Birthdays

August 1

Rapper Coolio (Artis Leon Ivey, Jr.) is 44 today. Rapper Chuck D (‘Public Enemy’), whose other name is Carlton Ridenhour, is 47. So is Richard Roeper, movie critic on Ebert & Roeper. Actress Tempestt Bledsoe is 34. Actress Honeysuckle Weeks (yes, that’s her real name) is 28 today. She plays Samantha Stewart, assistant to Inspector Foyle in the Foyle’s War series from BBC . . . and people tend to be a little nuts about her. Watch the show and you’ll see why. Ex-BC Lion Ray Nettles, a big name in the CFL during the ’70s, is 58. Ton o’ fun Dom DeLuise turns 74. Trinidad-born Geoffrey Holder (actor, dancer, singer and more) is 77 today. Couturier Yves Saint-Laurent is 71.

August 2

Actor Edward Furlong is 30 today. He was the kid in 1991's Terminator II. He’s busy, and one rumor has him slated to appear in Terminator 4. Kevin Smith, the offbeat creator of the Clerks movies, and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, is 36. Actor Peter O’Toole, one of the great ones, is 75. Busy actress Mary-Louise Parker is 43. Loved her in The West Wing. Writer Isabel Allende is 65, has her own web site: isabelallende.com. Joanna Cassidy has been in more than a hundred movies or TV shows, and has more coming up, but we suspect she’ll be longest remembered as the stripper in Blade Runner who crashes (terminally) through the glass doors in Blade Runner. She’s 62. Remember Victoria Jackson, late of Saturday Night Live? She’s 48 today. Judge Lance Ito, who presided at the O.J. Simpson trial: 57.

August 3

Tisdale, Saskatchewan-born Brent Butt, of Corner Gas fame, is 41. (He was born the same day Lenny Bruce died.) It’ll be interesting to see how Corner Gas does now that it’s heading for American TV. Prediction: a big hit. Quarterback Tom Brady, quarterback with the New England Patriots, who’s led them to three Super Bowls, is 30. Actor Jay North (he was TV’s Dennis the Menace) turns 56. So does hockey’s Marcel Dionne. Retired now, in 1979 with the Los Angeles Kings Dionne won the Art Ross Trophy for most goals (53), beating Wayne Gretzky by one. Martha Stewart turns 66. Actor Martin Sheen, currently on view in Talk To Me, is 67. Singer Tony Bennett is 81. Troy Glaus of the Toronto Blue Jays is 31. Vancouver deejay Doc Harris turns 59. Actor Steven Berkoff is 70. He was icily effective as the villain in the first Beverly Hills Cop movie.

August 4

U.S. Senator (Illinois) Barack Obama was born in Hawaii 46 years ago today. Some are talking of a Hillary Clinton/Barack Obama team in the 2008 presidential race. Actor/writer Billy Bob Thornton is 52 today, and pitching great Roger Clemens turns 45.

August 5

Neil Armstrong, first man on the moon, is 77 today. (An imprint of Armstrong’s footprint, mimicking the one on the moon, used to be found at The Lookout! atop Harbour Centre. He put it there on a visit to Vancouver. But in recent renovations the imprint was broken, and has been removed.) Actress Loni Anderson is 61. Country music’s Terri Clark is 39, so’s baseball’s John Olerud. Olerud is retired now, will be remembered by Canadian baseball fans for his years (1989-1996) with the Blue Jays. Sports Illustrated once made up the roster for “the greatest infield ever.” Olerud was in it. Actor Jonathan Silverman turns 41. The Internet Movie Data Base lists nearly 70 movies or TV shows he’s been in . . . yet we can’t quite place him. Wait a minute! He was in Weekend at Bernie’s with that dead guy.

August 6

Pondicherry, India-born movie director (The Sixth Sense, Signs) M. Night Shyamalan turns 37. Watch for his The Happening, a science-fiction thriller starring Mark Wahlberg. Music’s Isaac Hayes is 65 today. Geri Halliwell (Ginger Spice) is 35 today. She’s famous for, among other things, pinching Prince Charles’ bum. Malaysia-born actress Michelle Yeoh’s 45. She’s currently on view in Sunshine. Her name’s pronounced ‘yo,’ as in ‘Yo! Adrian!’ Peter Bonerz is 69. He’s been on a dozen TV series, is remembered as the dentist on the Bob Newhart show, directed most of the Murphy Brown episodes, etc., etc. Actress Stepfanie Kramer is 51. Kimberly Conrad-Hefner 44. On her web site she says: “I was born in Decatur, Alabama. My family moved to Reno, Nevada when I was four, and then to Vancouver, British Columbia when I was 12. I spent my teen years growing up in West Vancouver where I graduated from high school. I modeled for John Casablancas Elite as a teenager and worked in the fashion industry in Vancouver. It was Ken Honey, a local Vancouver photographer, who talked me into posing for Playboy.” She married Hugh Hefner July 1, 1989. They separated in 1999.

August 7

South Africa-born actress Charlize Theron is 32 today. She has seven movies going in various stages of production. Actor David Duchovny turns 47. Garrison Keillor, author, humorist, poet and radio host of A Prairie Home Companion is 65. So is B.J. Thomas. The initials stand for Billy Joe, and he says on his web site that there were too many other kids named that in his neighborhood, so he shortened it. Actor John Glover is 63, actor Wayne Knight’s 52. Knight’s name only vaguely familiar? Think: “Hello, Newman . . .” said with a tone of disgust. He’s Newman. (You may also remember his run-in with some nasty little dinosaurs in Jurassic Park.) Toronto-born James Randi, otherwise known as “The Amazing Randi,” is 79. He debunks people like Uri Geller and others with claims of paranormal abilities. His foundation offers a $1 million prize to anyone who can prove paranormal activity. Stan Freberg, who made the 1950s funnier, is 81 today. His L.A. advertising firm has as its motto Ars gratia pecuniae (Art for Money's Sake).

August 8

Kamloops-born Tyson Craiggs, line backer with the BC Lions, is 26 today. So is tennis’ Roger Federer. Hamilton-born Ken Dryden, former NHL goalie (and a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame), federal cabinet minister, and a recent candidate for leader of the Liberal Party, is 50. The alarmingly versatile actor Dustin Hoffman turns 70. One of his upcoming flicks: Kung-Fu Panda. U2 guitar player Dave Evans turns 46. Actor Michael Urie (he plays Marc St. James, the . . . um . . . flamboyant assistant on TV’s Ugly Betty) was born August 8, 1980 in Dallas, Texas. Esther Williams is swimming along at 86. Country music’s Mel Tillis turns 76. Actor Keith Carradine is 58. Director Martin Brest, who was going great with movies like Scent of a Woman, Midnight Run and Beverley Hills Cop, then hit a huge pothole with Gigli, is 56. Jazzman Benny Carter was born 100 years ago today.

August 9

Actress Gillian Anderson is 39 today. So’s Melbourne-born actor Eric Bana (he was Hulk in the 2003 movie. An intriguing upcoming title for Bana: The Time Traveler’s Wife.) Actress Melanie Griffith is 50. We remember well a mini-documentary of some years ago, showing Griffith with her mom, actress Tippi Hedren, as they romped around with lions. Real lions. They keep them as pets! Actor Sam Elliott is 63. Now he’s what a cowboy is supposed to look and sound like. Singer Whitney Houston is 44. Hockey’s Brett Hull is 43. Actress Audrey Tautou (The DaVinci Code) is 29. Blue Jays pitcher Jason Frasor turns 30 today.

August 10

Actor Antonio Banderas is 47 today, one year younger than actress Rosanna Arquette. Singer Eddie Fisher is 79. So is country singer Jimmy Dean.

August 11

Canucks’ defenceman Aaron Miller is 36 today. Canadian politician (she’s MP for Halifax) Alexa McDonough is 63 today. Actor/wrestler Hulk Hogan is 54. Actress Ashley Jensen (she’s ‘Christina’ on TV’s Ugly Betty) was born in Annan, Scotland August 11, 1969. Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple Computers, turns 57. He was born Stephan Gary Wozniak in San Jose. Actress Arlene Dahl is 83.

August 12

Hayley Wickenheiser, hockey player, was born 29 years ago today in Shaunavon, Saskatchewan. Her website wickenheiser22.com talks about her Olympic win and more. Noranda-born actor Bruce Greenwood turns 51. (He started acting while going to UBC, while his father, Hugh, was head of the geology department there.) Actor George Hamilton is a heavily-tanned 68. Rick Antonson, head of Tourism Vancouver, turns 58. Actress Dominique Swain is 27. She was ‘Lolita’ in the 1997 movie version. Guitar player Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits) turns 58. Pete Sampras turns 36, looks back on a career rated one of the greatest in tennis in the 20th century. Novelist and screenwriter William Goldman is 76 (Marathon Man, The Princess Bride, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, many others. Remember ‘Who ARE those guys?’ Remember ‘Is it safe?’ Goldman wrote those.) Casey Affleck, who’s hearing Oscar buzz for his performance in the upcoming The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, is 32.

August 13

BC Lions wide receiver Adam Nicholson is 23 today. Cuban leader Fidel Castro is 81. Ohio-born lyric soprano Kathleen Battle, who is reportedly a handful, is 59. Enter “Kathleen Battle” and “tantrums” in Google and you get 744 citations. You also get a lot of rapturous praise. Actor Danny Bonaduce is 48. Former TV weatherman and current actor and BC icon Norm Grohmann turns 72. Pianist/composer George Shearing turns 88. He has an interesting site at georgeshearing.net. His Lullaby of Birdland has been with us since 1952.

August 14

Cleveland-born actress Halle Berry is 41 today. Author Danielle Steel is 60. Basketball’s Earvin ‘Magic’ Johnson and actress Marcia Gay Harden are both 48. Comic/writer Steve Martin’s 62. So is director Wim Wenders. Martin’s doing a sequel to his 2006 Pink Panther movie. Music’s David Crosby is 66, and Sarah Brightman’s 47. Connie Smith 66. Dolly Parton once said, “There are only three great singers, Connie Smith, Barbra Streisand and Linda Ronstadt. The rest of us are just pretending.” So take that, Ella! And Sarah, and Nina, and Diana, and k.d., etc., etc., etc. Actress Susan Saint James turns 61. Thank you, cartoonist Gary Larson, for those years of Far Side, and a happy 57th to you. The strip ended in 1995, but those strange drawings and their strange people live on on fridge doors and office walls everywhere.

August 15

Pitt Meadows-born Brendan Morrison, Canucks’ centre, is 32 today. BC Lions defensive back Korey Banks (#24) is 27. Actor Ben Affleck (born Benjamin Geza Affleck) is 35. The story of how he and Matt Damon, friends since childhood, wrote and pitched Good Will Hunting, is really interesting. Google it. Performer Natasha Henstridge, born in Springdale, Newfoundland is 33. (An interesting tidbit about her from Imdb: “Revealed in an interview with movie magazine Empire in 1998 that she is not very good at judging the scripts that are offered to her. She turned down both Independence Day and Men in Black, thinking “What is this s**t?” while reading the screenplays.” In the case of the former, she was right.) Debra Messing (Grace on TV’s Will & Grace) is 39. You’ll be seeing her in a remake of the 1939 classic The Women. Director. Nicolas Roeg is 79. Princess Anne turns 57. Jimmy Webb is 61. He’s written lots of hits: Wichita Lineman; Up, Up and Away; MacArthur Park; By the Time I Get to Phoenix, more.

August 16

Comic actor Steve Carell (The 40 Year Old Virgin, Evan Almighty, TV’s The Office) is 44 today. Movie director James Cameron (Titanic, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, etc.) is 53, born in Kapuskasing, Ontario. Back in the 1980s a magazine article about Cameron described how he had three desks set up in his house. At one desk, he was writing the script for The Terminator, on another, he was finishing the script for Rambo: First Blood Part II, and on the third, he was writing Alien. Actress Angela Bassett is 49. So is Madonna . . . although we’ve also seen 51. Actor Robert Culp is 77, two years older than singer Eydie Gorme, and 30 years older than actor Timothy Hutton. TV’s Kathie Lee Gifford is 54. Toronto-born CBC-TV host (The Hour) George Stroumboulopoulos (he’s part Ukrainian, part Egyptian, part Greek) is 35. He grows on you, does excellent interviews. Actress Ann Blyth’s 79, actress Julie Newmar’s 74. Actor Bob Balaban turns 62. Remember the rubber-band twister in the Paul Newman movie Absence of Malice? That was Balaban. Lesley Ann Warren is 61, a year older than basketball’s Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

August 17

Actor Robert DeNiro is 64 today, is currently on view in Stardust, has six more movies in various stages coming up. Actress Maureen O’Hara is 87. Toronto-born actor Don McKellar (‘Darren Nichols’ on Slings and Arrows) is 43. He’s also a screenwriter: Childstar, Red Violin, etc., and he’s the voice of ‘Jack’ on TV’s animated Odd Job Jack. Director/producer/writer/actress Martha Coolidge is 61. Sean Penn, a great actor, is 47 today. He’s always good, but his work in at least one movie, Sweet and Lowdown, is beyond criticism. Music’s Belinda Carlisle is 49 today.

August 18

Former BC premier Bill Bennett, Kelowna-born, is 75 today. Actors? Lots today: Christian Slater is 38; so’s Edward Norton. Denis Leary hits the big 5-0. Malcolm Jamal Warner turns 37, Patrick Swayze is 55 and Robert Redford is 70. Redford’s going to play Branch Rickey in an upcoming movie about baseball’s Jackie Robinson. Rickey’s the baseball exec who made the move to bring Robinson in as the first black baseball player. There is a terrific description of their first meeting at eyewitnesstohistory.com/robinson.htm. Movie director Roman Polanski turns 74. He’s in the cast of Rush Hour 3! SNL’s Andy Samberg was born August 18, 1978. Rosalynn Carter, President Jimmy’s missus, is 80. Comic actor Martin Mull is 64, and Madeleine Stowe turns 49. She was a continuing character (‘Dr. Samantha Cole’) on the Jeff Goldblum series Raines, and we hope that one comes back.

August 19

Thunder Bay-born Canucks left winger Taylor Pyatt is 26 today. Actor Matthew Perry is 38. Perry was born in Massachusetts, but spent his childhood in Ottawa. His mother, Suzanne Morrison, was a press secretary for Prime Minister Trudeau. Perry’s stepfather is Canadian-born TV newscaster Keith Morrison. Former US president Bill Clinton is 61. Actor/director Jonathan Frakes (Star Trek) is 55. Tipper Gore (Al’s missus) is 59. Actress Kyra Sedgwick (married to Kevin Bacon) is 42. Actor John Stamos, a regular on TV’s ER, turns 44. Actress Debra Paget, who co-starred with Elvis in his first movie, 1956's Love Me Tender, and dated him for a while, is 74. Jill St. John is 67 today. Her IQ was once measured at 162. Fred Thompson, actor/presidential candidate, is 65. His exposure on Law and Order may help his candidacy if he decides to go for it. Actors: Gerald McRaney is 59, Adam Arkin’s 51, and Peter Gallagher (on TV’s The O.C.) is 52. Singer/actress Lee Ann Womack is 41 today.

August 20

US broadcaster Connie Chung is 61 today, lying low. Singer/guitar player Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin) is 59. Wild-haired boxing promoter Don King turns 75. Music’s Isaac Hayes is 65. Actor Ray Wise is 60. Weatherman Al Roker is 53. He has an interesting web site. Actress Joan Allen’s 51. She’s currently on view in The Bourne Ultimatum.

August 21

Forward Rosalyn Hicks, of the Vancouver Whitecaps women’s team, is 27 today. Vancouver-born actress Carrie-Ann Moss (Trinity in the Matrix movies) is 40. Actress Kim Cattrall (TV’s Sex in the City) turns 51. Singer Kenny Rogers is 69. Canadian skating champion Josée Chouinard turns 38.

August 22

Boston-born actor Colm Feore (he played Pierre Trudeau in a dramatic series on CBC recently, and was a co-star in Bon Cop, Bad Cop) is 49. He’s lived in Canada for 40 years. Actress Valerie Harper (remember Rhoda?) is 67. SNL’s Kristen Wiig was born August 22, 1973. Writer Annie Proulx (The Shipping News; Brokeback Mountain) turns 72. Actress Cindy Williams (who was ‘Shirley’ on Laverne and Shirley) is 60 today. Tori Amos is 44, a year older than tennis’ Mats Wilander.

August 23

Actor Jay Mohr is 37 today. Actress Shelley Long is 58. So’s music’s Rick Springfield. Barbara Eden (remember I Dream of Jeannie?) is 73. Vera Miles, the sister who didn’t get killed in Psycho, is 78. Actor Scott Caan is 31.

August 24

Baseball great Cal Ripken, Jr.—just inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame—is 47 today. Actress Marlee Matlin is 42. That’s a year younger than Blair Underwood, a regular when L.A. Law was on, recently on The New Adventures of Old Christine, and just announced as a regular on the new ABC series Dirty Sexy Money. Chad Murray (‘Tristan’ on TV’s Gilmore Girls) is 26. Actor Steve Guttenberg is 49. Actor Rupert Grint (he’s Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter movies) was born in Watton-at-Stone, Hertfordshire 19 years ago today. TV comic Dave Chappelle is 34. Craig Kilborn, who was host of The Late Late Show, turns 45. So does comic actor (Thank You for Smoking) David Koechner . . . whom we miss from Saturday Night Live. Comic Charles Rocket and actor Joe Regalbuto are both 58. Brit actor and author Stephen Fry is 50. Barret Oliver, a child star of the 1980s (D.A.R.Y.L.; Cocoon; The NeverEnding Story), now teaches photography, is 34.

August 25

Rick Hansen was born 50 years ago today in Port Alberni. TV chef Rachael Ray is 39. “When you really want to show some love,” she says, “keep the flowers and say it with spaghetti.” Actress Anne Archer is 60. Country’s Billy Ray Cyrus is 46. Rock’s Elvis Costello is 52. Gene Simmons of KISS is 58, and so’s writer Martin Amis. Amis was born in Cardiff, Wales; likely his most well-known novel is London Fields. Regis Philbin turns 76, one year younger than Sean Connery. Movie director Tim Burton turns 49. Actor Van Johnson is still with us at 91. Model and actress Claudia Schiffer turns 37. Actor Anthony Heald (wonderfully slimy as the prison doctor in The Silence of the Lambs) is 63. So is financier Conrad Black, born in Montreal August 25, 1944. Winnipeg-born Monty Hall, just visible behind Curtain #3, is 86. Actor Tom Skerritt (best remembered as the crew commander in Alien) turns 74.

August 26

BC Lions running back Joe Smith (#33) is 28 today. Actor Macaulay Culkin is 27. (His next movie’s called Sex and Breakfast.) Remember Geraldine Ferraro? She ran for US vice president back in 1984? She’s 72 today. Comic Steven Wright is 52. “When I was crossing the border into Canada,” Wright said, “they asked if I had any firearms with me. I said, 'Well, what do you need?'” Music’s Branford Marsalis is 47. Band leader Lester Lanin was born 100 years ago today. (Trivia: Lanin composed the music for Grace Kelly's engagement party and the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer.)

August 27

Ottawa-born actress Sarah Chalke (on TV’s Scrubs) is 31 today. Sweden-born actor Peter Stormare (he’s the fellow who fed Steve Buscemi into the wood chipper in Fargo) is 54 today. He’s also been seen in Minority Report, Chocolat and Nacho Libre. Paul Reubens (Pee-Wee Herman) is also 54. He’s left-handed. Baseball’s Jim Thome turns 37. Actress Barbara Bach is 60. She’s been married to Ringo Starr since 1981. Actress Tuesday Weld, whose real name is Susan Weld, turns 64. Daryl Dragon, the Captain of The Captain and Tenille, is 65. Football coach (Notre Dame) Frank Leahy was born 100 years ago today. A Leahy quote: “Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.”

August 28

Actor Jason Priestley was born in Vancouver 38 years ago today, on the same day actor Jack Black was born in Hermosa Beach, California. Music’s Carly Pope was born in Vancouver 27 years ago today. She’s a Lord Byng grad. Shania Twain (born Eileen Regina Edwards in Windsor, Ontario) is 42. “Shania” is an Ojibway word, means “I’m on my way.” Former prime minister Paul Martin, also born in Windsor, turns 69. Actor Ben Gazzara, still very busy, is 77. Baseball’s volatile Lou Piniella, manager of the Chicago Cubs, is 64. If it isn’t tied down on the field during one of his rages, he’ll throw it. Singer LeAnn Rimes, a big star at age 14, is now 25. Actor Daniel Stern’s 50.

August 29

Michael Jackson (remember him?) is 49 today. Actress Rebecca De Mornay, next to be seen in American Venus, is 48. Actor Elliott Gould (his latest Ocean’s Thirteen) is 69. Actor Richard Attenborough (the guy in the Jurassic Park movies who thought up the idea. Tsk tsk!) He’s 84. US presidential hopeful John McCain is 71. Movie director Joel Schumacher (Phone Booth, Batman and Robin, The Phantom of the Opera, many others) is 68. TV’s Robin Leach (“I’m shouting, and I don’t know why!”) is 66. That ‘shouting’ line came from an SNL parody of Leach in the days when he was hosting—very loudly—Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.

August 30

Tennis’ Omaha-born Andy Roddick is 25 today. Actress Cameron Diaz is 35. Actor Timothy Bottoms is 56. Michael Chiklis (he’s Ben Grimm/The Thing in the Fantastic Four movies) turns 44. Top notch character actor David Paymer (Get Shorty just one of many terrific performances) is 53. Financier Warren Buffett is 77. You and I buy newspapers all the time; he buys newspapers. The latest: The Wall Street Journal. Canadian novelist, journalist and critic Rick Salutin is 65. Skiing great Jean-Claude Killy turns 64. Blue Jays infielder Russ Adams, not too busy, is 27 today.

August 31

Vancouver Canucks centre Ryan Kesler is 23 today. Motor-mouthed actor Chris Tucker, Atlanta-born, is 35. He’s currently on view with Jackie Chan in Rush Hour 3. Actor Richard Gere is 58, and Belfast-born singer Van Morrison is 62. Hockey’s Jean Beliveau, born in Trois-RiviPres, Québec, is 75 today. Actor Charles Kay (chillingly effective as one of Mozart’s enemies in Amadeus) is 77. Newspaper and magazine columnist Allan Fotheringham is 75 today, and baseball player/manager Frank Robinson is 72. Tel Aviv-born violin master Itzhak Perlman is 62.