May 20

Adela Rogers St. Johns is born in Los Angeles, 1894. The noted writer landed her first job at the age of 19 as a journalist for the San Francisco Examiner, a William Randolph Hearst publication. She continued her work as intrepid girl reporter until 1948, when she left newspapers to write books and teach. In the film community, she is known for her movie star interviews for Photoplay, for cranking out more than a dozen silent film scripts and for her appearance as herself in Warren Beatty’s Reds (1981).

March 19

Ursula Andress is born in Bern, Switzerland, 1936. No actress she, Andress was at least able to move her arms and legs and looked darned good doing it. She was primarily a sexy side dish, bringing a dull vivaciousness to 4 for Texas (1963), What’s New Pussycat? (1965) and Casino Royale (1967). Most notably, she emerged from the sea in a bikini in Dr. No (1962), the first James Bond movie to hit the silver screen, playing Honey Ryder opposite Sean Connery’s double agent. Cinema’s first Bond girl also had a long history of famous beaus, Jean Paul Belmondo, Ryan O’Neal, Marlon Brando and Warren Beatty among them. James Dean was another notch on her belt; the volatile nature of their relationship inspired one tabloid to report that Dean was learning German so they could argue in another language.

March 4

Hollywood trade magazines announce a new Warren Beatty movie project called Heaven Can Wait, 1977. The story of a Los Angeles Rams quarterback who graduates to the promised land a little too early and must come back to earth in another man’s body was nixed by then-Warner Bros. studio head David Geffen only to be green lighted by Barry Diller after Geffen’s firing. Some interesting casting choices were bandied about: a boxing Muhammad Ali as the lead character, Cary Grant (who reportedly turned down a million dollar offer from Beatty) as Mr. Jordan and either Kate Jackson or Leslie Caron as Betty Logan. In the end, a football playing Warren Beatty assumed the lead role, James Mason took the part of Mr. Jordan and Julie Christie was eventually cast as Betty Logan.

January 5

Diane Keaton is born in Los Angeles, 1946. Before Something’s Gotta Give (2003), her forays into directing, her involvement with Warren Beatty—even before her early film career with Woody Allen—she was a Broadway performer in one of the seminal musicals of the 1960s. Of her experience in Hair, for which she was an understudy and eventual replacement for the Sheila character, Keaton remarked, “At the time it was astonishing to have a job. It was odd. Before the show opened we got a shot by a Dr. Bishop. A vitamin shot, only it was not vitamins. It was like methamphetamines. You were flying. A lot of people got addicted.” Her next show—Allen’s Play It Again, Sam—earned her a Tony nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play. Her personal relationship with Allen led to the couple performing in eight films together, including the 1972 movie version of the play.

See if you can spot her in this clip of the cast of Hair performing on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show in 1968.