Today is Natalie Portman’s 37th birthday. She was born in Jerusalem but grew up in the US, and studied dance as a girl. When she was 10, Portman auditioned for an Off-Broadway musical, Ruthless!, and was chosen as an understudy to the star, Laura Bell Bundy. About 2 years later, she made her film debut as Matilda in Luc Besson’s Léon: The Professional. She was a prominent juvenile/teen actress in the mid-late 1990s, in films like Heat, Beautiful Girls, and Anywhere But Here, and made her Broadway debut in the title role of The Diary of Anne Frank.

As the 2000s dawned, Portman drew a lot of attention for her role as Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars prequels; the best that can be said about that phase of her career, perhaps, is that she managed to avoid winning any Razzies. She received more positive notice for her performances in the 2004 indie romance Garden State, as one of the characters who defined the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope, and even more so in Mike Nichols’s Closer. Her performance as Alice Ayres, for which she was a Golden Globe winner and an Oscar nominee, established Portman’s credentials as an actress in adult roles.

Portman has gone on to headline a number of prestige pictures. Her biggest triumph was undoubtedly as Nina Sayers in Black Swan; Portman made a clean sweep of the major Best Actress Awards for 2010. She played Anne Boleyn in The Other Boleyn Girl and received her third Oscar nomination for the role of Jacqueline Kennedy in Jackie. She has made a few returns to the real of action films, starring in V for Vendetta and the Western Jane Got a Gun, and making two appearances as Jane Foster in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Portman directed one segment of the anthology film New York, I Love You, and then made her feature directing debut in 2015, with an adaptation of Amos Oz’s A Tale of Love and Darkness. Most recently, Portman starred in the sci-fi horror film Annihilation, released earlier this year.

Michael J. Fox is celebrating his 57th birthday. When the Canadian actor was 15, he was cast in a Canadian series titled Leo and Me, but it did not air until 1981. He began working in US television in the late seventies, making guest appearances on series like Lou Grant and Trapper John, M.D. In 1982, Fox was cast as Alex Keaton on Family Ties. While the series was originally intended to center on Alex’s parents, played by Meredith Baxter and Michael Gross, Alex became the central character over time, and Fox went on to win three consecutive Emmys for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series from 1986-88. During the show’s run, Fox also appeared in his most famous feature film role, as the time-traveling Marty McFly in Back to the Future.

Beginning in the late eighties, Fox enjoyed several years of starring in feature films. Besides the Back to the Future sequels, he starred in romantic comedies like Doc Hollywood and For Love or Money, the Vietnam War drama Casualties of War, and the action comedy The Hard Way. He also voiced Chance the bulldog in the Homeward Bound films. By the mid-1990s, Fox had moved to playing more character roles in films like The American President. He returned to series television in 1995, starring as Mike Flaherty on Spin City, eventually winning his fourth Emmy and three Golden Globes in the role.

As many readers know, Fox has been battling Parkinson’s disease since the early 1990s. He has been able to continue acting in a series of guest and recurring roles on television, and has received Emmy nominations for Outstanding Guest Actor on four different series, Boston Legal, Rescue Me (winning his fifth Emmy), Curb Your Enthusiasm, and The Good Wife (he has been nominated five times in the role of Louis Canning). Fox and his wife (and onetime Family Ties costar), Tracy Pollan, will celebrate 30 years of marriage next month.

Yesterday’s birthdays include Griffin Dunne, who turned 63. He directed the documentary Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold, about the famous novelist (who is his aunt). Jefferson Mays, who received his third Tony nomination for starring in J. T. Rogers’s Oslo, turned 53. Also celebrating his 53rd was Frank Grillo, who starred in several films, including The Crash and Wheelman. Bonnie Tyler, who is 67, is touring all over Europe this summer, and has been talking of a new studio album for a couple of years. Sara Watkins, who turned 37, is currently active with the folk trio I’m With Her (along with Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O’Donovan). Their debut album, See You Around, came out in February. Blues/rock singer Boz Scaggs, who releases his latest album in July, is 74. Novelist Sara Paretsky turned 71; her eighteenth Vic Warshawski novel, Fallout, came out last year.

Kathy Baker, a three-time Emmy winner for starring as Jill Brock on Picket Fences in the 1990s, is now 68. French-Thai actress Florence Faivre, who turned 35 yesterday, is best known in the US for starring as Julie Mao on Syfy’s The Expanse. Torrey DeVito, who is 34, stars on Chicago Med as Dr. Natalie Manning (with inevitable crossovers to the rest of the Chicago franchise). James Darren turned 82 yesterday. He played Moondoggie in the 1959 teen film Gidget and several sequels, costarred in The Guns of Navarone, and was a regular on T. J. Hooker in the early 1980s. Dan Futterman, who is 51, is a two-time Oscar nominee for screenwriting, for Capote and Foxcatcher.

Don Grady (1944-2012) was a Mousketeer on The Mickey Mouse Club in the late 1950s, then starred as Robbie Douglas (the middle son) on My Three Sons for over a decade. Dana Wynter (1931-2011) worked for over 40 years in film and television. She was best known for starring in the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers and several World War II films like In Love and War and Sink the Bismarck!

Last year’s June 8 headliners were Julianna Margulies and Kanye West. Julianna Margulies, who turned 52, is a regular on the new AMC series Dietland, which premiered earlier this week. Kanye West is 41. He recently released a new solo album, Ye, and a collaboration with Kid Cudi, Kids See Ghosts. He has also, as is his norm, courted his share of contoversy.

Eddie Marsan turns 50 today. He recently played an East German defector in Atomic Blonde and Shimon Peres in Entebbe. David Koepp is 55; the screenwriter is reportedly attached to a fifth, untitled Indiana Jones film. Gloria Reuben, currently a regular on Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger, is 54. Mae Whitman, who celebrates her 30th today, is a regular on NBC’s just-renewed Good Girls. Logan Browning, who continues to star on Netflix’s Dear White People, turns 29 today. Aaron Sorkin, who turns 57, made his feature directing debut with Molly’s Game, and received Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for screenwriting.

Josh Hamilton, who is 49, is known for his stage work; he starred on Broadway in Tom Stoppard’s Coast of Utopia trilogy, and was a Drama Desk Award nominee for an off-Broadway production of David Rabe’s Hurlyburly. Xolo Maridueña, who celebrates his 17th, is one of the stars of the web series Cobra Kai. Keesha Sharp, who was a regular on the final two seasons of Girlfriends and plays Trish Murtaugh on Fox’s Lethal Weapon, is 45 today. Sonam Kapoor, who turns 33, is a third-generation Bollywood star who is a six-time Filmfare Award nominee

Johnny Depp and Cole Porter were last year’s headliners. Johnny Depp celebrates his 55th today. He returned to the role of Captain Jack Sparrow last year for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, and played the victim of a Murder on the Orient Express. Later this year he will star in the crime thriller/biopic City of Lies, and returns to the role of Gellert Grindelwald for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.

Let’s have a musical closer from the incredibly talented Cole Porter (1891-1964).

If today is your birthday, congratulations on sharing your big day with these notable names. Birthday wishes to everyone celebrating a big day today. Come back tomorrow for more celebrity birthdays.

0 0 vote Article Rating

Advertisements