If they were still alive today...

...these gentlemen would be celebrating their birthday--it's an all-boy party today:





One of Hollywood's most beloved character actors, Henry Travers would be 137 today.  Though he made dozens of films, he is forever remembered for one role in particular:  Jimmy Stewart's "pixillated" guardian angel, Clarence, in the Christmas classic, It's a Wonderful Life.  He only appeared in two films after that film and died in 1965, aged 91.

Suave British leading man Rex Harrison would be 103.  Forever immortalized on screen as "Henry Higgins" in My Fair Lady (for which he won the 1962 Best Actor Oscar) and the loveable Dr. Doolittle in the original film version, he was considered by many to be one of the biggest pricks in Hollywood and was far from "loveable" in real life.
Speaking of nastiness, I love this photo (below), not for anything to do with Harrison.  But this was the year that Bette Davis, who was Joan Crawford's despised rival and co-star in the classic Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? was up for the Best Actress Oscar.  As the story goes, Joan followed her hunch that Anne Bancroft would win for The Miracle Worker.  Anne, she knew, wouldn't be able to accept her award in person, as she was appearing on Broadway at the time.  So Joan "kindly" volunteered to accept the award for her.  When Bancroft's name was called, Joan supposedly swept past Bette with a triumphant smile and magnanimously accepted the award on Anne's behalf.  Bette was NOT amused.



Broadway and TV actor Jack Cassidy would be 84.  His likeable, sunny demeanor made him a popular leading man in Broadway musicals of the 1960's.  But his most well-known legacy is having sired several sons who went on to become performers--and teen heartthrobs--in their own right (David, Sean and Patrick).  He died  in 1976 in his West Hollywood apartment, when he fell asleep with a lit cigarette and burned to death.  Alcohol was a contributing factor.




Andy Gibb would be 53.  The youngest of the Australian "Brothers Gibb" (which is what "Bee Gee" is short for).  He never joined the brothers as a group, but launched his own very successful solo career in the late 1970's.  But drugs got in the way, and he died at the very young age of 30, officially from an inflammation of the heart.




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And on this date, both Patsy Cline and John Belushi died, in 1963 and 1982, respectively.  Cline, of course, was the first female country "superstar" and has remained an enormous influence on the ladies of country music to this day.  And 47 years ago today, the plane she was flying on from Kansas City to Nashville went down in bad weather outside of Nashville and she was killed instantly, along with everyone else on board. 
(Above: John Belushi, in his 1967 Wheaton (Illinois) High School senior photo.)

And John Belushi, the Saturday Night Live comic and hugely successful film actor, whose flame burned brightly, furiously and very briefly...he died of a drug overdose in Hollywood 29 years ago today.