Today is the 109th anniversary of one Chester Gould the creator of Dick Tracy. Every time Dick Tracy (1990) comes up, I think "you should watch that movie again!" but I never do. I think I'm still mad that Warren Beatty kept cutting away from Madonna's "More" performance... which should've easily been one of the best movie musical numbers of the 90s (sigh). Otherwise I quite like the movieTrivia Alert! Dick Tracy is one of Oscar's two favorite comic book movies along with The Dark Knight (2008). Their Oscar track was very similar. Dick Tracy had 7 nominations and 3 wins. The Dark Knight had 8 nominations and 2 wins and in mostly the same categories, too.
- Supporting Actor (both, and the only two comic book performances ever nominated*: Al Pacino and Heath Ledger, winner)
- Cinematography (both)
- Art Direction (both)
- Costume Design (Dick Tracy only)
- Sound (both)
- Sound Editing (The Dark Knight only, winner)
- Original Song (Dick Tracy only, winner)
- Make-Up (both, Dick Tracy winner)
- Visual Effects (The Dark Knight only)
Other birthdays for 11/20
1915 Kon Ichikawa, Japanese film director of Oscar nominee The Burmese Harp (1958) and Golden Globe winner Kagi (1959)
1925 Robert F Kennedy, assassinated hero and frequent movie character. I've still never seen Bobby (2006) though, have you?
1927 Estelle Parsons, Oscar winning actress (Bonnie & Clyde). She's still on the road with August: Osage County -- she's in Connecticut right this very second (5 more shows over the next 3 days. Hurry!), DC next month and hits the southwest in January and the midwest in February. I hope you bought your tickets because the show is so worth it. Our post about the casting of the movie is the 2nd most commented on this year (106 comments!). Everybody's got an opinion.
1928 Aleksey Batalov star of Cannes Winner The Cranes Are Flying (1957) -- rent it immediately if you haven't seen it, it's one of the best romantic war dramas ever -- and Oscar winner Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears (1980).
1936 Don DeLillo, amazing novelist
1956 Bo Derek 80s icon, famous in swimsuit for "10", infamous in birthday suit for Tarzan the Ape Man and Bolero (right)1959 Sean Young 80s actress, wildcard. Best remembered in pop culture as the desperate creature who wandered around in a catsuit trying to convince Tim Burton to cast her in Batman Returns. What's less remembered, unfortunately for Young, is that Burton had actually cast her... as Vicki Vale for the first film before an injury sidelined her and Kim Basinger got the part. Even less remembered and also to Young's credit: she definitely had screen presence. See: Blade Runner and No Way Out for proof.
1989 Cody Linley of Hannah Montana and Dancing with the Stars fame, busy creating a filmography composed entirely of ridiculous character names: "Spit McGee", "Mullet Fingers", "Brownie" and "Tough Boy"
* I may be wrong there. It depends on how you define 'comic-book performances'. More in the comments
