Born Today October 11: Lowell Sherman

1885 or 1888-1934

Born Lowell J. Sherman in San Francisco to theater parents, most probably in the year 1885 (but many sources list 1888 as the year of his birth); his father was a theatrical agent, while his mother acted on the stage.  Like so many children born into theatrical families, he began his stage career young on touring companies.  As an adult, around 1904, he starting acting on Broadway in several productions; one of which, A Girl of the Golden West, was a huge hit in 1905.  His first appearance in film came in 1914 in the full feature length Behind The Scenes.  In the 1910's he was frequently cast as light cads and playboys; this all changed when, in 1920, D. W. Griffith cast him as an out and out bad guy, a predatory (possible statutory rapist) in Way Down East.  He went on to have a very prolific acting career throughout the 1920's, both on and off screen. Though he was a very good actor and much sought out, was always very reliable, he found acting not so fulfilling.  He is quoted as saying later on in his life: "Nothing becomes so monotonous as acting on the stage, especially if you are successful...working in the movies seemed even duller."  He then went on to become one of the very first silent era actors to make a very successful transition into directing films.  His directorial debut came in a very early talky in 1928 entitled Phipps.  He did continue to act in films until 1932, but from 1928 until 1935 he had 15 directorial credits, some of which he directed himself in.  If his last credit seems odd, a full year after his death, that is because he was in the early stages of directing Becky Sharp, when he unexpectedly died of double pneumonia in 1934 and the project was taken over by Rouben Mamoulian.  He was either 49 or 46 (probably 49) when he passed.  He is interred, like so many others Forest Lawn Memorial Park, including Mamoulian himself.  Sherman in entombed the memorial mausoleum section of the cemetery, like Carole Lombard and Clark Gable, but not near them.  He is, however, very near American film music composer Ralph Rainger.  IMDb.

Born Today October 8: Rouben Mamoulian

1897-1987

Born in Tiflis, In the Empire of Russia (Tiblisi the capital of the Republic of Georgia) as Rouben Zachary Mamoulian to Armenian parents who were possibly of Jewish ancestry; he would eventually go on to be a director of films in Hollywood by way of stage work in London and New York City.  He arrived in London 1922 and directed plays there.  In 1923 he was hired by Vladimir Rosing to serve as the head of the drama school at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York and directed both theater and opera there.  This is when is first involvement in film came.  Famous choreographer Martha Graham was recruited by him to come the the Eastman School and she is known to have been involved in experimental two color short film in 1926 The Flute Of Krishna (another title that I am proud to have added to IMDb years back), he is known to have been involved in the project in some form--certainly at least as producer; however, it has been long thought that he was also the director.  It was Graham who said that Mamoulian was "getting a bad, a very bad deal" at the school and he left for New York City the summer of that same year to direct (many say brilliantly) on Broadway. She, herself, left shortly there after as well for the same reasons.

His first Broadway directed production Porgy hit Broadway in 1927.  He first film director credit came in 1929 with the early talkie Applause.  Shot in New York for Paramount.  This opened up a new door for another area of direction for him, although he continued a much more successful career directing on Broadway.  For example, he was the first director to stage Oklahoma on Broadway.  He went on the have a regular film directing career all through the 1930's and 40's.  Then he got caught up in the whole Hollywood Blacklist affair, and there was hiatus in his film directing; I don't believe, though that he was actually ever blacklisted himself.  A lot of Hollywood workers that were blacklisted had Jewish ancestry.  It remains one of the darkest stains on both the Hollywood film business, and this country in general  In later film projects, he was known to be a very decisive, leave me alone and let me do things my way, kind of director.  He, was after all primarily a stage director.  The studios didn't appreciate this approach and he was fired from some very high profile projects, one of the most famous of which is Cleopatra (1963)--where he was replaced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, which starred Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.  Another, earlier firing, from the filming of Porgy And Bess (1959), must have stung, since it was he back in 1927 the he had such a hit with that same play on Broadway.  After the 1963 firing, he decided he was done with film directing. As a side note: in 1931 he directed Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde starring Frederic March.  This is not just a Fright Month mentioning for the Countdown To Halloween, as this was the first horror movie ever to win an Academy Award, with the Best Actor Oscar going to March; it nominated for two more.  It is widely considered to be the best filmed version of the novel, and, I believe, the first talky film version of it too.

Mamoulian passed away of natural causes at the ripe old age of 90 on the 4 of December 1987 in Los Angeles.  He was buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park, main cemetery located in Glendale, California.

Frederic March as Mr. Hyde