BORN TODAY

BORN TODAY: Claudette Colbert (1903 - 1996)

In the 30's French-born Claudette Colbert was the highest-paid movie actress. Her most famous role was opposite Clark Gable in It Happened One Night (1934), for which she won an Academy Award. That same year she also starred in Cecil B. DeMille's version of Cleopatra.
Continuing a very succesful decade throughout the forties, she made the switch to television and Broadway in the fifties.
An imagined imperfection made her insist the right side of her face was never filmed and disliked being filmed in colour because she believed she didn't photograph well in it.
She was the queen of screwball comedies, though she always maintained an air of elegance and didn't indulge in physical comedy. Her personal sense of style and fashion made her one of the most glamorous stars from the golden age of Hollywood.

Quotes:
"It matters more what's in a woman's face than what's on it."

"If I couldn't laugh, I'd rather die."

"I know what's best for me, after all I have been in the Claudette Colbert business longer than anybody."









with John Wayne

A scene from The Sign of the Cross (1932) as Poppea, enjoying a donkey milk bath:

KISSING TO BE CLEVER

Hollywood legends quoted on kissing:

Hollywood is a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul. I know, because I turned down the first offer often enough and held out for the fifty cents. - Marilyn Monroe

People who throw kisses are hopelessly lazy. - Bob Hope

I have found men who didn't know how to kiss. I've always found time to teach them. - Mae West

A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous. - Ingrid Bergman

I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. - Audrey Hepburn

When it came to kissing, Harlow was the best. - James Stewart

Kisses - don't waste them. But don't count them. - Marlene Dietrich

A man's kiss is his signature. - Mae West

BORN TODAY

BORN TODAY: Elia Kazan (1909 - 2003)



Kazan was one of the most influential and revered directors in American cinema. Starting out as an actor himself, he co-founded the famous Actors Studio in 1947, home of 'Method acting' - a technique that values realism above all else. He was partly or fully responsible for launching the movie careers of Marlon Brando, James Dean and Warren Beatty, to name just three.
Movies like Gentleman's Agreement (1947),  On the Waterfront (1954), East of Eden (1955) and  A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) earned Kazan the respect of critics and audiences alike. He lost a lot of that respect with his testimony before the House Committee of Un-American Activities. The controversy over his testimony is probably still debated in film schools today. Kazan's autobiography attempts to explain his actions at the time.
Fact remains that Kazan has influenced a generation of directors and actors who have always been very vocal in their praise for him. Directors like Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and Stanley Kubrick all  cite him as a major influence.

Quotes:
- A good director's not sure when he gets on the set what he's going to do.
- I was very intense. I think it's a privilege to be an actor.
- I owe Bankhead a gift. She made a director out of me.
- I will say nothing to an actor that cannot be translated into action.
- I truly believe that all power corrupts. Such is probably the thinking behind every political film ever made in Hollywood.



Kazan with Marlon Brando

QUOTES and QUIPS

TIPPI HEDREN - On Alfred Hitchcock: "To be the object of somebody`s obsession is a really awful feeling when you can`t return it."