7 November 2014

Birthdays
Rick Malambri b. 1982 (Surrogates, Universal Soldiers)
Adam Campbell b. 1980 (Touch)
Matthew Hurley b.1979 (Batman & Robin, Pumpkinhead)
Oliver Chris b. 1978 (Fairy Tales, Frankenstein: Birth of a Monster)
Carl Steven b. 1974 died 31 July 2011 (Weird Science [TV], Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Out of This World, Teen Wolf, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock)
Yunjin Kim b. 1973 (Lost)
Jason London b. 1972 (Monsterwolf, Showdown at Area 51, Jason and the Argonauts [2000 TV], The Rage: Carrie 2, Alien Cargo)
Jeremy London b. 1972 (Dark Rising: Warrior of Worlds, Alien Opponent, Wolvesbayne, Basilisk: The Serpent King, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Perversions of Science)
Michelle Clunie b. 1969 (Solar Flare, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show, NightMan, Space: Above and Beyond, Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday)
Dana Plato b. 1964 died 8 May 1999 (Exorcist II: The Heretic, Return to Boggy Creek, Beyond the Bermuda Triangle, The Six Million Dollar Man)
Shannon Whirry b. 1964 (Cowboys and Vampires, Black Scorpion, Omega Doom)
Michael Papajohn b. 1964 (Occult, Revolution, The Dark Knight Rises, The Amazing Spider-Man, Jonah Hex, True Blood, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Land of the Lost, Superhero Movie, Spider-Man 3, Threshold, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Hulk, Spawn, The Indian in the Cupboard, Predator 2)
Tracie Savage b. 1962 (Friday the 13th Part III)
Christopher Knight b. 1957 (Light Years Away, The Bionic Woman)
Lindsay Duncan b. 1950 (Alice in Wonderland, Birdman, Merlin, Doctor Who, Frankenstein [2007])
Garrett M. Brown b. 1948 (Kick-Ass 1 & 2, I Am Number Four, Supernova, Roswell, Zelig)
Holmes Osbourne b. 1947 (The Box, Invasion, Star Trek: Enterprise, Seven Days, Roswell, Donnie Darko, The X-Files, From the Earth to the Moon, Nice Girls Don’t Explode)
John Aylward b. 1946 (American Horror Story, Fringe, Stargate SG-1, Surface, Carnivale, The X-Files, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Armageddon, Creature, From the Earth to the Moon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III)
Earl Boen b. 1945 (Terminator 1, 2 & 3, Lois & Clark, Chopper Chicks in Zombietown, My Stepmother Is an Alien, Alien Nation, ALF, Annihilator, Otherworld, The Man with Two Brains, Voyagers!, The Powers of Matthew Star, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Wonder Woman)
Julian Christopher b. 1944 (Once Upon a Time, Elysium, Continuum, Supernatural, Fringe, Bionic Woman [2007], Smallville, The 4400, X-Men: The Last Stand, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Stephen King’s Dead Zone, Stargate SG-1, Star Trek: The Next Generation)
Michael Byrne b. 1943 (Outpost: Black Sun, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, Blood: The Last Vampire, Dinotopia, Battlefield Earth, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Vampyres)
Dakin Matthews b. 1940 (The Big Bang Theory, True Blood, Stargate SG-1, Carnivale, Charmed, Star Trek: Voyager, From the Earth to the Moon, Virus, Child’s Play 3, Eve of Destruction, Ghost Dad)
Billy Green Bush b. 1935 (Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday, Amazing Stories, Critters, Misfits of Science, The Incredible Hulk)
Jackie Joseph b. 1933 (Small Soldiers, Gremlins 1 & 2, Alice Through the Looking Glass [1966 TV], My Living Doll, The Little Shop of Horrors [1960])
Lila Kaye b. 1929 died 10 January 2012 (Julia Jekyll and Harriet Hyde, Dragonworld, The Canterville Ghost, The Invisible Man [1984 TV], An American Werewolf in London)
Melissa Stribling b. 1927 died 1992 (Journey to the Unknown, Horror of Dracula)
Aline Towne b. 1919 died 2 February 1996 (The Incredible Hulk, Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe, Gog, Adventures of Superman, Zombies of the Stratosphere, Radar Men from the Moon, The Invisible Monster)
Titos Vandis b. 1917 died 23 February 2003 (Wonder Woman, Satan’s Triangle, The Exorcist, Genesis II)
John Welsh b. 1914 died 21 April 1985 (Krull, Konga, The Revenge of Frankenstein)
Thomas Browne Henry b. 1907 died 30 June 1980 (Bewitched, The Addams Family, My Mother the Car, How to Make a Monster, Space Master X-7, Blood of Dracula, The Brain from Planet Arous, Beginning of the End, 20 Million Miles to Earth, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, Topper, Rocky Jones, Space Ranger, Space Patrol, The Next Voice You Hear…)
Dean Jagger b. 1903 died 5 February 1991 (Alligator, End of the World, Twilight Zone, X: The Unknown, On the Threshold of Space, Revolt of the Zombies)

Notes on the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. Last year, I hadn't done as much research as this year and it was Yunjin Kim from Lost, who qualifies both as iconic and a fabulous babe. This year, with more research, today is a superlative Oh That Guy birthday party, and we get a picture of Earl Boen, the guy who played the psychiatrist in the first two Terminator films. Every guy born in the 1940s on this list is an Oh That Guy and likewise all the guys born before World War I ended, with Thomas Browne Henry a very strong candidate for the Picture Slot in 2015. Even his bio on imdb.com says it straight out; if there was an alien invasion movie in the 1950s Thomas Browne Henry probably played one of the military guys tasked to stop it.

2. My Brush with Oh That Guy-ness. Before he started acting, Dakin Matthews taught film at Cal State Hayward and I took his class. Nice guy. His best known recent role is in the remake of True Grit as the guy who negotiates with the young girl over the sale of horses. Strother Martin played the role in the original. I won't say Matthews topped Martin (Strother Martin is one of my favorite semi-subtle over-actors in film history), but he was damned good. (Aside to an aside: I liked the new True Grit better than the original and it comes down to casting. Matt Damon vs. Jeff Bridges in a battle of manliness could go either way, but John Wayne vs. Glen Campbell is a rout.)

3. Dead child stars. Let us first note that Christopher Knight from The Brady Bunch is alive and well and good for him. But then we have Dana Plato and Carl Steven who both died of drug overdoses, Steven while in jail. Sad stories.

4. Shannon Whirry has rules about getting nekkid on film. Really. You might have watched Skinemax back in the day and thought all soft core porn starred Shannon Whirry or Shannon Tweed, but I read her quote on imbd.com about her rules for nudity. It reminded me of the old David Letterman bit, The Museum of The Hard to Believe.

5. Living Canadian free. Julian Christopher has a very Canadian looking resume, but he was born in the U.S.

Many happy returns to all the living on the list and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.
 

Predictor: H.G. Wells in his 1902 book Anticipations

Prediction: There will be the motor omnibus, developing out of the horse omnibus companies and the suburban lines. And these things, which are quite obviously coming even now, will be working out their many structural problems when the next phase in their development begins. The motor omnibus companies competing against the suburban railways will find themselves hampered in the speed of their longer runs by the slower horse traffic on their routes, and they will attempt to secure, and, it may be, after tough legislative struggles, will secure the power to form private roads of a new sort, upon which their vehicles will be free to travel up to the limit of their very highest possible speed.

Reality: Welcome back to H.G. Wells, whose predictions from his 1902 book Anticipations will be our Friday regular for the next few months.

Wells reminds me of 19th Century intellectuals in this book, in that to show how clever he is, he tells you every last fact he knows before he gets to the point. I am reading this book so you don't have to. No thanks are necessary.

One of my favorite mental exercises is to think about the world the predictor lived in and in 1902, it wasn't yet obvious to a guy as smart as Wells that horses were 100% on their way out and that in just a few years, all roads everywhere would be built for auto traffic. He can't see that railways will lose their grip on power or what radio will become, and not surprisingly for a guy living in London back in the day, he couldn't see how the logistical problem of millions of pounds of manure and millions of gallons of urine deposited on the streets daily by the completely essential horses would ever be solved.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Back to 1893 for predictions and comments on facial hair, possibly not in that order.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!