September 30 Dateline

Birthdays

1921 - Deborah Kerr, CBE, (born Deborah Jane Trimmer), Scottish actress of film, theatre and television. She won a Golden Globe Award for her performance as Anna Leonowens in the musical film The King and I (1956) and a Sarah Siddons Award for her performance as Laura Reynolds in the play Tea and Sympathy (a role she originated on Broadway). She was also a three-time winner of the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress. She was nominated six times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, and holds the record for an actress nominated in the lead actress category without winning. In 1994, however, having already received honorary awards from the Cannes Film Festival and BAFTA, Kerr received an Academy Honorary Award with a citation recognising her as "an artist of impeccable grace and beauty, a dedicated actress whose motion picture career has always stood for perfection, discipline and elegance". (Videos from YouTube: Capturing Deborah Kerr in pure emotions from some of her famous films. D. Kerr Documentary, uploaded by Marmar. Accessed April 30, 2018. Deborah Kerr - Top 10 Best Performances. YouTube, uploaded by The Classic Film Lover's Guide. Accessed September 30, 2022.)

1924 - Truman Capote (born Truman Garcia Capote), American novelist, short story writer, screenwriter, playwright, and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's and the true crime novel In Cold Blood, which he labeled a "nonfiction novel." His childhood best friend was Harper Lee, widely known for her novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Lee and Truman were neighbors in Monroeville and met when they were only about five years old.  At first glance, Harper Lee’s friendship with Truman Capote looks unlikely. Lee shied away from publicity while Capote courted it. Lee sought out a quiet life with her sister at home in Alabama, while Capote lived a hard partying, jet-setting existence among celebrities. Capote wrote prolifically, publishing novels, short stories, magazines articles and TV scrips. Lee published one novel in 1960, the Pulitzer Prize-winning To Kill a Mockingbird, and only released her second, Go Set a Watchman, July 14, 2015. Yet these opposites were childhood companions whose bond helped them become two of the most revered American writers of all time.(Truman Capote Reads from his Breakfast at Tiffany's. Uploaded by 92nd Street Y. Accessed September 30, 2019.)

1928 - Elie Wiesel, Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He authored 57 books, written mostly in French and English, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a Jewish prisoner in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps. (Remembering Nobel Laureate and Holocaust Survivor Elie Wiesel. PBS NewsHour. Accessed September 30, 2015.)

1931 - Angie Dickinson (Angeline Dickinson née Brown), American actress. She began her career on television, appearing in many anthology series during the 1950s, before landing her breakthrough role in Gun the Man Down (1956) with James Arness and the Western film Rio Bravo (1959), for which she received the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year. She starred in several TV movies and miniseries, also playing supporting roles in films.

1950 - Victoria Tennant - English film and TV actress. She is known for her roles in the TV miniseries The Winds of War and War and Remembrance, in which she appeared as actor Robert Mitchum's on-screen love interest, Pamela Tudsbury. After a number of roles in British and other European films, she emigrated to the United States. Aside from TV mini-series, she appeared in films such as The Handmaid's Tale and Best Seller. She starred in two films with Steve Martin, her future husband: All of Me and L.A. Story. In 2014, she published a memoir about her mother titled Irina Baronova and The Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo.

1952 - Jack Wild, English actor and singer, best known for his debut role as the Artful Dodger in the film Oliver!, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor as well as Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations. His performance in Oliver was brilliant and this along with his other work as a child outshone his adult career. (Oliver! - 'What you starin' at?' with Oliver (Mark Lester) and Artful Dodger (Jack Wild) and  Oliver! - "Reviewing the Situation 2" with Fagin (Ron Moody). Accessed September 30, 2015.)

1957 - Fran Drescher (Born Francine Joy Drescher), American actress, comedian, writer, and activist. She is best known for her role as Fran Fine in the hit TV series The Nanny (1993–99), and for her nasal voice and thick New York accent.

1975 - Marion Cotillard, French actress. Known for her roles in independent films and blockbusters in both European and Hollywood productions, she has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award, a European Film Award, a Lumières Award and two César Awards. She became a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in France in 2010, and was promoted to Officer in 2016. She has served as a spokeswoman for Greenpeace since 2001. In particular, for her portrayal of French singer Édith Piaf in La Vie en Rose (2007), Cotillard won her second César Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Lumières Award and the Academy Award for Best Actress, becoming the first and (as of 2023) only actor to win an Academy Award for a French-language performance, and also the second actress to have won this award for a non-English language performance. Cotillard was also the face of the Lady Dior handbag for nine years. Since 2020, she is the face of Chanel's fragrance Chanel No. 5.
 

1980 - Martina Hingis (born Martina Hingisová), Swiss former professional tennis player. She spent a total of 209 weeks as the singles world No. 1 and 90 weeks as doubles world No. 1, holding both No. 1 rankings simultaneously for 29 weeks. She won 5 Grand Slam singles titles, 13 Grand Slam women's doubles titles, winning a calendar-year doubles Grand Slam in 1998, and 7 Grand Slam mixed doubles titles; for a combined total of 25 major titles. She also won the season-ending WTA Finals two times in singles and three times in doubles, an Olympic silver medal, and a record 17 Tier I singles titles.


Lefties:
None known 

 

More birthdays and historical events, September 30 - On This Day

 

Historical Events

1791 - Austrian wunderkind composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart premieres his opera The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte), in Vienna. It is just two months before his death. He doesn't live to see its immense success.

1846 - The use of ether as an anesthetic is recorded for the first time by Boston dentist William Morton, who painlessly removes a tooth.

September 29 Dateline

Birthdays

1547 - Miguel de Cervantes, Spanish writer, best known for his novel Don Quixote. He was an Early Modern Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-eminent novelists. His novel Don Quixote, is often cited as both the first modern novel and one of the pinnacles of world literature. His first significant novel, titled La Galatea, was published in 1585, but he continued to work as a purchasing agent, and later as government tax collector. His other works include the 12 Novelas ejemplares (Exemplary Novels); a long poem, the Viaje del Parnaso (Journey to Parnassus); and Ocho comedias y ocho entremeses (Eight Plays and Eight Interludes). Los trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda (The Travails of Persiles and Sigismunda), was published posthumously in 1616.

1703 - Francois Boucher, French painter, draughtsman and etcher, who worked in the Rococo style. Boucher is known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories, and pastoral scenes. He was one of the most celebrated painter and decorative artist of the 18th century.

1758 - Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronté, KB, also known simply as Admiral Nelson, a British Flag Officer in the Royal Navy. His inspirational leadership, grasp of strategy, and unconventional tactics brought about a number of decisive British naval victories, particularly during the apoleonic Wars. Aged 35, he was wounded in combat, losing sight in one eye in Corsica, and most of one arm in the unsuccessful attempt to conquer Santa Cruz de Tenerife when he was 40. He was fatally shot during his victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. His death at Trafalgar secured his position as one of Britain's most heroic figures. The significance of the victory and his death during the battle led to his signal, "England expects that every man will do his duty", being regularly quoted and referenced up to the modern day. Numerous monuments, including Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square, London, and the Nelson Monument in Edinburgh, have been created in his memory, and his legacy remains highly influential.

1810 -  Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, often referred to as Mrs Gaskell, English Victorian novelist, biographer, and short story writer. The best-known of her remaining novels are Mary Barton (1848), Cranford (1853), North and South (1854), and Wives and Daughters (1865). She became popular for her writing, especially her ghost stories, aided by Charles Dickens, who published her work in his magazine Household Words. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many strata of Victorian society, including the very poor, and are of interest to social historians as well as lovers of literature.

1901 - Enrico Fermi, Italian and naturalised-American physicist and the creator of the world's first nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1. He has been called the "architect of the nuclear age" and the "architect of the atomic bomb". Fermi was one of very few physicists to excel in both theoretical physics and experimental physics. He held several patents related to the use of nuclear power, and was awarded the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on induced radioactivity by neutron bombardment and for the discovery of transuranium elements. He made significant contributions to the development of statistical mechanics, quantum theory, nuclear and particle physics. (The World of Enrico Fermi. This documentary is part of the collection: Academic Film Archive of North America. Accessed September 29, 2017.)

1903 - Diana Vreeland, French-American columnist and editor in the field of fashion. She worked for the fashion magazines Harper's Bazaar and Vogue, being the editor-in-chief of the latter, and as a special consultant at the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She was named on the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1964.

1904 - Greer Garson, CBE (born Eileen Evelyn Greer Garson), British-American actress and singer. She was a major star at MGM during the Second World War for her portrayal of strong women on the homefront. She was also listed by the Motion Picture Herald as one of America's top-ten box office draws from 1942 to 1946. Garson received seven Academy Award nominations, including a record-tying five consecutive nominations (1941–45) in the Best Actress category, winning the award for her performance in the title role of the 1942 film Mrs. Miniver.

1931 - Anita Ekberg (born Kerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg), Swedish actress both in American and European films. She is best known for her role as Sylvia in the Federico Fellini film La Dolce Vita (1960).  Ekberg worked primarily in Italy, where she became a permanent resident in 1964.


Lefties:
None known

 

More birthdays and historical events, September 29 - On This Day

 

Historical Events

1829 - The Metropolitan Police in London becomes the first official police department in the world. It is founded by Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel, later the Prime Minister.  

1902 - In Paris, Émile Zola dies of carbon monoxide poisoning resulting from a faulty chimney.