Today CLVII

Birthdays:

• Gerolamo Cardano, aka Hieronymus Cardanus, Renaissance mathematician, physician, astrologer, and gambler, September 24, 1501 - September 21, 1576


• Sir Arthur Guinness, brewer and the founder of Guinness Breweries, September 24, 1725 – January 23, 1803


• Georges Claude, engineer, chemist, and inventor, the first to apply an electrical discharge to a sealed tube of neon gas to create a lamp, September 24, 1870 – May 23, 1960


• Miguel Angel MIKE Gonzalez Cordero, MLB catcher, coach, and manager, September 24, 1890 - February 19, 1977


• Thomas Dickson TOMMY Armour, professional golfer, September 24, 1894 – September 12, 1968


• Dr. André Frédéric Cournand, physician and physiologist, awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine along with Werner Forssmann and Dickinson W. Richards for the development of cardiac catheterization, September 24, 1895 – February 19, 1988


• Francis Scott Key [F. Scott] Fitzgerald, novelist and short story writer, who finished four novels, left a fifth unfinished, and wrote dozens of short stories that treat themes of youth, despair, and age, September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940


• Howard Walter Florey, Baron Florey of Adelaide and Marston, OM, FRS, pharmacologist, who shared the 1945 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Ernst Boris Chain and Sir Alexander Fleming for his role in the extraction of penicillin, September 24, 1898 – February 21, 1968


• Hammond Edward HAM Fisher, comic strip writer, creator of Joe Palooka, September 24, 1900 - September 7, 1955


• Severo Ochoa de Albornoz M.D., biochemist, awarded the 1959 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his work on the synthesis of RNA, September 24, 1905 – November 1, 1993


• Don Porter, film and television actor, who appeared in a number of films in the 1940's, including Top Sergeant and Eagle Squadron; played Gidget's in the mid-1960's; on TV, played Ann Sothern's boss on Private Secretary and The Ann Sothern Show, September 24, 1912 — February 11, 1997


• Audra Lindley, actress; on Broadway, she appeared in On Golden Pond, Playhouse 90, Long Day's Journey into Night, and Horse Heavens, among other plays; played Helen Roper on TV's Three's Company and The Ropers, September 24, 1918 – October 16, 1997


• Dayton Allen Bolke, aka Dayton Allen, comedian and voice actor, appeared on Steve Allen's Tonight Show, where he developed his catch phrase, "Why not?"; he began his career on radio as a disc jockey; he was the voice of various New York-based children's television show characters, playing Flub-a-Dub on Howdy Doody for four years; he was the voice of Deputy Dawg, Heckle and Jeckle, and many early Terrytoons cartoon characters; he worked as a voiceover performer through the 1990's, September 24, 1919 - November 11, 2004


• Theresa Merritt Hines, stage actress and singer, appeared in many theatrical productions, gaining fame later in life when she starred in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and The Wiz, and the TV series That's My Mama, September 24, 1924 - June 12, 1998


• Theodore FATS Navarro, jazz trumpet player, a pioneer of the bebop style of jazz improvisation in the 1940's, began playing piano at age six, not becoming serious about music until he began playing trumpet at age thirteen, September 24, 1923 – July 6, 1950


• Sheila Margaret Stephens MacRae, film and television actress, and author widow of the late Gordon MacRae, 1924


• John Watts Young, former NASA astronaut who walked on the Moon in April, 1972, the first person to fly into space six times; has twice journeyed to the Moon and piloted four different classes of spacecraft, 1930


• George Anthony Newley, actor, singer, and songwriter, who won the 1963 Grammy Award for Song of the Year for What Kind of Fool Am I; was elected to the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1989, September 24, 1931 - April 14, 1999


• James Maury JIM Henson, puppeteer, filmmaker, television producer, and the founder of The Jim Henson Company, the Jim Henson Foundation, and Jim Henson's Creature Shop; the creator of The Muppets, September 24, 1936 – May 16, 1990


• Linda Louise Eastman, aka Linda Louise, Lady McCartney, photographer, musician, animal rights activist, and vegetarian, the wife of Paul McCartney, whom she introduced to vegetarianism in 1975; popularized a meatless diet through her best-selling cookbooks and line of frozen vegetarian meals, September 24, 1941 – April 17, 1998


• Gerard GERRY Marsden, musician, the guitarist and leader of Gerry & the Pacemakers, the second group signed by Brian Epstein; their first single was How Do You Do It; others included It's All Right, I'm the One, Don't Let the Sun Catch You Cryin', and Ferry Cross the Mersey; after the band broke up, he maintained a low-key career on television, and starred in the West End musical, Charlie Girl, 1942


• Louis Earl LOU Dobbs, anchor and managing editor of CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight, editorial columnist, and host of a syndicated radio show, 1945


• Phil Hartman, writer, actor, voice artist, comedian, and graphic artist, September 24, 1948 – May 28, 1998


• Hubert HUBIE Brooks, Jr., former MLB third baseman, shortstop, and right fielder, from 1980 to 1994, 1956


• Kevin Sorbo, actor, known for the lead role on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, and as Dylan Hunt on Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda; he starred in the movie Kull the Conqueror, 1958


• Steve Whitmire, puppeteer with the Jim Henson Company, working on Kermit the Frog and Ernie since Henson's death in 1990; since joining the company in 1978, he has performed in every major Henson company project, including non-Muppet projects such as The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, and the TV series Dinosaurs, 1959


• Antonia Eugenia NIA Vardalos, actress, screenwriter and producer, who gained almost overnight success with her movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding, 1962


• Rafael Palmeiro Corrales, MLB player, with a career spanning 20 years, from 1986 to 2005; he has not officially retired, but has not played since the 2005 season, when he was suspended for testing positive for steroids, 1964


• Otis BERNARD Gilkey, former MLB outfielder and designated hitter, 1966


• Wietse van Alten, archer, 1978


• Sabrine Maui, model and actress, 1980

RIP:

• Theophrastus Philippus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim, aka Paracelsus, alchemist, physician, astrologer, and general occultist, November 11 or December 17, 1493 - 24 September 24, 1541


• Manuel Mendes, composer and teacher of the Renaissance, teacher of several of the composers of the golden age of Portuguese polyphony, including Duarte Lobo and Manuel Cardoso, c. 1547 – September 24, 1605


• Duarte Lobo, composer of the late Renaissance and early Baroque, c. 1565 – September 24, 1646


• Niels Ryberg Finsen, physician and scientist, the first Danish Nobel laureate, awarded the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his contribution to the treatment of diseases with concentrated light radiation, December 15, 1860 – September 24, 1904


• Michael Joseph MIKE Donlin, MLB outfielder from 1899 to 1912, May 30, 1878 – September 24, 1933


• Lev Genrikhovich Schnirelmann, mathematician, who proved that any natural number greater than 1 can be written as the sum of not more than 300,000 primes, January 2, 1905 - September 24


• Johannes HANS Wilhelm Geiger, physicist, co-inventor of the Geiger counter, September 30, 1882 – September 24, 1945


• John Henry BONZO Bonham, drummer for Led Zeppelin, May 31, 1948 – September 25, 1980


• James NEIL Hamilton, actor, got his big break from D.W. Griffith in The White Rose in 1923; famous for his role as Commissioner Gordon on the Batman TV series, September 9, 1899 – September 24, 1984


• Theodor Seuss Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss, writer and cartoonist known for his children's books, March 2, 1904 – September 24, 1991


• Bruno Pontecorvo, atomic physicist, an early assistant of Enrico Fermi, and the author of numerous studies in high energy physics, especially on neutrinos, August 22, 1913 - September 24, 1993


• Thomas Ross TOMMY Bond, actor, known for his work as a child actor in the Our Gang (Little Rascals) comedies, and for being the first actor to portray the role of Jimmy Olsen on-screen - in two film serials, Superman (1948) and Atom Man vs. Superman (1950), September 16, 1926 - September 24, 2005