Thursday, January 29, 2015

29 January 2015

Birthdays
Taylor McPherson b. 1993 (The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, The Walking Dead, The Vampire Diaries)
Drew Tyler Bell b. 1986 (The Middleman, The Seeker: The Dark is Rising, Jake 2.0, Jeepers Creepers II)
Isabel Lucas b. 1985 (Immortals, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Daybreakers)
Jason James Richter b. 1980 (Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Laserhawk, The Neverending Story III)
Andrew Keegan b. 1979 (Teenage Caveman, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Independence Day)
Justin Hartley b. 1977 (Smallville)
Sara Gilbert b. 1975 (The Big Bang Theory)
Sharif Atkins b. 1975 (Guardians of the Galaxy, The 4400)
Kelly Packard b. 1975 (Little Bigfoot, And You Thought Your Parents Were Weird)
Heather Graham b. 1970 (Horns, From Hell, Lost in Space [1998])
Sam Trammell b. 1969 (True Blood, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, Anonymous Rex)
Bobbie Phillips b. 1968 (EvilBreed: The Legend of Samhain, Seven Days, The Crow: Stairway to Heaven, Chameleon I and II, Carnival of Souls, Stargate SG-1, The X-Files, TC 2000, The Came from Outer Space)
Michael Ferris b. 1961 (writer, Terminator Salvation, Terminator 3, The Net, Catwoman) 
Judy Norton b. 1958 (Hansel & Gretel: Warriors of Witchcraft, Stargate: SG-1, Millennium)
Terry Kinney b. 1954 (Being Human, Boyd Snatchers)
Paul Fusco b. 1953 (writer/actor, ALF)
Ann Jillian b. 1950 (Twilight Zone)
Marc Singer b. 1948 (Arrow, V [2011 and 1983], Honey, I Shrunk the Kids [TV], Highlander [TV], Beastmaster [2002, 1996 and 1982], Droid Gunner, The Ray Bradbury Theatre, Dead Space, Twilight Zone [1988], Planet of the Apes [TV])
Tom Selleck b. 1945 (Runaway, Coma [1978])
Robert Random b. 1943 (Vampire at Midnight, Time Walker, Village of the Giants)
Katharine Ross b. 1940 (Donnie Darko, The Final Countdown, The Stepford Wives)
Paddy Chayefsky b. 1923 died 1 August 1981 (author, Altered States)
Donald Murphy b. 1918 died 19 May 2008 (Frankenstein’s Daughter)
Alan Marshal b. 1916 died 13 July 1961 (House on Haunted Hill)

Notes from the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. I often don't list voice work for actors, not because I don't think it's important but just to avoid typing all day with some folks. For actors in front of a camera, 300 credits is very rare, but that many credits is all too common for voice actors. This is not the case for Paul Fusco, the writer, puppeteer and voice behind ALF. Pretty much his whole career has revolved around this one character he created. In previous years, the Picture Slot was given to Marc Singer as The Beastmaster. This year, I also considered Sam Trammell from True Blood and Katherine Ross from The Stepford Wives.

2. Canadians that walk among us. We have a few actors who worked on Canadian sci-fi, Justin Hartley on Smallville and Bobbie Phillips on Stargate and The X-Files, but neither of them was born north of the border. No, today's Canadians are Marc Singer and Robert Random, at least a generation older than our typical Canucks and with credit lists that do not give their nationality away.

3. The Gal at the Door. Once again, we have a birthday list with a big gap between the oldest living person on the list, the lovely Katherine Ross and the most recently born person who is dead, the screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky. Since I feel guilty about bringing up this fact in a morbid way, I also give special best wishes to Miss Ross, one of the prettiest actresses on film in her heyday.



4. Hey... no Star Trek! I came up with this label because I thought it was going to be a rare event. It has been very common this January. Go figure.

5. MST3K. Robert Random was one of the giant teenagers in Village of the Giants, one of many movies I saw even before the Best Brains guys gave it the treatment.

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

Predictor: Adolf Hitler

Predictions:
"The United States will not be a threat to us for decades – not in 1945 but at the earliest 1970 or 1980."
Hitler to Soviet President Molotov, 12 November 1940

"The Russians are finished. They have nothing left to throw against us."
Hitler, July 1941, one month in to the offensive against the Soviet Union

Reality: Some give Hitler great credit as a military strategist based on the early victories in WW II, but these two statements are the most famous examples of his arrogant underestimation of the forces allied against him. Americans are taught in school that "we" won WW II. If you look at the numbers, the United States does deserve the lion's share of the credit for the victory over imperial Japan, but in Europe, the Eastern Front was a much bloodier and more expensive undertaking than Hitler taking and subsequently losing France and the Low Countries. There is no overestimating how important D-Day was, but if the Russians really had been finished in 1941, the Western allies would have been much more hard pressed to defeat a German army fighting only on a single front.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Yet another prediction from H.G. Wells that Hitler would have agreed with.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!

2 comments:

  1. All the stories that involved someone trying to kill Hitler after '42 or so drive me crazy. He was so bad, at that point, he was almost working for our side.

    ReplyDelete

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