Today CXVII - Happy Birthday, Oscar Peterson

Birthdays:

• John BLIND JACK Metcalf, professional road builder, August 15, 1717 – April 26, 1810


• Napoleon I Bonaparte, a general of the French Revolution, Emperor of the French, and King of Italy, August 15, 1769 – May 5, 1821


• Charles Albert Comiskey, MLB player, manager and team owner; as owner of the Chicago White Sox from 1900 to 1931, oversaw the building of Comiskey Park in 1910; inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939, August 15, 1859 - October 26, 1931


• Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, composer, August 15, 1875 – September 1, 1912


• Ethel Barrymore, actress, won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1944 for None But the Lonely Heart, August 15, 1879 – June 18, 1959


• Edna Ferber, novelist, author, and playwright, August 15, 1885 - April 16, 1968


• Jacques François Antoine Ibert, composer of classical music, operas, and operetta, and film scores, August 15, 1890 – February 5, 1962


• Louis-Victor-Pierre-Raymond, 7th duc de Broglie, aka Louis de Broglie, physicist, created a new field in physics, wave mechanics, uniting the physics of light and matter, for which he received the 1929 Nobel Prize in Physics, August 15, 1892 – March 19, 1987


• Dr. Gerty Theresa Cori, biochemist and educator, shared the 1947 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with her husband Carl Ferdinand Cori and physiologist Bernardo Houssay for their discovery of how glycogen is broken down and resynthesized in the body; the Cori crater on the Moon is named after her, August 15, 1896 – October 26, 1957


• Lev Sergeyevich Termen, aka Léon Theremin, inventor, famous for his invention of the theremin, one of the first electronic musical instruments; his mentors were society's foremost scientists, composers, and musical theorists, including composer Joseph Schillinger and physicist/amateur violinist Albert Einstein; also invented the first motion detector for automated doors and worked on an early burglar alarm, August 15, 1896 – November 3, 1993


• Julia Child, cook, author, and television personality, introduced French cuisine and cooking techniques to the American mainstream through her many cookbooks and television programmes; received the French Legion of Honor in 2000, and the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2003; received honorary doctorates from Harvard University, Smith College, and several other universities, August 15, 1912 – August 13, 2004


• Dame Wendy Margaret Hiller DBE, film and stage actress whose career spanned nearly sixty years; won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1959 for Separate Tables, August 15, 1912 – May 14, 2003


• Henry HUNTZ Hall, radio, theatre, and motion picture actor, known for the Dead End Kids and the Bowery Boys movies, August 15, 1919 - January 30, 1999


• Lukas Fuchs, aka Lukas Foss, composer, conductor, and educator, 1922


• ROSE MARIE Mazetta, actress, began her career as child star Baby Rose Marie; best known for her role as Sally Rogers on The Dick Van Dyke Show, 1923


• Robert Oxton Bolt, playwright and screenwriter, known for such movies as Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, A Man for All Seasons, Ryan's Daughter, The Bounty, and The Mission, August 15, 1924 – February 12, 1995


• Kreker Ohanian, aka Mike Connors, actor, best known for his three TV series: Tightrope, Mannix, and Today's F.B.I., 1925



• Oscar Emmanuel Peterson, CC, CQ, O.Ont., jazz pianist and composer, was a regular on Canadian radio; his U.S. debut was at Carnegie Hall; is a member of the Juno Awards Hall of Fame and the Canadian Jazz and Blues Hall of Fame; made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1972, and promoted to Companion in 1984; a member of the Order of Ontario, a Chevalier of the National Order of Quebec, and an officer of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres; received the Roy Thomson Award (1987), a Toronto Arts Award for lifetime achievement (1991), the Governor General's Performing Arts Award (1992), the Glenn Gould Prize (1993), the award of the International Society for Performing Artists (1995), the Loyola Medal of Concordia University (1997), the Praemium Imperiale World Art Award (1999), the UNESCO Music Prize (2000), and the Toronto Musicians' Association Musician of the Year award (2001); in 1999, Concordia University renamed their Loyola-campus concert hall Oscar Peterson Concert Hall in his honour; Chancellor of York University from 1991 to 1994; in 2004, the City of Toronto named the courtyard of the Toronto-Dominion Centre Oscar Peterson Square - I met him there and got his autograph, 1925



• Nicolas Jack Roeg, cinematographer and film director, 1928


• Robert Lee BOBBY Helms, singer ["My Special Angel"], August 15, 1933 – June 19, 1997


• Jimmy Webb, songwriter ["By The Time I Get To Phoenix"] and musician. , 1946


• Uschi Digard, actress and model, known for her roles in Russ Meyer movies, 1948


• Patsy Gallant, pop singer and musical theatre actress, 1948


• Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise Windsor, The Princess Anne, Princess Royal, only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II, 1950


• Jay Thomas TOM Kelly, aka TK, former manager of the Minnesota Twins from 1986 to 2001, during which time the Twins won two World Series crowns [1987 and 1991], 1950


• Scott David Brosius, MLB third baseman from 1991 to 2001, in 1998, was an All-Star and won the World Series MVP Award and the Babe Ruth Award; in 1999, won a Gold Glove, 1966


• Debra Lynn Messing, actress, known for her role as Grace Adler in Will & Grace, for which she won the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for 2003, one of five years in which she was nominated, 1968


• Benjamin Geza Affleck, screenwriter and film actor; he and Matt Damon wrote the screenplay for and starred in Good Will Hunting, for which they won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, 1972


• Natasha Henstridge, model and actress, 1974

RIP:

• Robert de Sorbon, theologian and founder of the Sorbonne college, October 9, 1201 – August 15, 1274


• Marin Marais, composer and musician, a master of the viola da gamba, and the leading French composer of viol music, May 31, 1656 – August 15, 1728


• Giuseppe Parini, satirist and poet, May 22, 1729 - August 15, 1799


• Johan Gadolin, chemist, physicist, and mineralogist, discovered the element yttrium, June 5, 1760 — August 15, 1852


• Joseph Joachim, violinist, conductor, composer, and teacher, June 28, 1831 – August 15, 1907


• Wiley Hardeman Post, pilot, the first to fly solo around the world, November 22, 1898 – August 15, 1935


• Grazia Deledda, writer, awarded the 1926 Nobel Prize for Literature, September 27, 1871 – August 15, 1936


• Artur Schnabel, classical pianist, composer, and teacher, April 17, 1882 – August 15, 1951


• Ludwig Prandtl. Ph.D., physicist and educator, pioneer of aerodynamics, developed the mathematical basis for the fundamental principles of subsonic aerodynamics, February 4, 1875 - August 15, 1953


• William Samuel BLIND WILLIE McTell, blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist, May 5, 1901 – August 15, 1959


• René François Ghislain Magritte, surrealist artist, whose work frequently displays a juxtaposition of ordinary objects, or an unusual context, giving new meanings to familiar things; his work displays an obvious sense of humour, November 21, 1898 – August 15, 1967


• Pál Lukács, aka Paul Lukas, actor, won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1943 for Watch on the Rhine, May 26, 1895 - August 15, 1971


• Axel Hugo Theodor Theorell, M.D. and scientist, received the 1955 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering the oxidation enzyme and its effects, July 6, 1903 – August 15, 1982


• Viktor Robertovich Tsoi, rock artist and leader of the Russian rock group Kino, June 21, 1962 - August 15, 1990


• John Cameron Swayze, news commentator, news anchor, and game show panelist, also known for his Timex commercials, April 4, 1906 - August 15, 1995


• Sune Karl Bergström, biochemist, shared the 1982 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Bengt I. Samuelsson and John R. Vane, January 10, 1916 – August 15, 2004