Robert Duvall was born in San Diego 80 years ago today. Duvall won the best actor Oscar for his portrayal of Mac Sledge in Tender Mercies in 1983. Among other characters he has portrayed are Boo Radley, Frank Burns, Tom Hagen, Lt. Col. William ‘Bill’ Kilgore (photo above), Bull Meechum and the unforgettable Augustus McCrae.
Walter F. Mondale is 83.
Umberto Eco is 79 today. Two excerpts from a profile today at The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor:
He went to graduate school, wrote a dissertation on the aesthetics of medieval church philosopher Thomas Aquinas, and started working in television, which he really loved. He wondered if he had some sort of split personality, since he was so passionately interested in television and medieval aesthetics, fields that seemed like polar opposites. But he realized that what it came down to was that he was interested in how cultures communicate with signs and symbols, otherwise known as semiotics.
He wrote a murder mystery about poisoned monks, set in the year 1327. He describes it as “an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies, and literary theory.” The Name of the Rose, published in Italian in 1980 and in English in 1983, became an international best-seller. His other novels include Foucault’s Pendulum (1988), Mysterious Flame of the Queen Loana (2004), and most recently, The Cemetery of Prague (2010).
Charlie Rose is 69 today.
Diane Keaton was born in Los Angeles 65 years ago today. Keaton won the best actress Oscar for her portrayal of Annie Hall in 1977. She has had three other Oscar nominations. She has never married but has adopted two children. Her real name is Diane Hall; she changed to Keaton, her mother’s maiden name, because there was already a Diane Hall in the Actor’s Guild.
Marilyn Manson is 42.
January Jones is 33 today.