Today CCLV

Birthdays:

• Florence Nightingale Graham, aka Elizabeth Arden, businesswoman, founder of the Elzabeth Arden cosmetics empire, December 31, 1878 - October 18, 1966


• General George Catlett Marshall, GCB, US Army, military leader, Secretary of State, and Secretary of Defense, remembered for his leadership in the Allied victory in World War II and for his work establishing the post-war reconstruction effort for Europe - the Marshall Plan; he was awarded the 1953 Nobel Peace Prize, December 31, 1880 – October 16, 1959


• Frederick Leonard Beebe, MLB pitcher, who played from 1906 to 1916; in his rookie year, he led the major league's with 171 strikeouts; his career record was 62-83, December 31, 1880 - October 30, 1957


• Robert Matthew Byrne, MLB third baseman, from 1907 through 1917; in an 11-season career, he was a .254 hitter with 10 home runs, 329 RBI, 176 stolen bases, and a walk-to-strikeout ratio of 2.07, in 1283 games, December 31, 1884 - December 31, 1964


• Barbara Apolonia Chalupiec , aka Pola Negri, silent actress between the 1910's and 1930's, December 31, 1894 - August 1, 1987


• Silvestre Revueltas, composer of classical music, violinist, and conductor, December 31, 1899 - October 5, 1940


• Lionel Daunais, baritone singer, and composer, December 31, 1902 – July 18, 1982


• Nathan Mironovich Milstein, violinist, December 31, 1903 — December 21, 1992


• Jule Styne, songwriter; Mike Todd commissioned him to write a song for a musical act which he was creating, the first of over 1,500 published songs Styne would compose in his career; he began a collaboration with lyricist Sammy Cahn, with whom he wrote many songs for the movies, including It's Been a Long, Long Time, Five Minutes More, and the Oscar-winning Three Coins in the Fountain; in 1947, he wrote his first score for a Broadway musical, High Button Shoes, with Cahn, and over the next several decades wrote the scores for many Broadway shows; his collaborators included Betty Comden, Adolph Green, Stephen Sondheim, and Bob Merrill; he was elected to the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972 and the Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981; in 1990, he was a recipient of the Kennedy Centre Honours, December 31, 1905 – September 20, 1994


• Szymon SIMON Wiesenthal, KBE, architectural engineer who became a Nazi hunter after surviving the Holocaust; following four and a half years in the concentration camps of Janowska, Plaszow, and Mauthausen during World War II, he dedicated most of his life to tracking down, hunting, and gathering information on fugitive Nazis, so that they could be brought to justice for war crimes and crimes against humanity; the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Los Angeles is named in his honour, December 31, 1908 – Vienna, September 20, 2005


• Robert Elliott JONAH Jones, jazz trumpeter, December 31, 1909 - April 29, 2000


• Carl Ward Dudley, film director and producer, best known for 1958's South Seas Adventure; in the 1950's, produced thirty documentary shorts in the This World of Ours series, December 31, 1910 - September 2, 1973


• Thomas Joseph TOMMY Byrne, former MLB starting pitcher, who made his debut in April, 1943, and played his final game on September 21, 1957, 1919


• Rex Elvie Allen, actor, singer, and songwriter, December 31, 1920 – December 17, 1999


• Maurice Sinet, aka Siné, cartonnist, 1928


• Odetta, singer and guitarist, whose repertoire consists largely of American folk music, blues, jazz, and spirituals; she was an important figure in the American folk music revival of the 1950's and 1960's, 1930


• Edward Bunker, author of crime fiction, screenwriter, and actor, who wrote numerous books, some of which have been adapted into films, December 31, 1933 – July 19, 2005


• Herskó Ferenc, aka Avram Hershko M.D. Ph.D., biologist, who shared the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Aaron Ciechanove and Irwin A. Rose, 1937


• Sir Philip ANTHONY Hopkins, CBE, film, stage, and television actor, who won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1991 for The Silence of the Lambs; he won Emmy Awards for his roles in The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case and The Bunker, 1937


• Rosalind Cash, actress, whose career endured on stage, screen, and television, despite her staunch refusal to portray stereotyped "black" roles, December 31, 1938 – October 31, 1995


• Sarah Miles, theatre and film actress, 1941


• Andrew James ANDY Summers, musician, composer, writer, and photographer, known for his work on guitar with The Police, 1942


• Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr., aka John Denver, folk singer-songwriter and folk rock musician, December 31, 1943 – October 12, 1997


• Krishna Bhanji, aka Sir Ben Kingsley, CBE, actor, who won the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1982 for Gandhi, 1943


• Peter Alexander Greenlaw PETE Quaife, musician, a founding member of and the original bass guitarist for The Kinks from 1963 until 1969, 1943


• Taylor Hackford, film director, 1944


• Burton Cummings, OM, D.Mus, musician and songwriter, the pianist and lead singer for The Guess Who, from 1965 to 1975, and a solo artist, 1947


• Timothy Lewis Matthieson, aka Tim Matheson, actor and voice actor, 1947


• LaDonna Adrian Gaines, aka Donna Summer, singer, songwriter, and occasional actress, known for a string of disco/dance hits in the 1970's; she has won six Grammy Awards, 1948


• George Thorogood, blues-rock and rock singer and guitarist, 1951


• Thomas William TOM Hamilton, musician, the bassist for Aerosmith, 1951


• Jane Badler, actress, who played Diana on V, V: The Final Battle, and V: The Series, and agent Shannon Reed in the 1980s revival of the Mission: Impossible series, 1953


• Bebe Neuwirth, theatre, television, and film actress, and dancer; she made her Broadway debut in the role of Sheila in A Chorus Line in 1980; she appeared as Dr. Lilith Sternin on Cheers, Wings, and Frasier; she won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Musical in 1997 for Chicago, 1958


• Val Edward Kilmer, actor, 1959


• Paul Westerberg, musician, known as the former lead singer and songwriter for The Replacements, 1959


• Richard Warren RICK Aguilera, former MLB relief pitcher, from 1985 to 2000; he was an All-Star in 1991, 1992, and 1993; he finished his career with 318 saves, 1030 strikeouts, and a 3.57 ERA, 1961


• Gong Li, film actress, 1965


• Esteban Antonio Loaiza Veyna, MLB starting pitcher, who plays for the Oakland Athletics, 1971

R.I.P.:

• Ludolph van Ceulen, mathematician; during the Catholic Inquisitions, he emigrated to the Netherlands to teach fencing and mathematics; he spent a major part of his life calculating the numerical value of Π, using essentially the same methods as those employed by Archimedes some two thousand years earlier, January 28, 1540 – December 31, 1610


• Thomas Joannes Stieltjes, mathematician, who was a pioneer in the field of moment problems, and contributed to the study of continued fractions, December 29, 1856 - December 31, 1894


• Robert Matthew Byrne, MLB third baseman, from 1907 through 1917; in an 11-season career, he was a .254 hitter with 10 home runs, 329 RBI, 176 stolen bases, and a walk-to-strikeout ratio of 2.07, in 1283 games, December 31, 1884 - December 31, 1964


• George Louis Francois Zenon, aka George Lewis, jazz clarinetist, July 13, 1900 – December 31, 1969


• Peter Ellstrom Deuel, aka Pete Duel, actor, known for his role on Alias Smith and Jones, where he played Hannibal Heyes/Joshua Smith, February 24, 1940 – December 31, 1971


• Marin Sais, motion picture actress, August 2, 1890 - December 31, 1971


• Roberto Clemente Walker, MLB right fielder, played 18 seasons in the majors from 1955 to 1972, all with the Pittsburgh Pirates; won the National League MVP Award in 1966; four-time NL Batting champion, 1961, 1944 1965, and 1967; won 12 Gold Glove Awards; was the World Series MVP in 1971; he won the Babe Ruth Award in 1971; he finished his career with exactly 3,000 hits, and a .300+ lifetime batting average; he was lected to the Baseball Hall of Fame posthumously in 1973; a hero in his native Puerto Rico, he spent much of his time during the off-season involved in charity work; he died in a plane crash off the coast of Isla Verde, Puerto Rico on December 31, 1972 while en route to deliver aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua, August 18, 1934 – December 31, 1972


• Herbert MARSHALL McLuhan CC, educator, philosopher, and scholar, professor of English literature, literary critic, and communications theorist, one of the founders of the study of media ecology, July 21, 1911 – December 31, 1980


• Raoul Walsh, film director, actor, and founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, March 11, 1887 – December 31, 1980


• Eric Hilliard RICKY [or RICK] Nelson, singer, musician, and actor, one of the first American teen idols, May 8, 1940 – December 31, 1985


• Vasili Grigoryevich Lazarev Ph.D., cosmonaut, February 23, 1928 – December 31, 1990


• Floyd Cramer, pianist, who was one of the architects of the Nashville Sound; in 2003, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, October 27, 1933 – December 31, 1997


• Costanzo Greco, aka José Greco, flamenco dancer and choreographer, December 23, 1918 – December 31, 2000


• Anna Eileen Heckart, stage, screen, and television actress, who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1972 for Butterflies Are Free, March 29, 1919 – December 31, 2001


• Arthur Robert von Hippel, materials researcher, physicist, and pioneer in the study of dielectrics, ferromagnetic and ferroelectric materials, and semiconductors; he was one of the codevelopers of radar during the World War II, November 19, 1898 – December 31, 2003


• Gerard Debreu, economist and mathematician, winner of the 1983 Nobel Prize in Economics, July 4, 1921 – December 31, 2004