On This Date: February 10
1893: Jimmy Durante was born in Brooklyn, New York. He played boxing manager Nobby Walsh in Palooka, a 1934 comedy based on Ham Fisher’s comic strip Joe Palooka, and sang his signature song “Inka Dinak Doo” in the film.


1906: Lon Chaney, Jr. was born in Oklahoma City, Okla. Several years before his portrayal of Lawrence Talbot in The Wolf Man (1941) made him a cinematic icon, Chaney appeared as a henchman in movie serials such as Ace Drummond (1936) and Secret Agent X-9 (1937).


1930: Robert Wagner was born in Detroit, Mich. Perhaps most familiar for his role in the early 1980s television series Hart to Hart and as Number 2 in the Austin Powers films, Wagner starred as the title character in Prince Valiant (1954) and as Mr. Wilson in A Dennis the Menace Christmas (2007). 



1974: Elizabeth Banks was born in Pittsfield, Mass. She had the role of Betty Brant in Spider-Man (2002), Spider-Man 2 (2004), and Spider-Man 3 (2007).


1996: Secret Agent X-9 wraps up its 62-year-run. The comic strip, developed by Dashiell Hammett and Alex Raymond, inspired two movie serials, one in 1937 and another in 1945.


1997: Chloë Moretz, who portrayed the foul-mouthed, 11-year-old vigilante Hit-Girl in Kick-Ass (2010), was born in Atlanta, Georgia.


2008: Steve Gerber, comic book writer and co-creator of the cigar-smoking Howard the Duck, died.


2008: Roy Scheider, a highly visible film actor in the 1970s and 80s and stars of the 90s television show seaQuest DSV, died. He appeared as Frank Castle, Sr. in The Punisher (2004).