Bob Fosse (1927-87) is pictured above with his third wife, Gwen Verdon. The two had a rocky marriage, but were successful creative partners for over 20 years.
Fosse is probably best known to film audiences as the director of Cabaret. The 1972 musical set a record for the most Oscars won by a film that didn’t win Best Picture. Among its eight wins was Fosse’s Best Director honor.
Fosse grew up in Chicago and began performing as a dancer in his early teens. He moved to New York in the late 1940s, and made his Broadway debut in 1950, as a dancer in the musical Dance Me a Song. In 1953, he made his film debut, appearing in three musicals–The Affairs of Dobie Gillis, Give a Girl a Break, and Kiss Me Kate.
Fosse soon found his true vocation as a choreographer and sometimes director. In 1954, he choreographed his first Broadway musical, The Pajama Game. A year later, as choreographer on Damn Yankees, he worked with Gwen Verdon for the first time. The two worked together on New Girl in Town and Redhead later in the decade.
During a Broadway career of over 30 years, Fosse won eight Tony Awards for choreography, beginning with The Pajama Game, and including Damn Yankees, Redhead, Sweet Charity and Pippin, among others. He also won a Tony for direction on Pippin.
Fosse continued his film career when he was the choreographer as well as a costar of the 1955 musical My Sister Eileen. He made his feature directing debut on the film adaptation of Sweet Charity in 1969. After his success with Cabaret, he was a Best Director nominee for Lenny and All That Jazz. The latter film also won the Palme d’Or at Cannes.
In 1973, the same year he won an Oscar for Chicago, and Tonys for Pippin, Fosse directed and choreographed Liza with a Z, a TV special starring Liza Minnelli. It won multiple Emmys; Fosse won or shared in three of them. He is the only person ever to win an Oscar, a Tony and an Emmy in the same year.
Connor Jessup was our latest headliner for this date.
It’s Connor Jessup’s 28th birthday today. Later this summer, he will return to star as Tyler Locke on the final season of Locke & Key.
Joel Edgerton is 48. He will be starring as Richard Harris in the upcoming Thirteen Lives. Edgerton also has appeared as Owen Lars on Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Frances McDormand celebrates her 65th. Her most recent films have been Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch and Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth (as Lady Macbeth). McDormand is starring in Sarah Polley’s adaptation of Miriam Toews’s novel Women Talking.
Selma Blair, who is 50, appeared in the TV movie Far More last fall. Since we last checked in on Jason Mraz, who turns 45, he has released his seventh studio album, Look for the Good.
Matias Varela, who returned for season 2 of HBO Max’s Raised by Wolves, celebrates his 42nd today. Also 42 is Melissa Rauch, who will be starring on a new Night Court on NBC, based on the 1980s sitcom.
The most recent June 22 headliners were Cyndi Lauper and Billy Wilder.
Meryl Streep turned 73 yesterday. She was part of the ensemble cast of Don’t Look Up last fall. Streep will also be in the cast of the upcoming Apple TV+ anthology series Extrapolations.
Amy Brenneman, who is a regular on the new FX series The Old Man, celebrated her 58th birthday. Lecy Goranson, who is 48, remains a regular on The Conners.
Joe Dempsie, who celebrated his 35th, was a regular on Netflix’s Pieces of Her. Douglas Smith, who costars in Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling, turned 37.
Sian Heder was 45 yesterday. She won Oscar and Golden Globe honors for Best Adapted Screenplay earlier this year for CODA, which she also directed.
If today is your birthday, congratulations on sharing your big day with these notable names. Birthday wishes to everyone celebrating a big day today. Come back tomorrow for more celebrity birthdays.