Laura Aikman b. 1985 (The Hatching, Demons, Virtual Sexuality)
Michael Raymond-James b. 1977 (Once Upon a Time, The Walking Dead, True Blood)
Stephenie Meyer b. 1973 (writer, The Host, Twilight Saga)
Matt Passmore b. 1973 (Son of the Mask)
Carmen Moore b. 1972 (Supernatural, Battlestar Galactica, Caprica, Kyle XY, Stargate: Atlantis, Flash Gordon [TV], Journey to the Center of the Earth [2008 TV], Eureka, Smallville, Battlestar Galactica: The Resistance, The 4400, The Robinsons: Lost in Space, Andromeda, Seven Days, First Wave, Stargate SG-1)
Amuary Nolasco b. 1970 (Transformers, Early Edition)
Mark Millar b. 1969 (writer, Kick-Ass, Superman: Red Son, Wanted)
Diedrich Bader b. 1966 (The Starving Games, Vampires Suck, Evil Alien Conquerors, Quantum Leap, Star Trek: The Next Generation)
Mark Valley b. 1965 (Fringe, The 4400, Brimstone)
Wade Williams b. 1961 (Touch, The Dark Knight Rises, Astronauts, Star Trek: Enterprise, Buffy, Charmed, The X Files, Good vs Evil, What Planet Are You From?, Seven Days, Star Trek: Voyager, NightMan)
Scott Spiegel b. 1957 (Drag Me to Hell, Spider-Man 1 & 2, Darkman, Lionheart, Robot Ninja, The Dead Next Door, Evil Dead I and II)
Julius Tennon b. 1953 (Small Soldiers)
Timothy Carhart b. 1953 (Strange World, The X Files, Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Quantum Leap, The Manhattan Project, Ghostbusters)
Nicholas Meyer b. 1945 (director, Time After Time, Star Trek II, The Day After, Faerie Tale Theatre, Star Trek VI)
Sharon Farrell b. 1940 (Freddy’s Nightmares, Small & Frye, Man from Atlantis, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, The Six Million Dollar Man, It’s Alive, I Dream of Jeannie, My Favorite Martian)
Christiane Schmidtmer b. 1939 died 13 March 2003 (Wonder Woman, The Giant Spider Invasion)
Ava Gardner b. 1922 died 25 January 1990 (On the Beach, Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, One Touch of Venus)
Fritz Leiber b. 1910 died 5 September 1992 (won 1958 Hugo for The Big Time and 1965 Hugo for The Wanderer)
Michael Curtiz b. 1886 died 10 April 1962 (director, Doctor X)
Notes from the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. Last year I used Fritz Leiber, an important writer in the history of sci-fi. This year it's Ava Gardner, one of the great beauties in film history, pictured here from One Touch of Venus. Sci-fi and fantasy films were rare back in the day, especially big budget ones that would star someone of Ava Gardner's stature.
As for next year... we are not overflowing with actors in iconic roles here. I might well go with a poster from one of Nicholas Meyer's Star Trek movies.
2. Spot the Canadian! There are a few lists of credits here that have a certain whiff of Canadian origin, but only one with a full-bodied Canadian flavor. The answer will be in comments later today.
3. Fun facts to know and tell. I clicked on Ava Gardner's credits knowing she was in On the Beach and was a little surprised to find the other credits. But the real surprise was Michael Curtiz, an A-list director who directed all kinds of movies, from Casablanca with Humphrey Bogart to Jim Thorpe -- All-American with Burt Lancaster to King Creole with Elvis Presley. I didn't expect any genre movies in his credits, but the 1932 Doctor X is counted as sci-fi. I had no idea.
4. The Gal at the Door. Sharon Farrell, a beautiful actress whose heyday was the 1960s and 1970s, is celebrating her 74th birthday today. Everyone older than she is dead and everyone younger is alive, so that makes her The Gal at the Door. As always, special wishes for long life to anyone on a birthday list in that situation.
Many happy returns to all the living on this, most especially to Sharon Farrell, and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.
Prediction: Near Christmas of 1919, the steamship Niagara is found, apparently abandoned fifty miles from Sydney. There are three survivors, who ask to be returned to Australia, claiming a plague had taken the lives of the rest of the crew.
Reality: Spoiler alert... the survivors are vampires. I'm not exactly sure why a vampire story has to be set in the future, but this one was. Go figure.
The prolific director Joseph Sargent died at the age of 90 last Monday the 22nd. His genre credits are Salem Witch Trials, Space, Tomorrow’s Child, Colossus: The Forbin Project, The Invaders and one episode of the original Star Trek series, The Corbomite Maneuver. Fans will remember this is one of the first times Kirk bluffed an enemy and that no one ever called Kirk's bluffs.
Best wishes to the family and friends of Joseph Sargent. He is never to be forgotten.
Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!
It's that most wonderful time of the year for invasions of earth, according to Doctor Who.
Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
Carmen Moore is the Canadian.
ReplyDeleteSargent also directed an episode of _The Man from U.N.C.L.E._ that featured Shatner, Nimoy, and Werner (son of Otto) Klemperer.
ReplyDeleteI love TV episodes like that. The first season of Law and Order has an episode with Philip Seymour Hoffman as a street level drug dealer and Samuel L. Jackson as his lawyer. Both parts get about a scene each.
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