Sunday, October 01, 2006

Today CLXIV

Birthdays:

  • Pierre Marie François de Sales Baillot, violinist and composer, October 1, 1771 – September 15, 1842

  • Paul Abraham Dukas, composer, teacher, music critic and orchestrator, known for his L'apprenti sorcier, aka The Sorcerer's Apprentice, October 1, 1865 – May 17, 1935

  • William Edward Boeing, aviation pioneer, who founded The Boeing Company, October 1, 1881 - September 28, 1956

  • Stanley Augustus Holloway, actor and entertainer, famous for his comic and character roles on stage and screen; after WWII, he became a mainstay of the Ealing Comedies productions, in movies such as Passport to Pimlico, The Lavender Hill Mob, and The Titfield Thunderbolt; he was cast as Alfred P. Doolittle in the play My Fair Lady, appearing in the original 1956 Broadway production, the 1958 London version, and the film version of 1964, October 1, 1890 - January 30, 1982

  • Clarence Earnest Lee Nash, aka Ted Healy, vaudeville performer and actor, chiefly remembered today as the original employer of the Three Stooges, although he had a successful career of his own; Ted Healy and his Southern Gentlemen consisted of Healy, Moe Howard, Shemp Howard, and Larry Fine, October 1, 1896 - December 21, 1937

  • Vladimir Samoylovych Horowitz, classical pianist, who made many recordings, starting in 1928 upon his arrival in the United States - his first recordings in the US were made for RCA Victor; his first European recording was his 1930 recording of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 with Albert Coates and the London Symphony Orchestra, the first recording of that piece; through 1936, he made many more recordings of solo piano repertoire for HMV in London, including his famous 1932 account of Liszt's Sonata in B minor; from 1940 to 1959, he again recorded for RCA Victor, making his first recording of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1, under Toscanini; in 1953, when he went into retirement, he made a number of acclaimed recordings at home, including discs of Alexander Scriabin and Muzio Clementi; in 1962, he began recording for Columbia Records, and it is these recordings which are among the most highly regarded, the most famous being his 1965 return concert at Carnegie Hall, and his 1968 performance from his television special, Horowitz on Television, the first piano recital ever to be broadcast on prime-time television; in 1975, he returned to RCA Victor, and made a series of live recordings until 1982; he won over a dozen Grammy Awards, including a ifetime Achievement Award in 1990; he was married to Wanda Toscanini, the daughter of Arturo, October 1, 1903 – November 5, 1989

  • Otto Robert Frisch, physicist; in 1940, he and Rudolf Peierls designed the first theoretical mechanism for the detonation of an atomic bomb, October 1, 1904 – September 22, 1979

  • José Enrique Moyal, aeronautical and electrical engineer, statistician, and mathematical physicist who established the phase space formulation of quantum mechanics in 1949 by bringing together some previous ideas, October 1, 1910 - May 22, 1998

  • Daniel Joseph Boorstin, historian and writer, the Librarian of Congress from 1975 until 1987, October 1, 1914 – February 28, 2004

  • Walter Matthau, Academy Award-winning comedy actor, known for his role as Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple, and his frequent collaborations with Jack Lemmon, October 1, 1920 – July 1, 2000

  • James Allen Whitmore, film actor; after WWII, he appeared on Broadway, where he won a special Tony Award in 1948; his first major movie was Battleground, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor; I remember him from the 1960's TV series, The Law and Mr. Jones, on which he played Abraham Lincoln Jones, 1921

  • James Earl JIMMY Carter, Jr., the 39th President of the United States, awarded the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize, 1924

  • Robert Richard Boyd, first baseman in the Negro Leagues and Major League Baseball, compiled a .293 batting average with 19 home runs and 175 RBI in 693 games, and a 1.465 walk-to-strikeout ratio (167-to-114); at first base, he committed only 36 errors in 4159 chances for a .991 fielding average, October 1, 1919 – September 7, 2004

  • Louis Weertz, aka Roger Williams, popular music pianist; as of 2004, he has released 116 albums, 1924

  • Thomas Edward TOM Bosley, actor, known as Howard Cunningham on Happy Days, as Sheriff Amos Tupper on Murder, She Wrote, and as Father Frank Dowling on the Father Dowling Mysteries, 1927

  • Zvi Mosheh (Hirsh) Skikne, aka Laurence Harvey, actor, whose first major role was in Room at the Top in 1959; he also appeared in BUtterfield 8, The Alamo, A Walk on the Wild Side, Darling, The Running Man, and the original version of The Manchurian Candidate; he was the father of bounty hunter Domino Harvey, October 1, 1928 – November 25, 1973

  • George Peppard, Jr., film and television actor, whose first major role was in Breakfast at Tiffany's; in the mid 80’s, he starred as Col. John "Hannibal" Smith in the TV show The A-Team, October 1, 1928 – May 8, 1994

  • Sir Richard St. John Harris, actor, singer, and songwriter, who performed on stage and in many motion pictures, known for the film roles of King Arthur in Camelot, a British aristocrat and prisoner in A Man Called Horse, and Professor Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter movies; he sang MacArthur Park on his A Tramp Shining album in 1968 - no comment, October 1, 1930 – October 25, 2002

  • Sylvano Bussotti, violinist, and composer of contemporary music, whose work is notoriously hard to perform, 1931

  • Albert Collins, blues guitarist, singer, and musician, known as The Ice Man; he formed his first band in 1952, and two years later was the headliner at several blues clubs in Houston, Texas' throughout the 1980's and early 1990's, he toured the United States, Canada, Europe, and Japan, and was an influence on Robert Cray, Debbie Davies, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jonny Lang, and others; in 1983, he won the W. C. Handy Award for best blues album of the year for Don't Lose Your Cool; in 1985, he shared a Grammy Award for the album Showdown!, which he recorded with Robert Cray and Johnny Copeland, October 1, 1932 – November 24, 1993

  • Dame Julie Andrews, DBE, actress, singer, and author, who became famous for her starring roles in the Broadway musical My Fair Lady, and the musical films Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music; she won an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1964 for Mary Poppins, 1935

  • Estelle Caro Eggleston, aka Stella Stevens, actress, film producer, and film director, who began her acting career in 1959; in January, 1960, she was Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month; in 1962, she starred opposite Elvis Presley in Girls! Girls! Girls!; in 1962, she appeared with Jerry Lewis's in The Nutty Professor; in 1972, she appeared in The Poseidon Adventure; throughout her career, she appeared in dozens of TV shows, and was a regular on Flamingo Road; she teamed with the late Sandy Dennis in a touring production of an all-female version of The Odd Couple, playing the messy one; she produced and directed two films, The Ranch and The American Heroine, 1936

  • Jean-Jacques Annaud, film director, 1943

  • Rodney Cline ROD Carew, former MLB player, originally a second baseman, who moved to first base in 1975 to lengthen his career; his 1977 .388 batting average was the highest in baseball since Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941; he finished his career with 3,053 hits and a lifetime batting average of .328; he was the AL Rookie of the Year in 1967, the AL MVP in 1997, the AL Batting Champion in 1969, from 1972 to 1975, and from 1977 to 1978, and an AL All-Star from 1967 to 1984; he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991, his first year of eligibility, 1945

  • Donny Hathaway, soul musician, songwriter, session musician, and producer, October 1, 1945 – January 13, 1979

  • Aaron Ciechanover, biologist, who received the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research in 2000; along with Avram Hershko and Irwin Rose, he was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1947

  • Stephen Weaver Collins, actor, portrayed Commander Willard Decker in Star Trek: The Motion Picture; currently, plays the Reverend Eric Camden on 7th Heaven, 1947

  • Randall Rudy RANDY Quaid, actor, has appeared in over 90 movies, in a career that spans more than 30 years, 1950

  • Pete Falcone, former MLB pitcher from 1975 to 1984, 1953

  • Youssou N'Dour, singer, 1959

  • Esai Morales, actor, known for his role as the half-brother of Richie Valens in the movie La Bamba, 1962

  • Mark David McGwire< former MLB first baseman, who played from 1986 to 2001, 1963


RIP:

  • Giammateo Asola, composer of the late Renaissance, a prolific composer of sacred music, mostly in a conservative style, who may have been one of the first composers to write a part for basso continuo, 1532 – October 1, 1609

  • John Blow, composer, organist, and teacher, whose pupils included William Croft and Henry Purcell, 1649 – October 1, 1708

  • Robert Simson, mathematician and professor of mathematics, whose contributions to mathematical knowledge took the form of critical editions and commentaries on the works of the ancient geometers, October 14, 1687 – October 1, 1768

  • Charles H. V. Christie, motion picture studio owner, April 13, 1880 – October 1, 1955

  • Al Jackson, Jr., drummer, producer, and songwriter, co-founder of Booker T. & the MG's, November 27, 1935 – October 1, 1975

  • Walter Emmons Alston, MLB player and manager; he was a first baseman with the St Louis Cardinals in 1936, playing in his only major league game on September 27, striking out in his only major league at bat; he was named manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers for the 1954 season; he won seven National League pennants in his 23 years tenure as Dodgers manager and, in 1955, he led Brooklyn to the pennant and its only World Series championship; he was named Manager of the Year six times; he managed winning NL All-Star teams a record seven times; he retired after the 1976 season with 2,063 wins - 2,040 in the regular season and 23 in the postseason; he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1983, December 1, 1911 - October 1, 1984

  • Jerome JERRY Hal Lemelson, inventor and patent holder, who was granted over 600 patents; he received an average of one patent a month for more than 40 years, in technological fields related to automated warehouses, industrial robots, cordless telephones, fax machines, videocassette recorders, camcorders, and the magnetic tape drive used in Sony's Walkman tape players, July 18, 1923 Staten Island, New York - October 1, 1997

  • Robert Allen, pianist, accompanist, and arranger and writer of music for popular songs; one of his most famous songs was There's No Place Like Home For The Holidays, February 5, 1928 - October 1, 2000

  • Guy Beaulne, actor and theatre director; in 1953, he directed the Quebec television series La Famille Plouffe; from 1970 to 1976, he was the Director of the Grand Théâtre de Québec, December 23, 1921 – October 1, 2001

  • Richard Avedon, photographer, who was able to take his early success in fashion photography, and expand it into the realm of fine art, May 15, 1923 – October 1, 2004

  • Bruce Palmer, musician, famous for playing bass guitar in Buffalo Springfield; inducted with his bandmates into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, September 9, 1946 – October 1, 2004

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