At 5:45 PM on September 30, 1955, 24-year-old actor James
Dean was killed in Cholame, California, when the Porsche
he is driving hits a Ford Tudor sedan at an intersection.

Only one of Dean’s movies, “East of Eden,” had been released
at the time of his death (“Rebel Without a Cause” and “Giant”
opened shortly afterward), but he was already on his way to superstardom—and the crash made him a legend.

James Dean loved racing cars, and in fact he and his brand-
new, $7000 Porsche Spyder convertible were on their way
to a race in Salinas, 90 miles south of San Francisco.

Gene Autry, perhaps the greatest singing cowboy of all time, 
was born on September 29, 1907, in Tioga, Texas.

While still a boy, Autry moved with his family to a ranch in
Oklahoma where he learned to play the guitar and sing.

The young Autry was quickly attracted to a new style of music
that was becoming popular at the time, which combined the
traditional cowboy music popular in Texas and Oklahoma and
the folk songs, ballads, and hymns of southern-style country
music. Known as country-western.

Sir Michael Gambon, who played Dumbledore in the
“Harry Potter” franchise, died Tuesday after suffering
from pneumonia .

Over his six-decade-long career,Gambon received
three Olivier Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards,
and four BAFTA Awards. In 1998, he was knighted by
Queen Elizabeth II for services to drama.

The Irish-English actor Sir Michael Gambon as
Denton Baxter in the great Kevin Costner
Revisionist Western film Open Range, 2003.

The Misfits is a 1961 Contemporary Western film written by
Arthur Miller, directed by John Huston, and starring Clark
Gable, Marilyn Monroe, and Montgomery Clift (above). The
supporting cast includes Thelma Ritter and Eli Wallach.

  
The Misfits was the last completed film for both Clark Gable
and Marilyn Monroe. For Gable, the film was posthumously
released, while Monroe died in August 1962 after its release.

Screenwriter Arthur Asher Miller
(October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005)

Stone as a G.I. in Vietnam / 1968.

For his service, he received military honors such as the Bronze
Star with "V" Device for valor, the Purple Heart with Oak Leaf
Cluster, the National Defense Service Medal, the Vietnam Service
Medal with one Silver Service Star.

Film director, producer, and screenwriter William Oliver Stone is
77 years old today.

1991