Quinn Shephard b. 1995 (Believe, From Other Worlds)
Sarah Bolger b. 1991 (Once Upon a Time, The Lazarus Effect, The Spiderwick Chronicles)
Georgina Leonidas b. 1990 (Harry Potter, Wizards vs. Aliens)
Alex Arsenault b. 1985 (Caprica, Supernatural, Tucker & Dale vs. Evil)
Karolina Kurkova b. 1984 (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra)
Natalia Vodianova b. 1982 (Clash of the Titans)
Lena Carwell b. 1982 (Jeepers Creepers II, The Nightmare Room, Power Rangers Wild Force)
Ali Larter b. 1976 (Heroes, Resident Evil, Final Destination I and II, House on Haunted Hill [1999])
Amanda Abbington b. 1974 (Being Human)
Rory Cochrane b. 1972 (Oculus, A Scanner Darkly)
Lemony Snicket b. 1970 (author, Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events)
Robert Sean Leonard b. 1969 (Falling Skies, My Friend Is a Vampire, The Manhattan Project)
Cecelia Specht b. 1967 (No Ordinary Family, Star Trek: Enterprise)
Rae Dawn Chong b. 1961 (Pegasus vs. Chimera, Deadly Skies, Poltergeist: The Legacy, Highland [TV], Time Runner, Deadly Nightmares, Tales from the Darkside: The Movie, Quest for Fire)
Mark Ferguson b. 1961 (Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings, Xena, Hercules, Cleopatra 2525)
Dorothy Stratten b. 1960 died 14 August 1980 (Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Galaxina, Americathon)
John Turturro b. 1957 (Transformers)
Gilbert Gottfried b. 1955 (Jack and the Beanstalk [2010], Funky Monkey, Superboy)
Bernadette Peters b. 1948 (Cinderella [1997 TV], The Odyssey, Into the Woods [1991 TV], Faerie Tale Theatre, Heartbeeps, The Martian Chronicles)
Mercedes Ruehl b. 1948 (Last Action Hero, Big)
Bubba Smith b. 1945 died 3 August 2011 (Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Escape from DS-3, Wonder Woman)
Gil Peterson b. 1936 (The Brain Machine)
Don Francks b. 1932 (Hemlock Grove, Puppets Who Kill, Zixx Level One, Earth: Final Conflict, Relic Hunter, Johnny Mnemonic, Eerie, Indiana: The Other Dimension, The Hidden Room, 984: Prisoner of the Future, Rock and Rule, The Star Wars Holiday Special. Mr. Scrooge)
Gavin MacLeod b. 1931 (Time Changer, Wonder Woman, My Favorite Martian, The Munsters, Men Into Space, World of Giants)
Walter Tevis b. 1928 died 8 August 1984 (author, The Man Who Fell to Earth)
Tom Aldredge b. 1928 died 22 July 2011 (The American Astronaut, *batteries not included, Into the Woods [1991 TV], The Mouse on the Moon)
John Carson b. 1927 (Doomsday, Doctor Who, 1990, Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter, Taste the Blood of Dracula, The Plague of the Zombies, Blood Beast from Outer Space)
Harry H. Corbett b. 1925 died 21 March 1982 (Jabberwocky)
Jean Carson b. 1923 died 2 November 2005 (Twilight Zone, I Married a Monster from Outer Space)
Charles Durning b. 1922 died 24 December 2012 (Fatal Sky, Solarbabies, Amazing Stories, The Fury, Twilight’s Last Gleaming)
Alfred Burke b. 1918 died 16 February 2011 (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Blood Beast from Outer Space, Children of the Damned)
Billie Bird b. 1908 died 27 November 2002 (Werewolf, The Charmings, Max Headroom, Starman [TV])
Sir John Tenniel b. 1820 died 1914 (illustrator, Alice in Wonderland)
Birthdays (29 February)
Peter Scanavino b. 1980 (The Leftovers)
Antonio Sabato Jr. b. 1972 (Charmed, Lois & Clark, Earth 2)
Eamonn Roche b. 1968 (The Event, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Babylon 5, The Mask)
Dallas Barnett b. 1964 (The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug)
Ken Foree b. 1948 (Zone of the Dead, Halloween [2007], Dawn of the Dead [2004 and 1978], The Nightmare Room, The X-Files, Babylon 5, M.A.N.T.I.S., The Flash, Quantum leap, Beauty and the Beast [1989], From Beyond, Knight Rider)
Harvey Jason b. 1940 (The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Alien Nation [TV], Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Wizard, Knight Rider, Wonder Woman, Man From Atlantis, Genesis II, Necromancy)
Alex Rocco b. 1936 (Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Small & Frye, The Entity, Slither, Batman)
Joss Ackland b. 1928 (Pinocchio [2010 TV], A Kid in King Arthur’s Court, Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing, The Little Prince)
Notes from the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. In previous years, I used an illustration by Sir John Tenniel in the Picture Slot - certainly iconic, and a still from Transformers with John Turturro, not so iconic. This year I go with Ali Larter from Heroes, arguably the most iconic person on the list other than Tenniel, and unarguably a fabulous babe. Funny how often that works out.
2. Leap day babies. Let me address the elephant in the room. Hello. Mr. Elephant, how are you? For me, the short resource in keeping this blog alive is predictions with dates assigned to them. I'm going to do everything I can to keep going until at least the end of 2015, but I can't be sure about stretching it into 2016, which is a leap year. Given that situation, I decided to list the folks born on leap day since I might not get the chance 366 days from now.
3. The Canadians and Nepotism. Looking at resumes, you might be able to suss out that Alex Arsenault and Don Franks were born in Canada. Poor Dorothy Stratten was killed before the Canadian sci-fi boom began. For me, the surprise was Rae Dawn Chong is Canadian, as well as being the daughter of Tommy Chong, who was also born in Canada. I did not know their places of birth until this morning.
Many happy returns to all the living on the list and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.
Prediction: The government may grow larger in scope, but it will grow more simple in purpose. Changed conditions will compel the government to guard the weak from the aggressions of the strong.
Much of the increasing inequality in wealth is due to laws absolutely unjust and to the absence of necessary restraining laws. We may not be able to destroy the natural disparity between men, but we must avoid exaggerating it by legislation.
General education among the masses and improved facilities for spreading information have prepared the people for more complete participation in the work of self-government. We have outgrown the present method of electing senators by legislatures.
Reality: Okay. Wow.
The Bryan we know today is best characterized by his Cross of Gold speech when he ran for president in 1896. (He was 36! The Constitution says he has to be at least 35, so he was definitely in a big damned hurry.) We also have his late in life defense of the state in the Scopes Monkey Trial, not his finest hour. But the "simpler government" line is often the preamble to libertarian principles that translate to Fuck the Poor, and he's 180 degrees away from that. For a while, the government did what it could to stem the tide of inequality with progressive taxation, but that's been taking a beating for a couple generations now. And he's completely on the money about direct election of senators. Good on ya, Mr. Bryan.
Best wishes to the family and friends of Maurice Hurley, from a fan. He is never to be forgotten.
Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!
More guesses from Heinlein about what gadgets will be made in the future, which for him is 1970 or 2000.
Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
It takes a very special temperament to work with Ms. McFadden. Quite understandable that a producer especially might not have it.
ReplyDeleteI would not have guessed that Bernadette Peters and Mercedes Ruehl are the same age.
There are two sides to every story and those are the dull ones. Thanks for the info about Ms. McFadden, it sort of explains why Wil Wheaton isn't very forthcoming about her.
DeleteI know you don't do voicework credits, and the movie wasn't really iconic, but I have to mention that Don Francks (not Franks) was the speaking voice of Mok in "Rock & Rule" which I still love despite itself after all these years.
ReplyDeleteSince you were nice about correcting his name's spelling - pure screw-up on my part - and I was already including one voice work among his credits (he did Boba Fett in The Star Wars Holiday Special), I added Rock and Rule for you, with my thanks.
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