Emily Browning b. 1988 (The Host, Sucker Punch, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events)
Caleb Landry Jones b. 1989 (Antiviral, X-Men: First Class, The Last Exorcism)
Nicholas Hoult b. 1989 (X-Men: Apocalypse, Equals, Mad Max: Fury Road, Warm Bodies, Jack the Giant Slayer, X-Men: First Class, Clash of the Titans)
Jack Huston b. 1982 (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Twilight: Eclipse, Eastwick, Outlander)
Jennifer Carpenter b. 1979 (Quarantine, The Exorcism of Emily Rose)
Shiri Appleby b. 1978 (Roswell, Xena)
Kristofer Hivju b. 1978 (Game of Thrones, After Earth, The Thing [2011])
Mark Duplass b. 1976 (Safety Not Guaranteed)
Christa Campbell b. 1972 (Automata, Spiders, Hyenas, Day of the Dead, Kraken: Tentacles of the Deep, The Black Hole [2006 TV], Mansquito, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch)
Danny Hassel b. 1967 (Nightmare on Elm Street 4 and 5)
C. Thomas Howell b. 1966 (Grimm, Category 5, Bigfoot Wars, Revolution, Alphas, The Amazing Spider-Man, Mutant Zombie Vampires in the Hood, The Thirst: Blood War, Torchwood, Kindred: The Embraced, Deadly Nightmares, E.T.)
Jeffrey Wright b. 1965 (Westworld [2015], The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Parts 1 and 2, Only Lovers Left Alive, Source Code, The Invasion, Lady in the Water, Angels in America)
Patrick Fabian b. 1964 (Snow 2: Brain Freeze, FreakyLinks, Cupid, Timecop, Xena, StarTrek: Voyager)
Jennifer Calvert b. 1963 (Merlin’s Apprentice, Earthsea, Stargate SG-1, Mysterious Ways, Proteus, Red Dwarf)
Priscilla Barnes b. 1958 (The Invisible Man, Good vs Evil, Witch Academy, Lords of the Deep, The Time Machine [1978 TV], Wonder Woman)
Mark Rolston b. 1956 (April Apocalypse, Touch, Supernatural, Reaper, Star Trek: Enterprise, Stephen King’s Dead Zone, Dark Angel, Angel, The X Files, From the Earth to the Moon, Humanoids from the Deep, Lois & Clark, Babylon 5, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Tales from the Crypt, RoboCop 2, Aliens)
Julie Halston b. 1954 (Addams Family Values)
Tom Waits b. 1949 (The Book of Eli, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Mystery Men, Dracula, Wolfen)
Wendy Padbury b. 1947 (Doctor Who, The Blood on Satan’s Claw)
W.D. Richter b. 1945 (screenwriter, Invasion of the Body Snatchers [1978], Dracula [1979], Big Trouble in Little China, Needful Things, Slither; director, Buckaroo Banzai)
Kenneth Colley b. 1937 (Relic Hunter, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, Jabberwocky, A for Andromeda)
Ellen Burstyn b. 1932 (Interstellar, Resurrection [1980], The Time Tunnel)
Johnny Duncan b. 1923 (Plan 9 from Outer Space, Batman and Robin [1949])
Ted Knight b. 1923 died 26 August 1986 (Ghost Busters [1975 TV], The Immortal, The Invaders, The Outer Limits, Twilight Zone)
Hurd Hatfield b. 1917 died 26 December 1998 (Amazing Stories, Knight Rider, Between Time and Timbuktu, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Picture of Dorian Gray)
Leigh Brackett b. 1915 died 17 March 1978 (screenwriter, The Empire Strikes Back)
Eli Wallach b. 1915 died 24 June 2014 (Tales of the Unexpected, Batman, Shirley Temple’s Storybook)
Notes on the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. There are four artists on the list I well and truly love, and maybe just maybe they will get a chance at the Picture Slot in 2015. Since Angels in America is labeled correctly as fantasy on imdb.com, I might put Jeffrey Wright in. It's more of a stretch to put in Tom Waits, but his turn as Renfield in Copolla's Dracula might be considered. Leigh Brackett wrote westerns and sci-fi back in the pulp era, but she is best known for writing the wise cracking dames in Howard Hawks movies, and her last work was as co-writer of The Empire Strikes Back, the episode that creates almost all the cool back story of Star Wars. The last of my favorites is Eli Wallach, who died earlier this year, who is iconic in the Mister Freeze costume from Batman. But I couldn't chose between these people and gave the slot to petite Wendy Padbury, who played the Doctor's companion back in the late 1980s. (I should add that among the younger crowd, Nicholas Hoult from X-Men and Kristofer Hivju from Game of Thrones also count as iconic in my book.
2. Spot the Canadian! There's one real one and one pretender. See if you can sort it out.
3. The Guy at the Door. Johnny Duncan, who played the Boy Wonder in the 1949 Batman and Robin, was in the Picture Slot last year on his 90th birthday. The good news is he's here to celebrate his 91st, so good on ya, Mr. Duncan. Everybody younger than him is still alive and everyone older isn't, including his birthday sharer Ted Knight, who did a lot more genre than I would have imagined.
Many happy returns to all the living on the list, most especially to Mr. Johnny Duncan, and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.
Movie released
Star Trek: The Motion Picture released, 1979
It needs to be said by an actual eyewitness. This movie wasn't any good and I should know, since I saw it twice. In my defense, I was young and fans like me wanted to see it desperately, which we did. In its defense, I think it was better than the first Batman movie with Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson ten years later, another movie I saw twice and do not remember fondly.
Prediction: In 1997 the Arab countries and Iran launch a surprise nuclear attack against Israel, which retaliates. More such nuclear conflicts lead to a world government headed by the United Nations, which monopolizes atomic weapons, and attacks both New York and Moscow with them when they break the peace. Jews surviving in space colonies build what seems at first to be a superweapon, but what turns out to be an interstellar ship capable of taking them to a new home.
Reality: Longtime readers will know this is the place where I thank Paul Brians for his very extensive database. The problems I have with this prediction, which of course didn't pan out, are twofold. Firstly, getting the Arab countries and Iran to agree on anything is doubtful, even agreeing on blowing up Israel. Secondly, it's unlikely for multiple countries on that list to have nukes and thirdly, there's no way the U.N. gets that kind of power as long as Alex Jones is around to warn us about them.
And the reptile people, naturally.
Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!
Our regular weekly schedule is interrupted by a prediction from a mini-series.
Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
Mark Rolston looks like he could be Canadian, but he's not. Jennifer Calvert shows Canadian tendencies, and she is.
ReplyDeleteGosh, I can't think of a better compliment than "you have Canadian tendencies".
DeleteYOU have Canadian tendencies, Prof....
OK, someone saying "whoah" when you drop your pants is pretty much the top of compliments, but hey, you know what I mean....
DeleteDoctor Who has always had the MOST ridiculous plotlines and special effects.
ReplyDeleteOf course, that didn't prevent them from creating some great stories. Like Joe Bob used to say, there's no plot to get in the way of the STORY....
I appreciate (while not necessarily LIKING) the commitment the recent versions of the Doctor have committed to maintaining the effects and monster design of the older, more limited productions, while updating them somewhat.
But having said that, I have always laughed at the Daleks. As MST3K once said about ED-309, "who designs a robot that can't walk down stairs"? Laughed at them,, that is, until you see several hundred of them all yelling at the Doctor, in that stupid (yet kind of fucking scary) voice....
I used to say truthfully, "Yeah, I'm a nerd, but I never watched Doctor Who." As of the 21st Century, that statement is no longer true. It's pretty common that a person's "favorite" Doctor is their first, so I'm on Team Eccleston.
DeleteA not completely off-topic aside: You've steered me to some interesting stuff, ZRMcD, and I'd like to return the favor. Have you seen the Oscar-winning short Peter Capaldi write and directed Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life? It stars Richard E. Grant and well, that should be recommendation enough.
wait a damn minute. It's a Wonderful Life ISN'T a Kafka exercise?
DeleteRichard E. Grant made Warlock worth watching when Julian Sands wasn't chewing the scenery.
ReplyDelete