Mario Lanza (1921-1959) was born in Philadelphia, where he impressed his early singing teachers but dropped out of high school to work in his grandfather's grocery business. After winning a voice scholarship in 1942, he was signed by Columbia for a concert tour -- only to have his career interrupted by service in World War II.

Finally coming into his own at MGM, Lanza first starred opposite Kathryn Grayson in two musical romances, That Midnight Kiss (1949) and The Toast of New Orleans (1950). Audiences responded enthusiastically to his soaring tenor and muscular physique. His biggest hit was The Great Caruso (1951), in which he plays his boyhood idol, Enrico Caruso, and sings many arias associated with the legendary Italian tenor. Lanza enjoyed another screen success with Because You're Mine (1952), in which he plays an opera star who is drafted into the Army.

Problems with weight and temperament caused MGM to replace Lanza with Edmund Purdom in The Student Prince (1954), although that's Lanza's voice booming out in the Sigmund Romberg tunes. Lanza managed to make three more films --- the last being For the First Time (1959), in which he plays an irresponsible opera star transformed by his love for a deaf woman -- before his untimely death in Rome of a heart attack. He was only 38.

The movies in TCM's birthday tribute to Mario Lanza on Friday, January 31 are The Great Caruso (1951), Because You're Mine (1952) and For the First Time (1959). (Check our handy on-line schedule for air times).

Other important birthdays being celebrated in January by TCM include director John Sturges (1/3), Loretta Young (1/6), Butterfly McQueen (1/7), Elvis Presley (1/8), Anita Louise (1/9), Ray Bolger (1/10), Paul Henreid (1/10), Sal Mineo (1/10), Kay Francis (1/13), William Bendix (1/14), and director Ernst Lubitsch (1/28).