Bird
(1988)LEAD SINGER Forest Whitaker (left, with Sam Wright as Dizzy Gillespie) digs deep to play a troubled jazz virtuoso, saxophonist Charlie ''Bird'' Parker.
PITCH-PERFECT? Director and jazz fanatic Clint Eastwood painstakingly inserted real solos by the late Parker into new musical settings, with ultra-authentic results.
HUMBLE ORIGINS Parker had a modest upbringing, but the focus is on his struggles with drugs, alcohol, and a lack of steady gigs.
HIGH NOTE Stuck playing a Jewish wedding for cash, Bird somehow transforms ''Hava Negila'' into joyous bebop — and everybody digs it.
TRAGIC ENDING His body ravaged by years of abuse, Bird dies at 34 -- and the coroner assumes he must be in his 60s.
