Born on this day – Sidney Poitier:

Sidney Poitier

Actor

Director

Diplomat

February 20, 1927 – January 6, 2022

Credits:

The Last Brickmaker in America (2001); The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn (1999); David and Lisa (1998); Free of Eden (1998); The Jackal: Alternate Ending (1998); The Jackal (1997); Mandela and de Klerk (1997); To Sir, with Love II (1996); Children of the Dust (1995); Sneakers (1992); Separate But Equal (1991); Little Nikita (1988); Shoot to Kill (1988); A Piece of the Action (1977); Let's Do It Again (1975); The Wilby Conspiracy (1975); Uptown Saturday Night (1974); A Warm December (1973); Buck and the Preacher (1972); The Organization (1971); Brother John (1971); They Call Me Mister Tibbs! (1970); The Lost Man (1969); For Love of Ivy (1968); Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967); In the Heat of the Night (1967); To Sir, with Love (1967); Duel at Diablo (1966); A Patch of Blue (1965); The Slender Thread (1965); The Bedford Incident (1965); The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965); The Long Ships (1964); Lilies of the Field (1963); Pressure Point (1962); Paris Blues (1961); A Raisin in the Sun (1961); All the Young Men (1960); Porgy and Bess (1959); Our Virgin Island (1958); The Defiant Ones (1958); The Mark of the Hawk (1957); Band of Angels (1957); Something of Value (1957); Edge of the City (1957); Good-bye, My Lady (1956); Kraft Theatre (1952–1955); Ponds Theater (1955); Blackboard Jungle (1955); Go Man Go (1954); Omnibus (segment entitled The Bad Men) (1952); Red Ball Express (1952); CBS Television Workshop (1952); Cry, the Beloved Country (1951); No Way Out (1950); Sepia Cinderella (1947).

Born on this day – Richard Matheson:

Richard Matheson

Writer

February 20, 1926 – June 23, 2013

Credits:

Books:

65 Great Spine Chillers (1982); 7 Steps to Midnight (1993); A Primer of Reality (2002); A Stir of Echoes (1958); Abu and the 7 Marvels (2002); American Pulp (1997); Best of Science Fiction: No. 10 (1964); Bloodlines (2006); Button, Button: Uncanny Stories (2007); By the Gun (1994); California Sorcery (1999); Camp Pleasant (2001); Collected Stories, Vol. 1 (1989); Collected Stories, Vol. 2 (2005); Collected Stories, Vol. 3 (2005); Come Fygures, Come Shadowes (2003); Comedy of Terrors (1964); Completely Doomed (2007); Darker Places (2004); Duel — Horror Stories of the Road (1987); Duel (1971); Earthbound (1982); Flight or Fright (2018); Fury on Sunday (1953); Generations (2012); Great Black Magic Stories (1974); Great Tales of Fantasy and Science Fiction (1985); Haunts: Reliquaries of the Dead (2011); Hell House (1971); Hot Blood Tales of Erotic Horror (1989); Hunger and Thirst (2000); Hunted Past Reason (2002); I Am Legend / The Omega Man (1954); If This Goes On (1965); Journal of the Gun Years (1991); Kiss the Whip (2005); Kolchak Scripts (2003); Kolchak the Night Stalker Volume 1 (2004); Laughing Space: An Anthology of Science Fiction Humor (1982); Leave Yesterday Alone (2013); Masques V (2006); Mediums Rare (2000); Nightmare at 20,000 Feet (1961); Now You See It... (1995); Off Beat: Uncollected Stories (2020); Other Kingdoms (2011); Passion Play (2000); Pride (2002); Richard Matheson Uncollected: Backteria and Other Improbable Tales (2011); Ride the Nightmare (1959); Road Rage (2012); Robert Bloch: Appreciations of the Master (1995); Rod Serling’s Night Gallery Reader (1987); Rod Serling’s Other Worlds (1978); Second Annual Collection (1989); Shadow on the Sun (1994); Shock!: Thirteen Tales to Thrill and Terrify (1961); Shock II: Thirteen Tales to Haunt the Imagination (1964); Shock III (1966); Shock Waves (1970); Slaughter House (1953); Someone is Bleeding (1953); Somewhere In Time / Bid Time Return (1975); Star Science Fiction Stories 3 (1955); Star Science Fiction Stories No. 2 (1953); Star Science Fiction Stories No. 5 (1972); Steel and Other Stories (2011); Stranger: Dark Tales of Eerie Encounters (2002); Taps and Sighs (2000); The Beardless Warriors of World War II (1960); The Best Horror Stories from the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (1988); The Best of Cemetery Dance II (2008); The Box (2008); The Dead That Walk (2009); The Devil’s Generation (1973); The Gun Fight (1993); The Incredible Shrinking Man / The Shrinking Man (1956); The Link (2006); The Mammoth Book of Body Horror (2012); The Memoirs of Wild Bill Hickok (1996); The Monster Book of Monsters (1988); The Night Stalker (1973); The Night Strangler (1974); The Path (1993); The Richard Matheson Companion (2007); The Shores of Space (1957); The Time Traveler’s Almanac (2013); The Twilight Zone (2017); The Twilight Zone Scripts (1998); The Year’s Best Fantasy 2 / Demons and Dreams (1990); The Young Oxford Book of Nasty Endings (1998); Third from the Sun: Tales of Science Fiction and Fantasy (1954); Unrealized Dreams (2005); Visions Deferred (2009); Visions of Death: Richard Matheson’s Edgar Allan Poe Scripts, Vol. 1 (2007); What Dreams May Come (1978); Woman / Third from the Sun / Born of Man (1954).

Movies and television:

100 Years of Horror (1996); 100 Years of Horror: The Aristocrats of Evil (1996); 100 Years of Horror: The Evil Unseeable (1996); 20 heures le journal (2007); Am I the Last (2019); Amazing Stories (1986–1987); American Masters (1995); Animus: The Tell-Tale Heart (2015); Back to 'Somewhere in Time' (2000); Black Magic: The Making of the Devil Rides Out (2012); Blood Son (2006); Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre (1966); Bourbon Street Beat (1960); Buckskin (1959); Captains and the Kings (1976); Catnado (2022); Charles Beaumont: The Short Life of Twilight Zone's Magic Man (2010); Cheyenne (1960); Cineficción Radio (2019–2020); Circle of Fear (1972–1973); Cold Sweat (1970); Combat! (1962); Corman's Comedy of Poe (2003); Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel (2011); Creating 'I Am Legend' (2008); Dark Dreamers (2011); De Sade (1969); Dead of Night / Segment: No Such Thing as a Vampire (1977); Die Prüfung (1973); Die! Die! My Darling! (1965); Dracula (1974); Duel (1971); Dying Room Only (1973); Family Guy (2010); Have Gun - Will Travel (1960); HBO First Look (2007); Hideouser and Hideouser (2019); House of Usher (1960); I Am Legend (2007 / 2008); I Am Omega (2007); In the Year 2889 / It's Alive! (1969); Jaws 3-D (1983); Journey to the Unknown (1968); Late Night Horror (1968); Lawman (1960–1962); L'esame (2007); Loose Cannons (1990); Markham (1959); Master of the World (1961); Masters of Fantasy (1998); Masters of Horror (2005); Minty Comedic Arts (2019); My Ambition (2006); Night Gallery (1971–1972); Night of the Eagle (1962); Now Is Tomorrow (1958); Official onesheet. (2011); Perry Como's Christmas in Paris (1982); Perry Como's French-Canadian Christmas (1981); Person to Person (2011); Prey (1983); Rabid Love (2012); Racconti di fantascienza (1979); Real Steel (2011); Richard Matheson Storyteller: Comedy of Terrors (2003); Richard Matheson Storyteller: The Raven (2003); Richard Matheson: The Writing of 'Duel' (2004); Scream of the Wolf (1974); Shadows in the Dark: The Val Lewton Legacy (2005); Shoestring Theatre (1962); Someone Is Bleeding (1974); Somewhere in Time (1980); Soy leyenda (1967); Star Trek (1966); Stir of Echoes (1999); Studio 57 (1955); Tales of Terror (1962); TCM Remembers 2013 (2013); The 65th Primetime Emmy Awards (2013); The AckerMonster Chronicles! (2012); The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1962–1963); The Beat Generation (1959); The Box (2006 / 2009); The Comedy of Terrors (1963); The D.A.'s Man (1959); The Devil Rides Out (1968); The Dreamer of Oz (1990); The Famous Monsters 1993 World Convention Souvenir Video (1993); The Fearmakers Collection (2007); The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (1966); The Godfather Part II (1974); The Godfather Trilogy: 1901-1980 (1992); The Godfather: A Novel for Television (1977); The Holiday Man (2009); The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957); The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1981); The Last Man on Earth (1964); The Last of the Living (2022); The Last Rites of Richard Keene (2010); The Legend of Hell House (1973); The Life After Death Project (2013); The Martian Chronicles (1980); The Mike Douglas Show (1978); The Morning After (1974); The Near Departed (2012); The Night Stalker (1972); The Night Strangler (1973); The Omega Man (1971); The Oscars (2014); The Outer Limits (1996); The Pit and the Pendulum (1961); The Private Lives of Adam and Eve (1960); The Raven (1963); The Strange Possession of Mrs. Oliver (1977); The Stranger Within (1974); The Twilight Zone (1959–2019); The Twilight Zone / Segment: Button, Button (1986); The Twilight Zone Radio Dramas (2006–2010); The Young Warriors (1967); This Week in Comedy (2010); Thriller (1961); Trilogy of Terror / Segment: Amelia (1975); Trilogy of Terror II / Segment: Bobby (1996); Trilogy of Terror: Terror Scribe (2006); Twilight Zone: Rod Serling's Lost Classics (1994); Twilight Zone: The Definitive Edition Interviews (2005); Twilight Zone: The Movie / Segment: four (1983); Vampirismus (1982); Wanted: Dead or Alive (1959); What Dreams May Come (2009).

Born on this day – Whitney Blake:

Whitney Blake

Actress

Writer

Director

February 20, 1926 – September 28, 2002

Credits:

-30- (1959); 77 Sunset Strip (1958–1960); A Face in the Crowd (1981); Adventures in Paradise (1960); Alcoa Theatre (1958); Anatomy of a Crime (1969); Bachelor Father (1960); Batman (1967); Big Town (1956); Bonanza (1959); Branded (1966); Bronco (1960–1961); Cannon (1974); Cavalcade of America (1957); Cheyenne (1957–1960); Circus Boy (1957); Collector's Item: The Left Fist of David (1957); Destination Space (1959); Family (1979); Frontier Justice (1959); Gunsmoke (1959–1973); Gypsy (1968); Hazel (1961–1965); Here's Boomer (1980); Here's Hollywood (1962); Hunter (1977); Ironside (1975); Johnny Midnight (1960); Kraft Mystery Theater (1962); Laredo (1966); Law and Order (1976); Love, American Style / Segment: Love and the Boss's Ex (1970); M Squad (1958–1960); Mannix (1967); Markham (1959); Maverick (1958); Medic (1956); Medical Story (1975); Michael Shayne (1960); Mike Hammer (1958); Mobile One (1975); My Gun Is Quick (1957); One Day at a Time (1975–2020); Overland Trail (1960); Panic! (1958); Perry Mason (1957–1958); Pete and Gladys (1960); Pete Kelly's Blues (1959); Playhouse 90 (1959); Pony Express (1959); Pursuit (1958); Rawhide (1959–1960); Reno's Kids: 87 Days + 11 (1987); Returning Home (1975); Richard Diamond, Private Detective (1959); Riverboat (1960); Route 66 (1961); Schlitz Playhouse (1957); Shotgun Slade (1959); Solo en America (1998–2000); State Trooper (1957–1959); Strange Homecoming (1974); Tales of the 77th Bengal Lancers (1957); Tales of Wells Fargo (1959–1960); The Andy Griffith Show (1967); The Aquanauts (1961); The Betsy (1978); The Boy Who Stole the Elephant (1970); The D.A.'s Man (1959); The Deputy (1959); The Further Adventures of Ellery Queen (1958); The Legend of Jesse James (1966); The Lineup (1959); The Loretta Young Show (1959); The Magical World of Disney (1970); The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1966); The Mike Douglas Show (1963–1964); The Millionaire (1957–1960); The O. Henry Playhouse (1957); The Outsider (1968); The Restless Gun (1959); The Sheriff of Cochise (1957); The Stranger Who Looks Like Me (1974); The Texan (1959); The Virginian (1967); Thriller (1960); Tightrope (1960); Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse (1959); Whirlybirds (1957); Whitney (2018); Wire Service (1957); You Don't Say (1963); Zane Grey Theatre (1957–1958).

Born on this day – Robert Altman:

Robert Altman

Director

Writer

Producer

Actor

February 20, 1925 – November 20, 2006

Credits:

3 Women (1977); A Perfect Couple (1979); A Prairie Home Companion (2006); A Wedding (1978); Afterglow (1997); Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1957–1958); Aria (1987); Basements (1987); Better Football (1954); Beyond Therapy (1987); Bodyguard (1948); Bonanza (1960–1961); Brewster McCloud (1970); Bronco (1960); Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson (1976); Bus Stop (1961–1962); Cain's Hundred (1962); California Split (1974); Christmas Eve (1947); Combat! (1962–1963); Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982); Cookie's Fortune (1999); Corn's-A-Poppin' (1955); Countdown (1967); Dr. T & the Women (2000); Endless Love (1981); Events (1970); Fool for Love (1985); Gosford Park (2001); Great Performances (1993–1996); Gun (1997); Hawaiian Eye (1959); HealtH (1980); Honeymoon for Harriet (1950); How to Run a Filling Station (1953); Images (1972); John Bromfield in U.S. Marshal (1959–1960); Kansas City (1996); Killer App (1998); King Basketball (1952); Kraft Suspense Theatre (1962–1964); Lawman (1961); Liv (1998); M Squad (1958); M*A*S*H (1970); Maverick (1960); McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971); Modern Football (1951); Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994); Nashville (1975); Nightmare in Chicago (1964); O.C. and Stiggs (1985); Peter Gunn (1961); Popeye (1980); Pot au feu (1967); Precious Blood (1982); Premiere (1968); Quintet (1979); Rattlesnake in a Cooler (1982); Ready to Wear (1994); Remember My Name (1978); Rich Kids (1979); Roads and Bridges (2001); Route 66 (1961); Saturday Night Live / Sissy's Roles (1977); Secret Honor (1984); Short Cuts (1993); Short Cuts: Deleted Scenes (2004); Streamers (1983); Sugarfoot (1959–1960); Surfside 6 (1961); Suspicion (1957); Tanner '88 (1988); Tanner on Tanner (2004); That Cold Day in the Park (1969); The Builders (1954); The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (1988); The Company (2003); The Delinquents (1957); The Dirty Look (1954); The Gale Storm Show: Oh! Susanna (1960); The Gallant Men (1962); The Gingerbread Man (1998); The James Dean Story (1957); The Katherine Reed Story (1965); The Last Mile (1953); The Late Show (1977); The Laundromat (1985); The Long Goodbye (1973); The Long, Hot Summer (1965); The Magic Bond (1956); The Man from Blackhawk (1960); The Millionaire (1958–1959); The Party (1964); The Perfect Crime (1955); The Player (1992); The Pulse of the City (1953); The Roaring 20's (1960–1961); The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947); The Sound of Bells (1952); Thieves Like Us (1974); Trixie (2000); Troubleshooters (1959); Vincent and Theo (1990); Welcome to L.A. (1976); Whirlybirds (1958–1959).

Born on this day – Ansel Adams:

Ansel Adams

Photographer

Environmentalist

February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984

Credits:

Books:

Basic Photo Book 1, Camera & Lens: Studio, Darkroom, Equipment; Basic Photo Book 2, The Negative: Exposure and Development; Basic Photo Book 3, The Print: Contact Printing and Enlarging; Basic Photo Book 4, Natural Light Photography; Basic Photo Book 5, Artificial Light Photography; Images 1923–1974; Making a Photograph: An Introduction to Photography; Polaroid Land Photography Manual; Polaroid Land Photography; Yosemite and the Range of Light.

Movies and television:

American Experience (2002); Ansel Adams, Photographer (1957); Ansel Adams: A Documentary Film (2002); Ben Casey (1962); CBS News Sunday Morning with Jane Pauley (2023); Electrode Universe (2013); Invitation au voyage (2021); The Other Side of Mars (2019); Today (1985).

Recommended reading - The Devil Thumbs a Ride, by Robert C. Du Soe (1938):

The Devil Thumbs a Ride

By Robert C. Du Soe.

First published 1938.

Published by Avon Books

ASIN: B00730V9GY

Description:

Screenwriter Du Soe's only novel, about an innocuous fellar name of Steve who gets in a car with the simple, corpulent Furgison. The pair pick up a couple of girls, and only after the bodies pile up does Furgison start to wonder who it is he's riding along with.

Recommended reading - Some Must Watch, by Ethel Lina White (1933):

Some Must Watch

By Ethel Lina White.

Filmed as The Spiral Staircase (1946), directed by Robert Siodmak.

Paperback.

Published by Hinkler Books.

First published 1933.

ISBN 13: 9781743081167

ISBN10: 1743081162

ASIN: 1743081162

Description:

Film director Robert Siodmak took Some Must Watch as the inspiration for his classic, bone-chilling thriller, The Spiral Staircase. In this novel Helen Capel takes the position of lady-help in a remote country house owned by the Warren family. She learns that a murderer is on the loose. All four of his victims were young girls, and the last of these was strangled in a lonely house just five miles away. Helen feels safe inside the house, protected, but the maniac is closer than she fears.