Category Archives: The Big Screen

Tom Hanks on Becoming Forrest Gump

Anniversary of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

WillyWonkaMoviePoster
Original Movie Poster (June 30, 1971)

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is a 1971 American musical fantasy film directed by Mel Stuart, and starring Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka. It is an adaptation of the 1964 novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl and tells the story of Charlie Bucket (Peter Ostrum, in his only film appearance) as he receives a Golden Ticket and visits Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory with four other children from around the world.

Filming took place in Munich in 1970, and the film was released by Paramount Pictures on June 30, 1971. With a budget of just $3 million, the film received positive reviews and performed well in 1971, earning about $4 million at the end of its original run. It then made an additional $21 million during its 1996 re-release.

The film has since developed a cult following especially due to its repeated television airings and home entertainment sales. In 1972, the film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score, and Wilder was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, but lost both to Fiddler on the Roof. In 2014, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

Wikipedia Link

Happy Birthday, Kris Kristofferson

Kristoffer “Kris” Kristofferson is an influential American country music songwriter, singer and actor. He is best known for hits such as “Me and Bobby McGee”, “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down”, and “Help Me Make It Through the Night”.

Kris Kristofferson
Kris Kristofferson (June 22, 1936 – )

Wikipedia Link

RIP ‘Oddball’ / Donald Sutherland

From Wikipedia:

Donald McNichol Sutherland CC (July 17, 1935 – June 20, 2024) was a Canadian actor. With a film career spanning over seven decades, Sutherland received numerous accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Golden Globe Awards. He is cited as one of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination, but received an Academy Honorary Award in 2017.

Born in Saint John, New Brunswick, and later moving to Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, Sutherland rose to fame after starring in films such as The Dirty Dozen (1967), MAS*H (1970), and Kelly’s Heroes (1970). He subsequently starred in many films both in leading and supporting roles, including Start the Revolution Without Me (1970), Klute (1971), Don’t Look Now (1973), The Day of the Locust (1975), Fellini’s Casanova (1976), The Eagle Has Landed (1976), 1900 (1976), Animal House (1978), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), Ordinary People (1980), Eye of the Needle (1981), A Dry White Season (1989), Backdraft (1991), JFK (1991), Six Degrees of Separation (1993), Without Limits Fallen with Denzel Washington(1998), The Italian Job (2003), and Pride & Prejudice (2005). More recently, Sutherland portrayed President Snow in The Hunger Games franchise.

Sutherland also received accolades for his television roles. For his portrayal of Colonel Mikhail Fetisov in Citizen X (1995) he received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie. He played Adam Czerniaków in Uprising (2001), and Clark Clifford in Path to War (2002) earning the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film.

Sutherland received various honours including inductions into the Canadian Walk of Fame in 2000 and the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2011. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada (OC) in 1978, a Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2012 and received the Companion of the Order of Canada (CC) in 2019. He was the father of Kiefer, Rossif, and Angus, all actors. In October 2023, Canada Post issued a stamp in his honour, commemorating his career as one of Canada’s most respected and versatile actors.

Wikipedia Article

Anniversary of The Blues Brothers

From Wikipedia:

The Blues Brothers is a 1980 American musical comedy film directed by John Landis. It stars John Belushi as “Joliet” Jake Blues and Dan Aykroyd as his brother Elwood, characters developed from the recurring musical sketch “The Blues Brothers” on NBC variety series Saturday Night Live. The film is set in and around Chicago, Illinois, where it was filmed, and the screenplay was written by Aykroyd and Landis. It features musical numbers by rhythm and blues (R&B), soul, and blues singers James Brown, Cab Calloway (in his final feature film role), Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Chaka Khan, and John Lee Hooker. It features non-musical supporting performances by Carrie Fisher, Henry Gibson, Charles Napier, Kathleen Freeman and John Candy.

June 20, 1980

Anniversary of Jaws

Jaws Poster

On June 20, 1975, we learned that it was no longer “safe to go back into the water.”

Wikipedia Link

Maximum Overdrive

Who made who?

First Motion Picture Theater

The first motion picture theater was called a nickelodeon because admission was a nickel.

It opened in McKeesport, PA on June 19, 1905.

Anniversary of Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park Poster

June 11, 1993

Wikipedia Link

40th Anniversary of Ghostbusters

Ghostbusters is a 1984 American supernatural comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. It stars Bill Murray, Aykroyd, and Ramis as Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, and Egon Spengler, three eccentric parapsychologists who start a ghost-catching business in New York City. It also stars Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis, and features Annie Potts, Ernie Hudson, and William Atherton in supporting roles.

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Anniversary of WarGames

In 1983,

A Computerized Voice Asked You…

Shall We Play A Game?

Wikipedia Link

YouTube Link

Happy Birthday, Clint Eastwood!

Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. (May 31, 1930 - )
Clinton “Clint” Eastwood, Jr. (May 31, 1930 – )

Clint Eastwood is an American film actor, director, producer, composer, pianist, businessman, investor, and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide.

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45th Anniversary of Alien!

Alien was released on May 25, 1979 in the United States and September 6 in the United Kingdom. It was met with critical acclaim and box office success, winning the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, three Saturn Awards (Best Science Fiction Film, Best Direction for Scott, and Best Supporting Actress for Cartwright), and a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, along with numerous other nominations. It has been consistently praised in the years since its release, and is considered one of the greatest films of all time. In 2002, Alien was deemed “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” by the Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. In 2008, it was ranked by the American Film Institute as the seventh-best film in the science fiction genre, and as the thirty-third greatest film of all time by Empire magazine.

The success of Alien spawned a media franchise of films, novels, comic books, video games, and toys. It also launched Weaver’s acting career, providing her with her first lead role. The story of her character’s encounters with the Alien creatures became the thematic and narrative core of several sequels, prequels, and crossovers.

Wikipedia Link

Anniversary of Star Wars

Star Wars

May 25, 1977, Memorial Day weekend opens with an intergalactic bang as the first of George Lucas’ blockbuster Star Wars movies hits American theaters.

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60th Anniversary of Viva Las Vegas

Viva Las Vegas is a 1964 American rock and roll musical film directed by George Sidney, choreographed by David Winters, and starring Elvis Presley, Ann-Margret, Cesare Danova, William Demarest. Set in Las Vegas, Nevada, the film is about two competing race car drivers who also compete for the same girl.

Wikipedia Link

Happy Birthday, George Lucas

George Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. (May 14, 1944 – )

George Lucas is an Academy Award-nominated American film producer, screenwriter, director and chairman of Lucasfilm Ltd. He is best known for being the creator of the epic Sci-Fi franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones.

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May the 4th Be With You

May the 4th

Celebrities Who Appeared on The Dating Game!

Anniversary of Sound of Music

On this day in 1965, The Sound of Music was released in the United States.

March 2, 1965
March 2, 1965

Elvis Presley

’nuff said!

Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), also known mononymously as Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century, he is often referred to as the “King of Rock and Roll” or simply “the King”.