Today CCXVI

Birthdays:

• Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, organist, improvisor, and master of counterpoint, the eldest son, of Johann Sebastian Bach, November 22, 1710 – July 1, 1784


• Thomas Cook, travel agent, November 22, 1808 – July 18, 1892


• Mary Anne Evans, aka George Eliot, novelist, one of the leading writers of the Victorian era; her novels were usually set in provincial England; among other works, she wrote Silas Marner and Middlemarch, November 22, 1819 – December 22, 1880


• Paul-Henri-Benjamin Baluet d'Estournelles, baron de Constant de Rébecque, diplomat and politician, and advocate of international arbitration, who shared the 1909 Nobel Peace Prize with Auguste Marie François Beernaert, November 22, 1852 – May 15, 1924


• André Paul Guillaume Gide, author, awarded the 1947 Nobel Prize in Literature, November 22, 1869 – February 19, 1951


• Harley J. Earl, automotive stylist and engineer, and industrial designer, famous for his work at General Motors from 1927 until 1959, November 22, 1893 – April 10, 1969


• Paul Oswald Ahnert, astronomer, who became famous in Germany for publishing the Kalender für Sternenfreunde, an annual calendar of astronomical events, from 1948 until 1988, November 22, 1897 – February 27, 1989


• Hoagland Howard "HOAGY Carmichael, composer, pianist, singer, actor, and bandleader, known for writing Stardust, which may be the most-recorded American song ever written, November 22, 1899 – December 27, 1981


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


• Joaquín Rodrigo, composer and virtuoso pianist, November 22, 1901 – July 6, 1999


• Louis Eugène Félix Néel, physicist, who shared the 1970 Nobel Prize for Physics with astrophysicist Hannes Alfvén, for his pioneering studies of the magnetic properties of solids, November 22, 1904 – November 17, 2000


• Lord Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH, composer, conductor, and pianist, November 22, 1913 – December 4, 1976


• Sir Andrew Fielding Huxley, OM, FRS, physiologist and biophysicist, who shared the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work with Alan Lloyd Hodgkin on the basis of nerve action potentials, the electrical impulses that enable the activity of an organism to be coordinated by a central nervous system; they shared the prize that year with John Carew Eccles, 1917


• Jacob Cohen, aka Rodney Dangerfield, comedian and actor, November 22, 1921 – October 5, 2004


• Dika Newlin Ph.D., pianist, professor, composer, and punk rock singer, one of the last living students of Arnold Schoenberg, November 22, 1923 — July 22, 2006


• Arthur Hiller, film director, known for such films as The Americanization of Emily, The Out-of-Towners, Love Story, Plaza Suite, Man of La Mancha, W. C. Fields and Me, and The In-Laws, 1923


• Gunther Schuller, horn player, conductor, and composer; he was president of the New England Conservatory, where he created their jazz program; he has won many awards, including the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for his composition Of Reminiscences and Reflections and the William Schuman Award in 1988, given by Columbia University for lifetime achievement in American music composition; he has been awarded ten honorary degrees; in 1993, Downbeat Magazine honoured him with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to jazz, 1925


• Geraldine Sue Page, Academy Award-winning actress, November 22, 1924 - June 13, 1987


• Selva Lewis LEW Burdette, Jr., former MLB right-handed starting pitcher; he was the Most Valuable Player of the 1957 World Series; he pitched a 1–0 no-hitter on August 18, 1960, in which he scored the only run of the game; he was an outstanding control pitcher, with a career average of 1.84 walks per nine innings pitched; in an 18-year career, he posted a 203-144 record, with 1074 strikeouts and a 3.66 ERA in 3067.1 innings, compiling 158 complete games and 33 shutouts; he was an All-Star in 1957 and 1959, 1926


• Robert Francis Vaughn, stage, film, and television actor, known as Napoleon Solo on The Man from U.N.C.L.E.; he currently plays Albert Stroller on Hustle, 1932


• James Burke, science historian, author, and television producer, known for his documentary TV series Connections, 1936


• Terrence Vance TERRY Gilliam, filmmaker and animator, and member of Monty Python, who became a motion picture writer and director, directing such films as Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Jabberwocky, Time Bandits, Brazil, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The Fisher King, and Twelve Monkeys, 1940


• Thomas TOM Conti, actor, 1941


• Billie Jean Moffitt King, retired tennis player, 1943


• Aston Francis "Family Man" Barrett, bass player, one of the Barrett brothers who played with Bob Marley and The Wailers, 1946


• Lyman Wesley Bostock, Jr., MLB outfielder, who played for four seasons, 1975 to 1978; he it for the cycle on July 24; he was a .311 hitter, with 23 home runs and 250 RBI's in 526 games, 1976, November 22, 1950 - September 23, 1978


• Martina Michéle TINA Weymouth, bassist, a founding member of Talking Heads, and of Tom Tom Club, a Talking Heads side-project with the Talking Heads drummer Chris Frantz, 1950


• Kent Nagano, conductor, the Music Director of Opera de Lyon from 1988 to 1998; Principal Conductor of Hallé Orchestra from 1992 to 2000, and of Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin from 2000 to 2006; current Music Director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra; General Music Director (designate) of the Bavarian State Opera, 1951


• Jamie Lee Curtis, film actress, and author of books for children' the daughter of Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis; I first saw her as Hannah Miller on the sitcom Anything But Love with Richard Lewis, 1958


• Arthur LEE Guetterman, former MLB left-handed relief pitcher from 1984 to 1996, 1958


• Bruce Martyn Payne, actor and producer, 1960


• Leos Carax, film director, critic, and writer, 1960


• Mariel Hadley Hemingway, 6'1" actress, whose first role was with her sister Margaux in the 1976 film Lipstick, followed by the part of Tracy in Woody Allen's Manhattan - only seventeen at the time, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress; in 1983, she starred as Dorothy Stratten in Star 80; she is the granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway and the sister of the late Margaux Hemingway, 1961


• Randal L. Schwartz, author, system administrator, and programming consultant, 1961


• Richard Stanley, film director and screenwriter, 1966


• Scarlett Johansson, actress, 1984


• David Pasqualini, pianist, 1986

R.I.P.:

• Sir Martin Frobisher, seaman and explorer, who made three voyages to the New World to look for the Northwest Passage, all of which landed in northeastern Canada, around today's Resolution Island and Frobisher Bay, c. 1535 – November 22, 1594


• Bernardo Pasquini, composer of opera and church music, December 7, 1637 - November 22, 1710


• Edward Teach, aka Blackbeard, pirate, c. 1680 – November 22, 1718


• Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan, composer, May 13, 1842 – November 22, 1900


• Jack London, author, who wrote The Call of the Wild, and over fifty other books, January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916


• Lorenz LARRY Hart, lyricist half of the famed Broadway songwriting team Rodgers and Hart, May 2, 1895 - November 22, 1943


• Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington, OM, astrophysicist; the Eddington Limit is named after him; in 1919, he wrote an article, Report on the Relativity Theory of Gravitation, which announced Einstein's theory of general relativity to the English-speaking world, December 28, 1882 – November 22, 1944


• Samuel Horwitz, aka Shemp Howard, comic actor, part of the Three Stooges comedy team; he was the older brother of Moe Howard, and third stooge in the early years of the act; he rejoined the trio again in 1946, after his younger brother Curly Howard suffered a stroke, March 4, 1895 – November 22, 1955


• Theodore Kosloff, ballet dancer, choreographer, and film and stage actor, January 22, 1882 - November 22, 1956


• John Fitzgerald Kennedy, former president of the United States, awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal during WWII, assassinated in Dallas, May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963


• Clive Staples [C. S.] Lewis, author and scholar, known for his work on medieval literature, Christian apologetics, literary criticism, and fiction; he is known today for his children’s series The Chronicles of Narnia, November 29, 1898 – November 22, 1963


• Aldous Leonard Huxley, writer, known for his novels and wide-ranging output of essays; he also published short stories, poetry, travel writing, and film stories and scripts; among other works, he wrote Brave New World, July 26, 1894 – November 22, 1963


• Mary Jane MAE West, vaudeville, stage, and film actress, playwright, screenwriter, and sex symbol, August 17, 1893 – November 22, 1980


• Sir Hans Adolf Krebs, medical doctor and biochemist, best known for his development of the citric acid cycle; awarded the 1953 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for its discovery, August 25, 1900 – November 22, 1981


• Benjamin Sherman "Scatman" Crothers, actor, singer, dancer, and musician, May 23, 1910 – November 22, 1986


• Clarence Charles [C. C.] Beck, cartoonist, who drew Captain Marvel, and other Fawcett Publications series, including Spy Smasher and Ibis the Invincible, June 8, 1910 - November 22, 1989


• Sterling Price Holloway, Jr., voice actor, who worked for Walt Disney Studios, and became the voice of Winnie the Pooh; he also voiced the original Cheerios Honey-Nut Bee; he also had a long career as a character actor in films, and on TV, where he had a recurring role as an eccentric inventor in Adventures of Superman, and a recurring role on The Life of Riley, January 4, 1905 - November 22, 1992


• Anthony Burgess, novelist, critic, composer, librettist, poet, playwright, screenwriter, journalist, essayist, travel writer, broadcaster, translator, and educationalist; his fiction includes The Long Day Wanes, Nothing Like the Sun, A Clockwork Orange, and Earthly Powers, February 25, 1917 – November 22, 1993


• Mark Lenard, actor, best known for his role as Spock's father Sarek in Star Trek series and movies, October 15, 1924 – November 22, 1996


• Michael Kelland John Hutchence, lead singer for INXS, January 22, 1960 – November 22, 1997


• Christian Marquand, director, actor, and screenwriter, working in French cinema, March 15, 1927 - November 22, 2000