TCM Schedule for Thurs, Jan 30, 2025: Jeanette MacDonald / Gene Hackman Birthday Tribute

Jeanette MacDonald (June 18, 1903 – January 14, 1965) was an American soprano and actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier (The Love Parade, Love Me Tonight, The Merry Widow and One Hour With You) and Nelson Eddy (Naughty Marietta, Rose-Marie, and Maytime).

During the 1930s and 1940s she starred in 29 feature films, four nominated for Best Picture Oscars (The Love Parade, One Hour with You, Naughty Marietta and San Francisco), and recorded extensively, earning three gold records.

MacDonald began dancing lessons as young child in Philadelphia and singing lessons as a young teen in New York City, working her way up from chorus performer to Broadway standout and, eventually, film star.

Full bio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanette_MacDonald



Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald in Rose-Marie, airing this morning. Trivia: MacDonald's older sister Edith is better know as Blossom Rock, who portrayed "Grandmama" on the 1960s TV series The Addams Family.


Gene Hackman (born January 30, 1930) is an American actor.

In a career that spanned more than six decades, he received two Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, four Golden Globes, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and the Silver Bear.

Hackman's two Academy Award wins included one for Best Actor for his role as Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle in William Friedkin's acclaimed thriller The French Connection (1971 --airing today) and the other for Best Supporting Actor for his role as "Little" Bill Daggett in Clint Eastwood's Western film Unforgiven (1992). His other Oscar-nominated roles were for Bonnie and Clyde (1967), I Never Sang for My Father (1970), and Mississippi Burning (1988).

Hackman left home at age 16, lied about his age to join the United States Marine Corps, and served four and a half years as a field-radio operator. Upon discharge, and after several small jobs and a study of journalism and television production at the University of Illinois, he moved to California to pursue an acting career.

Hackman befriended another aspiring actor, Dustin Hoffman, at the Pasadena Playhouse. Already seen as outsiders by their classmates, Hackman and Hoffman were voted "The Least Likely To Succeed," and Hackman got the lowest score the Pasadena Playhouse had yet given.

Determined to prove them wrong, Hackman moved to New York City. A 2004 article in Vanity Fair described Hackman, Hoffman, and Robert Duvall as struggling California-born actors and close friends, sharing NYC apartments in various two-person combinations in the 1960s. To support himself between acting jobs, Hackman was working at a Howard Johnson's restaurant when he encountered an instructor from the Pasadena Playhouse, who said that his job proved that Hackman "wouldn't amount to anything."

Full bio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Hackman




"Least Likely to Succeed" Gene Hackman, The French Connection



--- DAYTIME (EST) ---

6:00 AM | Rose-Marie (1936)
An opera singer goes undercover in the Canadian wilderness to hunt for her criminal brother.
Dir: W.S. Van Dyke | Cast: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Reginald Owen

8:00 AM | Maytime (1937)
An opera star's manager tries to stop her romance with a penniless singer.
Dir: Robert Z. Leonard | Cast: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, John Barrymore

10:15 AM | Sweethearts (1938)
Bickering husband-and-wife stage stars are manipulated into a break-up for publicity purposes.
Dir: W. S. Van Dyke II | Cast: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Frank Morgan

12:15 PM | New Moon (1940)
A revolutionary leader romances a French aristocrat in Louisiana.
Dir: Robert Z. Leonard | Cast: Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Mary Boland

2:15 PM | Cairo (1942)
A war correspondent in Egypt thinks a screen star on tour is a spy.
Dir: Major W. S. Van Dyke II | Cast: Jeanette MacDonald, Robert Young, Ethel Waters

4:00 PM | Three Daring Daughters (1948)
Three young girls try to help their widowed mother find the right husband.
Dir: Fred M. Wilcox | Cast: Jeanette MacDonald, José Iturbi, Jane Powell

6:00 PM | The Sun Comes Up (1949)
Lassie helps an embittered woman find happiness with an orphaned boy.
Dir: Richard Thorpe | Cast: Jeanette MacDonald, Lloyd Nolan, Claude Jarman Jr.


--- PRIME TIME, LATE NIGHT, EARLY MORNING ---

8:00 PM | The French Connection (1971)
A New York City detective and his partner trace an international drug smuggling ring.
Dir: William Friedkin | Cast: Gene Hackman, Fernando Rey, Roy Scheider

10:00 PM | Night Moves (1975)
A private detective is hired to find a runaway teen. Complications ensue.
Dir: Arthur PennvCast: Gene Hackman, Jennifer Warren, Susan Clark

12:00 AM | Scarecrow (1973)
A drifter hits the road with a homeless ex-sailor, heading East together.
Dir: Jerry Schatzberg | Cast: Gene Hackman, Al Pacino, Dorothy Tristan

2:00 AM | The Domino Principle (1977) TCM PREMIERE
An impsrioned war veteran is offered freedom if he commits to a contract killing.
Dir: Stanley Kramer | Cast: Gene Hackman, Candice Bergen, Richard Widmark

4:00 AM | The Gypsy Moths (1969)
A trio of barnstorming skydivers finds love and heartache at one small-town stop.
Dir: John Frankenheimer | Cast: Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, Gene Hackman