank Williams.