This Day in Indie History

This Day in Indie History: Mia Farrow

The porcelain-like, golden-tressed actress Mia Farrow was born in Los Angeles on this day in 1945. Her father was Australian director John Farrow and her mother was actress Maureen O’Sullivan, who is best known for playing Jane to Johnny Weismuller’s Tarzan. But when the young Mia expressed an interest in acting, her father sent her to a European convent school. After his passing in 1963, the actress landed a role in an Off-Broadway production of The Importance of Being Earnest and her career soon took off. Her stint in the television hit “Peyton Place” led to screen time and her now famous character in Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby. While Farrow’s version of Daisy Buchanan in 1974’s The Great Gatsby was critically panned, she soon found herself the muse of director Woody Allen. Together they made seven films in 10 years, including Hannah and Her Sisters and Husbands and Wives.

Factoid: Mia Farrow’s romantic relationships have often been tabloid fodder, but her caring nature never gathers quite the same publicity coverage. In 1970 the actress and her then husband, conductor Andre Previn, gave birth to twin boys. Since then Mia’s brood has grown to 14 in number—10 of whom she has adopted from foreign countries.

February 8th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: Taxi Driver

Nominated for four Academy Awards, Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver opened to the public at New York’s Cinema I on this day in 1976. Running with the tagline “On every street in every city, there’s a nobody who dreams of being a somebody,” the movie addressed not only the gritty realism of the city, much as Scorsese’s Mean Streets had, but also touched on the post-War environment and its affects on soldiers returning from Vietnam. In its immediate commercial success, the movie launched the careers of both Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster.

Film Factoid: Taxi Driver marked the second of eight films (s0 far) that Scorsese has directed De Niro. The New York duo also collaborated on 1973’s Mean Streets, 1977’s New York, New York, the Oscar-nominated Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, Goodfellas, Cape Fear and, most recently, Casino.

February 7th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: James Spader

James Spader was born this day in 1960. Despite the influence of his academic parents, the Boston-born actor had left school by the age of 17, only to land roles in mundane television movies and serial duds. Feature films came shortly after though. Perhaps most memorably, he played a yuppie heartthrob in the 80s cult-hit Pretty in Pink before moving on to Diane Keaton’s conniving successor in Baby Boom and a drug pusher in Less Than Zero (1987). But it wasn’t until 1989 that Spader found his niche with sex, lies, and videotape. The Steven Soderbergh-directed hit helped to make Sundance the goliath festival it is today and earned its leading man the Best Actor trophy at Cannes that same year. No doubt it also launched his career as the sexually piquant man you want to hate, but can’t help liking—just a little bit.

Film Star Factoid: Unfortunately for audiences, James Spader dropped off the map for a while, only seen in films such as 1996’s 2 Days in the Valley and Walter Hill’s Supernova. But it was Sundance that once again made him a star, when the film Secretary became a festival hit in 2002. His return to prominence led to his current Emmy-winning role on the television drama “Boston Legal.”

February 6th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: François Truffaut

French moviemaker François Truffaut was born this day in 1932. Famous for being part of the French New Wave, the writer-director originally found himself a member of the French Army. After deserting early and a resulting prison sentence, Truffaut began dedicating his life to film. To this day, his contributions—including the script for Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless and the semi-autobiographical The 400 Blows—remain some of the most memorable to emerge from the period.

Factoid: The movies of François Truffaut are still studied today, but the creative mind is also noted as the first advocate of the popular “auteur theory.” The theory, first published André Bazin in Cahiers du Cinema, is said to be the start of the French New Wave—pressing directors to imprint a unique signature to their work.

February 5th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: United Artists

Breaking outside of the pressures and restrictions of the studio system, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and D.W. Griffith established United Artists in 1919. Without the assistance of studio intermediaries between the creative and business aspects of moviemaking, UA failed to stay afloat. In 1951, company control was turned over to a forward-thinking pair of lawyer-producers named Arthur Krim and Robert Benjamin. Under their guidance, UA found success in the late 1950s and early 1960s with the rights to the James Bond and Pink Panther franchises, and later supported newbie directors including Brian De Palma, Woody Allen and the late Robert Altman.

Film Star Factoid: After the infamous couch-jumping incident and the 2006 Vanity Fair cover revealing his famous new offspring, Tom Cruise and producing partner Paula Wagner took over United Artists (today a division of MGM). Previously the partners had made hits out of Cruise’s Mission: Impossible franchise, War of the Worlds and The Others.

February 4th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: A Clockwork Orange

Stanley Kubrick’s film version of A Clockwork Orange was released in New York and L.A. on this day in 1972. Englishman Malcolm McDowell played the central character, Alex de Large, who leads his pack of violent droogs through Britain’s streets each night—stealing, raping and wreaking general havoc. Based on the novel by Anthony Burgess, Kubrick chose to faithfully follow the book in its grim account of the psychological torture that would supposedly cure Alex of his violent tendencies. Distribution of the film was limited in both the U.S. and the U.K. because of the violence it portrayed. Upon its first release it received an X rating and is said to have inspired copycat crimes by young fans of the film.

Film Quotable: “Appy-polly-loggies. I had something of a pain in my Gulliver so I had to sleep. I was not awakened when I gave orders for awakening.” –Malcolm McDowell as Alex de Large, speaking Nasdat, a futuristic youth dialect created out of Russian and English slang. Burgess’ novel, narrated from Alex’s perspective, is written entirely in the language.

February 1st, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: Clark Gable

Clark Gable, the “King of Hollywood,” was born in Ohio this day in 1901. Like many actors of his time, Gable first found his niche acting in Broadway productions. It was only after his first sound feature, 1931’s The Painted Desert, that the actor signed with Metro, completing 12 movies with them in his first year alone. His career highlights ranged from It Happened One Night to Mutiny on the Bounty and romantic comedies with Jean Harlow including Red Dust and Saratoga. In 1939 the debonair actor married actress Carole Lombard (with whom he had acted in No Man Of Her Own). Just three years later she died in a plane crash. The loss moved Gable to leave show business and serve in the U.S. Army Air Corps. He eventually returned to film but without the same success. In 1960 he passed away from a heart attack after over-exerting himself on the set of John Huston’s The Misfits.

Filmstar Factoid: Along with fellow Hollywood giants Walt Disney, James Stewart and John Wayne, Gable assisted Senator Joseph McCarthy’s infamous House Un-American Activities Committee in exposing alleged communists said to be working in Tinseltown.

January 31st, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: Terry Gilliam

For years the word was going around that Terry Gilliam was preparing to film an adaptation of the famous Spanish novel Don Quixote. But after 10 years of preparations, it seemed Gilliam became his own version of the fictional protagonist—a man jousting at windmills for an idea that would never come to fruition. Moviemakers Louis Pepe and Keith Fulton caught it all on tape and released their documentary, Lost in La Mancha, in New York and Los Angeles on this day in 2003. The movie begins eight weeks before shooting commences on Gilliam’s film and follows the production through difficulties with language barriers, flash floods, illness and the aftermath of trying to get Gilliam’s vision back on track. Unfortunately, neither the fictional story nor the reality version ever saw wide release in the United States.

Moviemaker Quotable: “The reality of filmmaking—and this is probably the most important thing we learned from watching Terry—is that it’s an incredibly fragile process. No matter where you are in your career as a filmmaker, it will always be a balancing act between art and commerce, between your artistic aspirations and the grim reality of available resources.” (Keith Fulton, MovieMaker Magazine, Hands On Pages Issue #19)

January 30th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: Gene Hackman

Gene Hackman was born this day in 1930. In his teen years the would-be-actor worked as a field radio operator for the Marines and studied television production under the G.I. Bill. But after turning 30, unsatisfied with his work, Hackman moved to New York in search of acting gigs. His first film role was opposite Warren Beatty in 1964’s Lilith. He paired with Beatty twice more in Bonnie and Clyde (for which he earned an Oscar nomination) and 1981’s Reds. Since then his respected career has involved a delicate balance of earnest work and films with mass appeal. From Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle in The French Connection to Lex Luthor in the Superman franchise, Hackman is the actor you hire to get the job done well.

Filmstar Factoid: At the start of his career, Hackman would share a one-bedroom apartment with fellow Pasadena Playhouse dropout Dustin Hoffman. 2003’s Runaway Jury marked the only time the former roommates have ever appeared on-screen together.

January 29th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: W.C. Fields

Known for his on-screen turns as a cuddly con man, actor W.C. Fields, born on this day in 1880, was so in tune with the characters he played, it often became difficult to determine where the role ended and Fields himself began. By the age of 19 he had embarked on a successful juggling career, though his first true hit came in 1923 when he landed a role in the Broadway play “Poppy.” From there Fields became known for his many turns as a comic hustler, playing the role even in the films he wrote for himself. Before appearing in and writing the sound films The Bank Dick, Man on the Flying Trapeze and Never Give a Sucker an Even Break, Fields was a vaudevillian actor seen in the silent films Pool Sharks and Sally of the Sawdust. In a rare dramatic appearance, the actor dedicated himself to the role of Mr. Micawber in George Cukor’s 1935 adaptation of David Copperfield. He passed away on December 25, 1946 of complications from pneumonia.

Filmstar Factoid: W.C. Fields oftentimes supplied a fake name for a movie’s credits, such as Charles Bogle, Otis Criblecoblis and Mahatma Kane Jeeves. This last name was a play on what he assumed a typical wealthy man would request of the butler before departing home: “My hat, my cane, Jeeves.”

January 28th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: Paul Newman

One of Hollywood’s blue-eyed legends, Paul Newman was born on this day in Shaker Heights, Ohio in 1925. His iconic turns as Lucas ‘Luke’ Jackson in 1967’s Cool Hand Luke, and Butch Cassidy to Redford’s Sundance Kid, led to a reputation as the most charming of tough guys. Over the years, Newman has become one of the most iconic faces in Hollywood, recognized for his work as an actor, producer and humanitarian. His turns as know-it-all, crotchety older men in Nobody’s Fool and the star-studded television movie Empire Falls have earned him his latest accolades. But his proficiency extends far beyond his well-known performances in The Color of Money, The Sting or Fort Apache the Bronx, now finding audiences among toddlers as the voice of the classic and experienced Doc Hudson in Cars.

Film Star Factoid: Newman has been nominated for a total of nine Academy Awards in the acting category over five decades: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), The Hustler (1961), Hud (1963), Cool Hand Luke (1967), Absence of Malice (1981), The Verdict (1982), The Color of Money (1986), Nobody’s Fool (1994) and Road to Perdition (2002). His only win was for his second turn as Fast Eddie Felson, in Martin Scorsese’s The Color of Money.

January 25th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: The Blair Witch Project

On this day in 1999, the cult hit The Blair Witch Project premiered at the Sundance Film Festival; however, the movie’s buzz began long before its premiere, when the moviemakers disseminated a story to make everyone believe their fictional experiment was made from actual documentary footage. The three students who made the film? Lost in the woods while tracking down a local Maryland legend, with the footage of their journey the only thing that remained. The producers even went so far as to air a television special, Curse of the Blair Witch, in order to build hype around the “unsolved mystery.” The publicity worked well, as Blair Witch grossed nearly $250 million, making it the most successful independent film of its time.

Film Star Factoid: Production on The Blair Witch Project took only eight days, during which the three young actors involved were armed with camera equipment and little more than vague guidelines standing in for a screenplay. As such, the majority of the film was ad-libbed, and many of the most terrifying moments in the film were not revealed to the cast until cameras were rolling.

January 24th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: The Grapes of Wrath

It was this day in 1940 that John Ford’s The Grapes of Wrath made its premiere in New York. Starring Henry Fonda and Jane Darwell, and based on John Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name, The Grapes of Wrath depicted the trials of the Joad family as they traveled across the U.S. in search of reliable work. It is the typical tale of numerous families who attempted escape from the country’s dustbowl to a land of promise—only to find disappointment upon arrival. In 1941, Ford received one of two Oscars awarded to the film (the other went to Darwell for Best Supporting Actress), preparing him for the following year when he would win the same prize for How Green Was My Valley.

Film Factoid: The film’s cinematographer, Gregg Toland, spent his entire career contracted by Samuel Goldwyn, working on some of the most celebrated films of all time. In addition to The Grapes of Wrath, Toland went on to work with Ford in The Long Voyage Home and spent the following year alongside Orson Welles, filming the iconic Citizen Kane. His experimentation with deep focus and other innovative camera techniques quickly became the gold standard of Hollywood moviemaking.

January 23rd, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: Sergei Eisenstein

The movie montage might never have existed in its current form if not for moviemaker Sergei Eisenstein, born this day in 1898. October: Ten Days That Shook The World, perhaps one of his most famous movies (alongside 1925’s The Battleship Potemkin), was commissioned by the Soviet Union for the tenth anniversary of the 1917 October Revolution. The Latvian director made movies under Soviet guidelines until May 1930, when he moved to Hollywood under a contract with Paramount Pictures. Despite international acclaim for The Battleship Potemkin, his efforts in the broader world of cinema failed. Eisenstein returned home only to find himself unmarketable; subsequently, he chose to take a leading role in the Direction Department at the Moscow Film School until he passed away in February of 1948.

Filmmaker Factoid: Sergei Eisenstein was often known for casting by type—choosing to work with non-professional actors who fit the bill (of a market woman, a carriage driver, the middle-class masses, etc.) instead of trained thespians. While his innovative screen work continues to be studied today, the director’s legacy also lives on with the published works Film Form and The Film Sense.

January 22nd, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: D.W. Griffith

Controversial moviemaker D.W. Griffith was born this day in 1875. Despite having made an impressive 400-plus short films between 1908 and 1913—and being the first person to shoot a movie in Hollywood (In Old California, 1910)—Griffith is inextricably linked to the disturbingly racist film, The Birth of a Nation. Griffith, whose father was a colonel in the Confederate Army, used white actors in blackface to play the black characters in his interpretation of the heroically portrayed Ku Klux Klan during the American Civil War. Still, the film is notable for solidifying the director’s original technique of crosscutting, for being the first feature-length American film, for its record-breaking box-office numbers at the time of its release and for the controversy that has forever surrounded it. Griffith died in July of 1948.

Filmmaker Factoid: D.W. Griffith was a revolutionary moviemaker in many ways, and a central figure in early Hollywood social circles. Counted among his friends were Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks. Together, the foursome formed United Artists in 1919.

January 21st, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: Hedwig and the Angry Inch

John Cameron Mitchell’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch screened at the Sundance Film Festival on this day in 2001. An adaptation of Mitchell’s award-winning play, Hedwig follows the adventures of Hedwig Robison, a transsexual rock star from East Berlin, as s/he tours her way across the United States. The film received critical acclaim from critics and festivals nationwide, gaining one Golden Globe and five Independent Spirit Award nominations, as well as a GLAAD media award for Outstanding Film in Limited Release.

Film Factoid: Unlike most movie musicals, many of the numbers in Hedwig and the Angry Inch were performed live, in order to capture the spontaneity of a real-life rock show.

January 18th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: Archibald Alexander Leach

Archibald Alexander Leach was born in England on this day in 1904. By 1931 the actor had received a five-year contract with Paramount and adopted the now world-famous name of Cary Grant. Carving a niche as the suave and sophisticated gentleman opposite such starlets as Ingrid Bergman, Eva Marie Saint and Grace Kelly, Grant also collaborated numerous times with Katharine Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby, Holiday and The Philadelphia Story. Hitchcock also used Grant’s skills time and again in Suspicion, Notorious, To Catch a Thief and most famously as Roger O. Thornhill in North by Northwest. The debonair actor died from complications of a stroke in November 1986.

Film Star Factoid: Throughout his long and respected career, Cary Grant was nominated for four Golden Globes and only two Academy Awards—never bringing home a trophy. He finally received an Honorary Oscar in 1970 for his mastery on screen.

January 17th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: Freddy Rodríguez

Freddy Rodriguez in the “Planet Terror” segment of Dimension Films’ Grindhouse - 2007

Chicago native Freddy Rodríguez entered the world 32 years ago today. In 1988 Rodríguez landed his first film role—after a considerable high school stage career—in the drama The Undertaker, though his first significant role came in 1995 when he appeared alongside Keanu Reeves in A Walk in the Clouds. But the Puerto Rican-American actor is perhaps best known for his role in the HBO series “Six Feet Under,” landing an Emmy nomination and two SAG awards for his performance as the harried apprentice undertaker Federico Diaz during his five years with the show.

For representing his Latino origins, Rodríguez also won Imagen and ALMA awards for this role. The actor launched back into film after the series’ finale with four features released in 2006 alone. You might have caught him in Harsh Times with Christian Bale, in the recent remake of Poseidon, as the oddly muscular tenant in Lady in the Water or in Emilio Estevez’s ensemble drama Bobby.

Film Star Factoid: Freddy Rodríguez will next be seen in Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror segment of Grindhouse—the highly anticipated horror flick that is comprised of two separate films, written and directed by the Texan director and his quirky pal, Quentin Tarantino.

January 16th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: Raising Victor Vargas

Peter Sollett’s Raising Victor Vargas screened at the Sundance Film Festival on this day in 2003. Based on the writer-director’s short film, Five Feet High and Rising, his feature chronicled the efforts of a young Dominican teen finding his place within his family, his Lower East Side community and the world. After Victor is caught in the bedroom of an overweight neighborhood girl, he tries to reestablish his reputation and regain trust inside the walls of his grandmother’s restrictive household. Sollett developed the screenplay through the Sundance Screenwriter’s Lab and first saw it released at Cannes in May 2002. The film went on to nab five Independent Spirit Award nominations but unfortunately was never widely released in the U.S.

Film Factoid: Moviemaker Sollett has made only two films so far in his career. Right out of the gate Five Feet High and Rising won big at both Cannes and Sundance in 2000. Like their director, this was the first time most of the actors had worked on a film. Victor Rasuk, who played the title character in both Sollett films, has since moved on to significant supporting roles in Lords of Dogtown and I’m Reed Fish.

January 15th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: Dead Poets Society

Carpe diem! Peter Weir’s Dead Poets Society finished filming on this day in 1989. The film starred comedian Robin Williams in a smart and dramatic role as the inspiring teacher Mr. John Keating. As an English teacher at a 1950s boys’ boarding school, Keating somehow gets the young men to break out of their monotonous routines to enjoy the flow of poetry, literature and, most importantly, life. The film was nominated for a total of four Oscars in 1990 (including a Best Actor nod for Williams and one for Best Picture), with writer Tom Schulman bringing home the sole trophy for his original screenplay.

Film Quotable: “O Captain, my Captain. Who knows where that comes from? Anybody? Not a clue? It’s a poem by Walt Whitman about Mr. Abraham Lincoln. Now in this class you can either call me Mr. Keating, or, if you’re slightly more daring, O Captain my Captain.” –Williams as John Keating, addressing his students.

January 15th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: Mary Harron

Canadian writer-director Mary Harron was born on this day in 1953. The creative and technical mastermind behind some of the most provocative films of the last decade, Harron found her way to the movie world after a brief stint as a journalist both in North America and abroad. Her first feature film, I Shot Andy Warhol, starring indie maven Lili Taylor, was made for under $2 million and ended up a critical darling. The Oxford educated moviemaker is often drawn to ideas of patriarchy and the subversive culture that results from that system. For further examples, see her filmic interpretation of Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho (about a Wall Street banker’s desire for sexual conquest and murder) and her biographical tribute The Notorious Bettie Page (an unauthorized account of the 1950s pinup model’s pornography career and the subsequent Senate investigation).

Filmmaker Factoid: American Psycho was almost a different film altogether. After finding fame with Titanic, Leonardo DiCaprio was reported to be interested in the project. However, when DiCaprio bowed out, the female director successfully brought the controversial drama to the big screen, choosing Christian Bale to embody the role of the psychopathic Patrick Bateman.

January 11th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: Maurice Pialat

Divisive French moviemaker Maurice Pialat died on this day in 2003, at the age of 77. Over the course of his career, Pialat developed a unique style of storytelling that relied on disjointed narratives and elliptical timeframes, yet somehow also maintained a stark realism. After a failed career as an artist, Pialat moved on to moviemaking when he was in his late thirties, winning the Prix Jean Vigo for his first film, L’Enfance nu, in 1968. Aside from the creation of morally ambiguous and challenging films, Pialat’s most essential contribution to the film world was his discovery of the acclaimed French actress Sandrine Bonnaire, who made her debut in Pialat’s À Nos Amours.

Filmmaker Factoid: When Pialat’s Sous le soleil de Satan controversially won the Palme d’Or at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival, the audience responded with a chorus of boos. As he accepted the award, the director famously turned to the audience, raised his fist and replied, “Since you don’t like me, I can tell you that I don’t like you either.”

January 10th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: Adaptation

The second collaboration between director Spike Jonze and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, Adaptation, released nationwide on this day in 2003, continued the duo’s pattern of quirky, cerebral moviemaking. The story of a creatively-blocked screenwriter and the novel he is attempting to adapt for the screen, the film stars Nicolas Cage as the brothers Charlie and Donald Kaufman, as well as Meryl Streep, Chris Cooper, Tilda Swinton, Maggie Gyllenhaal and a host of other notable actors. While Cage received high praise for his work in the film, it was Cooper who came away with the most tangible honors—in the form of both Academy and Golden Globe Awards for Best Supporting Actor.

Film Factoid: The screenwriting credit for this film, as well as all consideration for awards, went to both Charlie and Donald Kaufman, the screenwriter’s on-screen twin brother/alter ego, a totally fictitious character.

January 9th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: Imelda Staunton

Imelda Staunton is an appropriately lauded acting talent in her native England, but has only recently come to wider recognition in the United States. The British actress, born on this day in 1956, received many awards and innumerable nominations (including an Oscar nod) for her turn as the accommodating, doting mother who moonlighted as an abortionist in Mike Leigh’s Vera Drake (2004). Despite the accolades, Staunton lost the Academy Award to Hilary Swank, with whom she is currently starring in this month’s Freedom Writers. You can also catch the actress alongside many of the U.K.’s most respected entertainers in the latest Harry Potter installment, to be released later this year.

Film Star Factoid: Before turning to minor roles in films such as Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility (she played the peppy wife to Hugh Laurie’s stoic Mr. Palmer) and John Madden’s Shakespeare In Love (whre she guarded the door during a nighttime tryst), Staunton was heralded as a major stage talent in her home country. She is a three-time winner of the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award—for 1986’s A Chorus of Disapproval and The Corn is Green and in 1991 for .

January 8th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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This Day in Indie History: Elvis Presley

American icon Elvis Presley was born on this day in Tupelo, Mississippi in 1935. While he is better known as the King of Rock & Roll, Presley also made many lasting contributions to the world of cinema that should not be overlooked. Presley starred in a whopping 33 films after being catapulted to worldwide celebrity status, made bankable by the King’s recognizable, catchy vocals setting the scene. In addition to his own acting vehicles including Love Me Tender, Blue Hawaii and Viva Las Vegas, the King’s crooning has provided the soundtrack to nearly 200 film and television programs, such as Barry Levinson’s Diner, David Lynch’s Wild at Heart and Tim Burton’s Big Fish.

Film Star Factoid: As a young man, Elvis worked as a movie theater usher before moving on to pursue a career in the music industry, where he became perhaps the most famous figure in rock and roll history.

January 7th, 2007 | Category: This Day in Indie History | By MovieMaker Staff

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