January Kids

42 years ago today, Doug E. Doug was born. Born in Brooklyn, many people still connect him to Jamaica after portraying the character Sanka in the 90´s comedy "Cool Runnings". The character Irv in the same movie was played by the late John Candy, whom many of us watch every Christmas as Gus Polinski in Home Alone. The part he played in Home Alone was inspired by his character in "Planes, Trains and Automobiles", and his scene about forgetting his son at a funeral home was improvised. Here´s a little tribute to a few of those born in the first week of the year:



Another actor who also turns 42 today is Jeremy Renner, whose breakthrough came in Kathryn Bigalow´s "The Hurt Locker". A late bloomer, that movie catapulted him into the limelight in Hollywood. Here´s a memorable scene from "The Town":




On January the 5th, 1931, Robert Duvall was born. Duvall has been in numerous great movies such as Apocolypse Now, Falling Down and the Godfather Trilogy. (Diane Keaton, who played Kay in the latter, was also born on January 5th). One of my favorite scenes with the man is from Part II of the trilogy, in a wonderful scene together with the late Michael V. Gazzo (Frankie Pentangeli):



Fun fact about Robert Duvall: When The Godfather was released in March of 1972, a young girl named Luciana Pedraza was about 2 months old. She was born on the same date in 1972, and yes... she is now his wife.


As an avid fan of Martin Scorsese, one has to mention another child of January, Thelma Schoonmaker. The three times Oscar-winning editor has cut some of the finest movies of the last 4 decades, including Raging Bull, Goodfellas and The Departed, as well as personal favorites such as Bringing out the Dead, Gangs of New York and The King of Comedy.

From "The King of Comedy":




Speaking of Martin Scorsese, as in a couple of his movies, here´s his mother taking part in one of the Schoonmaker-edited movies, Goodfellas:




Happy Birthday, guys and gal!