On November 2, 1966, the actor David Schwimmer, best known for his starring role on the mega-hit TV sitcom which originally aired from 1994 to 2004, is born in Astoria, Queens, New York.
Schwimmer was raised in Southern California and attended Beverly Hills High School. He graduated from Northwestern University and went on to co-found the Looking glass Theatre Company in Chicago. In addition to stage work, Schwimmer’s early acting credits include guest roles on TV shows such as and The dark-haired actor’s big break came when he was cast in a half-hour comedy about the careers and love lives of six young adults living in New York City. Schwimmer played Ross Geller, a neurotic paleontologist and the older brother of the obsessive-compulsive Monica Geller (Courteney Cox Arquette). One of the show’s key story lines involved Ross’s on-again, off-again romantic relationship with Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston), Monica’s high school friend and current roommate who, for a time early in the series, worked as a waitress at Central Perk, a coffee shop that served as a gathering spot for the six friends.
which debuted on September 22, 1994, on NBC, became a massive hit and a pop-culture icon, propelling Schwimmer and the five other main cast members”Aniston, Cox Arquette, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and Matthew Perry”to Hollywood stardom. The show inspired fashion and hairstyle trends (notably Aniston’s layered cut, known as “The Rachel”), as well as such catchphrases as “How doin’?” and “We were on a break.” After 10 seasons, the final episode of aired on May 6, 2004; more than 50 million viewers reportedly tuned in, one of the all-time largest audiences for a TV finale. (By comparison, the most-watched last episode in TV history, the l983 finale of , drew some 106 million viewers, while the last episode of , in 1998, was seen by over 76 million people.)
In addition to his work on , Schwimmer has appeared in such movies as
(1996), with Gwyneth Paltrow; (1998), with Harrison Ford and Anne Heche; (2000) with Woody Allen and Kiefer Sutherland; and HBO’s critically acclaimed World War II miniseries (2001). Schwimmer played the title role in the 2005 film and voiced the character of Melman the Giraffe in the animated feature (2005).
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On November 4, 1948, T.S. Eliot wins the Nobel Prize in literature, for his profound effect on the direction of modern poetry.
Eliot was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to a long-established family. His grandfather had founded Washington University in St. Louis, his father was a businessman, and his mother was involved in local charities. Eliot took an undergraduate degree at Harvard, studied at the Sorbonne, returned to Harvard to learn Sanskrit, and then studied at Oxford. He became lifelong friends with fellow poet Ezra Pound and later moved permanently to England. In 1915, he married Vivian Haigh-Wood, but the marriage was unhappy, partly due to her mental instability. She died in an institution in 1947.
Eliot began working at Lloyd’s Bank in 1917, writing reviews and essays on the side. He founded a critical quarterly, and quietly developed a new style of poetry. His first major work, was published in 1917 and hailed as the invention of a new kind of poetry. His long, fragmented images and use of blank verse influenced nearly all future poets, as did his masterpiece published in and the American review in 1922. While Eliot is best known for revolutionizing modern poetry, his literary criticism and plays were also successful.
Eliot lectured in the United States frequently in the 1930s and 40s, a time when his own worldview was undergoing rapid change as he converted to Christianity. In 1957, he married his assistant, Valerie Fletcher. He died in 1965.
