Comedian Tom Smothers turns75 years old today. Smothers was born on February 2, 1937, in New York City. After moving to California, he graduated from Redondo Union High School in Redondo Beach, California. He was a competitive unicyclist and a state champion gymnast in the parallel bars. Smothers later attended San José State University, then known as San Jose State College.
The Smothers Brothers initially wanted to be folk musicians. Tom didn't feel that he was good enough to be a professional musician, but he was funny enough to do comedy. The two began adding comedy bits to their act. Tom's first foray into the medium of television was as a regular on the The Steve Allen Show in 1961. He followed that role with a single episode of Burke's Law. The Smothers Brothers next appeared on the CBS sitcom, The Smothers Brothers Show from 1965 to 1966. Tom felt that the show didn't play to the brothers' strengths and wanted creative control over their next venture. Tom Smothers negotiated creative control over their next CBS show, a variety show entitled The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1967. The brothers (particularly Tom) fought CBS censors to sneak in references to religion, recreational drugs, sex, and the Vietnam War. The brothers' oppositional stand on politics led to their show's demise with David Steinberg later claiming "The most innovative variety show on television shut down because of political pressure".
Actor Sherman Hemsley turns 74 years old today. Hemsley was born February 1, 1938, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was raised in South Philadelphia by his mother, who was a factory worker. He dropped out of school and joined the Air Force, where he served for four years. After leaving the Air Force, he returned to Philadelphia where he worked for the Post Office during the day while attending acting school at night. He then moved to New York, continuing to work for the Post Office during the day while working as an actor at night. He starred as the character Gitlow in the early 1970s Broadway play Purlie. While Hemsley was on Broadway with Purlie, Norman Lear called him in 1971 to play the role of George Jefferson on his burgeoning new sitcom, All in the Family. Hemsley was reluctant to leave his theatre role, but Lear told him that he would hold the role open for him. Hemsley joined the cast two years later. The characters of Hemsley and co-star Isabel Sanford were secondary on All in the Family, but were given their own spin-off series, The Jeffersons, less than two years after Hemsley made his debut on the show. Such was Hemsley's and Sanford's compatibility and credibility as a married couple that no one seemed to notice or care that in real life Sanford was twenty years older than Hemsley. The Jeffersons proved to be one of Lear's most successful shows, enjoying a run of 11 seasons through 1985.
Actress Carol Channing is 91 years old today. Channing was born in Seattle, Washington. Her father was a city editor at the Seattle Star; his newspaper career took the family to San Francisco when Carol was only two weeks old. She is the recipient of three Tony Awards, including one for lifetime achievement, a Golden Globe, and an Oscar nomination. Channing is best remembered for originating, on Broadway, the musical-comedy roles of bombshell Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and matchmaking widow Dolly Gallagher Levi in Hello, Dolly!
Actress Dorothy Malone turns 87 years old today. Malone was born Dorothy Eloise Maloney in Chicago on January 30, 1925. Her family moved to Dallas, Texas, where she worked as a child model and began acting in school plays at Ursuline Convent and Highland Park High School. While performing at Southern Methodist University, she was spotted by an RKO talent agent and was signed to a studio contract, making her film debut in 1943 in The Falcon and the Co-Eds. Much of her early career was spent in supporting roles in B-movies, many of them Westerns, although on occasion she played small but memorable roles, such as the brainy, lusty, bespectacled bookstore clerk in The Big Sleep (1946) with Humphrey Bogart, and the love interest of Dean Martin in the musical-comedy Artists and Models (1955).
From 1964-1968, she played the lead role of Constance MacKenzie on the ABC prime time serial Peyton Place, except for a brief stretch where she was absent due to surgery. In 1968, she was written out of the show after complaining that she was given little to do, especially in light of the show's concentration on the love story between young leads Mia Farrow and Ryan O'Neal. Malone sued 20th Century-Fox for $1.6 million for breach of contract; it was settled out of court. She would later return to the role in the TV movies Murder in Peyton Place (1977) and Peyton Place: The Next Generation (1985). Malone had a featured role in the miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man (1976). In her last screen appearance, she played a mother convicted of murdering her family in Basic Instinct (1992) with Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone.
Actor Gene Hackman turns 82 years old today. Hackman was born in San Bernardino, California, on January 30, 1930. His family moved frequently, finally settling in Danville, Illinois, where they lived in the house of his English-born maternal grandmother. Hackman's father operated the printing press for the Commercial-News, a local paper. Hackman's parents divorced in 1943 and his father subsequently left the family. He lived briefly in Storm Lake, Iowa, and his sophomore home room photograph is in the 1945 Storm Lake High School "Breeze" year-book. At age sixteen, Hackman left home to join the United States Marine Corps, where he served four-and-a-half years as a field radio operator. After his discharge, he moved to New York, working in several minor jobs. In 1956, Hackman began pursuing an acting career; he joined the Pasadena Playhouse in California. It was there that he forged a friendship with another aspiring actor, Dustin Hoffman.
Nominated for five Academy Awards, winning two, Hackman has also won three Golden Globes and two BAFTAs in a career that spanned five decades. He first came to fame in 1967 with his performance as Buck Barrow in Bonnie and Clyde. His major later films include The French Connection (1971), in which he played Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle; The Poseidon Adventure (1972); The Conversation (1974); Young Frankenstein (1974); Superman (1978), in which he played arch-villain Lex Luthor; Hoosiers (1986); Mississippi Burning (1987); Unforgiven (1992); Get Shorty (1995); The Birdcage (1996); Enemy Of The State (1998); and The Royal Tenenbaums (2001). His final screen appearance was in 2004 in Welcome to Mooseport.
