John Lithgow

John Lithgow was born October 19, 1945 in Rochester, New York...73 days later and 86 miles from...Happy Birthday, John

He spent his childhood years in Yellow Springs, Ohio.  Coretta Scott King was his babysitter.  

John Lithgow spent his teenage years in Akron and Lakewood, Ohio followed by Princeton, New Jersey.  He graduated from Harvard University in 1967.

John Lithgow was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performances in The World According to Garp (1982) and Terms of Endearment (1983).  He won in neither year.

I pictured John Lithgow as my protagonist in my screenplay Best of Intensions, which I wrote some years ago.  It is a love story between an American and a Mexican woman (I thought of Salma Hayek) which takes place in the early years of WWII when the USA invaded Mexico, an axis partner(?).

My prophecy happened in 2017 when John (Doug) and Salma (Beatriz) appeared together in the film Beatriz at Dinner.  The two portray guests at a dinner party.  Interactions between Doug and Beatriz get off to a bad start with Doug mistaking her for one of the house staff members.  

Later, in the living room, tensions come to a head when Doug brags about his hunting of animals while on safari in South Africa and passes around his phone that has a photo of a dead rhinoceros he hunted.

When Beatriz sees the photo, she calls the act "disgusting" and hurls the mobile at Doug.  This is not the love story I imagined.  In fact, Beatriz imagines killing Doug.

rap sheet

A rap sheet is an informal term for a criminal record, which is a detailed list of a person's arrests, charges, and convictions maintained by law enforcement agencies. These records include details on various offenses, penalties, and judicial decisions related to a person's involvement with the criminal justice system.

The term rap sheet is a combination of the slang word "rap," meaning a criminal charge or accusation, and the word "sheet," referring to a document or list. It became a common phrase around the 1940s.

Access to a person's rap sheet is legally restricted to law enforcement, criminal justice professionals, and authorized state and federal agencies for legitimate purposes like employment or licensing.  Public access is highly restricted, as rap sheets are not public records and cannot be obtained through Freedom of Information requests.

About forty plus years ago, I was driving along Delancey Street in lower Manhattan, having come across the Williamsburg Bridge on the way to my family's favorite Chinese restaurant, Say Eng Look, which is unfortunately gone. 

At a red light, a scruffy young man approached the car and engaged my first wife, Bonita, in conversation.  It basically consisted of asking for money.

She obliged, but asked him why he was not looking for gainful employment.  He responded as it was difficult to find because of his rap sheet.

The light turned green and we departed, but not before Bonita wished him well.  A few seconds later, my young daughter Rachel asked unforgettably, "What's a rap sheet?"

Robert Redford

Robert Redford was born August 18, 1936 in Santa Monica, California.  He became a respected actor, director and producer.

Robert Redford attended Van Nuys High School, where he was a classmate of baseball pitcher Don Drysdale.  Another student at the school was the actress Natalie Wood.  He hit tennis balls with Pancho Gonzalez at the Los Angeles Tennis Club to help Gonzalez warm up for matches.

Robert Redford's acting career began in New York City, where he worked both on stage and in television. His Broadway debut was in a small role in Tall Story (1959).  

His biggest success on Broadway was as the stuffy newlywed husband of Elizabeth Ashley in the original 1963 cast of Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park.  One night, I was in the audience at the Biltmore Theatre watching the young Robert Redford perform.

In the play, a newly wed couple live on the top floor (no elevator) of a brownstone in Manhattan.  When people arrive in their apartment, they are out of breath.  It reminds me of the apartment my brother Paul once lived in west of Central Park.

I saw many of Robert Redford's movies such as: Barefoot in the Park, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Tell Them Willie Boy is Here, Downhill Racer, The Candidate, The Sting, The Way We Were, All The President's Men, The Natural, Out of Africa, Indecent Proposal and All is Lost.

Robert Redford won his only Academy Award as Best Director for the film Ordinary People.

Sadly, he died at his home in Sundance, Utah on September 16th this year.