Happy Birthday: Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)

ernesthemingway.jpgErnest Hemingway (1899–1961)

Born: July 21, 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois, USA

Died: July 2, 1961 (age 61) in Ketchum, Idaho, USA

Married to: Mary Welsh (14 March 1946 – 2 July 1961) (his death)
Martha Gellhorn (5 November 1940 – 21 December 1945) (divorced)
Pauline Marie Pfeiffer (10 May 1927 – 4 November 1940) (divorced) (2 children)
Elizabeth Hadley Richardson (3 September 1921 – 10 March 1927) (divorced) (1 child)

War wounds, two plane crashes, four marriages and several affairs took their toll on Hemingway’s hereditary predispositions and contributed to his declining health. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and insomnia in his later years. His mental condition was exacerbated by chronic alcoholism, diabetes and liver failure. After an unsuccessful treatment with electro-convulsive therapy, he suffered severe amnesia and his physical condition worsened. The memory loss obstructed his writing and everyday life. He committed suicide in 1961. Posthumous publications revealed a considerable body of his hidden writings, that was edited by his fourth wife, Mary, and also by his son Patrick Hemingway.

QUOTES:

As you get older, it is harder to have heroes, but it is sort of necessary.

A cat has absolute emotional honesty: human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not.

All things truly wicked start from an innocence.

There are events which are so great that if a writer has participated in them his obligation is to write truly rather than assume the presumption of altering them with invention.

All my life I’ve looked at words as though I were seeing them for the first time.

RIP Garry Marshall – Died Today at 81. Legendary comedian, writer, and filmmaker

Garry Marshall, who created some of the 1970s’ most iconic sitcoms including “Happy Days,” “The Odd Couple,” “Laverne and Shirley” and “Mork and Mindy” and went on to direct hit movies including “Pretty Woman” and “The Princess Diaries,” died Tuesday. He was 81. The news was first reported by Access Hollywood.

garrymarshallGarry Marshall (1934–2016)

Born: November 13, 1934 in New York City, New York, USA

Died: July 19, 2016 (age 81) in Los Angeles, California, USA

Married to:
Barbara Marshall (9 March 1963 – 19 July 2016) (his death) (3 children)

 

 

Beaches
1988
dir. Marshall
Starring
Bette Midler
Barbara Hershey
MOVIE POSTERNEW YEAR’S EVE
dir. Garry Marshall
Stars:
Sarah Jessica Parker
Jessica Biel
GEORGIA RULEGeorgia Rule
2007
dir. Marshall
Starring
Jane Fonda
Lindsay Lohan
NOTHING IN COMMON
1986
dir. Garry Marshall
Stars:
Tom Hanks
Jackie Gleason
Valentine's Day Movie PosterValentine’s Day
dir. Garry Marshall
Starring
Julia Roberts
Jamie Foxx
MOVIE POSTEROVERBOARD
1987
dir. Garry Marshall
Starring
Goldie Hawn
Kurt Russell
MOVIE POSTERCHICKEN LITTLE
2005
dir. Mark Dindal
Starring:
Zach Braff
Steve Zahn
MOVIE POSTERA LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN
1992
dir. Penny Marshall
Stars:
Tom Hanks
Geena Davis
MOVIE POSTERPRETTY WOMAN
1990
dir. Garry Marshall
Stars:
Richard Gere
Julia Roberts

Happy Birthday: Jenji Kohan

jenjikohan.jpgHappy Birthday writer Jenji Kohan

Born: July 5, 1969 in Los Angeles, California, USA

Married to: Christopher Noxon (1997 – present) (3 children)

She is a writer and producer, known for Weeds (2005), Orange Is the New Black (2013) and Tracey Takes On… (1996).

QUOTES:

There’s more to us than the moment we made a bad decision.

For a lot of people, film is still the dream – the captive audience in the darkened theater – but I love TV. I think it’s fantastic.

I love flawed characters, male or female, and I only want to talk about flawed characters, really, in what I do.

Happy Birthday: Neil Simon

neilsimonHappy Birthday writer Neil Simon

Born: July 4, 1927 in The Bronx, New York City, New York, USA

QUOTES:

When it’s 100 in New York, it’s 72 in Los Angeles. When it’s 20 in New York, it’s 72 in Los Angeles. However, there are six million interesting people in New York – and 72 in Los Angeles.

On writing 1991’s “The Marrying Man”: “With a play, I have only two people to please – myself and the director. With this movie, it was 19 executives, a director who’d never done anything but animation before, and two stars who would tell you what lines they’d say and what lines they wouldn’t say.”

On Hollywood: “Everyone in Hollywood is looking for a blockbuster. They tell you their last movie ‘only grossed $70 million,’ as if that were some kind of crime.”

I don’t like writing for comedians. I like writing for actors. The best comedians are the best actors.

Happy Birthday: Tom Stoppard

tomstoppardHappy Birthday actor Tom Stoppard

Born: July 3, 1937 in Zlín, Czechoslovakia [now in Czech Republic]

Married to: Sabrina Guinness (2014 – present)
Miriam Stoppard (1972 – 1992) (divorced) (2 children)
Jose Ingle (1962 – 1972) (divorced) (2 children)

He worked as script doctor and re-write uncredited on: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), Sleepy Hollow (1999), K-19: The Widowmaker (2002), and others.

OSCAR Winner for Best Screenplay (Shakespeare in Love)

QUOTES:

[In 1968] I was asked to sign a protest against “censorship” after a newspaper declined to publish somebody’s manifesto. “But that isn’t censorship,” I said. “That’s editing. In Russia you go to prison for possessing a copy of Animal Farm. That’s censorship.”

[In 1968] A few miles away across the Channel, clashes between protesters and riot police were affairs of burning cars, overturned buses and buildings turned to rubble. Our own street-fighting man was only rock ‘n’ roll.

[In 1968] It wasn’t all posh, of course. The “scene”, as we called it, was more populously located in a shifting underground of art events – exhibitions, gigs, happenings, poetry readings – in dark places around Covent Garden and elsewhere and here the word “revolution” takes on some substance, I think. It was not a social revolution, but there was a sense of a cultural revolution pivoted on that moment. Unfortunately, I was embarrassed by that, too. I loved the music and the dressing up but I couldn’t take to the dialogue: a reductive argot of comrade-jargon and bogus wisdom derived from misunderstood eastern religions.

If I had known in 1968 what we were going to squander, long before we had the excuse of 9/11, I might have joined in the fun with less embarrassment, with less to lose. But at the time all the goings-on seemed frivolous compared with the freedoms we had invented – or should I say the freedoms you invented?

Happy Birthday: Matthew Weiner

mattheweiner.jpgHappy Birthday writer Matthew Weiner

Born: June 29, 1965 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Married to: Linda Brettler (January 1991 – present) (4 children)

 

 

 

 

Best of MAD MEN TV Show
Reviews of every episode!
TV POSTERMAD MEN season 1
Best of the Season!

TV POSTERMAD MEN season 2
Best of the Season!
TV POSTERMAD MEN season 3
Best of the Season!
MAD MEN season 4
Best of the Season!
TV POSTERMAD MEN season 5
Best of the Season!
SOPRANOS SEASON 5Sopranos
Season 5

Watch reviews of the season
SOPRANOS SEASON 6Sopranos
Season 6

Watch reviews of the season
MOVIE POSTERMAD MEN season 6
2013
Created by Matthew Weiner
MOVIE POSTERARE YOU HERE
2014
dir. Matthew Weiner
Stars:
Owen Wilson
Zach Galifianakis

 

Happy Birthday: J.J. Abrams

jjabrams.jpgHappy Birthday director J.J. Abrams

Born: June 27, 1966 in New York City, New York, USA

Married to:
Katie McGrath (1996 – present) (3 children)

 

 

 

 

Star Trek
2009
Directed by
Abrams
Starring
Chris Pine
Zachary Quinto
super 8SUPER 8
dir. J.J. Abrams
Stars:
Elle Fanning
Amanda Michalka,
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE IIIMission Impossible III
2006
dir Abrams
Starring
Tom Cruise
Philip Seymour Hoffman
sopranosTOP 100 ALCATRAZ
WATCH best of the show and prison history!!
LOST SEASON 1LOST SEASON 1
Created by J.J. Abrams
Jeffrey Lieber
Damon Lindelof
MOVIE POSTERSTAR TREK INTO DARKNESS
2013
dir. J.J. Abrams
Stars:
Chris Pine
Zachary Quinto

Best of LOST TV Series
Season by Season

Happy Birthday: Joss Whedon

josswhedon.jpgHappy Birthday writer/director Joss Whedon

Born: June 23, 1964 in New York City, New York, USA

Married to: Kai Cole

 

 

 

 

SerenitySerenity
2005
dir. Josh Whedon
starring
Nathon Fillion
Gina Torres
sexyTHE AVENGERS
2012
dir. Joss Whedon
See over 100 pages of photos and videos!
MOVIE POSTERMUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
2013
dir. Joss Whedon
Stars:
Alexis Denisof
Amy Acker
tv POSTERAGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. TV SHOW PILOT
2013
Created by: Maurissa Tancharoen, Jed Whedon, Joss Whedon

 

Happy Birthday: Diablo Cody

diablocodyHappy Birthday writer Diablo Cody

Born: June 14, 1978 in Chicago, Illinois, USA

Married to: Daniel Maurio (2009 – present) (2 children)

QUOTES:

Stripping toughened my hide, but exposing myself as a writer has been a lot more brutal.

I have never been an ambitious person, and my participation in this industry is a fluke, but only male writers can afford to be coy and self-deprecating.

I’ve been told that I’m incompetent, socially retarded, maladjusted. I still know that I couldn’t function in reality. Los Angeles is a good place for me.

If this whole writing thing doesn’t work out, I’ll be getting right back on the pole.

[on screenplay-writing for actresses] The attitude toward women in this industry is nauseating. There are all sorts of porcine executives who are uncomfortable with a woman doing anything subversive. They want the movie about the beautiful girl who trips and falls, the adorable klutz.
When you’re in a competitive environment, always give out the impression that you don’t care. It makes people want you more. If you act desperate, it’s over. I think a passive attitude is helpful.

The best thing you can do is find a person who loves you for exactly what you are.

Having your film made is the award. That alone is the miracle.
To enjoy being famous, you need to have a screw loose.