People (Births)

• 1890 – Adolphe Menjou, American actor (d. 1963)
• 1925 – George Kennedy, American actor (d. 2016)
• 1954 – John Travolta, American actor, singer and producer

Adolphe Menjou

Adolphe Jean Menjou (18 February 1890 to 29 October 1963) was an American actor. His career spanned both silent films and talkies. He appeared in such films as Charlie Chaplin’s A Woman of Paris, where he played the lead role; Stanley Kubrick’s Paths of Glory (1957) with Kirk Douglas; Ernst Lubitsch’s The Marriage Circle; The Sheik with Rudolph Valentino; Morocco with Marlene Dietrich and Gary Cooper; and A Star Is Born with Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, and was nominated for an Academy Award for The Front Page in 1931.

He was raised Catholic, attended the Culver Military Academy, and graduated from Cornell University with a degree in engineering. Attracted to the vaudeville stage, he made his movie debut in 1916 in The Blue Envelope Mystery. During World War I, he served as a captain in the United States Army Ambulance Service, for which he trained in Pennsylvania before going overseas.

George Kennedy

George Harris Kennedy Jr. (18 February 1925 to 28 February 2016) was an American actor who appeared in more than 100 film and television productions. He played “Dragline” opposite Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke (1967), winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the role and being nominated for the corresponding Golden Globe. He received a second Golden Globe nomination for portraying Joe Patroni in Airport (1970).

Among the notable films he had a significant role in are Cool Hand Luke, Charade, Strait-Jacket, McHale’s Navy, Shenandoah, The Sons of Katie Elder, The Flight of the Phoenix, The Dirty Dozen (1967), The Boston Strangler, Guns of the Magnificent Seven (1969), Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, The Good Guys and the Bad Guys, Airport 1975, Earthquake, The Eiger Sanction, and The Naked Gun.

Kennedy was the only actor to appear in all four films in the Airport series, reprising the role of Joe Patroni three times. He also played Police Captain Ed Hocken in the Naked Gun series of comedy films, and corrupt oil tycoon Carter McKay on the original Dallas television series.

Kennedy enlisted in the United States Army during World War II in 1943. He served 16 years, reaching the rank of captain. Kennedy served in the infantry under George S. Patton, fought in the Battle of the Bulge, and earned two Bronze Stars. He re-enlisted after the war and was discharged in the late 1950s due to a back injury.

John Travolta

John Joseph Travolta (born 18 February 1954) is an American actor. He came to public attention during the 1970s, appearing on the television sitcom Welcome Back, Kotter (1975-1979) and starring in the box office successes Carrie (1976), Saturday Night Fever (1977), Grease (1978), and Urban Cowboy (1980). His acting career declined throughout the 1980s, but he enjoyed a resurgence in the 1990s with his role in Pulp Fiction (1994), and went on to star in films including Get Shorty (1995), Broken Arrow (1996), Phenomenon (1996), Face/Off (1997), A Civil Action (1998), Primary Colors (1998), Hairspray (2007), and Bolt (2008).

Travolta was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performances in Saturday Night Fever and Pulp Fiction. He won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy for his performance in Get Shorty and has received a total of six nominations, the most recent being in 2011. In 2014, he received the IIFA Award for Outstanding Achievement in International Cinema. In 2016, Travolta received his first Primetime Emmy Award, as a producer of the first season of the anthology series American Crime Story, subtitled The People v. O.J. Simpson. He also received an additional Emmy nomination and a Golden Globe nomination for his portrayal of lawyer Robert Shapiro in the series.

Outside of acting, Travolta is also a singer-songwriter. He has released 9 albums, including 4 singles that have charted on the Billboard Hot 100’s Top 40. His albums have been typically accompanied with films he’s starred in, such as Grease: The Original Soundtrack from the Motion Picture (1978) which topped the Billboard 200. Travolta is also a private pilot.