13 Unlucky for some
It was on April 13, 1970 Apollo 13 had its famous ‘problem’. Pictured, astronauts Fred Haise, Jim Lovell and Jack Swigert meet US President Richard Nixon in Honolulu, Hawaii, after their safe return to Earth
All three men managed to return home despite the overwhelming odds with the help of the power and oxygen supplies aboard the lunar landing module Aquarius and their story was brought to the big screen in 1995 movie Apollo 13 starring Tom
Hanks, Kevin Bacon and Bill Paxton.
The film was based on a based on the book Lost Moon, co-written by Commander Jim Lovell who commented: “For some time I thought Apollo 13 was a failure. I was disappointed I didn’t get to land on the moon, but actually it turned out to be the best thing that could have happened.”
Four of the Friday The 13th films were released, appropriately, on Friday the 13th – the first in 1980.
A number of famous people can lay claim to being Friday the 13th babies including Britain’s Iron Lady Margaret
Thatcher, who was born on October 13, 1925, Cuban leader Fidel Castro (August 13, 1926), Sound Of Music star Christopher Plummer (December 13, 1929) and Peter Tork of The Monkees, who was born on February 13, 1942.
Being born on December 13, 1957 hasn’t done any harm to award-winnng Reservoir Dogs and Con Air film actor Steve Buscemi, although reviewers were sometimes unkind, as he pointed out: “My favourite review described me as the cinematic equivalent of junk mail.”
Psycho, North By Northwest and Vertigo film director Alfred Hitchcock also made his first appearance just over 100 years ago on Friday, August 13, 1899. His first film venture in London in 1922 was called Number 13... it proved unlucky and was never finished because of lack of funding.
Only two reels of the movie were filmed and are now believed to have been lost and Hitchcock had to wait until 1925 to make his directing debut with The Pleasure Garden.
He then found success with British movies like The Lady Vanishes and Jamaica Inn before Hollywood beckoned, and he was never struck by the curse of 13 again.