Johnny Mathis

Artist: Johnny Mathis

LP: I'm Coming Home

Song: "Life Is a Song Worth Singing"

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I'm not sure what made me want to post "Life Is a Song Worth Singing" by Johnny Mathis today. Maybe it's because I just watched THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE which made me realize the importance of living life the way YOU want it to be lived, and not letting your destiny be controlled by others. It might also be because I just watched a YouTube video in which extraordinarily handsome 19-year-old British Olympic diving star Tom Daley casually announces to the world that he's dating a man, admitting that it's really no big deal. (Correction: Tom is dating an Oscar-winning man.) Daley's video reminded me that it wasn't all that long ago when extraordinarily handsome singer Johnny Mathis received death threats after he similarly casually announced that he dates men in an interview with US Magazine in 1982. We've certainly come a long way in the last 30 years, though of course Tom is still catching some fire from idiot bigots who seem to enjoy nothing more than spending their waking hours leaving nasty comments on the internet. Speaking of catching fire, here's a riddle for you: What does the new HUNGER GAMES movie have in common with the 1946 RKO film noir thriller DEADLINE AT DAWN?

Answer: Nothing that I can think of. But I DID just watch them both within the past 24 hours and, when Susan Hayward appeared on screen in the old RKO film, I was astonished by how much she reminded me of Jennifer Lawrence—her face, her smile, her demeanor, even her voice! Then today during CATCHING FIRE, it was as if Susan Hayward could have stepped into Jennifer Lawrence's shoes and no one would have noticed...except that she may have been in black and white, and she probably isn't as good with a bow and arrow. I found no mention of the actresses' similarity online, but I did find a Star Battle Celebrity Face-off between the two—with Lawrence in the lead, of course, since most of Hayward's fans are probably either dead or without internet. I thought I could count on Jennifer Lawrence's HUNGER GAMES co-star Donald Sutherland to remark on his talented young colleague's resemblance to Susan Hayward, but he says that she reminds him of Laurence Olivier. Am I the only one who sees a remarkable resemblance between these two?

Anyway, you can read more about Johnny Mathis here and here, Susan Hayward here, Laurence Olivier here, Donald Sutherland here, and go here or to the magazine rack at your nearest grocery store to read all about Jennifer Lawrence. Here's another picture of Tom Daley and here's Johnny Mathis' hands from the back of his 1973 LP: