Born on this day – Samantha Eggar:

Samantha Eggar

Actress

March 5, 1939 – October 15, 2025

Credits:

007: Nightfire (2002); 1st & Ten (1988); A Case for Murder (1993); A Ghost in Monte Carlo (1990); A Name for Evil (1973); ABC Weekend Specials (1994); About Napoli (2009); AFI Life Achievement Award (1976); Age of the Psychics (2006); Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1987); All My Children (2000); All the Kind Strangers (1974); Aloha Paradise (1981); American Masters (1986–2004); Anna and the King (1972); Baretta (1976); BBC Sunday-Night Play (1962); Birth Pains (2015); Burke's Law (1995); Cinema mil (2005); Cold Case (2004); Columbo (1977); Come to Silence with Samatha Eggar (2019); Commander in Chief (2005–2006); Confessions of a Horror Baby (2011); Corwin (1996); Curtains (1983); Dark Horse (1992); Darkroom (1982); Daytime's Greatest Weddings (2004); De película (1988); Demonoid (1981); Doctor Dolittle (1967); Doctor in Distress (1963); Dors: The Other Diana (1990); Double Indemnity (1973); Dr. Crippen (1963); Everything to Gain (1996); Falcon Crest (1981); Family (1977); Fantasy Island (1978–1979); Finder of Lost Loves (1985); For the Term of His Natural Life (1983); Gabriel Knight 3: Blood of the Sacred, Blood of the Damned (1999); George Burns Half-Hour Comedy Hour (1985); Ghost Squad (1963); Hagen (1980); Hart to Hart (1983); Hawaii Five-O (1978); Heartbeat (1989); Hercules (1997–1999); Hotel (1985); Inevitable Grace (1994); ITV Play of the Week (1963); ITV Television Playhouse (1963); James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing (2003); L.A. Law (1993); Loss of Faith (1998); Love Among Thieves (1987); Love Story (1973); Lucas Tanner (1975); Mag magazine (1988); Magnum, P.I. (1984); Mann & Machine (1992); Matlock (1990); Mental (2009); Metalocalypse (2012); Muchachada nui / Segment: Mundo viejuno: Pasa tiempo con tus hijos (2010); Murder, She Wrote (1984); New Release (1965); Nothing But Death (2018); Outlaws (1987); P.J. Sparkles (1992); Pop Culture Beast's Halloween Horror Picks (2015); Psyche 59 (1964); Ragin' Cajun (1990); Rendezvous (1961); Return from the Ashes (1965); Rob Roy (1961); Round Numbers (1992); She Spies (2003); Siegfried & Roy: Masters of the Impossible (1996); Star Trek: The Next Generation (1990); Starsky and Hutch (1977); Stingray (1987); Tales of the Unexpected (1985); Tax Shelter Terrors (2017); The 100 Greatest Family Films (2005); The 23rd Annual Golden Globe Awards (1966); The 24th Annual Golden Globe Awards (1967); The 38th Annual Academy Awards (1966); The 5th Annual American Cinema Awards (1988); The American Nightmare (2000); The Astronaut's Wife (1999); The Biggest Battle (1978); The Brood (1979); The Collector (1965); The Dead Are Alive (1972); The Dick Cavett Show (1971); The Exterminator (1980); The Hemingway Play (1976); The Hot Touch (1981); The Joey Bishop Show (1967); The Killer Who Wouldn't Die (1976); The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun (1970); The Legend of Prince Valiant (1991–1993); The Legendary Curse of the Hope Diamond (1975); The Light at the Edge of the World (1971); The Look of Stardom (2018); The Love Boat (1979–1981); The Magic Voyage (1992); The Magical World of Disney (1988); The Man of Destiny (1973); The Merv Griffin Show (1968–1973); The Molly Maguires (1970); The Nine Lives of Chloe King (2011); The Phantom (1996); The Princess and the Pea (1961); The Saint (1963); The Secrets of Lake Success (1993); The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976); The Time of Your Life (1985); The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1966–1967); The Uncanny / Segment: Hollywood 1936 (1977); The Walking Stick (1970); This Is Joan Collins (2022); This Is Your Life (1983); Unknown Powers (1978); Valentines. A Bouquet of Letters and Poetry of Lovers (1994); Vicki! (1993); Walk Don't Run (1966); Welcome to Blood City (1977); Whicker's World (1980); Why Shoot the Teacher (1977); Young and Willing (1962); Ziegfeld: The Man and His Women (1978).

On this day in movie history - Double Indemnity (movie & books):

Double Indemnity

directed by Jack Smight,

written by Steven Bochco, Billy Wilder, Raymond Chandler,

based on the novel by James M. Cain,

released in the United States on October 13, 1973.

Music by Billy Goldenberg.

Cast: Richard Crenna, Lee J. Cobb, Robert Webber, Samantha Eggar, Arch Johnson, Kathleen Cody, John Fiedler, John Elerick, Joan Pringle, Gene Dynarski, Ken Renard, Joyce Cunning, Arnold F. Turner, Rand Brooks, Tom Curtis, John Furlong.

Recommended reading:

Double Indemnity

By James M. Cain.

Filmed as:

Double Indemnity (1944), directed by Billy Wilder.

Double Indemnity (1973), directed by Jack Smight.

Published by Vintage Crime/Black Lizard.

Published 1943.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 9780679723226

ISBN-13: 9780679723226

Description:

“An American masterpiece.” – Ross Macdonald.

“No one has ever stopped reading in the middle of one of Jim Cain’s books.” – Saturday Review of Literature.

Walter Huff was an insurance salesman with an unfailing instinct for clients who might be in trouble, and his instinct led him to Phyllis Nirdlinger. Phyllis wanted to buy an accident policy on her husband. Then she wanted her husband to have an accident. Walter wanted Phyllis. To get her, he would arrange the perfect murder and betray everything he had ever lived for.

Tautly narrated and excruciatingly suspenseful, Double Indemnity gives us an X-ray view of guilt, of duplicity, and of the kind of obsessive, loveless love that devastates everything it touches. First published in 1935, this novel reaffirmed James M. Cain as a virtuoso of the roman noir.

Double Indemnity: The Complete Screenplay

By Billy Wilder, Raymond Chandler, Jeffrey Meyers.

Published by University of California Press.

Published 2000.

ISBN-10: 0520218485

ISBN-13: 9780520218482

Description:

On every level -- writing, direction, acting -- Double Indemnity (1944) is a triumph and stands as one of the greatest achievements in Billy Wilder's career. Adapted from the James M. Cain novel by director Wilder and novelist Raymond Chandler, it tells the story of an insurance salesman, played by Fred MacMurray, who is lured into a murder-for-insurance plot by Barbara Stanwyck, in an archetypal femme fatale role. From its grim story to its dark, atmospheric lighting, Double Indemnity is a definitive example of World War II-era film noir. Wilder's approach is everywhere evident: in the brutal cynicism the film displays, the moral complexity, and in the empathy we feel for the killers. The film received almost unanimous critical success, garnering seven Academy Award nominations. More than fifty years later, most critics agree that this classic is one of the best films of all time. The collaboration between Wilder and Raymond Chandler produced a masterful script and some of the most memorable dialogue ever spoken in a movie.

This facsimile edition of Double Indemnity contains Wilder and Chandler's original -- and quite different -- ending, published here for the first time. Jeffrey Meyers's introduction contextualizes the screenplay, providing hilarious anecdotes about the turbulent collaboration, as well as background information about Wilder and the film's casting and production.