Today CIV

Birthdays:

• Elisha Gray, inventor, invented the telephone independently of Alexander Graham Bell; he invented the first electric music synthesizer 1876, accidentally discovering that he could control sound from a self vibrating electromagnetic circuit and in doing so invented a basic single note oscillator; this "Musical Telegraph" used steel reeds whose oscillations were created and transmitted, over a telephone line, by electromagnets; he also built a simple loudspeaker device in later models consisting of a vibrating diaphragm in a magnetic field to make the oscillator audible, August 2, 1835 – January 21, 1901


• Georg Karl Julius Hackenschmidt, strongman, author, and professional wrestler, nicknamed "The Russian Lion", the first widely-recognized World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion, creator of the bear hug, August 2, 1878 - February 19, 1968


• Leon Kessling RED Ames, MLB starting pitcher, August 2, 1882 - October 8, 1936


• Jacob Leonard JACK Warner, film producer, president and driving force behind Warner Brothers Studios, August 2, 1892 – September 9, 1978


• Charles Bennett, playwright and screenwriter, best known for his work with Alfred Hitchcock, August 2, 1899 - June 15, 1995


• Karl Amadeus Hartmann, composer/symphonist, August 2, 1905 – December 5, 1963


• Myrna Adele Williams, aka Myrna Loy, motion picture actress; her most famous role was as Nora Charles in The Thin Man series of detective films, August 2, 1905 – December 14, 1993


• Beatrice Whitney Straight, theater and film actress, won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 1976 as William Holden's wife in Network; played Lynda Carter's mother on Wonder Woman, August 2, 1914 – April 7, 2001


• James Baldwin, novelist, short story writer, and essayist, best known for his novel Go Tell it on the Mountain, August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987


• John Carroll O'Connor, actor, famous for his role as Archie Bunker in All in the Family and Archie Bunker's Place and as Police Chief Bill Gillespie in In the Heat of the Night, August 2, 1924 – June 21, 2001


• Alan Donald Whicker, CBE, journalist and broadcaster, hosted the TV series Whicker's World, from 1959 until 1988; was instrumental in launching Yorkshire Television, producing television programmes for them from 1969 until 1992; Whicker's World was lampooned in a Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch, featuring a tropical island where all the inhabitants dress and act like Alan Whicker, 1925


• Peter Seamus O'Toole, film and stage actor, played T.E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia in 1962, which earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor, one of seven Oscar nominations which he received; other roles include King Henry II in both 1964's Becket and 1968's The Lion in Winter, and the older Giacomo Casanova in the BBC drama serial Casanova, with the younger Casanova seen for most of the action played by David Tennant [the 10th Doctor], 1932


• Eric Garth Hudson, musician, multi-instrumentalist, and virtuoso keyboard player, best known as the organist/keyboardist for The Band, currently a much-in-demand session musician, 1937


• Wesley Earl WES Craven, film director and writer, best known as the creator of many horror films, including the Nightmare on Elm Street series, 1939


• Doris Coley, member and occasional lead singer of the Shirelles, August 2, 1941 - February 4, 2000


• Joanna Virginia Caskey, aka Joanna Cassidy, actress and voice actor, played the replicant Zhora in Blade Runner, the voice of Maggie Sawyer in the Superman animated series, and T'Pol's mother T'Les on Star Trek: Enterprise, 1945


• Lance Allan Ito, Superior Court judge, presided over the 1995 murder trial of O. J. Simpson, 1950


• Andrew Gold, singer, musician, songwriter, and producer, best known for his singles Lonely Boy and Thank You For Being A Friend, 1951


• Patrick Alan Lilley, aka Butch Patrick, child actor, best known Eddie Munster in The Munsters TV series, and the movie Munster, Go Home, 1953


• Patricia Kotero, aka Apollonia Kotero, model, actress and singer, 1959


• Mary-Louise Parker, award-winning theatre and film actress, 1964


• Norman Jeffrey JEFF Healey, blues-rock guitarist, notable in that he is blind, and has a unique style of playing guitar flat on his lap; also plays trumpet and clarinet; has, from time to time, hosted a CBC Radio program titled My Kind of Jazz, on which he plays records from his vast vintage jazz collection; can currently be heard on CJRT-FM, 1966


• Timothy Stephen TIM Wakefield, MLB pitcher, who has played with the Boston Red Sox since 1995; his best pitch is the knuckleball; his fastball tops out well under 80 mph, 1966


• Kevin Patrick Smith, screenwriter, film director, the founder of View Askew Productions, comic book writer, and actor, 1970


• Grady Sizemore III, MLB centre fielder, currently playing with the Cleveland Indians, 1982


• Hallie Kate Eisenberg, actress, first came to public attention in a series of Pepsi commercials, 1992

RIP:

• Thomas Gainsborough, portrait and landscape painter, May 14, 1727 – August 2, 1788


• James Butler WILD BILL Hickok, gunfighter, May 27, 1837 – August 2, 1876


• Enrico Caruso, operatic tenor, the most popular singer in any genre in the first twenty years of the twentieth century and one of the first star vocalists to make numerous recordings, February 25, 1873 – August 2, 1921


• Alexander Graham Bell, scientist and inventor, still widely considered to be the foremost inventor of the telephone, although this matter has become controversial; was also responsible for important advances in aviation and hydrofoil technology, and other forward-looking inventions, March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922


• Louis Blériot, inventor and engineer, first to fly a heavier-than-air craft over a large body of water, July 1, 1872 – August 2, 1936


• Pietro Mascagni, opera composer, December 7, 1863 – August 2, 1945


• Friedrich Anton Christian FRITZ Lang, film director, screenwriter, and occasional film producer, whose famous films are Metropolis and M, December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976


• Carlos Antonio de Padua Chávez y Ramírez, composer, conductor, teacher, journalist, and the founder and director of the Mexico Symphony Orchestra, June 13, 1899 – August 2, 1978


• Thurman Lee Munson, MLB catcher for the New York Yankees from 1969 to 1979; AL All-Star in 1971, and from 1973 to 1978; AL Rookie of the Year in 1970; AL MVP in 1976; Gold Glove Award from 1973 to 1975; first Yankee captain since Lou Gehrig; Munson was killed in an airplane accident at age 32 - to this day, an empty locker, with Munson's number 15 on it, remains in the NYY clubhouse as a tribute to the Yankees' lost catcher, June 7, 1947 – August 2, 1979


• William Seward Burroughs II, novelist, essayist, social critic, painter, and spoken word performer, much of whose work is semi-autobiographical, drawn from his experiences as an opiate addict, a condition which marked the last forty years of his life; primary member of the Beat Generation, February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997


• Sonia Hurwitz, aka Shari Lewis, ventriloquist, puppeteer, and children's television show host; creator of such characters as Lamb Chop, Hush Puppy, and Charlie Horse; winner of 12 Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, a John F. Kennedy Center Award for Excellence and Creativity, 7 Parent's Choice Awards, and an Action for Children's Television Award; in addition to her writing over 60 books for children, she and her second husband wrote an episode of Star Trek, entitled The Lights of Zetar, January 17, 1933 – August 2, 1998


• Peter Safar, physician and peace activistm of Czech descent, regarded as the "father of the cardiopulmonary resuscitation;" nominated three times for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, April 12, 1924 - August 2, 2003