SANDY KOZEL

Marlon Brando Jr. (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004)

Widely regarded as one of the greatest cinema actors of the 20th
century, Brando received numerous accolades throughout his
career, which spanned six decades, including two Academy
Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, a Cannes Film Festival
Award, three British Academy Film Awards, and an Emmy
Award.

Marlon Brando is credited with being one of the first actors to
bring the Stanislavski system of acting and method acting to
mainstream audiences.

He made his film debut playing a wounded G.I. in The Men
(1950) and won two Academy Awards for Best Actor for his
roles as a dockworker in the crime drama film On the
Waterfront (1954).

1972

Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey had its
world theatrical premiere on April 2, 1968.

Kubrick, whose 1964 Cold War satire Dr. Strangelove had been
popular with audiences and critics alike, was intrigued by
science fiction but felt the genre rarely produced interesting
films.

Filming required the construction of a giant centrifuge to serve
as the spaceship’s interior and numerous expensive visual
effects, including a groundbreaking psychedelic sequence near
the end of the film so complex that staff referred to it as the
“Manhattan Project.” Kubrick is said to have removed over 15
minutes from the final cut, which nonetheless ran well over
2 hours.

On April 1, 1945, after suffering the loss of 116 planes and
damage to three aircraft carriers, 50,000 U.S. combat troops,
under the command of Lieutenant General Simon B. Buckner
Jr., landed on the southwest coast of the Japanese island
of Okinawa, 350 miles south of Kyushu, the southern main
island of Japan.

Determined to seize Okinawa as a base of operations for
the army ground and air forces for a later assault on
mainland Japan, more than 1,300 ships converged
on the island, finally putting ashore 50,000 combat
troops.

Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr.
(18 July 1886 – 18 June 1945)

Buckner was among the casualties,
killed by enemy artillery fire just three
days before the Japanese surrender.

The 1952 film Okinawa starring Pat O’Brien, is one of several movies to depict this decisive episode in the history of the
war.

Fort Buckner is a small United States Army base located immediately south of Camp Foster, near Futenma, on
Okinawa, Japan.

On March 31, 1999, the writing and directing sibling team of
Lana and Lilly Wachowski release their second film, the mind-
blowing science-fiction blockbuster The Matrix.

Later films include Cloud Atlas (2012) and Jupiter Ascending
(2015). A sequel to The Matrix Revolutions, The Matrix
Resurrections, was released in 2021.         
        
        
        
        
        
        
Lilly and Lana Wachowsk.

Oklahoma! opened on Broadway on March 31, 1943. In spite of 
a less-than-promising lead-up, it would go on to set a Broadway
record of 2,212 performances before finally closing five years
later.