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Celeste Holm
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American actress "Celeste Holm" made her first stage appearance in 1936 with a Pennsylvania stock company. Sophisticated and poised beyond her years, Holm was cast shortly afterward in a touring company of the ultra-chic Clare Boothe Luce comedy The Women, then played New York in such high-profile productions as The Time of Your Life. Rodgers and "Hammerstein" cast her as soubrette Ado Annie in Oklahoma! in 1943; both the production itself and Annie's show-stopping song "I Cain't Say No" affirmed Holm's future stardom. Following her film debut in "Three Little Girls in Blue" (1946), she was cast by her studio, 20th Century-Fox, in the role of the love-starved fashion editor in the prestige feature "Gentlemen's Agreement" (1947), for which she won an Academy Award.
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Celeste Holm, beloved of theater fans as the original Ado Annie in Oklahoma! and to movie buffs for her work in such films as Gentleman's Agreement and All About Eve, celebrated her 90th birthday with a party at Tony's Di Napoli. Here's the lovely lady with the portrait that will go on the restaurant's Wall of Fame.
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Oscar-winning actress Celeste Holm was raised in a liberal, liberated family. Her grandmother was an outspoken suffragist, her mother worked as a writer and author, and her family was very supportive of the arts. Young Celeste was educated in a French boarding school and a Chicago private school, studied drama at the University of Chicago, and as a beginning actress she learned stage enunciation with the help of her mother: To practice reaching the back row of the theater, the two women went to open parkland where they would each climb adjacent hills and shout dialogue to each other over the distance.
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Celeste Holm's auspiscious career began at the age of 19 when she understudied as Ophelia in Leslie Howard’s national tour of Hamlet. Celeste's Broadway debut, was the role of Mary L. in William Saroyan’s 1939 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, The Time of Your Life.
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On April 29, Celeste Holm and many friends gathered at Tony's DiNapoli to celebrate her 90th birthday. Well wishers included Ms. Holm's husband Frank Basile, Angela Lansbury, Christine Ebersole, Elaine Stritch, Walter Cronkite, Mario Cuomo, Marian Seldes, Bob Stillman, Taina Elg, Leroy Neiman, Fritz Weaver, Bruce Vilanch and Hazelle Goodman.
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Actress Celeste Holm turned 88 on Sunday. She co-starred in the classic sophisticated backstage comedy/drama from 1950, All About Eve. In the black & white still from the film, she’s the lady in the middle facing the star of the film, Bette Davis.
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Celeste Holm