Fifties TV host Art Linkletter is 97 today. He’s the one that said “kids say the darndest things” and had a panel of them on many of his shows to prove it.
Phyllis Diller is 92 today. Before she became a kind of parody of herself she was actually very, very funny.
Diahann Carroll , the first African-American actress to appear in a TV series and not portray a domestic worker, is 74 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 74 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 more than 150 credits listed at IMDb.
Spencer Davis is 67.
Camilla is 61.
Lucie Arnaz is 58.
David Hasselhoff is 57.
And one of my favorites, Andre Royo, “Bubbles,” is 41 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.
To me Donald Sutherland will always be Hollis Hurlbut, the Springfield Historical Museum curator, who bans 8-year-old Lisa and her children and her children’s children… for three months.
“I’m an antiquarian damn it!”