13 January 2015

 Birthdays

Beau Mirchoff b. 1989 (The Wizards Return: Alex vs. Alex, I Am Number Four, The Grudge 3)
Julian Morris b. 1983 (Once Upon a Time, Cry_Wolf, Something Wicked)
Ruth Wilson b. 1982 (The Prisoner [2009] )
Liam Hemsworth b. 1990 (The Hunger Games, Knowing)
Jill Wagner b. 1979 (Teen Wolf [2014 TV], Splinter, Stargate: Atlantis, Blade: The Series )
Orlando Bloom b. 1977 (Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Pirates of the Caribbean)
Michael Pena b. 1976 (Ant-Man, The Martian, Battle Los Angeles, Roswell)
Nicole Eggert b. 1972 (Devil Winds, Amanda and the Alien, Annihilator, The Clan of the Cave Bear, I Dream of Jeannie… Fifteen Years Later)
John Asher b. 1971 (Space Cowboys, Weird Science [TV], Double Dragon, The Haunted)
Traci Bingham b. 1968 (Black Scorpion, Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight)
Patrick Dempsey b. 1966 (Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Enchanted, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea [1997], Outbreak, The Stuff)
Bill Bailey b. 1965 (Doctor Who, Nanny McPhee Returns, Spaced)
Penelope Ann Miller b. 1964 (Robosapien: Rebooted, The Relic, The Shadow, Tales from the Darkside)
Julia Louis-Dreyfuss b. 1961 (Troll)
Dwight H. Little b. 1956 (director, Sleepy Hollow, From Dusk Till Dawn [TV], Tekken, Dollhouse, Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid, The X Files, Strange World, Millennium, Freddy’s Nightmares, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers)
John McNaughton b. 1950 (director, The Borrower)
Malcolm Story b. 1948 (New Worlds, Jekyll, Star Trap. The Princess Bride)
Richard Moll b. 1943 (Jurassic: Stoned Age, Ghost Shark, Smallville, Evolution, Spiders II: Breeding Ground, Big Monster on Campus, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Weird Science [TV], Galaxis, Babylon 5, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Beanstalk, Highlander [TV], The Munsters Today, Monsters, Wicked Stepmother, Survivor, Ragewar, Metalstorm: The Destruction of Jared-Syn, The Sword and the Sorcerer, Through the Magic Pyramid, Mork & Mindy, Evilspeak, House [1986], Caveman, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century)
Carol Cleveland b. 1942 (Life of Brian, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Old Drac, Moon Zero Two)
William B. Davis b. 1938 (Continuum, Singularity Principle, Behemoth, Something Evil Comes, Caprica, Supernatural, Stargate SG-1, The X-Files, Kingdom Hospital, Snakehead Terror, Smallville, Andromeda, Mythquest, Poltergeist: The Legacy, Sliders, Omen IV: The Awakening, It [TV Mini-series], Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future, The Dead Zone)
Billy Gray b. 1938 (The Vampyre Wars, Werewolves on Wheels, Adventures of Superman, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Navy vs. the Night Monsters)
Rip Taylor b. 1935 (Virtual Combat, The Charmings, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters)
Ron Goulart b. 1933 (writer, Flash Gordon, TekWar, Vampirella)
Jon Cypher b. 1932 (Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show, The Invaders [1995], RoboCop [TV], Spontaneous Combustion, Probe, Masters of the Universe, Knight Rider, The Greatest American Hero, The Food of the Gods)
Charles Nelson Reilly b. 1931 died 25 May 2007 (Millennium, The X Files, Amazing Stories, Lidsville, The Ghost & Mrs. Muir)
Ian Hendry b. 1931 died 24 December 1984 (Damien: Omen II, Supernatural [1977 TV], Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter, Theatre of Blood, Tales from the Crypt, Journey to the Far Side of the Sun, Children of the Damned, Alice Through the Looking Box, H.G. Wells’ Invisible Man)
Frances Sternhagen b. 1930 (The Mist, Tales from the Crypt, Communion, Prototype, Outland)
Gregory Walcott b. 1928 (House II: Second Story, The Six Million Dollar Man, Land of the Lost, Gemini Man, The Invisible Man [1975 TV], Plan 9 from Outer Space)
David Sheiner b. 1928 (Automan, Manimal, The Amazing Spider-Man [1978 TV], The Six Million Dollar Man, Planet of the Apes [TV], The Invaders, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Twilight Zone, Tom Corbett, Space Cadet)
Rosemary Murphy b. 1925 died 5 July 2014 (The Visitor, [1998 TV], The Hand, ‘Way Out)
Gwen Verdon b. 1925 died 18 October 2000 (Cocoon, Damn Yankees!)
Robert Stack b. 1919 died 14 May 2003 (Butt-Ugly Martians, )
Osa Massen b. 1916 died 2 January 2006 (Rocketship X-M, Cry of the Werewolf)
Jeff Morrow b. 1907 died 26 December 1993 (Twilight Zone [1986 and 1960], Octaman, The Giant Claw, Kronos, The Creature Walks Among Us, This Island Earth)
Clark Ashton Smith b. 1893 died 14 August 1961 (author, Hyperborea, The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis)

Notes on the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. Today we have a lot of choices. In 2013, when I hadn't done as much research, I went with Liam Hemsworth, who is not as well known as his brother Chris, but still has an important role in The Hunger Games. Last year it was William B. Davis in his most famous role as The Smoking Man. This year I went with Orlando Bloom, and honest to Odin movie star in his iconic role Legolas. If I wanted to go old school, Jeff Morrow was in a lot of 1950s monster movies.

2. Canadian spotted! Sometimes an actor will gain fame in a genre role and get a lot of work on the Canadian sci-fi shows regardless of nationality. As I stated earlier, William B. Davis got famous on The X-Files and then gets a lot more work in Canada. The thing is, he's actually Canadian as well as iconic. Good on ya, Mr. Davis.

3. Fun Facts to know and tell. In The Celluloid Closet, a film about gays on film, they talk about The Sissy Man role, a guy who is never said to be gay directly, but acts in a flamboyant manner. This was popular in the era before homosexuality could even be mentioned on film. We have two great Sissy Men born today, Rip Taylor and the late Charles Nelson Reilly.

On a different note, the arc of some actors' careers is from big budget films and then slipping into smaller budget films or TV, while others start in small budget stuff then catch a big break. On the other hand, we have Gregory Walcott, whose credit list is pretty much in reasonably budgeted TV and films, but also showed up inexplicably in Plan 9 From Outer Space. Go figure. 

4. Hey... no Star Trek! Usually, this happens a few times a month. In October, there were four. We are less than halfway through January and we already have three.

5. MST3K. There may be others, but I know This Island Earth was the movie used in the feature film episode and Rocketship X-M was also an episode, which contain one of my favorite lines "Well, thank you, Mr. White Male Reality!" This was long before mansplaining became a thing. Zombie Rotten McDonald has added Moon Zero Two as well.

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

Predictors: The ESPN group of fourteen pro football experts

Predictions (Reality):

Seattle over Carolina: (14 right, 0 wrong)
New England over Baltimore: (11 right, 3 wrong)
Indianapolis over Denver: (1 right, 13 wrong)
Green Bay over Dallas: (7 right, 7 wrong)

Tally: 33 right, 23 wrong
This week, the experts got the same overall percentage as last week 58.9% right. More than that, they got there in pretty much the same way. There were three games where the consensus was very strong and one of those games was an upset. In the fourth game, there was nearly no consensus, so it made little difference to the overall score which team came out on top, The overall totals of 66-46 puts this group in the 97th percentile of guessers if we assume the odds are even that either team could win, which is not a perfect assumption but good enough for our needs. This compares very well with the baseball experts' guesses for the playoffs, but they stunk the place out because the World Series had two wild card teams, the Giants and the Royals.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Back to 1911 to see the predictions for 2011.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!