Born November 30, 1947 in Chicago, Illinois to Bernard and Lenore Mamet, a lawyer and a teacher, respectively, David Mamet is an American playwright, essayist, film writer and film director. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his 1984 play, Glengarry Glen Ross and Tony awards for that and 1988’s Speed-the-Plow. He is known for Mamet speak, his tendency to write dialogue in which characters either stutter or speak in incomplete sentences.

Mamet’s early works were performed in his native Chicago at the American Theater Company, which he co-founded. His early works included Sexual Perversity in Chicago and American Buffalo. The latter was his first play produced for Boradway in 1977. His A Life in the Theater written that same year was his first filmed work. It was made for PBS.

Mamet’s first filmed screenplay was for the 1981 remake of James M. Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice directed by Bob Rafelson. The script for The Verdict from the novel by Barry Reed, which he had written in the late 1970s was rejected by director Sidney Lumet who had several other writers work on their own versions, one of which was almost filmed. Eventually Mamet re-wrote his to Lumet’s satisfaction. Mamet received the first of his two Oscar nominations for the filmed result.

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Born January 15, 1937, Angela Maxine O’Brien’s father, circus performer Lawrence O’Brien, died before she was born. Her mother, Gladys Flores, was a well-known flamenco dancer. The precocious child began her acting debut at the age of four with an un-credited role in 1941’s Babes on Broadway. She received her first billing in the title role of the World War II refugee in 1942’s Journey for Margaret for which her first name was changed to Margaret.

An overnight sensation, little Margaret would remain the pre-eminent child actress of the 1940s. She was so popular by late 1943 after just a handful of films that she would make an appearance as a guest star in MGM’s blockbuster musical of that year, As Thousands Cheer. The following year, she was featured in four of her best remembered roles as the little French girl in Jane Eyre; the little lady of the manor in The Canterville Ghost; “Tootie”, arguably her most famous role, in Meet Me in St. Louis and “Mike” in Music for Millions. It’s no wonder that she was awarded a special juvenile Oscar as “Outstanding Child Actress of 1944”, only the fifth such honoree in Oscar history and the first in five years. She was preceded by Shirley Temple (1934), Deanna Durbin and Mickey Rooney (1938) and her Meet Me in St. Louis co-star, Judy Garland (1939)

She continued to excel in roles ranging from Edward G. Robinson’s Norwegian-American daughter in Our Vines Have Tender Grapes to the little heiress in Three Wise Fools to the tiny ballerina in The Unfinished Dance to the self-confident tenement child in Tenth Avenue Angel. She reached another peak with two oft-filmed literary masterpieces in 1949: Little Women and The Secret Garden. After that, though, her popularity waned. Her 1951 film, Her First Romance flopped. Mostly seen since in guest star appearances on TV, in minor roles on the large screen and latterly as a popular interviewee on her childhood career, she had her last starring role on screen as a racehorse trainer in 1956’s Glory opposite Walter Brennan.

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