Atticus Shaffer b. 1998 (The Unborn, Hancock)
Paul Dano b. 1984 (Looper, Cowboys & Aliens)
Aidan Turner b. 1983 (The Hobbit, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, Being Human)
Lauren Lee Smith b. 1980 (Ascension, Ring of Fire [TV], Blade: The Series, Stephen King’s Dead Zone, Mutant X, Dark Angel)
Zoe Saldana b. 1978 (Guardians of the Galaxy, Rosemary’s Baby [2014 TV], Star Trek, Avatar, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl)
Ryan Hurst b. 1976 (Taken, The Postman)
Hugh Dancy b. 1975 (Ella Enchanted, Relic Hunter)
Bumper Robinson b. 1974 (Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Deep Space Nine, Enemy Mine)
Chelah Horsdal b. 1973 (Arrow, The Cabin in the Woods, Supernatural, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Iron Invader, Stargate, Eureka, Alien Trespass, Alien vs. Predator: Requiem, Bionic Woman, Battlestar Galactica, X-Men: The Last Stand, Smallville, The 4400, Stephen King’s Dead Zone, Andromeda)
Robin Tunney b. 1972 (End of Days, Supernova, The Craft, Frogs!)
Alan Van Sprang b. 1971 (Beauty and the Beast [2015], Immortals, Survival of the Dead, ReGenesis, Diary of the Dead, Land of the Dead, Starhunter, Mutant X, Earth: Final Conflict, Highlander: The Raven)
Chris Larkin b. 1967 (Doctor Who, Mysterious Island [2005 TV], Highlander [TV])
Mia Sara b. 1967 (Dorothy and the Witches of Oz, Nightmares & Dreamscapes, Birds of Prey, Lost in Oz, Jack and the Beanstalk: The True Story, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea [1997 TV], Timecop, Time Trax, Legend)
Samuel West b. 1966 (The Frankenstein Chronicles, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Eternal Law, Dark Relic, Van Helsing, Doctor Who: Dimensions in Time, Prince Caspian and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader [1989 TV])
Kelly Reno b. 1966 (Amazing Stories)
Sadie Frost b. 1965 (Dracula [1992])
Andrew Lauer b. 1965 (Iron Man 3, Adventures of a Teenage Dragonslayer, King of the Lost World, Screamers)
Sean Marshall b. 1965 (Pete’s Dragon)
Kathleen Turner b. 1954 (Cinderella [2000 TV], Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Peggy Sue Got Married, The Man with Two Brains)
Virginia Hey b. 1952 (Alien Armageddon, Farscape, The Return of Captain invincible, Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior)
Phylicia Rashad b. 1948 (Gods Behaving Badly)
Salman Rushdie b. 1947 (author, Midnight’s Children, Haroun and the Sea of Stories)
Steve Ryan b. 1947 died 3 September 2007 (The X-Files, D.A.R.Y.L.)
Rosalba Neri b. 1939 (Lady Frankenstein)
Derren Nesbitt b. 1935 (UFO)
Pier Angeli b. 1932 died10 September 1971 (Octaman)
Diana Sowle b. 1930 (Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory)
Gena Rowlands b. 1930 (Parts per Billion, The Skeleton Key, Faerie Tale Theatre)
Robert Fyfe b. 1925 (Cloud Atlas, Xtro)
Louis Jourdan b. 1921 (Swamp Thing, Count Dracula [1977 TV])
Pat Buttram b. 1915 died 8 January 1994 (Back to the Future Part III, Knight Rider, The Munsters)
Julius Schwartz b. 1915 died 8 February 2004 (editor, DC Comics)
Harry Lauter b. 1915 died 30 October 1990 (Superbeast, Escape from the Planet of the Apes, Land of the Giants, The Invaders, The Time Tunnel, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Green Hornet, Batman: The Movie, My Favorite Martian, Earth vs. Flying Saucers, The Werewolf, Creature with the Atom Brain, It Came from Beneath the Sea, Captain Midnight, Rocky Jones, Space Ranger, The Day the Earth Stood Still)
George Voskovec b. 1905 died 1 July 1981 (Somewhere in Time)
Notes from the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. In previous years, I gave the Picture Slot to fabulous babe Zoe Saldana and fabulous babe Virginia Hey. Sensing a pattern yet? This year, it's Mia Sara, probably best known for Ferris Bueller's Day Off, here in a still from Legend.
2. Spot the Canadians! Three Canadians today, all somewhat spottable: Alan Van Sprang, Chela Horsdal and Lauren Lee Smith.
3. Wait... they're dead? The lovely Pier Angeli died very young back in the 1970s, so I've had over forty years to register the fact, but it hasn't sunk in yet. I've had about eight years to find out Steve Ryan is dead, but today is the first I've heard of it to the best of my knowledge. His best known role was as J. Walter Weatherman on Arrested Development, the one armed guy George Bluth uses to teach his kids lessons. I had no idea he was gone and it's like writing a Never to be Forgotten post.
Many happy returns to all the living on the list and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.
Movie released
Jason and the Argonauts released, 1963
Fifty two years ago and still one of the most memorable times I have ever spent in a movie theatre.
Prediction: It has become apparent that whole masses of human population are, as a whole, inferior in their claim upon the future, to other masses, that they cannot be given opportunities or trusted with power as the superior peoples are trusted, that their characteristic weaknesses are contagious and detrimental in the civilizing fabric, and that their range of incapacity tempts and demoralizes the strong. To give them equality is to sink to their level, to protect and cherish them is to be swamped in their fecundity.
Reality: I am repeating a passage from Anticipations today because it reminds me of the horror we saw unfold in Charleston. To be fair, Wells isn't exactly racist. He doesn't want to kill all the blacks or Jews, but if someone does meet his definition of "inferior", then death or sterilization is the best thing for them. Wells is more of a proud cultural bigot, casually condemning nationalities like the Irish and the Russians.
I re-broadcast this horrible passage again today because it really is in the same vein as the beliefs of the vile young man Dylann Roof, who killed nine people at a church in South Carolina. I would also compare this young man to Timothy McVeigh. Of course, Wells didn't kill multiple people, but all of three of these scumbags thought they were trying to educate us, teach us the hard lesson that to make the world a better place, huge numbers of people have to be killed. Wells didn't need to kill people to get the public's attention. He had a publisher glad to broadcast his awful theories. Roof and McVeigh thought of themselves as scholars, people who had studied why a race war was necessary.
I don't think Roof and McVeigh are mentally disturbed. They are evil. Wells backed away from a lot of the worst of his pronouncements as writers and critics tore his book apart, but the evil certainly had a hold of him for a while.
How does this evil grow? In Roof's case, he lives in a state where the Confederate flag flies over the seat of government. He is soaking in evil and made an effort to learn more evil on his own. Here in California, a man named Byron Williams was convicted of attempted murder of four Highway Patrol officers in a 2010 shootout. Williams was stopped on his way to kill people at The Tides Foundation, a liberal nonprofit repeatedly attacked by Glenn Beck, another self-proclaimed scholar. Had he not driven in a dangerous manner, he likely would have arrived at the destination where the people he wanted to kill were working.
I cannot fairly compare Wells to Roof or McVeigh, but he can be compared to Beck. In the so-called marketplace of ideas, we let some horrible scumbags peddle their wares. For most of us, this stuff can be ignored or mocked, but what they write and say give aid and comfort to the enemies of our shared humanity. They are the wind under evil wings.
Here endeth the lesson.
Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!
However silly, scolding and overly optimistic Morris L. Ernst could be, I'm confident tomorrow's prediction will not advocate racial or ethnic cleansing.
Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
Well said.
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