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I vividly recall seeing Robert Redford on the streets of New York City at the height of his stardom in the early seventies, moving quickly but unfettered by security. I called to him once from across the street (what did I have to lose?). He looked over, waved at me and said: “Hello!” My week was made.

George Gershwin, born on this day in 1898, miraculously created a vast body of popular music in a very short time. His work ranged from pop songs, to orchestral pieces, to more than 30 musicals written for the Broadway stage, usually with his older brother Ira as lyricist.

Younger film fans may find it hard to believe, but Clint Eastwood wasn’t always a badass. Prior to his iconic performance in “A Fistful of Dollars” (1964), Eastwood was best known to American audiences as Rowdy Yates, a kind-hearted supporting character on the popular “Rawhide” TV show. In fact, it was the opportunity to leave Rowdy’s friendly persona behind that most intrigued Eastwood about going to Spain to work for director Sergio Leone. “I decided,” Eastwood said, “it was time to be an anti-hero.”

 Life is full of weird coincidences: The first time Brad Pitt’s star power really hit me was in a film directed by...Robert Redford. The movie, of course, was Brad’s big breakthrough, 1992’s “A River Runs Through It”, in which Brad plays the more rebellious of two brothers growing up in 1920’s Montana. Watching it over twenty years ago, I vividly remember thinking that Redford was directing a younger version of himself. Think about it: they look alike, they talk alike, and a generation apart, each would be considered for the same kind of roles. Each in their younger days had the fair, clean-cut quality commonly referred to as “All-American”.

You can’t help but be moved by the tragic life of actress Gene Tierney. Though endowed with astonishing beauty and talent that won her early fame, a series of misfortunes would eventually bring her to the brink of suicide.

Theda Bara, Hollywood’s first female sex symbol, was born on July 29th, 1885. This year also marks the 100th anniversary of her film debut. My, how time flies!    New York was still the center of the movie business when Bara — going by her given name of Theodosia Goodman — impressed her bosses at Fox Studios in “The Stain” (1914). Taking note of her curvy figure and big dark eyes, Fox’s publicity department supplied this 29-year-old Jewish woman from Cincinnati with a new name and an entirely fictional bio. She would promptly be introduced to movie fans as the Egyptian-born daughter of a French actress and an Italian sculptor. Fox even provided her with a nickname, “The Serpent of the Nile.” Her admirers gave her a more enduring alias after her first blockbuster, “A Fool There Was” (1915), where she played a character called “The Vampire.” From then on, Bara was simply “The Vamp.” The term has long sinced entered the American vernacular.