Category: Birthdays

… with Don Pardo. The original “Jeopardy!” and “Saturday Night Live” announcer is 89.

… with Senator Edward Kennedy. He’s 75.

… with Sparky Anderson. The baseball hall-of-fame manager is 73.

… with Julius Erving. Dr. J is 57.

… with that ass, doctor/senator Bill Frist. He’s 55.

… with Kyle MacLachlan. The actor is 48.

… with Vijay Singh. He’s 44.

… with Drew Barrymore. The actress is 32.

Artist Peter Hurd was born in Roswell, New Mexico, on this date in 1904. That’s his watercolor, “The Winos.”

American poets James Russell Lowell and Edna St. Vincent Millay were born on this date; Lowell in 1819 and Millay in 1892.

Edna St. Vincent Millay was a terse and moving spokesman during the Twenties, the Thirties and the Forties. She was an idol of the younger generation during the glorious early days of Greenwich Village when she wrote, what critics termed a frivolous but widely know poem which ended:

My candle burns at both ends, It will not last the night; But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends, It gives a lovely light!

All critics agreed, however, that Greenwich Village and Vassar, plus a gypsy childhood on the rocky coast of Maine, produced one of the greatest American poets of her time. (The New York Times)

Rembrandt Peale was born on this date in 1778. His brothers were named Raphael, Rubens and Titian. Son of portrait-painter Charles Wilson Peale, Rembrandt Peale is known primarily for his many renditions of George Washington. Most are based on his most famous work, this portrait of Washington from 1795 (click to view larger version). Rembrandt Peale also painted a classic portrait of Thomas Jefferson.

Steve Irwin, The Crocodile Hunter, should have been 45 today.

… of Blanche Elizabeth Hollingsworth Devereaux. Rue McClanahan is 72 today.

… of Mary Beth Lacey. Tyne Daly is 61.

… of Anthony Daniels. 3CPO is 61.

… of Patricia Nixon Cox. The former first daughter is 61.

… of Frasier Crane. Kelsey Grammer is 52 today.

… of Mary Chapin Carpenter. Celebrating, one hopes, down at the Twist and Shout, she’s 49 today.

… of Charlotte Church. She’s 21. Hasn’t she been one of the PBS fund drive specials for about 20 years?

Erma Bombeck was born on this date in 1927. According to The Writer’s Almanac:

[Bombeck] became famous for her humor column called “At Wits End”, about the daily madness of being a housewife. She knew she wanted to be a journalist from the eighth grade, and she had a humor column in her high school newspaper. She got a job at the Dayton Journal-Herald writing obituaries and features for the women’s page, but when she married a sportswriter there, she chose to quit her job and stay home with the kids. She spent a decade as a fulltime mother, and then in 1964 she decided she had to start writing again or she would go crazy. She said, “I was thirty-seven, too old for a paper route, too young for social security, and too tired for an affair.”

She got a column at a small Ohio paper and wrote about the daily trials and tribulations of the average housewife. Within a few years, she was one of the most popular humor columnists in America.

NewMexiKen thought Bombeck funniest when she really was a a full-time mom. When she became rich and famous the humor often seemed more contrived and strained. But then I’d rather be rich and famous than funny, too.

The great classical guitarist Andrés Segovia was born on this date in 1893. This from his obituary in The New York Times in 1987.

The guitarist himself summed up his life’s goals in an interview with The New York Times when he was 75 years old: ”First, to redeem my guitar from the flamenco and all those other things. Second, to create a repertory – you know that almost all the good composers of our time have written works for the guitar through me and even for my pupils. Third, I wanted to create a public for the guitar. Now, I fill the biggest halls in all the countries, and at least a third of the audience is young – I am very glad to steal them from the Beatles. Fourth, I was determined to win the guitar a respected place in the great music schools along with the piano, the violin and other concert instruments.”

NewMexiKen once attended a performance by Segovia.

… is 80 today.

American Masters from PBS sums it up nicely:

More than an actor (and Academy-Award winner), Sidney Poitier is an artist. A writer and director, a thinker and critic, a humanitarian and diplomat, his presence as a cultural icon has long been one of protest and humanity. His career defined and documented the modern history of blacks in American film, and his depiction of proud and powerful characters was and remains revolutionary.

Lilies of the Field — with Poitier’s Oscar winning performance — has been one of NewMexiKen’s favorites since it was released more than 40 years ago. If you don’t know the film, you should.

… of Richard Ford. The Pulitzer-winning novelist is 63.

When asked what his advice is for aspiring writers, Ford said, “Try to talk yourself out of it. As a life, it’s much too solitary, it makes you obsessive, the rewards seem to be much too inward for most people, and too much rides on luck. Other than that, it’s great.” (The Writer’s Almanac)

… of LeVar Burton. Kunta Kinte is 50.

… of Ice-T. Detective Odafin “Fin” Tutuola is 49. His real name is Tracy Marrow and his son is Tracy Marrow Jr., not Ice-T Jr.

… of John McEnroe. The tennis hall-of-famer is 48.

… of Jerome Bettis. “The Bus” is 35.

… of actor Allan Arbus. Major Sidney Friedman on M*A*S*H is 89.

… of Harvey Korman. Hedley Lamarr (that’s Hedley) and Carol Burnett’s buddy is 80.

… of Melissa Manchester. She’s 56.

… of Jane Seymour. Dr. Quinn is 56.

… of Matt Groening. He’s 53.

It’s the birthday of cartoonist Matt Groening, . . . born in Portland, Oregon (1954). He decided to move to Los Angel[e]s after college to try to make it as a writer. He lived in a neighborhood full of drug dealers and thieves, and got a job ghostwriting the memoirs of an 88-year-old filmmaker. After that, he worked at a convalescent home, a waste treatment plant, and a graveyard.

He started writing a comic strip based on his daily troubles called “Life in Hell.” When a television producer asked Groening to create a TV show, Groening decided to invent a cartoon family that would be the exact opposite of all the fictional families that had ever been on American television. He named the parents after his own parents, Homer and Marge, and he named the two sisters after his own sisters, Lisa and Maggie. He chose the name Bart for the only son because it was an anagram of the word “brat.”

Critics immediately praised The Simpsons, because it was in some ways more realistic than any other American sitcom. Homer was fat, bald, and stupid; he drank a lot, worked at a nuclear power plant, and occasionally strangled his son. His wife, Marge, was an obsessive-compulsive housewife with a blue beehive hairdo. The characters were frequently selfish, rude, and mean to one another, and the show often took on dark subjects like suicide, adultery, and environmental disaster. The Simpsons went on to become the most popular and longest-running sitcom in America.

Matt Groening said, “Teachers, principals, clergymen, politicians — for the Simpsons, they’re all goofballs, and I think that’s a great message for kids.

The Writers Almanac from American Public Media

… of Vito Spatafore. Actor Joseph R. Gannascoli is 48.

… of Zsa Zsa Gabor. Once well-known for being well-known, she’s 90.

… of Rip Torn. He’s 76.

… of Mamie Van Doren. Once a B-level blonde bombshell, she’s 76.

… of Mike Farrell. Captain B.J. Hunnicut is 68.

… of Tom Brokaw. He’s 67.

… of Fabian, now 64.

… of Axl Rose. He’s 45.

Babe Ruth was born on this date in 1895.

Ronald Reagan was born on this date in 1911.

It should be a friggin’ holiday. No silly, for Ruth.

Aaron Burr, the first vice president known to have shot someone, was born on this date in 1756.

… of priest-professor-author Andrew M. Greeley. He’s 79.

It’s the birthday of one of the few Catholic priests who’s ever been a best-selling novelist, Andrew Greeley, (books by this author) born in Oak Park, Illinois (1928). Soon after his ordination in 1954, Greeley decided that he had other interests beyond running a parish. He went on to get a Ph.D. at the University of Chicago, and he became a professor of sociology. He began writing about the changing role of religion in society and eventually published more than 60 books on sociology, religion, and other subjects. But he also began to write novels, and he generated a storm of controversy with his fourth novel, The Cardinal Sins (1981).

The Cardinal Sins tells the story of a young Irish boy named Patrick Donahue from Chicago’s West Side who becomes a priest and then rises through the ranks of the church hierarchy, eventually becoming the archbishop of Chicago and a cardinal. Along the way, he takes a mistress and fathers an illegitimate child. At the time, many people thought the novel was a veiled attack on Cardinal John Cody, then the Archbishop of Chicago.

Greeley went on to write several other novels that were controversial, in part because they exposed the behind-the-scenes world of the Catholic Church, and in part because they often contained explicit sex scenes. He was eventually ostracized by his local church leaders, and when he tried to donate $1 million of the proceeds from his books to the Chicago Catholic schools, they refused to take his money. He said, “It was arguably the first time in history the Catholic Church has turned down money from anyone.”

Greeley has now written more than 150 books, which have sold more than 15 million copies. When asked how he can write so much, he said, “I suppose I have the Irish weakness for words gone wild. Besides, if you’re celibate, you have to do something.”

The Writer’s Almanac

… of baseball hall-of-famer Hank Aaron. Henry is 73.

… of singer-songwriter Barrett Strong. He’s 66. “Money (That’s What I Want)” was Strong’s only hit as a singer. The record provided Berry Gordon the capital to expand into Motown. With Norman Whitfield, Strong authored “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” “Too Busy Thinking About My Baby,” “Papa Was a Rolling Stone,” “Ball of Confusion,” and “War.”

… of football hall-of-famer Roger Staubach. Jolly Roger is 65.

… of rock musician Al Kooper. If for nothing else, Kooper is known for playing the organ on Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone.” He’s 63.

… of actor, director, screenwriter Christopher Guest. He’s 59.

… of actress Barbara Hershey. She too is 59.

… of actress Jennifer Jason Leigh. She’s 45.

… of two-time Oscar nominee Laura Linney. She is 43.

… of Conrad Bain. The actor (Maude, Diff’rent Strokes) is 84.

… of John Steel. The Animals drummer (and therefore Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee) is 66.

Inductees: Eric Burdon (vocals; born May 11, 1941), Chas Chandler (bass; born December 18, 1938), Alan Price (keyboards; born April 19, 1942), John Steel (drums; born February 4, 1941), Hilton Valentine (guitar; born May 22, 1943)

The Animals were part of the budding, homegrown U.K. blues scene of the early Sixties and one of the most noteworthy bands of the British Invasion. Formed in Newcastle-on-Tyne, a port city and coal-mining hub in northeast England, the Animals reflected their upbringing with brawling, blues-based rock and roll. The group derived its inspiration – and much of its early repertoire – from American blues and R&B sources, adapting them to their native British working-class sensibility. Eric Burdon was among the best white R&B singers of the Sixties. His gruff, soulful vocals brought out the anguish in such anthems as “It’s My Life” and “We Gotta Get Out of This Place.” The band’s sound was also heavily defined by Alan Price’s organ playing, which provided dramatic accents and a blues-jazz atmosphere. The other founding members – guitarist Hilton Valentine, bassist Chas Chandler and drummer John Steel – balanced Burdon’s earthiness and Price’s melodic finesse.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

… of David Brenner. The comedian is 62 today.

… of Dan Quayle. The former VP is 60.

… of Alice Cooper. The rocker is 59.

Well we got no choice all the girls and boys
Makin’ all that noise ’cause they found new toys
Well we can’t salute ya can’t find a flag
If that don’t suit ya that’s a drag
School’s out for summer school’s out forever
School’s been blown to pieces
No more pencils no more books no more teacher’s dirty looks yeah

… of Lawrence Taylor. The NFL hall-of-famer is 48. NewMexiKen was at RFK the night Lawrence Taylor ended Joe Theismann’s career by smashing his leg. There were great linebackers before Taylor, but he was the first of the new breed.

A dominant force on defense, Taylor was named first-team All-Pro in each of his first nine seasons. His ability to dominate a game with his attack style changed the outside linebacker position from a read-and-react posture to an aggressive mode.

An intense player, he had the speed to run past offensive linemen and the strength to out-muscle them.

Pro Football Hall of Fame

… of Clint Black. The country music star is 45.

Ain’t it funny how a melody can bring back a memory,
Take you to another place and time,
Completely change your state of mind.

It’s also the birthday of Rosa Parks. The soul of the civil rights movement was born on this date in 1913.

Byron Nelson, the golfer who once won 11 PGA events in a row, 18 in one year and 52 overall including five majors, was born on this date in 1912. He retired in 1946 at age 34.

Charles Lindbergh was born on this date in 1902.

And George Washington was elected the first President of the United States on this date in 1789 when all 69 electors voting cast their ballot for him. John Adams was second with 34, becoming Vice President. (Each elector had two votes.) Coming in third with nine votes was?

… of two senior citizen comedians. Joey Bishop is 89 and Shelley Berman is 81. Big stars in their time. (I saw Bishop in The Sands lobby once.)

… of hall-of-fame quarterback Fran Tarkenton. He’s 67.

… of Blythe Danner. Gwyneth Paltrow’s mom is 64.

… of another hall-of-fame quarterback, Bob Griese. I saw Griese play in college (for Purdue vs. Michigan). He’s 62, joining Tom Selleck, who turned 62 three days ago. An excellent age.

… of folk singer Melanie. She’s 60, old enough to need a brand new key. (As with too many songs, the iTunes version of “Brand New Key” is a horrible remake. Beware!)

… of Morgan Fairchild. She’s 57.

Two staples of American pop culture were born on this date: Norman Rockwell in 1894 and James Michener in 1907. Click the 1943 Rockwell cover for larger version.

… of Tom Smothers. He’s 70. Brother Dick, the straight-man, is 67.

… of Graham Nash. The Nash of Crosby, Stills & Nash (or Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young) is 65.

Crosby, Stills & Nash have remained America’s longest-running experiment in vocal harmony and social relevance. The trio brought harmony to the forefront of popular music with their unique three-part vocal blend. A low-key supergroup, they emphasized singing and songwriting above all, and their example contributed to the evolution of the singer/songwriter movement in the Seventies. Born out of well-known groups that placed a premium on harmony, Crosby, Stills & Nash boasted impressive individual credentials before they joined forces in 1969. David Crosby sang and played rhythm guitar with the Byrds. Stephen Stills was a mainstay of Buffalo Springfield. Nash provided the high harmonies that helped make pop sensations of Britain’s Hollies. Even with those estimable prior alliances, Crosby, Stills & Nash would become their pinnacle as musicians. (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame)

… of Farrah Fawcett. Charlie’s Angel is 60.

… of Christie Brinkley. She’s 53.

… of Shakira. She’s 30. Shakira’s “La Tortura” (with Alejandro Sanz) was the number one tune on the Billboard Hot Latin Tracks chart for 25 weeks and won the 2006 Latin Grammy for both Song and Record of the Year.

James Joyce was born in Rathgar, a suburb of Dublin, on this date in 1882. Joyce only wrote four books of fiction in his life, but they’re all considered masterpieces — Dubliners (1914), A Portrait of the Artist as Young Man (1916), Ulysses (1922) and Finnegans Wake (1939).

But, of course, it is on June 16th that we should celebrate Joyce.

Don Everly and Garret Morris (of “Saturday Night Live”) are 70 today. Sherman Hemsley (of “The Jeffersons”) is 69.

Lisa Marie Presley is 39.

Four-time Oscar winner for best director John Ford was born on this date.

It’s the birthday of American movie director John Ford, born Sean Aloysius O’Fearna, in Cape Elizabeth, Maine (1895), the youngest of 13 children. He made more than 120 films, most of them Westerns. On the sets of his movies he wore old khaki pants, tennis shoes with holes in the toes, a worn-out fedora, and a dirty scarf around his neck. He always had poor eyesight. He started wearing an eye patch like a pirate after he went blind in one eye. He usually worked with a glass of brandy in his hand and was always smoking a cigar. (The Writer’s Almanac)

Clark Gable was born on this date in 1901. He won the Best Actor award in 1935 for It Happened One Night. He was nominated for Best Actor for Mutiny of the Bounty and Gone With the Wind.

Langston Hughes was born on this date in 1902. This from his obituary in 1967.

Mr. Hughes was sometimes characterized as the “O. Henry of Harlem.” He was an extremely versatile and productive author who was particularly well known for his folksy humor.

In a description of himself written for “Twentieth Century Authors, a biographical dictionary, Mr. Hughes wrote:

“My chief literary influences have been Paul Laurence Dunbar, Carl Sandburg and Walt Whitman. My favorite public figures include Jimmy Durante, Marlene Dietrich, Mary McLeod Bethune, Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Marian Anderson and Henry Armstrong.”

“I live in Harlem, New York City,” his autobiographical sketch continued. “I am unmarried. I like ‘Tristan,’ goat’s milk, short novels, lyric poems, heat, simple folk, boats and bullfights; I dislike ‘Aida,’ parsnips, long novels, narrative poems, cold, pretentious folk, buses and bridges.”

The New York Times

… of Carol Channing. Broadway’s Dolly Gallagher Levi is 86.

… of Norman Mailer. He’s 84. Here’s what NewMexiKen posted before on Mailer’s birthday.

… of Jean Simmons. The actress (The Robe, Spartacus, Elmer Gantry) is 78. Miss Simmons was twice nominated for an Oscar; Hamlet (supporting) and The Happy Ending (leading).

… of Ernie Banks. The baseball hall-of-famer is 76. Let’s play two.

… of composer Philip Glass. He’s 70.

As is, Suzanne Pleshette, Emily on the ”The Bob Newhart Show” and Annie (the teacher) in The Birds.

… of Nolan Ryan. The baseball hall-of-famer is 60.

Minnie Driver is 37. Justin Timberlake is 26.

Thomas Merton was born on this date in 1915. Here’s a previous entry for Merton.

And Pearl Zane Grey, the first American millionaire author, was born on this date in 1872. Here’s a previous entry on Grey.

… of Gene Hackman. The Oscar-winning actor is 77. He won Best Actor for The French Connection and Best Actor in a Supporting Role for The Unforgiven. He has received three other nominations.

… of Vanessa Redgrave. The six-time Oscar nominee, one-time winner, is 70.

… of Dick Cheney. The Vice President is 66. Past retirement age.

… of Phil Collins. Something in the Air Tonight is 56.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born on this date in 1882.

First of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself – nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

… of Katharine Ross. Mrs. Robinson’s daughter is 67.

… of Tom Selleck. Thomas Magnum is 62.

… of Oprah Winfrey. She’s 53.

… of Judy Norton Taylor. Mary Ellen Walton is 49. (Which makes her four years older than Patricia Neal was when playing the mother in the original Walton film, The Homecoming: A Christmas Story.)

… of diver Greg Louganis. He’s 47.

… of actor Edward Burns. He’s 39.

… of Sara Gilbert. Darlene Conner on “Roseanne” is 32.

… of blues singer Jonny Lang, all of 26.

Thomas Paine was born in England on this date in 1737.

These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.

Edward Abbey was born in Indiana, Pennsylvania, on this date in 1927. The Writer’s Almanac had this in 2005:

In 1956 he began working as a park ranger and a fire lookout for the National Park Service. He worked there for fifteen years, and this led him to write about the wilderness of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. He said, “For myself I hold no preferences among flowers, so long as they are wild, free, spontaneous. Bricks to all greenhouses! Black thumb and cutworm to the potted plant!” His book Desert Solitaire (1968) is about his time working as a ranger in Arches National Park, Utah. In it he argues for, among other things, a ban on cars in wilderness preserves. In a memorial piece about Abbey, Edward Hoagland says of him, “Personally, he was a labyrinth of anger and generosity, shy but arresting because of his mixture of hillbilly and cowboy qualities, and even when silent he appeared bigger than life.”

NewMexiKen gathered these Abbey quotations:

If you’re never ridden a fast horse at a dead run across a desert valley at dawn, be of good cheer: You’ve only missed out on one half of life.

The indoor life is the next best thing to premature burial.

I have written much about many good places. But the best places of all, I have never mentioned.

In all of nature, there is no sound more pleasing than that of a hungry animal at its feed. Unless you are the food.

Phoenix, Arizona: an oasis of ugliness in the midst of a beautiful wasteland.

The idea of wilderness needs no defense, it only needs defenders.

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.

Edward Abbey died in 1989.

William Claude Dukenfield, better known as W.C. Fields, was born in Philadelphia on this date in 1880 or 1889.

A thing worth having is a thing worth cheating for.

Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people.

I always keep a supply of stimulant handy in case I see a snake–which I also keep handy.

I never vote for anyone; I always vote against.

Last week, I went to Philadelphia, but it was closed.

A rich man is nothing but a poor man with money.

A woman drove me to drink and I didn’t even have the decency to thank her.

Anyone who hates children and animals can’t be all bad.

I am an expert of electricity. My father occupied the chair of applied electricity at the state prison.

I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food.

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it.

If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull.

Some things are better than sex, and some are worse, but there’s nothing exactly like it.

There comes a time in the affairs of man when he must take the bull by the tail and face the situation.

(When “caught” reading a Bible) “Just looking for loopholes.”

Fields died on Christmas Day 1946.

Pretty much the same people celebrate their birthday this January 19th as celebrated it last January 19th. Don’t forget to add one year to the ages.

… of Kevin Costner. Costner won the Oscars for director and best picture for Dances With Wolves and was nominated for the best actor Oscar for his portrayal of Lt. John Dunbar. He’s 52 today.

… of Jesse L. Martin. The Law & Order star is 38.

It’s also the birthday of Cary Grant (Archibald Alexander Leach, 1904-1986) and Danny Kaye (David Daniel Kaminski, 1913-1987).