10 things

All posts tagged 10 things

Posted by Dave on December 25, 2012

Posted in: Film. Tagged: 10 things, film, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall. Leave a comment

10_bogart

Born: December 25, 1899, in New York City
Expelled from: Yale
Served: in the U.S. Navy
Stage debut: as a Japanese butler in the play, Drifting
First film role: in the two-reel DANCING LADY, with Helen Hayes
Founding member: of the “Rat Pack”, along with Frank Sinatra and others
Organized: the Committee for the First Amendment, in opposition to the House Un-American Activities Committee
Fun fact: appeared as a baby in an ad for Mellins Baby Food, illustrated by his mother
Academy Award: Best Actor for THE AFRICAN QUEEN
On his sailing yacht, the Santana: “An actor needs something to stabilize his personality, something to nail down what he really is, not what he is currently pretending to be.”

Bogart and Lauren Bacall in TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT (1944):

Posted by Dave on November 29, 2012

Born: November 29, 1895
His mother, Gertrude: acted in silent films
Married: six times
Dancing lessons: never taken
First film choreographed: WHOOPEE! with Eddie Cantor
Deleted choreography: Ray Bolger’s WIZARD OF OZ scarecrow dance number
Acquitted: at third trial for second degree murder charges following car accident in 1935
Fun fact: was uncredited actor in three films he choreographed
Directed at age 75: Broadway revival of No, No Nanette, starring Ruby Keeler
Quote: “In an era of breadlines, depression and wars, I tried to help people get away from all the misery…to turn their minds to something else. I wanted to make people happy, if only for an hour.”

Busby Berkeley’s “Remember My Forgotten Man”, from GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933:

Posted by Dave on November 17, 2012

Posted in: Film, History, Movies. Tagged: 10 things, Martin Scorsese. 1 Comment

Born: November 17, 1942, in New York City
Early ambition: to become a Catholic priest
Married: five times
Assistant Director and Editor on: WOODSTOCK (1970)
First feature-length film: WHO’S THAT KNOCKING AT MY DOOR? (1967)
Winner of: the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 2001
Academy Awards: 20
Introduced to Robert De Niro by: director Brian DePalma
Fun fact: was offered the part of Charles Manson in the tv movie, HELTER SKELTER
Quote: “I’m a lapsed Catholic. But I am Roman Catholic, there’s no way out of it.”

Scorsese, on VERTIGO:

Posted by Dave on November 6, 2012

Posted in: Film, Movies. Tagged: 10 things, Elaine May, film, Mike Nichols, movies. 1 Comment

Born: November 6, 1931 in Berlin, Germany
Real name: Michael Igor Peschkowsky
Third cousin, twice removed, to: Albert Einstein
Oscar nominations for directorial debut: 13 for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Was once called: “The new Orson Welles.”
Met his wife, Elaine May, at: Chicago’s Compass Players (forerunner to Second City)
His first choices to play Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate: Doris Day and Jeanne Moreau
Grammy Award co-winner: Best Comedy Album (with Elaine May), 1962
Fun fact: Skipped classes at University of Chicago to attend theatrical activities
Lifelong pursuit: Raising Arabian horses

Elaine May spoke in 2003 at the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Awards tribute to Mike Nichols:

Posted by Dave on September 17, 2012

Posted in: Film, Movies. Tagged: 10 things, film, Greta Garbo, movies. 1 Comment

Birthday: September 18, 1905
Grew up in: the slum neighborhoods of Stockholm, Sweden
Real name: Greta Lovisa Gustafsson
First job: soap-lather girl in a Stockholm barbershop
First spoken words in a movie (video, below): “Give me a whiskey, ginger ale on the side, and don’t be stingy, baby.”
Marriages or children: None
Turned down the leading role in: DARK VICTORY (taken by Bette Davis)
How she described her final film, TWO-FACED WOMAN: “My grave.”
Fun fact: Once modeled hats for a department store catalog
Quote: “I never said, ‘I want to be alone.’ I only said, ‘I want to be let alone.’ There is a world of difference.”

“Garbo Talks!” was the advertising slogan for the 1930 film, ANNA CHRISTIE, in which Garbo spoke her first words…

Posted by Dave on September 6, 2012

Posted in: Film, Movies. Tagged: 10 things, Elia Kazan, film, movies. 1 Comment

Birthday: September 7, 1909
Born in: Istanbul, Ottoman Empire
Co-founder of: the Actors Studio
Nickname: “Gadg” for “gadget”
First feature film: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
What he called “black months”: When he was a friendly witness at HUAC, naming names
Academy Awards for Best Director: two (Gentlemen’s Agreement, On the Waterfront), plus three nominations
His favorite of all his films: America America
Fun fact: Was a bartender at college fraternities, but never joined one
Quote: “When I wasn’t working, I didn’t know who I was or what I was supposed to do. This is general in the film world. You are so absorbed in making a film, you can’t think of anything else. It’s your identity, and when it’s done you are nobody.”

Posted by Dave on August 29, 2012

Birthday: August 29, 1915
Named after: Princess Ingrid of Sweden
First marriage: to a dentist
Awards for her role in Casablanca: none
Once had a relationship with: photojournalist Robert Capa
American Film Institute Greatest Female Star ranking: #4
First movie appearance: as “Girl waiting in line”, in Landskamp.
Her father: wanted Ingrid to be an opera star
Fun fact: Woody Guthrie wrote a song about Bergman and Roberto Rossellini
Quote: “I don’t know who I am anymore. I don’t know what I remember and what I’ve been told I remember. What is real? Am I?” —from ANASTASIA