“It’s much easier to make people cry than to make them laugh”
–Vivien Leigh
Vivien Leigh (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Vivian Mary Hartley was born on this day in Darjeeling, Bengal, India in 1913. Today is the 99th anniversary of her birth.
She made her stage debut reciting “little bo peep” at age three.
She was convent-educated in England and throughout Europe, and inspired by her schoolmate Maureen O’Sullivan to embark on an acting career. [Biography.com]
After seeing O’Sullivan in a movie she enrolled in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. She left the school when she married Herbert Leigh Holman.
She made her first film, Things Are Looking Up in 1935. At the advice of her agent she changed her professional name to Vivien (changing the “a” to an “e”) Leigh.
In 1937 she co-starred with Laurence Olivier in Fire Over England and the two began an affair. When Olivier went to Hollywood to film Wuthering Heights she followed. She wanted the role of Scarlett O’Hara in Gone With The Wind. The couple went to the set to see the Burning of Atlanta scene, and she was introduced to the producer, David O. Selznick. He got her a screen test, and she got the role. She won an Academy Award for her Scarlett.
English: Cropped screenshot of Vivien Leigh from the trailer for the film Gone with the Wind (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In 1940 she divorced Leigh Holman and married Olivier. The two became a Hollywood “Powerhouse couple” [Ibid] They starred in several films and plays together. But Leigh suffered from manic depression / bipolar disorder. She had a miscarriage in 1944.
…She simultaneously battled insomnia, …and a respiratory ailment eventually diagnosed as tuberculosis. Hoping for relief, Leigh underwent electroshock therapy, which was very rudimentary at the time and sometimes left her with burn marks on her temples. It wasn’t long before she began to drink heavily.[Ibid]
In 1949 she took up the second great role of her life, Blanche Du Bois in A Streetcar Named Desire. She brought life to the role, first on stage and then on film. She won her second Best Actress Oscar for Streetcar.
Cropped screenshot of Vivien Leigh from the trailer for the film A Streetcar Named Desire (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
At home things were crumbling and she and Olivier divorced in 1960. She bounced back with her Tony Award winning role in Tovarich in 1963, and starring in the Oscar-winning Ship of Fools.
But she became ill again in 1967 while in London and passed away from tuberculosis at the age of 53.
Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr was born on this day in Saint Joseph, Missouri, USA in 1916. Today is the 98th anniversary of his birth.
Walter was the oldest of six children. The Cronkites lived in Kansas City, Missouri (where young Walter was a paper boy for the Kansas City Star) until 1926 when the moved to Houston, Texas. At San Jacinto High School he worked for the school newspaper, eventually becoming editor.
Young Cronkite read the World Book Encyclopedia. He built a telegraph system to link the houses of friends. The churchgoing Boy Scout also learned he had an alcoholic father, and about divorce. His single mother taught him tolerance in a Jim Crow state. [Newsday.com]
According to Boy Scout lore Cronkite wanted to become a newsman after reading an article reporters in Boys Life Magazine.
He went to the University of Texas at Austin but dropped out in his Junior year to start working as a reporter. He worked for a number of newspapers (including the Huston Post) and radio stations (under the name “Walter Wilcox”) reporting the news and sports.
During World War II Cronkite became a War correspondent covering the North African and European campaigns for the United Press. After covering the Nuremberg Trials for that organization he was recruited to CBS News by Edward R. Murrow.
Cronkite started at the Washington, DC affiliate for CBS.
…He worked on a variety of programs, and covered national political conventions and elections. He helped launch the CBS Evening News in 1962 and served as its news anchor until his retirement in 1981. [Biography.com]
He was “The most trusted man in America” and he covered events from the assignations of John and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, to Apollo 11 landing on the Moon, to Watergate and Vietnam.
He also hosted: You Are There, a historical reenactment program; The Twentieth Century, a documentary using newsreel footage to explore historical events; and a game show, It’s News to Me.
He retired in 1981. He continued to report as a special correspondent and presenter.
After retiring, Cronkite hosted CBS’s Universe (1982), co-produced Why in the World (1981) for Public Broadcasting System, and hosted Dinosaur (1991) for the Arts and Entertainment cable television. He also did a special short series for CBS and the Discovery Channel in 1996 called Cronkite Remembers. In addition to his television work, Cronkite wrote several books, including A Reporter’s Life (1996) and Around America (2001). [Ibid]
Walter Cronkite passed away on July 17, 2009 in New York City.
I don’t measure America by its achievement but by its potential.
The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says: It’s a girl.
Service is the rent that you pay for room on this earth.
–Shirley Chisholm
Shirley Anita St. Hill was born on this day in Brooklyn, New York, USA in 1924. Today is the 88th anniversary of her birth.
Her parents were recent immigrants to this country. Her father, Charles, was born in British Guiana, her mother, Ruby, was from Barbados. At three Shirley went to live with her Grandmother in Barbados. She attended Vauxhall Primary School, in Christ Church.
“…I had my early education in the strict, traditional, British-style schools of Barbados. If I speak and write easily now, that early education is the main reason.” [Chisholm in her autobiography Unbought and Unbossed.]
At 10 she came back to the Brooklyn. She attended Girls High School, an integrated and prestigious public prep school in Brooklyn then earned her BA from Brooklyn College. She married Conrad Chisholm, a private investigator in 1949. In 1952 she received her Masters in elementary education from Columbia University.
Shirley Chisholm, Congresswoman from New York, looking at list of numbers posted on a wall (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Chisholm spent six years as director of the Hamilton-Madison Child Care Center then an addition six-year as consultant to the Division of Day Care before delving in politics.
After a few years in local New York politics Chisholm became the first black Congresswoman in the US House of Representatives in 1969. She served in the House for seven terms.
English: Founding members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Chisholm is seated in Orange. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
After initially being assigned to the House Forestry Committee, she shocked many by demanding reassignment. She was placed on the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, eventually graduating to the Education and Labor Committee. She became one of the founding members of the Congressional Black Caucus in 1969. [Biography.com]
In 1972 Chisholm entered the US presidential race as a candidate for the Democratic Party. She ran in 12 primaries and won three (Louisiana, Mississippi and New Jersey, garnering 152 delegates from an ethnically diverse base that spanned social economic backgrounds and the gender divide. She was an advocate for “minority education and employment opportunities, (and) also a vocal opponent of the draft.” [Ibid] She said she ran “in spite of hopeless odds… to demonstrate the sheer will and refusal to accept the status quo.” She was the…
First African-American woman to seek a major party nomination for President of the United States (1972)
First woman to have her name placed in nomination for President at the Democratic National Convention
First African-American to be on the ballot as a candidate for President [About.com]
Gwendolyn Sawyer Cherry and Shirley Chisholm at the Democratic National Convention: Miami Beach, Florida (Photo credit: State Library and Archives of Florida)
Although she lost the nomination to George McGovern (who lost the election to incumbant Richard Nixon), Chisholm “had brought the voice of the disenfranchised to the forefront.” [Ibid]
Back in Congress she continued to fight for the poor and middle class. She worked to get domestic workers a minimum wage and to improve opportunities for inner-city residents through better education, health care and social services. She was the author of a 1970 child care bill that was vetoed by President Nixon (he called it Sovietization of American children.)
Congressman Edlophus Towns (left) and his wife, Gwen Towns (right) pose with former Congresswoman and Brooklyn native, Shirley Chisholm (center) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
She retired from the House in 1982 and went back to education (with a little politicking on the side.) Shirley Chisholm died on New Years Day 2005 in Ormon Beach, Florida.
She was the author of two books, Unbought and Unbossed (1970) and The Good Fight (1973). [Biography.com]
English: Warren G. Harding (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
“America’s present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration; not agitation, but adjustment; not surgery, but serenity; not the dramatic, but the dispassionate; not experiment, but equipoise; not submergence in internationally, but sustainment in triumphant nationality….” — Warren G. Harding
He soon joined the political ranks himself, serving as state senator then US Senator. In 1920 he became the Republican candidate for President because, as fellow Ohioan Harry Daugherty later explained, “He looked like a President.” [Whitehouse.gov] He won by a landslide.
Republicans in Congress easily got the President’s signature on their bills. They eliminated wartime controls and slashed taxes, established a Federal budget system, restored the high protective tariff, and imposed tight limitations upon immigration. [Ibid]
His administration was rife with cronyism and scandal and led him to say “My…friends…they’re the ones that keep me walking the floors nights!”
Harding died of a heart attack in 1923 while on a trip to San Francisco.
Warren G. Harding, seated at desk, wearing bow-tie, with newspaper in hand. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
President Polk, 1858 portrait, by George Healy (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
James Knox Polk was born on this day in Mecklenburg County in North Carolina, USA in 1795. Today is the 217th anniversary of his birth.
Polk was the eldest of 10 children of Samuel and Jane Polk. His father was a farmer and slave holder. The family moved to Maury County, Tennessee when Polk was 11. And Samuel became a land speculator, owned a mercantile and a county judge. Polk was home schooled and a good student. At 17 he suffered from urinary stones that had to be removed surgically (with only brandy for anesthetic.)
He went to the University of North Carolina where he joined the Dialectic Society and learned to debate. After graduating with honors in 1818 he studied law in Nashville and clerked for the Tennessee State Senate. He passed the bar in 1820.
English: Picture of James K. Polk (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
He ran for state legislature in 1823 and became a Andrew Jackson supporter when the latter ran for US Senator from Tennessee. Two years later Polk ran for US House of representatives. He became chair of the House Ways and Means committee in 1833 and Speaker of the House in 1835.
In the House of Representatives, Polk was a chief lieutenant of Jackson in his Bank war. He served as Speaker between 1835 and 1839, leaving to become Governor of Tennessee. [Whitehouse.gov]
As Speaker he worked tirelessly to advance the agendas of both Presidents Jackson and Van Buren through the House. Polk issued the gag rule — a resolution that automatically tabled any petition having to do with Slavery without review — opposed by Northerners like John Quincy Adams* in the House. He left Congress in 1839 and ran for (and won) the office of Governor of Tennessee.
Polk ran for President of the United States in 1844. On March 4th, 1845 he was sworn in as the US’s 11th President. (He is the only former Speaker of the House to become President.)
James Knox Polk (11th president of the United States) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
One of the highlights of his single term in office was the acquisition of the Oregon Country (Oregon, Washington, Idaho and part of Montana), California, and New Mexico.
President Polk added a vast area to the United States, but its acquisition precipitated a bitter quarrel between the North and the South over expansion of slavery. [Whitehouse.gov]
He also reduced tariffs from 32% to 25% with a set of tariff rates known as the Walker Tariff in 1846. and established a treasury system that lasted into the next century. During his tenure The U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland was opened, as was The Smithsonian Institution on the Mall in DC. Also in DC ground was broken for 555 foot tall, marble and granite obelisk, The Washington Monument.
The Mexican American War was fought under his administration. Although the US handily defeated the Mexican army the declaration of the war was much opposed in the North.
He was a President who “Said what he intended to do and did it” according to Harry S. Truman. That included increasing the US’s land mass by 1/3rd.
By the end of his term in 1949 Polk was in ill-health — he’d contracted cholera on a trip to New Orleans. He died on June 15, three months after leaving office. His will stated that his slaves were to be set freed upon the death of his wife, Sarah Childress Polk, but since she lived past the Civil War they were set free with the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th Amendment.
James K. Polk’s tomb lies on the grounds of the state capitol in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
At this point in the ritaLOVEStoWRITE blog history I’m finding a lot of references to previous Thought of the Day bios. I’d like to link back to them (to refresh the memory for those of you who have been around for a while and to introduce them to those of you who are newish to the blog.) But I don’t want to be intrusive. So yesterday I imbedded the links to Gwyneth Paltrow in the Toni Collette bioBlog, today I moved the JQ Adams link to the bottom. I could also do something like [ see TotD LINK] with a link imbedded. Would that be too intrusive? I feel there is value in knowing that the link is back to a previous blog from this serious and not to an external web site. What do you think? What’s the best way to handle this? I really want to hear from you… Cheers, Rita
“I don’t understand why I do what I do. I don’t understand why I act anymore. But I do know that I love it, and that I find it really interesting and satisfying to enter into other worlds and explore different ways of thinking.”
—Toni Collette
Toni Collette (United States of Tara) (Photo credit: Capital M)
Antonia Collette was born on this day in Blacktown, Sydney, Australia in 1972. She is 40 years old today.
Toni is the oldest of three, and only girl, to Judy and Bob Collette. The family lived about an hour away from Sydney where Bob was a truck driver and Judy was a customer-service rep. When she was six the family moved to the Sydney suburbs. She had a number of pets as a child, including cats, dogs, birds and rabbits. Toni was always a tom-boy and athletic.
Collette at 15 at the Blackstown Girls High School [Image courtesy: Toni Collette Online]
At 14 she caught the acting bug when she performed in her school’s production of Godspell. By 16, with her parents permission, she dropped out of school and enrolled in NIDA (the National Institute of Dramatic Arts, ) It was a three-year acting course, but she left after 18 months to take a role in her first film Spotswood with Anthony Hopkins and Russell Crowe. She was nominated for Best Supporting Actress by the Australian Film Institutefor her role as Wendy in the movie.
She moved to the Theatre, playing Petra in A Little Night Music , Meg in Away .
Her break out film was Muriel’s Wedding. Her hefty Muriel (she gained 40 pounds for the role) is a misfit. She has no direction in life. Her one hazy ambition is to get married, (even though she’s never had a boy friend).
A very special actress was needed, someone who could reveal the terrible torment and turmoil inside the outwardly cheery Muriel, someone who could really enjoy the extravagant highs of Muriel’s holiday – including a storming rendition of Abba’s Waterloo with Rachel Griffiths. [Ibid]
Collette is wonderful in the film about a “girl who didn’t fit in, but learns to stand out.” [from the dvd cover]. [If you are planning a Quirky Australian Film Night — and why wouldn’t you be? — throw this one in with Strictly Ballroom]
She made her Broadway in 1999 debut in Michael John LaChiusa’s The Wild Party. She nominated for a Toni Award, a Drama Desk Award and a Theatre World Award (Collette won the latter.)
She was offered the role of Bridget Jones, but had to turn it down because of her Broadway commitment. No worries, that left her free to take the role in M. Night Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense. [Click Here to read the Thought of the Day on M. Night Shyamalan] Collette earned an Oscar nomination as the harried mother who glued her troubled son to reality in this thriller. She turned in a fantastic performance among a cast full of fantastic performances and her turn from smiling, singing Muriel or bland, sweet Harriet to intense, worried Lynn Sear let the world know that she was an actress to look out for.
She had a supporting role in Nick Hornby’s About a Boy as Fiona, and in The Hours, as Kitty in 2002. Collette received a slew of awards and nominations for both.
Cover of Little Miss Sunshine [Blu-ray]
Collette played mom Sheryl Hoover in the sleeper hit of 2006, Little Miss Sunshine. Sunshine was an ensemble piece with quirky characters all around.
…Meet the Hoovers, an Albuquerque clan riddled with depression, hostility, and the tattered remnants of the American Dream; despite their flakiness, they manage to pile into a VW van for a weekend trek to L.A. in order to get moppet daughter Olive (Abigail Breslin) into the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant. Much of the pleasure of this journey comes from watching some skillful comic actors doing their thing…[From Robert Horton’s review of Little Miss Sunshine on Amazon.com]
Again Collette plays a mom just trying to keep her family together (although to a lot more laughs here than she did in Sixth Sense.)
HBO and the BBC joined forces to produceTsunami: The Aftermath in which Collette plays an Australian aid worker named Kathy Graham. Tim Roth, Hugh Bonneville & Chiwetel Ejiofor also star in the film that dramatized events around the devastating the 2004 tsunami that hit Thailand.
United States of Tara (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
She won an Emmy, a Golden Globe and an Australian Film Institute Award for her work on the United States of Tara. In it she plays a housewife with dissociative identity disorder. When stressed one of her multiple personalities come out. The show ran for three seasons on Showtime.
Collette re-teamed with her Muriel director PJ Hogan for the quirky Aussie film Mental. It was release Down Under on October 4th. Other indie films out (or coming out) include the comedy Jesus Henry Christ— a comedy about a ten-year old, “petri-dish”, boy genius who goes in search of his biological father and Hitchcock— about the making of Psycho.
Collette and husband Dave Galafassi headline the group Toni Collette and the Finish. Their cd, “Beautiful Awkward Pictures” came out in 2006 features 11 of Collette’s original songs.
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