Jan 17, a special day for Moira Shearer and me

January 17 is my birthday.  I knew James Earl Jones, Betty White and Benjamin Franklin shared my birthday but I just learned this month that Moira Shearer also was born on Jan. 17.

Have you ever seen the ballet movie, The Red Shoes, her most famous film?  I first saw it at the Cinemateque in Nice, France.  I lived there 3 months and would go to weekly screenings. She collaborated with Michael Powell, co-director and co-producer of The Red Shoes, in other films including The Tales of Hoffmann and the controversial  Peeping Tom as a dancer in both.   Red-headed Shearer was one of those women who certainly grew more beautiful with age. She was a ballerina but became more famous as an actress even though her film roles were minimal.