Rod Steiger (1925–2002) was an American actor, noted for his portrayal of offbeat, often volatile and crazed characters. He is closely associated with the art of method acting, embodying the characters he played, which at times led to clashes with directors and co-stars. He starred with Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront (1954), playing Charley, the mobster brother of Brando's character. He played the title character Sol Nazerman in The Pawnbroker (1964), and an opportunistic Russian politician in David Lean's Doctor Zhivago (1965). Steiger won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Mississippi police chief Bill Gillespie opposite Sidney Poitier in the film In the Heat of the Night (1967). During the 1970s, Steiger turned to European productions in his search for more demanding roles. He portrayed Napoleon in Waterloo (1970) and a Mexican bandit in Sergio Leone's Duck, You Sucker! (1971). He ended the decade playing a disturbed priest in The Amityville Horror (1979).
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Steiger
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1809:
The second Theatre Royal, Covent Garden (interior pictured), opened in London after the original was destroyed by fire. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Opera_House
1875:
The Indianola hurricane dissipated over Mississippi after killing around eight hundred people in Texas. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1875_Indianola_hurricane
1961:
An aircraft crashed near Ndola in Northern Rhodesia, resulting in the deaths of United Nations secretary-general Dag Hammarskjöld and 15 others on board. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1961_Ndola_Transair_Sweden_DC-6_crash
1981:
While posing as an aristocrat, Belgian serial killer Nestor Pirotte murdered an antiques dealer in Brussels, for which crime he was sentenced to death. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestor_Pirotte
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
greige: 1. (textiles) Of clothing, textiles, etc.: neither bleached nor dyed, nor otherwise fully processed; unfinished. 2. Of a colour like that of unbleached or undyed fabric, between grey and beige. 3. A colour like that of unbleached or undyed fabric between grey and beige, closely akin to taupe. greige: 4. (textiles, archaic) Clothing, textiles, etc., which have neither been bleached nor dyed, nor otherwise fully processed; greige goods. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/greige
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
You can always tell an old battlefield where many men have lost their lives. The next spring the grass comes up greener and more luxuriant than on the surrounding countryside; the poppies are redder, the corn-flowers more blue. They grow over the field and down the sides of the shell holes and lean, almost touching, across the abandoned trenches in a mass of color that ripples all day in the direction that the wind blows. They take the pits and scars out of the torn land and make it a sweet, sloping surface again. Take a wood, now, or a ravine: In a year's time you could never guess the things which had taken place there. … To me it has always seemed that God is so sickened with men, and their unending cruelty to each other, that he covers the places where they have been as quickly as possible. --William March https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_March