Birthdays
1866 - Erik Satie (born Eric Alfred Leslie Satie), French composer and pianist. He was an influential artist in the late 19th- and early 20th-century Parisian avant-garde. His work was a precursor to later artistic movements such as minimalism, repetitive music, and the Theatre of the Absurd. An eccentric, Satie was introduced as a "gymnopedist" in 1887, shortly before writing his most famous compositions, the Gymnopédies. Later, he also referred to himself as a "phonometrician" (meaning "someone who measures sounds"), preferring this designation to that of "musician". Aside from his music, Satie also left a set of writings, having contributed work for a range of publications from the dadaist 391 to the American culture chronicle Vanity Fair. (Eric Satie's 3 Gymnopedies. YouTube, uploaded by SNR AYDN. Accessed 17 May 2018.)
1911 - Maureen Paula O'Sullivan, Irish-American actress. She was best known for playing Jane in the Tarzan series of films during the era of Johnny Weissmuller. In 2020, she was listed at number 8 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors. She was also the mother of actress Mia Farrow. When told Frank Sinatra wanted to marry Mia, she famously remarked "At his age, he should marry me."
1918 - Märta Birgit Nilsson, Swedish dramatic soprano. She sang a wide repertory of operatic and vocal works, but her best known performances are in the operas of Richard Wagner, Richard Strauss, and made a specialty of Puccini's Turandot. Her voice was noted for its overwhelming force, bountiful reserves of power, and the gleaming brilliance and clarity in the upper register. Nilsson made such strong imprints on many roles that they came to be known as the "Nilsson repertory". She once said that Isolde made her famous and Turandot made her rich. Her command of Wagner's music was comparable to that of Kirsten Flagstad, who dominated the Wagner repertory at the Metropolitan Opera during the years before World War II.
1921 - Dennis Brain, British virtuoso horn player largely credited for popularizing the horn as a solo classical instrument with the post-war British public. With the collaboration of Herbert von Karajan and the Philharmonia Orchestra, he produced what many still consider to be the definitive recordings of Mozart's horn concerti. (Four of Mozart's Horn Concertos (complete) brilliantly played by Dennis Brain, an all-time favourite horn player and interpreter of Mozart horn music. Accessed May 17, 2016 from archive.org. Accessed Dec 9, 2023. Dennis Brain, Mozart Concerto No. 1 in D major, K.412. Uploaded by Ria Brezova. Accessed May 17, 2016.)
1936 - Dennis Hopper, American actor, filmmaker, and visual artist. He attended the Actors Studio, made his first television appearance in 1954, and two years after, after appeared in Giant. In the next ten years he made a name in television, and by the end of the 1960s had appeared in several films, notably Cool Hand Luke and Hang 'Em High. Hopper also began a prolific and acclaimed photography career in the 1960s. He made his directorial film debut with Easy Rider, which he and co-star Peter Fonda wrote with Terry Southern. The film earned Hopper a Cannes Film Festival Award for "Best First Work" and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay (shared with Fonda and Southern).
Lefties:
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More birthdays and historical events today, May 17 - On This Day.
Historical Events
1845 - The rubber band is patented.
1846 - The saxophone "sax" is patented by Adolphe Sax.
