Category: Birthdays

… of Olympia Dukakis. She’s 76. Miss Dukakis won the Oscar for best supporting actress for Moonstruck.

… of Danny Aiello. He’s 74. Mr. Aiello was nominated for the best supporting actor Oscar for Do The Right Thing.

… of John Mahoney. This retired Seattle cop, the father of two psychiatrists, is 67. You know, Frasier’s dad, Martin Crane.

… of Brian Wilson; he’s 65. Perhaps the greatest American composer of popular music of the past 40+ years, Wilson is an inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as the self-destructive, yet creative genius behind the Beach Boys.

… of Anne Murray, 62.

Canada Post has announced that Anne will be honoured on a Canadian postage stamp, to be issued June 29, 2007. Anne is being recognized along with three other iconic Canadian recording artists – Paul Anka, Gordon Lightfoot and Joni Mitchell.

… of Bob Vila. He’s 61, so it’s not just “This Old House” that’s old anymore.

… of John Goodman. He’s 55. Goodman has been nominated for eight Emmys without a victory. He did win a Golden Globe for playing Roseanne’s husband Dan.

… of Nicole Kidman. She’s 40. Nominated for best actress twice, Miss Kidman won the Oscar for The Hours.

Chet Atkins was born on June 20th in 1924. He died of lung cancer in 2001.

Few guitarists have had more influence on the instrument than Chet Atkins. In Atkins’ case, his influence extends from the country-music realm into rock and roll, as well. As a studio musician, he appeared on records by Elvis Presley, the Everly Brothers, Hank Williams, Roy Orbison, and countless country musicians. Atkins’ thumb-and-fingerpicking style influenced George Harrison, Duane Eddy, the Ventures, Eddie Cochran, Eric Clapton and Mark Knopfler, as well as innumerable country pickers. Even the likes of Ted Nugent has credited Atkins with inspiring him to take up the instrument. ”I think he influenced everybody who picked up a guitar,” said Duane Eddy. (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame)

NewMexiKen will be away for a couple of days.

… of Gena Rowlands. She’s 77. Miss Rowlands has been nominated for the best actress Oscar twice — Gloria (1980) and A Woman Under the Influence (1974).

… of Salman Rushdie. He’s 60.

Working at the advertising company just two days a week, he took five years to produce Midnight’s Children (1981), about the India that he missed so much. It’s the story of a group of 1,001 children all born in the hour after midnight on the day that India gained independence. In the novel, each of those children gains magical powers. The novel is told from the point of view of a boy who receives the power to read minds, and who attempts to draw together all the other midnight’s children, even as India and Pakistan are sliding toward war.

The book won the Booker Prize and became a huge success, among both Westerners and Indians. Only Rushdie’s family hated the book, because he had incorporated a lot of family secrets into the storyline.
. . .

Salman Rushdie said, “A poet’s work is to name the unnamable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it going to sleep.”

The Writer’s Almanac

… of Phylicia Rashad. Clair Hanks Huxtable is 59. (Bill Cosby, Dr. Huxtable, is 11 years older.)

… of Kathleen Turner. She’s 53. Miss Turner was nominated for the best actress Oscar for Peggy Sue Got Married (1986).

… of Paula Abdul. She’s 45. A former Lakers cheerleader, Miss Abdul had six number one records 1988-1991. She topped the charts for 15 weeks altogether.

Lou Gehrig was born on June 19 in 1903.

Lou Gehrig teamed with Babe Ruth to form baseball’s most devastating hitting tandem ever. “The Iron Horse” had 13 consecutive seasons with both 100 runs scored and 100 RBI, averaging 139 runs and 148 RBI; set an American League mark with 184 RBI in 1931; hit a record 23 grand slams; and won the 1934 Triple Crown. His .361 batting average in seven World Series led the Yankees to six titles. A true gentleman and a tragic figure, Gehrig’s consecutive games played streak ended at 2,130 when he was felled by a disease that later carried his own name. (National Baseball Hall of Fame)

Gehrig died in 1941. As Christopher Moltisanti of The Sopranos put it, “You ever think what a coincidence it is that Lou Gehrig died of Lou Gehrig’s disease?”

Moses Horwitz was born on June 19th 110 years ago. That’s the boss stooge, Moe Howard. “I’ll squeeze the cider out of your Adam’s apple.”

The Statue of Liberty arrived at Bedloe’s Island in New York harbor on June 19, 1885.

The statue is constructed of hand-shaped copper sheets, assembled on a framework of steel supports designed by engineers Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc and Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel. For transit to America, the figure was broken down into 350 separate pieces and packed in 214 crates. The Statue of Liberty sits within the star-shaped walls of the former Fort Wood, rising to a height of 305 feet on a pedestal designed by architect Richard Morris Hunt.

Library of Congress

… of Jim Belushi. He’s 53.

… of Julie Hagerty. Airplane’s flight attendant is 52.

… of Wade Boggs, 49.

… of Oscar-winner Helen Hunt. (Hard to believe, but true.) At 44, Tami Maida’s quarterbacking days are over.

… of Courteney Cox Arquette, now 43.

… of O’Shea Jackson. Ice Cube is 38.

And it’s the birthday of Doogie. Neil Patrick Harris was born in Albuquerque 34 years ago today. He grew up in Ruidoso, New Mexico.

The Olsen twins are 42 today.

John-Boy Walton is 56. That’s actor Richard Thomas.

The voice of Buzz Lightyear is 54. That’s Tim Allen.

Alexandra Elizabeth Sheedy is 45. Ally Sheedy was 23 when she made St. Elmo’s Fire, but when she was 12 she wrote a novel, She Was Nice to Mice. It was a best-seller about a mouse, Esther Esther, in Elizabeth I’s court.

The Nobel Prize in Literature winner for 1923, William Butler Yeats, the Irish poet and playwright, was born on June 13th 1865. Yeats received the Prize primarily for his dramatic work; he achieved even greater acclaim subsequently for his poetry.

President George H.W. Bush is 83 today. Instead of impregnating Barbara with George W., George H.W. should have done what his son should do now. Withdraw.

Well, gawwwleee and shazzayam, Jim Nabors is 77.

Marv Philip Aufrichtig was born 66 years ago today. We know him as Marv Albert.

Armando Anthony Corea is also 66. We know him as Chick.

Anne Frank should have been 78 years old today. The Writer’s Almanac has a brief essay about Frank.

Thirteen years ago today someone killed Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.

Two-time Oscar nominee Gene Wilder is 74 today. Wilder was nominated for supporting actor for The Producers and as a co-writer with Mel Brooks for Young Frankenstein.

Frank Beard is 58 today. That’s him with Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Frank Beard is the one without a beard.

Joe Montana is 51.

Hugh Laurie is 48.

William Styron was born on June 11th in 1925. This from American Masters:

After leaving the service, [Styron] moved to New York, where he supported his fledgling writing career working at McGraw-Hill Publishing. He also began taking classes with Hiram Haydn at the New School for Social Research. With guidance and encouragement from Haydn, Styron made his stunning debut at the age of twenty-six with LIE DOWN IN DARKNESS (1951). This novel launched his career and earned him the American Academy’s Prix de Rome. Told under the shadow of the Hiroshima bombing, LIE DOWN IN DARKNESS charts the tragic descent into suicide of a young woman raised in a troubled Virginia family.

He followed LIE DOWN IN DARKNESS with THE LONG MARCH (1957), SET THIS HOUSE ON FIRE (1960), and one of his most famous novels, THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER (1967). Published at the height of the civil rights movement, THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER is told from the point of view of the historical figure who led a disastrous and bloody slave insurrection which set the stage for the Civil War. Winning a Pulitzer Prize, THE CONFESSIONS OF NAT TURNER was both praised as a brave look into a rarely represented life, and maligned for what many saw as a clichéd conception of a black man.

Styron’s next novel did not appear for more than ten years. The tragedy of SOPHIE’S CHOICE (1979) is played out between a young Virginia writer and a Polish Holocaust survivor in an urban Jewish enclave of Brooklyn. It takes place during the aftermath of World War II, an era Styron describes as “a nightmarish Sargasso Sea of guilt and apprehensions.” In SOPHIE’S CHOICE, Styron weaves a fictional tale, profound in its engagement, with major recent historical events. Made into a popular movie starring Meryl Streep, SOPHIE’S CHOICE returned Styron to the popular eye as both a controversial personality and a major writer.

Styron’s compelling Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness (1990) describes his crippling, nearly suicidal depression at age 60. Styron died last November.

Vince Lombardi was born on June 11 in 1913. Lombardi is the legendary football coach. You know — the one the Super Bowl trophy is named for.

Some Lombardisms:

• “If winning isn’t everything, why do they keep score?”
• “If you aren’t fired with enthusiasm, you will be fired with enthusiasm.”
• “Show me a good loser, and I’ll show you a loser.”
• “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.”

Vince Lombardi died in 1970 at age 57.

Jeanette Rankin…was born on this date in 1880 on a ranch near Missoula, Montana. In 1916, Rankin was elected the first woman member of the U.S. House of Representatives. She was not re-elected in 1918, after voting against entry in the First World War, but was returned to Congress for one term in 1940. In 1941, she cast the sole vote in Congress against the U.S. declaration of war on Japan. Jeanette Rankin was a social worker and a lobbyist for peace and women’s rights. She died just before her 93rd birthday in 1973. She is one of the two Montanans honored in The National Statuary Hall Collection of the U.S. Capitol. Read Rankin’s obituary from The New York Times.

Timothy McVeigh was executed on June 11th six years ago for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people. Dig him up and do it again.

Prince Philip is 86 today.

Football hall-of-famer Dan Fouts is 56. Fouts’ best line ever as a sportscaster was a description of Reggie Bush: “He runs like he’s playing Quittage.”

John Edwards is 54 today.

Jeanne Tripplehorn is 44. Her father played with Gary Lewis and the Playboys, though Ms. Tripplehorn grew up in Tulsa.

Elizabeth Hurley is 42.

Frances Ethel Gumm was born 85 years ago today. We know her as Judy Garland. She was just under 5-feet tall and the need for weight-control lead her to drugs, which controlled much of her adult life. She died of a barbiturate overdose at age 47. Ms. Garland was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role for A Star is Born (1955) and Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Judgment at Nuremberg (1962). She won a special “Juvenile Oscar” for The Wizard of Oz (1940).

The author Saul Bellow was born on June 10th in 1915 in Quebec. He grew up in Chicago. The Writer’s Almanac has a brief bio today that includes this:

His father wasn’t happy that Bellow wanted to be a writer. He said, “You write and then you erase. You call that a profession?” His brothers went into more conventional careers and Bellow once said, “All I started out to do was to show up my brothers.”

Hattie McDaniel was born on June 10th in 1895. She won a supporting actress Oscar for her portrayal of Mammy in Gone with the Wind, the first African-American to be nominated. Ms. McDaniel has nearly 100 credits listed at IMDB.

Lester William Polfus is 92 today. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as Les Paul.

The name Les Paul is synonymous with the electric guitar. As a player, inventor and recording artist, Paul has been an innovator from the early years of his life. Born Lester William Polfus in 1915 in Waukesha, Wisconsin, Paul built his first crystal radio at age nine – which was about the time he first picked up a guitar. By age 13 he was performing semi-professionally as a country-music guitarist and working diligently on sound-related inventions. In 1941, Paul built his first solid-body electric guitar, and he continued to make refinements to his prototype throughout the decade. He also worked on refining the technology of sound, developing revolutionary engineering techniques such as close miking, echo delay and multitracking. All the while he busied himself as a bandleader who could play both jazz and country music.

Robert S. McNamara is 91.

Dick Vitale is 68 today, baby! Not exactly a diaper dandy.

Patricia Cornwall is 51.

Michael J. Fox is 46.

West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin is also 46.

Two-time nominee for the Best Actor Oscar (in two remarkably disparate roles), Johnny Depp is 44.

Queen (aka Princess) (aka Senator) Padmé Naberrie Amidalais was born on June 9th. She’s also known as Evey Hammond (V for Vendetta), Sara (Cold Mountain), Sam (Garden State) and Alice (Closer). That’s Natalie Portman. She’s 26.

Cole Porter was born in Peru, Indiana, on June 9th in 1891. The following is from the web site for the PBS series American Masters:

“Birds do it. Bees do it. Even educated fleas do it. Let’s do it, let’s fall in love.”

“Night and Day,” “I Get A Kick Out of You,” “You’re the Top,” “Begin the Beguine,” “My Heart Belongs to Daddy” — some of the cleverest, funniest, and most romantic songs ever written came from the pen of Cole Porter. He was unmatched as a tunesmith, and his Broadway musicals — from “Kiss Me Kate” and “Anything Goes” to “Silk Stockings” and “Can Can” — set the standards of style and wit to which today’s composers and lyricists aspire.

Night and Day was one of the NPR 100, their list of the 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century. The first note is repeated 35 times.

Donald Duck is 73 today. He debuted in the Disney Silly Symphony cartoon “The Wise Little Hen” on this date in 1934. (Donald Duck is one of three Disney characters with an “official” birthday. The others are Mickey and Minnie, who debuted on November 18, 1928.)

Donald Duck actually appeared in more theatrical cartoons than Mickey Mouse — 128. Donald’s middle name is Fauntleroy.

Q: Why does Donald Duck wear a towel when getting out of the shower when he usually doesn’t even wear pants?

A: Donald puts a towel when he gets out of the shower to dry off! When he gets out of the shower he’s pretty wet and doesn’t want to drip water all over the bathroom floor.

Seriously, Donald Duck was created as a human-like character. He reacts to many situations the same way that a man would. Since a man would normally wrap a towel around his waist when stepping out of the shower, so does Donald.

Q: What are the names of Donald Duck’s nephews? Who was their mother?

A: Donald’s nephews are Huey, Dewey, and Louie. They made their debut in the Donald Duck Sunday comic page on October 17, 1937, and first appeared on film in “Donald’s Nephews” in 1938. Huey wears red, Dewey wears blue, and Louie wears green.

Their mother was Donald’s sister, Dumbella Duck.

Disney Online

Barbara Bush is 82.

Jerry Stiller is 80. Stiller and Anne Meara have been married since 1954 and they are, of course, Ben and Amy Stiller’s parents.

Joan Alexandra Molinsky is 74. That’s Joan Rivers. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Barnard College.

Moondoggie is 71. James Darren to us; born James William Ercolani.

Nancy Sinatra is 67. Her boots have done a lot of walkin’.

Robbie Douglas is 63. That’s the second of “My Three Sons,” Don Grady.

Keenen Ivory Wayans is 49.

Julianna Margulies is 40.

Eddie Gaedel was born on this date in 1925. The 3-feet 7-inch Gaedel came to bat for the St. Louis Browns in 1951. He was, according to Browns owner Bill Veeck, “the best darn midget who ever played big-league ball.” Read about Gaedel’s time at the plate, told as the first chapter of Veeck’s autobiography, Veeck as in Wreck — “When Eddie went into that crouch, his strike zone was just about visible to the naked eye. I picked up a ruler and measured it for posterity. It was 1½ inches. Marvelous.”

Frank Lloyd Wright was born on this date in 1867. PBS has a locator to the more than 60 Wright buildings open to the public. It includes building names, locations, photographs and maps.

For more than 70 years, Frank Lloyd Wright showed his countrymen new ways to build their homes and see the world around them. He created some of the most monumental, and some of the most intimate spaces in America. He designed everything: banks and resorts, office buildings and churches, a filling station and a synagogue, a beer garden and an art museum.

The linguist and author Deborah Tannen is 62. The Writer’s Almanac reports that Deborah Tannen has said, “Saying that men talk about baseball in order to avoid talking about their feelings is the same as saying that women talk about their feelings in order to avoid talking about baseball.”

Oscar nominee Liam Neeson is 55.

Author Louise Erdrich is 53.

Her father was of German descent, her mother a Chippewa Indian. She grew up in North Dakota, where her parents were both teachers at a Bureau of Indian Affairs school.

She studied creative writing at Dartmouth. After college, she decided not to go into teaching as she had planned. Instead, she wrote poetry, and supported herself hoeing sugar beets, picking cucumbers, babysitting, life guarding, selling fried chicken, waitressing and short order cooking. She was even once a girl with a flag at a construction site on the highway.

She switched from poetry to fiction. One of her first short stories began to grow in her mind and became her first novel Love Medicine, about two Indian families, the Kashpaws and the Lamartines. She created those two families and then went on to write several more novels about them and their imaginary reservation in North Dakota, including The Beet Queen, The Bingo Palace, Tracks, and others.

The Writer’s Almanac from American Public Media

Prince Rogers Nelson is 49.

Allen Iverson is 32.

Jessica Tandy was born on this date in 1909. Tandy won an Oscar (at age 81 for Driving Miss Daisy), a Tony, an Emmy and a Golden Globe. She was the mother who didn’t like Tippi Hedren much in The Birds.

Dino Paul Crocetti was born on June 7th 90 years ago today. We know him as Dean Martin.

Bill Moyers is 73 today.

Author Ken Follet is 58.

Suze Orman is 56.

Supporting Oscar nominee Mark Wahlberg is 36.

Richard Scarry was born on June 5, 1919. Scarry has written more than 300 books for children and, according to The Writer’s Almanac, “said that what made him happiest as an author was getting letters from people telling him that their copies of his books were all worn out and held together with Scotch tape.” Scarry died in 1994.

Doroteo Arango was born on June 5, 1878. We know him as Pancho Villa.

Adam Smith was baptized on June 5, 1723. His An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations was published in 1776.

Another immortal economist, John Maynard Keynes was born on June 5, 1883.

Sally Kellerman is 70. Kellerman was Hot Lips in the movie M*A*S*H. She got an Oscar supporting actress nomination for the portrayal.

Charlie Watts, the Rolling Stones’ drummer, is 66.

That fine actor Stacy Keach is also 66.

Jerry “The Beaver” Mathers is 59 today.

Comedian Dana Carvey is 52.

Donatien Alphonse François de Sade was born on June 2nd in 1740. We know him as the Marquis de Sade.

Elizabeth was crowned Queen on June 2nd, 54 years ago.

. . . is 73 today. Boone had grandchildren at the same school NewMexiKen’s children attended about 30 years ago. He showed up at “Back to School Night” once or twice, and I have to admit he was about the handsomest, youngest looking grandpa you’d ever see. Of course, he was only 41 or 42.

It’s hard to believe I was ever so young I thought 41 was old enough that someone could “look good” for 41?

Only Elvis sold more records than Pat Boone in the late 1950s.

… of Joe Cocker. He’s 62. And of Deadwood’s Timothy Olyphant; he’s 38.

And of Cher. She’s 61.

James Stewart was born on May 20 in 1908. Stewart received five best actor Oscar nominations in his long career, but won only for The Philadelphia Story in 1941.

Charles Lindbergh departed Long Island for Paris 80 years ago today.

Amelia Earhart took off from Newfoundland for Ireland on May 20th in 1932, the first woman to solo the Atlantic.

… of Tina Fey, 37.

… of baseball hall of famers Brooks Robinson (70) and Reggie Jackson (61).

… of actors Bill Macy (85) and Dwayne Hickman (73). Macy has more than 75 credits to his name, but I remember him most as Maude’s husband (I once watched a taping). Hickman, of course, was Dobie Gillis.

… of George Strait, 55. Jeez, I have 74 George Strait tracks in iTunes. (Note that link opens to music.)

… of Joe Bonsall. Who? He’s one of the Oak Ridge Boys and he’s 59. Bonsall sang lead on “Elvira.”

Philosopher Bertrand Russell was born on May 18th in 1872, film director Frank Capra was born on May 18th in 1897 and Pope John Paul II was born Karol Józef Wojtyła on May 18th in 1920.

Henry Fonda was born May 16, 1905, in Grand Island, Nebraska. Seems hard to believe but Fonda was only nominated for an acting Oscar twice — for Grapes of Wrath and On Golden Pond. He won for the latter in 1982, a few months before his death. Particular favorite Fonda films (other than those two): 12 Angry Men, Mister Roberts, My Darling Clementine (he played Wyatt Earp), The Ox-Bow Incident (with sidekick Harry Morgan, aka Col. Sherman Potter) and, maybe best of all, as Clarence Earl Gideon in Gideon’s Trumpet (made when Fonda was 75).

Actress Debra Winger and gymnast Olga Korbut both turn 52 today. Winger has been nominated for the best actress Oscar three times — Shadowlands (1993), Terms of Endearment (1983) and An Officer and a Gentleman (1982). Korbut is the Belarusian gymnast who, pixie-like, revolutionized gymnastics. She became it’s first TV superstar while winning three gold medals and one silver at the 1972 Olympic Games. For a few days she was the talk of the planet.

Elsewhere, Studs Terkel is 95, Rep. John Conyers from Detroit is 78, Pierce Brosnan is 54, Janet Jackson is 41, Gabriela Sabatini is 37 and Tori Spelling is 34.

Woody Herman (1913) and Billy Martin (1928) were born on May 16.