Today CXLI - Happy Birthday, Dana

Birthdays:

• Richard I, King of England from 1189 to 1199, later referred to as Richard the Lionheart [Cœur de Lion], September 8, 1157 – April 6, 1199


• Marin Mersenne, aka le Père Mersenne, theologian, philosopher, mathematician, and music theorist, remembered today for his association with the Mersenne primes; wrote about music theory, among other subjects; edited works of Euclid, Archimedes, and other Greek mathematicians; his perhaps most important contribution to the advance of learning was his extensive correspondence with mathematicians and other scientists in many countries, making him the centre of a network for exchange of information; one of his many contributions to musical tuning theory was the suggestion of the formula for the ratio for an equally-tempered semitone, the square root of (the square root of (2 over 3 - square root of (2))), September 8, 1588 – September 1, 1648


• Nicolas de Grigny, organist and organ composer, whose only surviving work is a large volume of organ works, containing several mass settings and five hymns in several parts, baptized September 8, 1672 – November 30, 1703


• Frédéric Mistral, poet, who led the 19th century revival of Provençal language and literature, shared the 1904 Nobel Prize for Literature with Jose Echegaray y Eizaguirre, for his contributions in literature and philology, September 8, 1830 - March 25, 1914


• Antonín Leopold Dvořák, composer of Romantic music, successfully combined folk melodies with symphonic and chamber music; studied music in Prague's Organ School, and developed into an accomplished violinist and violist; wrote nine symphonies, three piano concertos and three violin concertos, serenades, Slavonic dances, and symphonic poems; many of his works also show the influence of Czech folk music, both in terms of rhythms and melodic shapes, as in his two sets of Slavonic Dances; also wrote operas, the best known of which is Rusalka, chamber music, including string quartets, and quintets, songs, choral music, and piano music, listen to his music!, September 8, 1841 – May 1, 1904


• James Charles JIMMIE Rodgers, aka The Singing Brakeman and The Blue Yodeler, country singer, guitarist, and songwriter, September 8, 1897 – May 26, 1933


• Jean-Louis Barrault, actor, director, and mime artist, portrayed the 19th-century mime Jean-Gaspard Deburau [Baptiste Debureau] in Les Enfants du Paradis, September 9, 1910 - January 22, 1994


• Frank Cady, actor, best known for his role as storekeeper Sam Drucker in Green Acres, Petticoat Junction, and, in guest appearances, The Beverly Hillbillies; played Doc Williams in Ozzie and Harriet, as well as numerous supporting parts in movies, 1915


• Sir Derek Harold Richard Barton Ph.D., physical chemist and educator, shared the 1969 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with Odd Hassel, September 8, 1918 - March 16, 1998


• Sir Harry Donald Secombe CBE, comedian; with a fine tenor singing voice and a talent for comedy, he was one of the original Goons, appearing in the radio series as Neddie Seagoon, the protagonist of the show's ridiculous plots; first met Spike Milligan, the founder of the series, during British Army service in World War II in North Africa; shared his birthday, September 8, with the other member of the trio, Peter Sellers, September 8, 1921 – April 11, 2001


• Isaac Sidney SID Caesar, comic actor and writer, had planned on a career in music, playing the saxophone; was a musician in the Borscht Belt [Catskills], where began performing comedy sketches; hosted and starred in TV Your Show of Shows, Caesar's Hour, and Sid Caesar Invites You; appeared on Broadway, starring in Little Me, and in movies, including It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Silent Movie, and Grease, 1922


• Richard Henry PETER Sellers, CBE, comedian, actor, and performer, who came to prominence on radio's The Goon Show, and later became a film star; an excellent dancer, a drummer, who toured with several jazz bands, and a ukulele and banjo player; most famous for his role as Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther movies, and four sequels between 1964 and 1978; had casual friendships with George Harrison, and with Ringo Starr, who appeared with him in The Magic Christian, whose theme song was Badfinger's cover version of Paul McCartney's "Come and Get It;" in his will, he explicitly requested that In the Mood be played for his funeral, considered his last touch of humour - his friends knew he hated the song, September 8, 1925 – July 24, 1980


• Harlan Perry Howard, country music songwriter, September 8, 1927 - March 3, 2002


• Christoph von Dohnányi, conductor, attended the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik to study composition, piano and conducting, then went to Florida State University to study with his grandfather, Ernst von Dohnányi; his first position as conductor was at the Frankfurt Opera; musical director of the Lübeck Opera, Westdeutsche Rundfunk Sinfonie Orchester, and the Frankfurt and Hamburg operas; Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra from 1984 to 2002; Music Director of Orchestre de Paris from 1998 to 2000; in 2005, ohnányi returned to Germany to become Chief Conductor of the NDR Symphony Orchestra in Hamburg, 1929


• Mario Adorf, film and stage actor, best known for his lead role in the 1978 film The Tin Drum, 1930


• Virginia "Ginny" Patterson Hensley , aka Patsy Cline, country music singer, who enjoyed pop music cross-over success during the era of the Nashville Sound in the early 1960's; died at age 30 in a plane crash during the height of her career, September 8, 1932 – March 5, 1963


• Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, CBE, composer, 1934


• Virna Lisa Pieralisi, aka Virna Lisi, film actress, 1937


• Barbara Rosberg Frum, OC , BA , LL.D journalist and CBC news anchor; after her graduation from U of T, she worked as a radio commentator and magazine writer; in 1971, she joined CBC Radio as one of the first hosts of As It Happens, a newsmagazine programme; in 1981, CBC Television created The Journal, a newsmagazine, and she and Mary Lou Finlay were hired as the show's hosts - after the first year, Frum became the sole host of the programme, September 8, 1937 – March 26, 1992


• Brian Cole, musician, the bass guitar player and vocalist for The Association, September 8, 1942 – August 2, 1972


• Ronald C. RON "Pigpen" McKernan, musician, a founding member of The Grateful Dead, providing vocals, keyboards, harmonica, percussion, and guitar, September 8, 1945 – March 8, 1973


• Valery Afanassiev, pianist, 1947


• Benjamin Orr, musician, the bass guitar player and one of the vocalists for The Cars, September 8, 1947 — October 3, 2000


• Zachary Richard, singer, songwriter, and poet who working in both French and English, a direct descendant of the original Acadian refugees, heavily influenced by the styles of Zydeco, Cajun music, and New Orleans rhythm and blues found in Louisiana, a founding member of Action Cadienne, a group dedicated to the preservation of the French language in Louisiana, 1950


• Frank Tovey , aka Fad Gadget, musician, synthesizer pioneer, and performance artist, September 8, 1956 - April 3, 2002


• Heather Thomas, actress and screenwriter, 1957


• Aimee Mann, rock guitarist, bassist, singer, and songwriter, 1960

RIP:

• Richard Strauss, conductor and composer of the late Romantic era, particularly noted for his tone poems and operas; his tone include Don Juan, Death and Transfiguration, Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks, Thus Spake Zarathustra, Don Quixote, Ein Heldenleben, Sinfonia Domestica, and An Alpine Symphony; his operas include Salome (based on the play by Oscar Wilde), Elektra, Der Rosenkavalier, Ariadne auf Naxos, Die Frau ohne Schatten, Intermezzo, Die ägyptische Helena, Arabella, Friedenstag, Daphne, and Capriccio; in 1948, he wrote his last work, Vier letzte Lieder [Four last songs] for soprano and orchestra, June 11, 1864 – September 8, 1949


• Dorothy Jean Dandridge, actress, the first black actress to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress category, whose first on-screen appearance was as an extra in a 1935 Our Gang short called Teacher's Beau; her first important role was a small part in the Marx Brothers' A Day at the Races in 1937 which her sister, Vivian Dandridge, and Etta Jones appear as The Dandridge Sisters; The Dandridge Sisters traveled all over the world and performed at the Cotton Club, also appearing in the 1939 film Going Places, with Maxine Sullivan and Louis Armstrong; she was cast in Carmen Jones, the film remake of the play of the same name, in November 1954, receiving an Oscar nomination for Best Actress; in 1957, she appeared in Island in the Sun; in 1959, she starred in Porgy and Bess with Sidney Poitier, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award; in 1961, she guested on the Ed Sullivan Show, singing a ballad, giving viewers the chance to hear her real voice - all the leads in Carmen Jones had been dubbed, except for Pearl Bailey, November 9, 1922 – September 8, 1965


• Hermann Staudinger, chemist, awarded the 1953 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his characterization of polymers, March 23, 1881 - September 8, 1965


• Clayton J. Heermance, Jr., aka Bud Collyer, radio actor/announcer who hosted the television game shows Beat the Clock and To Tell The Truth, June 18, 1908 – September 8, 1969


• Samuel Joel ZERO Mostel, stage and film actor, best known for his portrayal of comic characters such as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and Max Bialystock in The Producers; was been blacklisted during the 1950s, and his testimony before HUAC was well-publicized; winner of several Tony Awarsd and an Obie Award, February 28, 1915 – September 8, 1977


• Jean Seberg, actress; during the latter part of the 1960's, she used her high-profile image to voice support for the NAACP and supported Native American school groups; her death in 1979 left many unanswered questions, November 13, 1938 – September 8, 1979


• Willard Frank Libby Ph.D., chemist and educator, famous for his role in the development of radiocarbon dating, a process which revolutionized archaeology; awarde the 1960 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for leading the team that developed Carbon-14 dating, December 17, 1908 – September 8, 1980


• Roy Wilkins, civil rights activist, active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), assistant NAACP secretary between 1931 and 1934; became editor of Crisis, the official magazine of the NAACP, in 1934, August 30, 1901 – September 8, 1981


• Hideki Yukawa FRSE, theoretical physicist and educator, interested particularly in the theory of elementary particles; in 1935, he published his theory of mesons, which explained the interaction between protons and neutrons; in 1940, he won the Imperial Prize of the Japan Academy and, in 1943, the Decoration of Cultural Merit from the Japanese government; awarded the 1949 Nobel prize for Physics, the first Japanese to win a Nobel Prize, after the discovery by Cecil Powell of Yukawa's predicted pion in 1947, January 23, 1907 - September 8, 1981


• John Franklin Enders Ph.D., medical scientist, working in the biological field studying infectious diseases, shared the 1954 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Thomas Huckle Weller and Frederick Chapman Robbins for their discovery of the ability of poliomyelitis viruses to grow in cultures of various types of tissue, February 10, 1887 – September 8, 1985


• Alex North, composer responsible for the first jazz based film score, A Streetcar Named Desire, and the first truly modernist film score, Viva Zapata!; other film scores include Spartacus, Cleopatra, Dragonslayer, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and The Devil's Brigade; his classical works include a Rhapsody for Piano, Trumpet obbligato and Orchestra, December 4, 1910 - September 8, 1991


• Helene Bertha Amalie LENI Riefenstahl, dancer, actor, and film director widely noted for her aesthetics and advances in film technique, whose most famous works are documentary propaganda films for the Nazi Party, August 22, 1902 – September 8, 2003


• Franklin FRANK Thomas, animator, one of Walt Disney's team of animators known as the Nine Old Men, joined The Walt Disney Company on September 24, 1934, where he animated dozens of feature films and shorts, and also was a member of the Dixieland band Firehouse Five Plus Two, playing the piano; worked on animated cartoon shorts including The Brave Little Tailor; also worked on Pooh and Piglet in two of the Winnie the Pooh featurettes; worked on the feature films Snow White, Pinocchio, Bambi, Lady and the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty, The Sword in the Stone, and The Jungle Book; was directing animator for several villains, including the evil stepmother in Cinderella, the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland, and Captain Hook in Peter Pan; voiced a character in The Incredibles, September 5, 1912 - September 8, 2004