Posts Tagged with Happy Birthday

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAROLD LLOYD

Remembering the great Harold Lloyd on his birthday (20th April 1893.) After retiring from a very successful career in silent movies, Harold became a renowned Hollywood photographer. Among his subjects was none other than Marilyn!

Taken from “The Marilyn Monroe Encyclopedia” by Adam Victor:

A star of gravity-defying silent slapstick, one of the most famous comedians of the silent age, Lloyd had become a photographer by the time Marilyn became a big star.  He was snapping away in 1952 during the photo shoot for Marilyn’s first LIFE cover, and he arranged several more sessions over the following year.  His photographic speciality was colour stereo pictures.  Seven pictures of Marilyn appeared in a 1992 book of his 3-D photographs, with text by Lloyds granddaughter Suzanne Lloyd Hayes.

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAUL DOUGLAS

Today we are wishing actor Paul Douglas (April 11th 1907 – September 11th 1959) a very happy birthday.

Douglas was an American movie star, who made his debut in films in 1936 and worked consistently up until his untimely death at 52 in 1959.  Some of his film credits include: “A Letter To Three Wives” (1949) and “Panic In The Streets” (1950.)  But it was his role in the classic film noir drama “Clash By Night” (1952) as the bumbling, but loveable Jerry D’Amato starring alongside Barbara Stamwyk, Robert Ryan and Marilyn Monroe, that he will be best remembered.  Douglas also shared the same billing with Marilyn in the 1952 comedy “We’re Not Married!”

Douglas had been cast as Mr Jeff D. Sheldrake, an iconic character in the equally iconic film “The Apartment” (1960) which was Directed by Billy Wilder and co-starred Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine.  It would go on to be nominated for 10 Academy Awards (winning 5, including Best Picture.)  But tragically, Douglas died suddenly of a heart attack in 1959 and the role was recast and given to Fred MacMurray.



Here he is with Marilyn at the 1953 Photoplay Awards.

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY BETTE DAVIS


Remembering the incomparable Bette Davis, born on this date in 1908.

Bette Davis had a long and illustrious career spanning 7 decades.  She won the Academy Award for ‘Best Actress‘ twice, was the first person to accrue ten Academy Award nominations for acting, and was the first woman to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Insitute.

Some of her most well known films include “Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?” “Now Voyager,” “Dark Victory,” and “The Virgin Queen.”  But it is undoubtably her role as Margo Channing in “All About Eve” that film goers and Marilyn fans remember most as Monroe had a small, but most definitely memorable role as the light headed, but charming Miss Caswell.

Davis said in her autobiography about “All About Eve,”
 “I can think of no project that from the outset was as rewarding from the first day to the last. It is easy to understand why. It was a great script, had a great director, and was a cast of professionals all with parts they liked. It was a charmed production from the word go.”

She is buried at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills in California.  Her tombstone reads “She did it the hard way.”