Academy Award winner and Theater Hall of Fame inductee Celeste Holm turns 90 on April 29, 2007, and the occasion will be celebrated at a star-studded, invitation-only event in a Times Square eatery.
Grey Gardens producer Michael Alden (who was a producer on the Drama Desk-nominated Bat Boy) is the host. Among those scheduled to appear are Angela Lansbury, Marian Seldes, Christine Ebersol, Elaine Stritch and Michael Feinstein; and old friends Governor Mario Cuomo and his wife Matilda, and Walter Cronkite.
Ms. Holm made her stage debut at 17 and was on Broadway two years later. She played bit roles, then a featured one in Saroyan's The Time of Your Life before achieving star status in Oklahoma! She went on to another 23 shows, including Bloomer Girl, The King and I, Mame and, most recently, I Hate Hamlet. She not only knew George M. Cohan but performed onstage with him five times.
Ms. Holm has never denied the rumor that she ceremoniously turned down producers Zev Buffman and James Nederlander's offer to co-star in the 1979 Broadway revival of Oklahoma! when she realized they wanted her for Aunt Eller and not boy-crazy Ado Annie (who "cain't say no"), the role she originated.
In her third film, Zanuck's anti-anti-Semitism classic, "Gentlemen's Agreement," she won the Oscar and Golden Globe for Supporting Actress and was Oscar-nominated twice again for "Come to the Stable" and "All About Eve."
Though she made more films, including "The Snake Pit," "The Tender Trap" and "High Society" (co-starring Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Grace Kelly), it was TV that made her a beloved household presence. She appeared on every conceivable type of program, from the Golden Age of live TV and 1965's Rodgers and Hammerstein "Cinderella" to her series, "Honestly, Celeste!"
After three divorces, in 1961 Ms. Holm married veteran actor Wesley Addy, who died in 1996. In 2004, on her birthday, she married Frank Basile (not the baritone saxist but the tall, handsome opera singer), 45 years her junior. They are a fiercely devoted couple. He helped pull her through the devastating effects of a stroke which affected her speech.
[END]
