Phyllis Diller is 91 today. Before she became a kind of parody of herself she was actually very, very funny. The Writer’s Almanac has a good profile with a little bit of classic Diller material.
They also have a good piece today on Erle Stanley Gardner, the author of the Perry Mason mysteries, born on July 17th in 1889.
Fifties TV host Art Linkletter is 96 today. He’s the one that said “kids say the funniest things” and had a panel of them on many of his shows to prove it.
Diahann Carroll , the first African-American actress to appear in a TV series and not portray a domestic worker, is 73 today. The show was Julia and she was a nurse and single mom. Ms. Carroll was nominated for a best actress Oscar for Claudine in 1975.
Kiefer’s dad Donald is 73 today. Donald Sutherland’s breakthrough role was as Vernon Pinkley in The Dirty Dozen, then as “Hawkeye” Pierce in M*A*S*H. He has 150 credits listed at IMDb.
Camilla is 61.
And one of my favorites, Andre Royo, “Bubbles,” is 40 today.
Elbridge Gerry was born on this date in 1744. He signed the Declaration of Independence, the Article of Confederation, but was one of three delegates who did not sign the Constitution, in Gerry’s case because it did not include a Bill of Rights. Gerry was the fifth U.S. vice president, serving the first year-and-a-half under Madison’s second term before dying. And, of course, he is the person for whom gerrymandering is named. He was the Massachusetts governor who signed a particularly egregious redistricting plan in 1812.