Hannah Lochner b. 1993 (Dawn of the Dead, Terminal Invasion)
Dustin Milligan b. 1985 (Demonic, Shark Night 3D, Supernatural, The Butterfly Effect 2, Slither, Andromeda, Dead Like Me)
Eliza Swenson b. 1982 (The Penny Dreadful Picture Show, The Witches of Oz, Dragon, Pocahauntus, Dracula’s Curse, Satanic, King of the Lost World, The Beast of Bray Road, Frankenstein Reborn )
Billy Aaron Brown b. 1981 (Attack of the Sabretooth, Jeepers Creepers II)
Mark Vande Brake b. 1980 (Willow)
Gabriel Pimentel b. 1979 (InAlienable, Beer Money)
Chris Andrew Ciulla b. 1975 (Caper, Unearthed, Southland Tales)
Elizabeth Berkley b. 1972 (S. Darko, Threshold, Control Factor, Perversions of Science, Frog)
Alexis Arquette b. 1969 (Xena: Warrior Princess, Buffy, Alien Nation [TV])
Rachel Blakely b. 1968 (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Lost World, Xena)
Carlos Jacott b. 1967 (The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Firefly, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Angel, Being John Malkovich, Buffy)
Lori Loughlin b. 1964 (Eastwick, Birds of Prey, Amityville 3-D)
Michael Hitchcock b. 1958 (Super 8, Serenity, Bug)
Deborah Voorhees b. 1961 (Friday the 13th: A New Beginning)
Luca Barbareschi b. 1956 (Cannibal Holocaust)
Dey Young b. 1955 (Star Trek: Enterprise, Deep Space Nine, The X Files, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Freddy’s Nightmares, Not Quite Human II, The Running Man, Spaceballs, Strange Invaders)
Nina Axelrod b. 1955 (Critters 3, Brainstorm, Time Walker)
Bruce Abbott b. 1954 (Black Scorpion, Bride of Re-Animator, Beauty and the Beast [TV], Re-Animator, Interzone, The Last Starfighter)
Tony Carroll b. 1950 died March 2007 (Masters of the Universe, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Hercules in New York)
Georgia Engel b. 1948 (Mork & Mindy)
Sally Struthers b. 1947 (Monster Heroes, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Alice in Wonderland [1985])
Linda Kelsey b. 1946 (The Ray Bradbury Theatre, Twilight Zone [1987], The Picture of Dorian Gray [1973 TV])
Frances Lee McCain b. 1944 (Back to the Future, Gremlins)
Phil Proctor b. 1940 (Freddy’s Nightmares, Lobster Man from Mars, The Twilight Zone [1985])
Charles Cyphers b. 1939 (Buffy, Sliders, SeaQuest 2032, Lois & Clark, Halloween I and II, Escape from New York, The Fog, Wonder Woman, The Bionic Woman, The Six Million Dollar Man, Isis)
Darryl Hickman b. 1931 (Beauty and the Beast [1987 TV], Looker, The Tingler)
David Brown b. 1916 died 1 February 2010 (producer, Deep Impact, Cocoon, Ssssss)
Laird Cregar b. 1913 died 9 December 1944 (Heaven Can Wait [1943])
Ann Doran b. 1911 died 19 September 2000 (Twilight Zone [1987], Project U.F.O., Bewitched, The Brass Bottle, It! The Terror from Beyond Space, Adventures of Superman)
Rudy Vallee b. 1901 died 3 July 1986 (Batman)
Notes from the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. Remember on Sunday when the birthday list was loaded down with household names and actors with iconic roles? Well... this list isn't, to be blunt.
In 2013, before I learned a good research method, I had no one on the birthday list. Last year, I used the fabulous Rachel Blakely, who was a regular on the series The Lost World. This year, I considered Carlos Jacott and Michael Hitchcock because I'm a Whedonverse nerd or Ann Doran because she is an Oh That Gal with over 300 credits on imdb.com, but in the end I decided on Rudy Vallee playing one of the truly forgettable Batman villains, Marmaduke Ffogg. I chose him because Vallee was an asshole.
Let me explain.
A lot of living people maintain their own imdb.com pages, but of course the dead can't do that, and every once in a while you'll find a page where the biography leads with how much the cast and crew hated working with the featured artist. I saw it with Ken Maynard, a cowboy star of the 1920s and 1930s - he didn't have any genre credits, not surprisingly - and I saw it today with Vallee, though I had heard rumors about him before.
Image is everything in show business, as Bill Cosby is learning the hard way. There are some famously disagreeable people who are no longer being protected by their publicists - Chevy Chase and Vince Vaughan are two well-known names - and there are others who nasty nature seems related to drugs - Randy Quaid and his wife, Crispin Glover, the list goes on. I worked at Lucas Film Games when I was younger and hung out with the official Skywalker Ranch photographer, who had many juicy stories about well-known folks, including stories about people hating to work with Raquel Welch and Julia Roberts. I hope these lovely women have improved their outlook on life, since this gossip in nearly a quarter century old now.
Hey! I just squeezed three real paragraphs our of a lousy Picture Slot choice. How often does that happen?
2. Spot the Canadians! Our Canucks today are the two youngest on the list, Hannah Lochner and Dustin Milligan.
3. Nepotism FTW. Darryl Hickman and Dwight Hickman were brothers, I usually don't count that unless its a Ron Howard/Clint Howard situation. Alexis Arquette is part of the Arquette dynasty, starting with granddad Cliff and continuing with her dad Lewis.
Many happy returns to all the living on the list and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.
Prediction: Crime will be considered a disease after 1985 and will cease to exist by 2000.
Reality: Did Langdon-Davies ever get tired of being wrong? He lived until 1971, so he saw a lot of his prophecies turn to crap, but he didn't live long enough to see this one fail, and fail it did.
Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!
We get another visit from our sensible friend George Sutherland and his book Twentieth Century Inventions.
Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!
Although it must be tiresome to have everybody wanting something from you, I can't fathom being an asshole when your job is pretty damn easy. I mean, as an actor, there's being a hit-your-marks and cash the check kind of guy, like we discuss quite often here, and being....well, Vince Vaughn.
ReplyDeleteI have seen something similar with musicians. I once saw Alex Chilton play an admittedly crappy little club here in town, where he did little besides whine about the mix and responded by playing all his crappiest songs. when the crowd get restless, he whined about how we didn't know how HARD it was...having missed the part where he was paying us for the privilege, I left. Fortunately, Miracle Legion had opened up so it was far from a total loss - I saw them headline the following night, based on how good they were in an opening slot.
Meanwhile, there are bands that have hit what I refer to as "the Cheap Trick Moment" -where they have maybe had a moment in the sun, but are no longer having hits or on a major label, maybe, but they have noticed that playing music for appreciative fans is not too bad as a way of making a living...
I once saw Blue Oyster Cult play in a 300 person club, years after their heyday. But they had a grand time and truly appreciated the enthusiasm of the crowd, and damn if they weren't GOOD.
And there are bands like the Mekons, who I saw recently in Mineral Point - they've never had a real hit, and for all the critical accolades, have only abbreviated tenures on major labels. But they played as well as I've ever seen them, had a great time, truly like the others in the band, and stuck around to talk to us after the show like we were all old friends...
Seriously, I don't get it. Is it all just ego?
I debated naming names with Julia Roberts and Raquel Welch, but once I wrote I worked at Skywalker Ranch, I thought I had to dish a little.
DeleteAs for "the Cheap Trick moment", I saw Mose Allison in the 1990s. His hits, such as they were, came from the 1950s. but he was really good. I saw him talking to a fan between shows, glad to chat. He embodied an urban hipster vibe back in the day, but listening to him talk, it was clear he was from Mississippi. I told him I loved the set and the only thing he hadn't played that I looked forward to was Parchman's Farm. In a voice as sweet as spun sugar he said "Oh, I haven't played that in nigh on twenty years."