https://www.facebook.com/451111444762175/

Celebrity Memorial, Dallas, TX (2026)

06/20/2026

The character of Johnny English himself is based on a similar character called Richard Latham, who Rowan Atkinson played in a series of British television adverts for Barclaycard. Some of the gags from the advertisements made it into the 2003 film "Johnny English," including English incorrectly identifying a waiter, and inadvertently shooting himself with a tranquilizer ballpoint pen.

After the movie's release, there was a false newspaper allegation that Atkinson had suffered a breakdown and checked himself into a mental health clinic. The Daily Mail, who published the story, was forced to apologize after a settlement at the High Court in London.

A noted car buff, the car that English used was an Aston Martin DB7 Vantage, which was actually Atkinson's own car. English's car in the sequel, "Johnny English Reborn" (2011), was a Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupé with an experimental 9.0 liter V16 engine. There are only a few of these engines in existence, produced during tests for the Phantom Coupé, and they were not used in production models. For the production of the film, Atkinson approached the company and requested that they install one into a car, making the vehicle seen in the film unique.

"I remember looking up 'Johnny English' in a film guide and it said 'intermittently hilarious' - quite a good description of five good jokes and a lot of longueurs. I find it frustrating that, apart from 'Four Weddings and a Funeral' (1994), I have yet to be involved in a film of which I am totally proud." (Wikipedia/IMDb)

Happy Birthday, Rowan Atkinson!

06/20/2026

"My Week with Marilyn" is based on Colin Clark's "The Prince, The Showgirl and Me" (published in 1995) and "My Week with Marilyn" (published in 2000); two diary accounts, which document his time on the set of the 1957 film "The Prince and the Showgirl" and the time he spent with Monroe, played in the film by Michelle Williams.

Eddie Redmayne was eventually cast as Clark. Producer David Parfitt commented that finding an actor for the role had been difficult, saying "It's a devilishly tricky part to find the right person for because Colin went to Eton, studied at Oxford, and flew for the RAF." Redmayne also went to Eton.

This movie offers an excessively romanticized and sentimental account of Colin Clark's relationship with Marilyn Monroe, and with others, too. In reality, Clark had contempt for Monroe, whom he regarded as a hopelessly neurotic creature who would likely one day commit su***de. The real-life equivalent of Lucy (played by Emma Watson in the film) was a working-class girl who Clark simply wanted to seduce, although he regarded her as stupid. Far from being the naive innocent portrayed by Eddie Redmayne, Clark was also having an affair with a much older married woman at the time he was involved (in a very minor capacity) in the filming of "The Prince and the Showgirl."

"I didn't train to be an actor, I blagged my way into it, and I always feel I'm waiting to be found out. So whenever you get a job, there's a moment of euphoria and then the realization, 'Oh my God, you've got to do this.' And you feel there should be some scaffolding. I've worked with people who have their preferred way of rehearsing guaranteed by clause in their contract. But it's not like I have a process, it's a very formless thing, and there's no one telling you, 'This is what you're going to do and this is how you're going to do it.'" (Wikipedia/IMDb)

Happy Birthday, Eddie Redmayne!

06/20/2026

The son of a lumberman, Tom Mix joined the Army as a young man and was an artillery sergeant during the Philippine campaign from 1898 to 1901, though he never saw action. In fact, Mix deserted from the Army and carefully kept the facts about his military service a closely guarded secret. He deserted to marry his first wife, Grace Allin; the fact that he was a deserter did not come up until after his death, by which time he was so famous that the Army had to hold its tongue and give him a full military burial.

Mix never had kind words for John Wayne because, many believe, he was afraid that Wayne would push him out of the limelight. That hatred grew as Wayne's star rose and, due to the fact that Mix wouldn't take a pay cut to do radio, his own star began to fall. Asked by a journalist what he thought of Wayne, Mix only replied, "The only Christian words that I could use are 'no-talent upstart." Wayne, for his part, had disliked Mix since Wayne's college days at USC, when Mix told several members of the football team (Wayne among them) to stop by Fox Studios and he would get them jobs in the movies. Wayne and several others did so a few weeks later, only to be informed that Mix had never told anyone at the studio about his promises of employment, and they were thrown off the lot. Wayne never forgave Mix.

Sound and encroaching middle age were not favorable to Mix, and after making a handful of pictures during the sound era he left the film industry after 1935's serial, "The Miracle Rider" (1935) (a huge hit for lowly Mascot Pictures, grossing over $1 million; Mix earned $40,000), touring with the Sells Floto Circus in 1930 and 1931 and the Tom Mix Circus from 1936 to 1938.

In 1939, shortly before the Second World War, Mix appeared with his Tom Mix Circus in Germany. N**i dictator Adolf Hi**er, who was an enthusiastic film fan and admirer of Mix, welcomed the western star via telephone in Germany. It is reported that Mix answered to Hi**er: "I would like to visit my fans in Germany again, but only over your dead body." (IMDb)

Happy Birthday, Tom Mix!

06/19/2026

"Boyz n the Hood" (1991) was written and directed by John Singleton in his feature directorial debut, and stars Ice Cube, Cuba Gooding Jr., Morris Chestnut, Laurence Fishburne, Nia Long, Regina King, and Angela Bassett. "Boyz n the Hood" follows Tre Styles (Gooding Jr.), who is sent to live with his father Furious Styles (Fishburne) in South Central Los Angeles, surrounded by the neighborhood's booming gang culture.

The film was nominated for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay at the 64th Academy Awards, making Singleton, age 24, the youngest person and the first African-American to be nominated for Best Director.

Singleton wrote the film based on his own life and that of people he knew. When applying for film school, one of the questions on the application form was to describe "three ideas for films." One of the ideas Singleton composed was titled "Summer of 84," which later evolved into "Boyz n the Hood."

Part of Singleton's inspiration to making this film came when an executive from Orion Pictures came to talk to his class at USC's film school. Singleton told the executives that he didn't like that the movie "Colors" (1988) wasn't about South Central Los Angeles at all, but was about "two white cops." When the exec defensively said that Ice-T wrote the music for the film, Singleton said, to a lot of applause, "Well, Ice-T didn't write the f**king script!"

During writing, Singleton was influenced by the 1986 film "Stand by Me," which inspired both an early scene where four young boys take a trip to see a dead body, and the closing fade-out of main character Doughboy. Upon completion, Singleton was protective of his script, insisting that he be the one to direct the project, later explaining at a retrospective screening of the film, "I wasn’t going to have somebody from Idaho or Encino direct this movie." He sold the script to Columbia Pictures in 1990, who greenlit the film immediately out of interest in making a film similar to the comedy-drama film "Do the Right Thing" (1989).

To maintain a sense of realism, Singleton never warned the actors about when shots would be fired. Their reactions are real.

In an October 20, 2014 Nerdist podcast, Paul Reubens revealed that Singleton was security for the set of "Pee-Wee's Playhouse." Singleton would also present his script to Fishburne and Reubens and ask for their opinion. This would eventually lead to Fishburne winding up being cast in the film. (Wikipedia/IMDb)

Happy Birthday, John Singleton!

06/19/2026

Anthony Minghella: "Nobody wants to make any film, ever. I mean, you can assume that every head of every studio would be perfectly happy never to make another film, because making films is dangerous, costs too much money, none of them make sense, there's absolutely no guarantee that they're going to work - the best thing is not to make any; you can't get fired for not making a film - you're going to get fired for making the wrong film. And so you realize that the first words anybody in the movies wants to say is no, and the job of the director or producer or writer is finding the area of least resistance to get the film made. There's never been any movie I've made that anybody's wanted to make, ever."

Originally, Twentieth Century Fox was to finance "The English Patient" (1996), but disputes arose between the studio and the producers over casting. In particular, Fox preferred a more well-known actress to play Katharine Clifton instead of Dame Kristin Scott Thomas. Demi Moore was lobbying particularly hard for the role. After the producers refused to give in on a series of casting choices, Fox backed out of the movie, and the project was uncertain just as production was about to begin. However, within a few weeks - during which the cast and crew stayed on in Italy without knowing if this movie would be made - the movie was picked up by Miramax Films.

Minghella read the novel in one sitting after completing a previous shoot in New York City. When he finished, he was completely disoriented and at first couldn't remember where he was, but he phoned eventual producer Saul Zaentz the next morning to try and interest him in the project. Zaentz not only read the book but discovered that author Michael Ondaatje was giving a reading near Zaentz's home that weekend.

"I think the film is quite cruel actually and quite austere; it carries this lava of emotion on quite a formal surface. And one of the reasons why in my life I have loved Bach so much is because I think he too has this combination of an extremely formal structure and apparent austere sound, but underneath there's this emotion boiling away, and I think that one of the purposes of fiction is to exercise the emotional muscle - that's what we go for, we go to think and to feel and I think that feeling somehow in England is at a premium, that people are embarrassed to feel in public, whereas I think that's the luxury of fiction - you can inhabit areas of existence which are not your own but which afford you the possibility of being able to go to places naked really, and I feel my own nakedness in the work that I'm doing; in fact I never watch anything I've been associated with after I've done it because I feel like I'm standing there for everybody to look at, so I haven't seen 'The English Patient' since I finished it." (IMDb)

Happy Birthday, Anthony Minghella (with Zaentz below to the right)!

06/19/2026

One scene in "The Bishop's Wife" (1947) shows Cary Grant and Loretta Young in a conversation. Director Henry Koster staged this with the two facing each other, but both complained that this showed the "wrong" side of their faces. In order to show the "right" side, they both had to be looking screen left, which made a face-to-face talk impossible to film. Koster had a window set piece brought in, and he filmed it from outside, with both looking out in the same direction, Grant behind Young. The next day, producer Samuel Goldwyn visited the set after seeing dailies and berated Koster for shooting the scene in that manner. Koster replied by asking Young and Grant to explain why the scene was shot that way. After both told Goldwyn about the "right" and "wrong" sides of their faces, Goldwyn said "Look, if I'm only getting half a face, you're only getting half a salary!" and stormed off the set. The subject of "right" and "wrong" sides never came up again.

Over Grant's protests, a skating double wearing a mask with Grant's features was used in the long shots of the complex skating routine. A skating double was also used for Young on all long shots.

Co-star David Niven was originally cast as the angel, Dana Andrews as the bishop, and Teresa Wright as his wife. However, Wright had to bow out due to pregnancy. According to Robert Osborne, Andrews was lent to RKO in order to obtain Young. Koster then brought in Cary Grant, but he wanted to play the angel, so the role of the bishop was given to Niven.

In early previews, audiences disliked the film, so Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett made uncredited rewrites. Though the premiere of The Bishop's Wife was acclaimed by critics as a success, the film did not initially perform well at the box office. Market research showed that moviegoers avoided the film because they thought it was religious. As a result, Goldwyn decided to retitle it Cary and the Bishop's Wife for certain US markets, while adding a black text box with the question "Have you heard about CARY AND THE BISHOP'S WIFE?" on posters in markets where the film kept the original title. By adding Grant's first name to the title, the film's business increased by as much as 25 percent. (IMDb/Wikipedia)

Happy Birthday, Loretta Young!

06/19/2026

On this date in 1933, construction of the Golden Gate Bridge began in San Francisco Bay.

The octopus stop-motion effects in "It Came From Beneath the Sea" (1955) were designed and animated by Ray Harryhausen. The effects budget, however, was getting slightly out of hand, and for this reason, Sam Katzman allowed Harryhausen only enough money for animating six of the octopus' eight te****les; two were eliminated on the final shooting miniature. Harryhausen jokingly named his giant octopus "the sixtopus."

For the scenes where a single te****le is seen moving up and around the Golden Gate Bridge, Harryhausen used a single large model te****le instead of employing the complete animation model. Some of the bridge scenes employ a shooting miniature of a bridge support, which was then composited in post-production over live footage of the real support; this is the bridge section that the "sixtopus" is seen clinging to in the final scene.

Producer Charles Schneer was refused permission to shoot on the actual Golden Gate Bridge, so he put the camera on the back of a bakery truck and drove it back-and-forth over the bridge several times to get the needed footage. (Wikipedia)

06/19/2026

George Reeves' film career began in 1939 when he was cast as Stuart Tarleton (incorrectly listed in the film's credits as Brent Tarleton), one of Scarlett O'Hara's suitors in "Gone with the Wind" (below). It was a minor role, but he and Fred Crane were in the film's opening scene (Reeves and Crane both dyed their hair red to portray the Tarleton twins). Reeves was contracted to Warner Brothers soon after being cast. Between the start of "Gone With the Wind" production and its release 12 months later, several films on his Warner contract were made and released, making "Gone With the Wind" his first film role, but his fifth film release.

In 1953, Reeves played a minor character, Sergeant Maylon Stark, in the motion picture "From Here To Eternity." The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and gave Reeves the distinction of appearing in two "Best Picture" films.

A false but often-repeated story suggests that he was upset when his scenes were cut after a preview audience kept yelling "There's Superman!" whenever he appeared on screen. "Eternity" director Fred Zinnemann, the screenwriter Daniel Taradash, and others have maintained that every scene written for Reeves's character was shot and included as part of the released film. Zinnemann has also asserted that there were no post-release cuts, nor was there even a preview screening. Everything in the first production draft of the script is still present in the final product seen since 1953. (Wikipedia/Snopes)

Happy Birthday, George Reeves!

06/19/2026

Sarah Jane Mayfield, after graduating high school, attempted, with the help of her mother, to break into films, but to no avail. In 1935, after attending the University of Missouri, she began a career as a radio singer, which led to her first name change to Jane Durrell. In 1936, she signed a contract with Warner Bros. Pictures and that led to another name change, the more familiar one of Jane Wyman.

Under that name she appeared in "A" and "B" pictures at Warners, including two with her future husband, Ronald Reagan: "Brother Rat" (1938) and its sequel, "Brother Rat and a Baby" (1940). In the early 1940s, she moved into comedies and melodramas and gained attention for her role as Ray Milland's long-suffering girlfriend in "The Lost Weekend" (1945).

"It was my biggest chance yet, and I was determined to make the most of it. I was determined to act from the inside out, to disregard all surface effects, and delve into the character of a sturdy woman who endured hardship stoically and who concealed a deeply emotional nature under a frosty, pragmatic exterior. I meditated on the role at great length; I wanted to get to the bottom of this woman's psyche. And in doing so I dredged up all the early hardships and disappointments in my own life, looking constantly for some points of reference that would link our respective inner schemes."

The following year, she was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for her role as Ma Baxter in "The Yearling" (1946), and won the coveted prize in 1949 as deaf-mute r**e victim Belinda MacDonald in "Johnny Belinda" (below).

"We were just two rows behind Irene Dunne. There was something about the line of her neck that convinced me she was going to get the prize. I was slumped low in my seat, sort of trying to hide so that I could sneak out. I was so sure I wouldn't win that when I heard my name called out, I didn't recognize it. I didn't get up. But Jerry Wald poked me, and my handbag dropped to my lap. My lipstick and everything went rolling onto the floor. I must have been quite a sight trying to pick up things and get to the stage at the same time. I was the most surprised girl in the world."

From another interview: "I heard my name called and the first thing that came to my mind was 'Did I or didn't I put on my girdle tonight? Then I thought, 'So what? Let it bounce.'" (IMDb)

Happy Birthday, Jane Wyman!

06/19/2026

Steven Spielberg called "The Castle of Cagliostro" (1979) "one of the greatest adventure movies of all time." It is also Disney animator John Lasseter's favorite film. While hosting a party in 1985, he showed the film to his future wife Nancy Lasseter, whom he had earlier met at a computer graphics conference. She loved it, and they got married three years later.

"Cagliostro" was the first film directed by Hayao Miyazaki, one of Japan's greatest animation directors. Initially, the film was going to be directed by Yasuo Ôtsuka, and would be an adaptation of the TMS Entertainment series "Lupin the 3rd" (as part of a common trend at the time of adapting TV animes into films); in fact a draft of the script was handled by the series writer Seijun Suzuki, and contained an amalgamation of elements from the series. however, Otsuka didn't like the draft, and asked Miyazaki to handle it. Miyazaki changed the direction of the script completely by asking for an original plot.

During recording, Hayao Miyazaki told Yasuo Yamada (who voiced Lupin) to be more subdued, like Clint Eastwood. Yamada retorted, "Leave Lupin to me! I'll decide how he is." Miyazaki was incensed by Yamada's arrogant attitude. The film's character designer, Yasuo Otsuka, advised Miyazaki, "Yasuo is being cheeky, so let's take it down." By the time he had finished watching the preview, Yamada apologized and bowed ruefully to Miyazaki.

The "Lupin III" creator, Monkey Punch (birth name Kazuhiko Katô), did not seek permission from Maurice Leblanc's estate to use the name of Arsène Lupin, and at that time Japan did not enforce trade copyrights. This led to copyright issues once Lupin's popularity spread to North America and Europe (the name was still permitted in Japan however), and in English translations of the film, the protagonist was known as either "Wolf" (the direct meaning of "Lupin") or "Rupan" (the Japanese pronunciation of the word). (IMDb)

Happy Birthday, Hayao Miyazaki!

Celebrity Memorial

06/20/2026

06/20/2026

06/20/2026

06/19/2026

06/19/2026

06/19/2026

06/19/2026

06/19/2026

06/19/2026

06/19/2026

Address

Website

Alerts

Shortcuts

Share

Category