Colleen Gray 100 -- October 23, 2022

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Actress Colleen Gray was born 100 years ago today, on 23-October-1922. She appeared in many films noir, including Kiss of Death., Nightmare Alley and Stanley Kubrick's The Killing.

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Sue Lyon 75 -- July 10, 2021

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Actress Sue Lyon was born on 10-July-1946. She would have been 75 today. I was surprised to find that I did not write anything about her when she died in 2019. She is most famous for playing Dolores Haze in Stanley Kubrick's adaption of Lolita, but she made other movies.

Ralph Meeker 100 -- November 21, 2020

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 Tough guy actor Ralph Meeker was born 100 years ago today, on 21-November-1920. He is best known for playing Mickey Spillane's private eye Mike Hammer in Robert Aldrich's Kiss Me Deadly. He was also in Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory and Robert Aldrich's The Dirty Dozen. 

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Kirk Douglas, RIP -- February 5, 2020

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Actor Kirk Douglas has died at the age of 103. He was passionate about his work and I have always admired him. 

He grew up poor, but wanted to be an actor after he recited a poem in kindergarten.  He attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts with Betty Joan Perske, who later became Lauren Bacall. She had a crush on him, but he probably felt that she was too young. After Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in the Navy and served until 1944, when he was discharged because of wounds.

Lauren Bacall helped him move from Broadway plays to the movies.

He made many good movies, including Out of the Past, In Harm's Way and Paths of Glory. In his own productions like Spartacus, he helped to break the Hollywood blacklist.  Dalton Trumbo received a credit under his own name.

 I took the photo of his hand and footprints at Grauman's Chinese in July, 2012.

Slim Pickens 100 -- June 29,2019

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Slim Pickens, star of rodeos, movies and television would have been 100 years old today.  He was born on 29-June-1919.  I loved what he did in westerns, Dr Strangelove and Blazing Saddles.

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Paths of Glory -- May 28, 2018

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Happy Memorial Day, everyone. I thought this was a good day to write about the 1957 film Paths of Glory, directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring Kirk Douglas.

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Kirk Douglas played Colonel Drax, who is ordered to lead his men on a suicide mission.  The first wave is nearly wiped out.  The second wave refuses to leave the trenches.  A French general decides to try 100 men for cowardice and execute them.  A higher-ranking general, played by Adolphe Menjoy, tells him to select three men.

Three men, one from each company, are chosen, each for no good reason.  Dax tries to represent them at their trial, but it is a farce.  The men are shot the next day.

Paths of Glory is a painful movie to watch.  It was not shown in France until 1975.

Kirk Douglas 100 - December 9, 2016

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Actor Kirk Douglas was born 100 years ago today, on 09-December-1916.  He is still with us and I hope he is having a wonderful birthday. He was passionate about his work and I have always admired him. 

He grew up poor, but wanted to be an actor after he recited a poem in kindergarten.  He attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts with Betty Joan Perske, who later became Lauren Bacall. She had a crush on him, but he probably felt that she was too young. AFter Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in the Navy and served until 1944, when he was discharged because of wounds.

Lauren Bacall helped him move from Broadway plays to the movies.

He made many good movies, including Out of the Past, In Harm's Way and Paths of Glory. In his own productions like Spartacus, he helped to break the Hollywood blacklist.  Dalton Trumbo received a credit under his own name.

 I took the photo of his hand and footprints at Grauman's Chinese in July, 2012.