Today CCXIV - RIP Robert Bernard Altman

Birthdays:

• Otto von Guericke, scientist, inventor, and politician, whose major scientific achievement was the establishment of the physics of vacuums, November 20, 1602 – May 11, 1686


• Henri-Charles-Wilfrid Laurier, aka Sir Wilfrid Laurier, PC, GCMG, KC, BCL, DCL, LLD, DLitt, the seventh Prime Minister of Canada, serving from July 11, 1896, to October 7, 1911, November 20, 1841 – February 17, 1919


• Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf, author, awarded the 1909 Nobel Prize in Literature, November 20, 1858 – March 16, 1940


• Kenesaw Mountain Landis, federal judge and the first commissioner of Major League Baseball, November 20, 1866 – November 25, 1944


• Clark Calvin Griffith, MLB pitcher, 1891 - 1914, manager, 1901 - 1920, and team owner, 1920 - 1955, inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1946, November 20, 1869 - October 27, 1955


• George Florian PINCH McBride, MLB shortstop from 1901 to 1920; in 1921, he was named manager of the Washington Senators, November 20, 1880 - July 2, 1973


• Karl Ritter von Frisch, ethologist, who shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Nikolaas Tinbergen and Konrad Lorenz, November 20, 1886 – June 12, 1982


• Edwin Powell Hubble, astronomer, noted for his discovery of galaxies beyond the Milky Way, and of the cosmological redshift, November 20, 1889 – September 28, 1953


• Chester Gould, cartoonist, the creator of the Dick Tracy comic strip, which he wrote and drew from 1931 to 1977; he was known for his use of colorful, often monstrous, villains, November 20, 1900 – May 11, 1985


• Aleksandra Dionisyevna Danilova, prima ballerina assoluta, November 20, 1903 - July 13, 1997


• Fran Allison, television comedienne and singer, known for her starring role on the puppet show Kukla, Fran and Ollie, November 20, 1907 - June 13, 1989


• Henri-Georges Clouzot, film director, screenwriter, and producer, November 20, 1907 - January 12, 1977


• Alfred ALISTAIR Cooke KBE, journalist and broadcaster, November 20, 1908 – March 30, 2004


• Willem Jacob van Stockum Ph.D., physicist, who made an important contribution to the early development of general relativity; he was apparently the first to notice the possibility of closed timelike curves, one of the strangest and most disconcerting phenomena in general relativity, November 20, 1910 - June 10, 1944


• Juliette JUDY Canova, comedienne, actress, singer, and radio personality, November 20, 1913 – August 5, 1983


• Evelyn Keyes, actress, 1919


• Phyllis St. Felix Thaxter, played Ma Kent in Superman: The Movie, 1921


• Nadine Gordimer, novelist and writer, awarded the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature and the 1974 Booker Prize, 1923


• Benoît B. Mandelbrot, mathematician, known as the father of fractal geometry, 1924


• Robert Francis BOBBY Kennedy, aka RFK, senator and Attorney General of the U.S., November 20, 1925 – June 6, 1968


• Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya, ballerina, 1925


• Andrzej Wiktor [Andrew W.] Schally, endocrinologist, shared the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Rosalyn Sussman Yalow and Roger Guillemin, 1926


• Catherine Gloria Balotta, aka Kaye Ballard, Broadway and television actress; from 1967 to 1969, she co-starred in the sitcom The Mothers-in-Law with Eve Arden, 1926


• Estelle Margaret Parsons, theatre, film, and television actress, who studied law and worked as a singer with a band before settling on an acting career in the early 1950's; she worked as a writer, producer, and commentator for The Today Show; she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1967 for her role in Bonnie and Clyde, 1927


• Aleksey Vladimirovich Batalov, actor, 1928


• Colin Emm, aka Richard Dawson, actor, comedian, game show panelist, and host, known for his role on the sitcom Hogan's Heroes and for hosting Family Feud from 1976 to 1985, and again in 1994; in 1987, he co-starred in the movie The Running Man, 1932


• René Kollo, tenor, 1937


• Ruth Meckler Laredo, classical pianist, November 20, 1937 - May 26, 2005


• Richard DICK Smothers, comedian, composer, and musician, best known for being half of the musical comedy team The Smothers Brothers; he played the straight man trying to get through songs and acts without incident, 1939


• Robert BOB Einstein, aka Super Dave Osborne, actor and comedy, 1942


• Norman Greenbaum, singer-songwriter, known for his song Spirit In The Sky, 1942


• Nanette Joan Workman, singer-songwriter and actress, 1945


• Robert James RICK Monday, Jr., former MLB centre fielder; in a 19-season career, he compiled a .264 batting average with 241 home runs and 775 RBI; he was an All-Star in 1968 and 1978; soon after his retirement as a player, he became a broadcaster for the Dodgers, 1945


• Howard DUANE Allman, guitarist, known for his slide guitar skills, session musician, a founding member and the leader/lead guitarist of The Allman Brothers Band; he had a major role on the album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs by Derek and the Dominos; he was killed in a motorcycle accident only a few months after the summer release and great initial success of the Allman Brothers Band's album At Fillmore East, November 20, 1946 – October 29, 1971


• Joe Walsh, rock guitarist, 1947


• Barbara Hendricks, operatic soprano, concert singer, and human rights activist, 1948


• Richard Masur, actor, who has appeared in over 80 movies during his career, 1948


• Mary Cathleen Collins, aka Bo Derek, film actress and model, who co-starred in the 1979 Blake Edwards film 10, 1956


• Mary SEAN Young, actress, who appeared in Blade Runner, 1959


• William Timothy Gowers Ph.D. FRS, mathematician, winner of the 1998 Fields Medal, 1963


• Ming-Na Wen, actress and voice actor, who appeared in the movie version of Amy Tan's novel The Joy Luck Club, played Chun-Li in Street Fighter, and provided the voice for the title character in the animated film Mulan, 1963


• Kevin Gilbert, musician, singer, composer, and producer, who played keyboards, guitars, drums, bass, and cello, November 20, 1966 - May 17, 1996


• David Jonathan [J. D.] Drew, MLB right fielder, 1975


• Tímea Vágvölgyi, actress and female wrestler, 1975


• Dominique Margaux Dawes, gymnast, a long-time member of the U. S. National Team, who won a Gold Medal in team competition at the 1996 Olympics; she is the only American female gymnast to compete in three Olympics, 1976

R.I.P.:

• Pierre de La Rue, composer of the Renaissance, c. 1452 – November 20, 1518


• Johan Helmich Roman, composer, October 26, 1694 - November 20, 1758


• Christian Goldbach, mathematician, remembered today for Goldbach's conjecture, one of the oldest unsolved problems in number theory, March 18, 1690 - November 20, 1764


• Farkas Bolyai, mathematician, known for his work on the foundations of geometry and the parallel axiom, February 9, 1775 - November 20, 1856


• Anton Grigorevich Rubinstein, pianist, composer, and conductor, who wrote at least twenty operas, five piano concerti, six symphonies, and a large number of solo piano works, along with works for chamber ensemble, two concertos for cello and one for violin, free-standing orchestral works, and tone poems, November 28, 1829 – November 20, 1894


• Georgy Voronoy, mathematician, who defined the Voronoi diagram, April 28, 1868 — November 20, 1908


• Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, aka Leo Tolstoy, novelist, philosopher, anarchist, pacifist, educational reformer, vegetarian, and moral thinker, regarded as one of the greatest of all novelists, known for his masterpieces War and Peace and Anna Karenina, September 9, 1828 – November 20, 1910


• Willem de Sitter, mathematician, physicist, and astronomer, May 6, 1872 – November 20, 1934


• Francis William Aston, physicist, invented the mass spectrograph, awarded the 1922 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery, by means of his mass spectrograph, of isotopes, in a large number of non-radioactive elements, and for his enunciation of the whole-number rule, September 1, 1877 - November 20, 1945


• Francesco Cilea, opera composer, July 26, 1866 - November 20, 1950


• Clyde Vernon Cessna, pilot, and the founder of the Cessna Aircraft Company, December 5, 1879 - November 20, 1954


• Allan Sherman, musician, parodist, satirist, and television producer, the creator and original producer of I've Got a Secret; he released an LP of song parodies, My Son, the Folk Singer, in 1962, and a follow-up, My Son, the Celebrity, November 30, 1924 – November 20, 1973


• Trofim Denisovich Lysenko, biologist, September 29, 1898 – November 20, 1976


• Israel Moshe Blauschild, aka Marcel Dalio, character actor, July 17, 1900 - November 20, 1983


• John Lucarotti, screenwriter, who began his career at CBC, writing over 200 scripts in Canada, May 20, 1926 — November 20, 1994


• Richard Bernard DICK Littlefield, MLB left-handed pitcher, who played for nine teams between 1950 and 1958, March 18, 1926 – November 20, 1997


• Michael John Muuss, computer programmer, author of the freeware network tool Ping; he specialized in geometric solid modeling, ray-tracing, MIMD architectures, and digital computer networks; he wrote a number of software packages and network tools, October 16, 1958 - November 20, 2000


• Robert Alastair Addie, actor, known for his role as Sir Guy of Gisburne on the 1980's series Robin of Sherwood, February 10, 1960 - November 20, 2003


• James King, Heldentenor, May 22, 1925 – November 20, 2005


• Christopher Becker Whitley, singer-wongwriter, August 31, 1960 – November 20, 2005


• Robert Bernard Altman, writer and film director; he tried acting briefly, appearing in a nightclub scene as an extra in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty; his sale of the script for the film Bodyguard, which he co-wrote with Richard Fleischer, to RKO encouraged him to move to New York, and build a career as a writer; there, he found a collaborator in George W. George, with whom he wrote numerous published and unpublished screenplays, musicals, novels, and magazine articles; from 1958 to 1964, he directed numerous episodes of television series, including Combat!, Bonanza, Whirlybirds, and Route 66; in 1969, he was offered the script for MASH, which he directed - it was a huge success, both with critics and at the box office; he followed the success of MASH with many other films, which made the distinctive "Altman style" well known; among his films are Brewster McCloud, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Images, The Long Goodbye, Thieves Like Us, California Split, Nashville, Popeye, Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, Kansas City, The Gingerbread Man, Cookie's Fortune, Dr. T & the Women, Gosford Park, The Company, and A Prairie Home Companion; in 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his work with an Academy Honorary Award, February 20, 1925 – November 20, 2006