Category: Birthdays

Individuals born on this date with an emphasis on American history and culture, including pop culture.

It’s the birthday

… of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Senator Clinton is 57 today.

… of Pat Sajak. His wheel has spun for 58 years today.

… of Pat Conroy. The author of The Prince of Tides and The Great Santini is 59 today.

And it’s the birthday of Mahalia Jackson, born on this date in 1911 (she died in 1972). As The New York Times noted in Ms. Jackson’s obituary:

“I been ‘buked and I been scorned/ I’m gonna tell my Lord/ When I get home/ Just how long you’ve been treating me wrong,” she sang in a full, rich contralto to the throng of 200,000 people as a preface to Dr. King’s “I’ve got a dream” speech.

The song, which Dr. King had requested, came as much from Miss Jackson’s heart as from her vocal cords. The granddaughter of a slave, she had struggled for years for fulfillment and for unprejudiced recognition of her talent.

It’s the birthday

… of Kevin Kline. The Oscar-winning actor (Best Supporting for A Fish Called Wanda) is 57 today. NewMexiKen thought he made a good president in Dave.

… of F. Murray Abraham. The Oscar-winning actor (Best Actor for Amadeus) is 65 today.

… of Bill Wyman. The Rolling Stones’ bassist is 68.

It’s the birthday

… of Johnny Carson. He’s 79 today.

… of Pele. He’s 64 today.

Two men who were absolutely the best on the planet at what they did. Happy Birthday!

Do you know who Steve Cropper is?

He’s 63 today. According to the All Music Guide, Steve Cropper is:

Probably the best-known soul guitarist in the world, Cropper came to prominence in the early ’60s, first with the Mar-Keys (“Last Night”), then as a founding member of Booker T. & the MG’s. A major figure in the Southern soul movement of the ’60s, Cropper made his mark not only as a player and arranger (most notably on classic sides by Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, and Wilson Pickett) but as a songwriter as well, co-writing the classic “In the Midnight Hour.”

And Green Onions is the single greatest rock instrumental ever, period (Booker T. Jones, organ; Steve Cropper, guitar; Lewis Steinberg, bass; Al Jackson, drums). MG’s, by the way, stands for Memphis Group, not the car.

It’s the birthday

… of Mickey Mantle. The Mick was born in 1931. He died in 1995.

… of William Christopher. Father Francis Mulcahy is 72.

… of Jerry Orbach. Detective Briscoe is 69. We miss you Jerry.

… of Calvin Cordozar Broadus. Snoop Dogg is 33.

It’s the birthday

… of Robert Reed, born on this date in 1932. A fine actor but one who will always be remembered best as the dad on The Brady Bunch. Reed’s best TV role was as Kenneth Preston, son in the excellent early 1960s father-son lawyer drama The Defenders. His father was played by E. G. Marshall. Reed died in 1992.

… of Winston Hubert McIntosh, born on this date in 1944. A founding member of The Wailers, Peter Tosh also was an international solo star and songwriter. He was shot and killed along with five others by a friend during an argument on September 11, 1987.

It’s the birthday

… of Chuck Berry. Roll over Beethoven, Chuck’s 78.

… of Keith Jackson. Whoa, Nellie, he’s 76.

… of Peter Boyle. Raymond’s father is 69.

… of Pam Dawber. Mork’s Mindy is 53.

It’s the birthday

… of Arthur Miller. The playwright (The Crucible, Death of a Salesman) and one-time husband of Marilyn Monroe is 89.

… of Jimmy Breslin. The columnist is 74.

… of Evel Knievel. The daredevil is 66.

… of Margot Kidder. Lois Lane is 56.

… of George Wendt. Norm is 56.
“What’ll you have Norm?”
“Fame, fortune, fast women.”
“How about a beer?”
“Even better.”

… of Marshall Mathers. Eminem is 32.

It’s the birthday

… of John Kenneth Galbraith. The famed economist is 96.

… of Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. The famed historian is 87.

… of Lee Iacocca. The famed auto-maker is 80. Iacocca wrote that the Chevrolet Vega and Dodge Aspen were two cars that never should have been made. NewMexiKen can attest that they were two cars that never should have been purchased (though, in fairness, we did get more than 120,000 miles from the Aspen).

… of Barry McGuire. He’s 69, pretty close to the Eve of Destruction.

… of Penny Marshall. Laverne DeFazio is 62.

… of Jim Palmer. The Hall of Fame pitcher and underwear pitchman is 59. Palmer won World Series games in three decades (1966, 1970 and 1971, 1983).

Novelist, poet, story teller and screenwriter …

Sherman Alexie was born on this date in 1966. Alexie’s father is a Coeur d’Alene Indian and his mother is a Spokane Indian

The Writer’s Almanac has quite a bit about Alexie concluding with:

His first big success was his collection of short stories The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (1993). It was one of the first works of fiction to portray Indians as modern Americans who watch all the same TV programs and eat the same breakfast cereal as everybody else. He has since written about Indians who are gay intellectuals, basketball players, middle-class journalists, elderly movie extras, rock musicians, construction workers, or reservation girls whose cars only go in reverse because all the other gears are broken. His most recent is the story collection Ten Little Indians, which came out last year.

Sherman Alexie said, “All too often, Indian writers write about the kind of Indian they wish they were. So I try to write about the kind of Indian I am. I’m just as much a product of ‘The Brady Bunch’ as I am of my grandmother.”

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven was adapted for the excellent and amusing film Smoke Signals.

It’s the birthday

… of Janet Gaynor. Ms. Gaynor was born on this date in 1906. In 1929, she won the very first Oscar for Best Actress, winning for Seventh Heaven, Sunrise and Street Angel. (The only time the award was based on multiple roles.) She was also nominated for best actress for A Star is Born.

… of Carole Lombard. Oscar nominee Lombard (she received a nomination for best actress for My Man Godfrey) was born in 1908.

It’s the birthday

… of Charlton Heston. Moses is 80 today. Heston won the best actor Oscar for Ben-Hur (1959).

… of Susan Sarandon. The five-time nominee for best actress (she won for Dead Man Walking) is 58 today.

It’s the birthday

… of James Whitmore. The actor, twice nominated for an Oscar, is 83. He was the sole cast member of Give ’em Hell, Harry!.

… of Jimmy Carter. The 39th President is 80 today.

… of William Rehnquist. The Chief Justice is also 80 today.

… of Tom Bosley. Richie Cunningham’s father is 77.

… of Julie Andrews. Mary Poppins is 69. Ms. Andrews won the Best Actress Oscar for Mary Poppins; she was nominated for The Sound of Music and Victor/Victoria. Of course, her claim to fame really was as Eliza Doolittle in the stage version of My Fair Lady.

… of Rod Carew. The baseball hall of fame player is 59.

… of Tim O’Brien. The novelist is 58. O’Brien is the author of Going After Cacciato, winner of the 1979 National Book Award in fiction, and The Things They Carried, which was named by The New York Times as one of the ten best books of 1990, received the Chicago Tribune Heartland Award in fiction, and was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. In the Lake of the Woods was named by Time as the best novel of 1994. The book also received the James Fenimore Cooper Prize from the Society of American Historians and was selected as one of the ten best books of the year by The New York Times.

It’s the birthday

… of Deborah Kerr. The six-time Oscar nominee for Best Actress is 83 today.

… of Angie Dickinson. “Pepper” is 73 today.

… of Johnny Mathis. Chances are the singer is 69 today.

… of Barry Williams. Greg Brady is 50 today.

James Dean was killed on this date in 1955.

[Dean] and his mechanic, Rolf Wuetherich, were traveling in Dean’s new Porsche Spyder 550, which he planned to race that afternoon in Salinas. Dean had traded in his Porsche Speedster just nine days earlier, purchasing the Spyder for $6,900 and naming it “Little Bastard.”

From JamesDean.com.