Today CCLIII

Birthdays:

• Charles Goodyear, inventor of vulcanized rubber, December 29, 1800 - July 1, 1860


• Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig, physician and physiologist, December 29, 1816 - April 23, 1895


• Thomas Joannes Stieltjes, mathematician, who was a pioneer in the field of moment problems, and contributed to the study of continued fractions, December 29, 1856 - December 31, 1894


• Pau Carles Salvador Casals i Defilló, aka Pablo Casals, virtuoso cellist, conductor, and composer, who made many recordings of solo, chamber, and orchestral music, and as a conductor, but is best remembered for his recording of Bach's Cello Suites, December 29, 1876 – October 22, 1973


• Jess Willard, boxer, World Heavyweight Boxing Champion from 1915 to 1919, December 29, 1881 - December 15, 1968


• Ronald Harry Coase, economist, awarded the 1991 Nobel Prize in Economics, 1910


• Dorothy Lucille Tipton, aka Billy Lee Tipton, jazz pianist and saxophonist, who presented herself as a male; she played with the bands of Jack Teagarden and Ross Carlyle, among others; after her playing career, she became an entertainment agent; she was married five times, and never revealed to her wives that she was a woman, December 29, 1914 - January 21, 1989


• Elsa VIVECA Torstensdotter Lindfors, stage and film actress, December 29, 1920 - October 25, 1995


• Bernard Cribbins, character actor and musical comedian, who appeared in the Peter Cushing film Daleks' Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D., and three Carry On films, 1928


• Inga Swenson, actress, known for her role as Gretchen Kraus on the sitcom Benson, and of Corinne Tate's birth mother on Soap, 1932


• Ed Flanders, actor, known for his Emmy Award-winning role as Doctor Donald Westphall on St. Elsewhere, December 29, 1934 – February 22, 1995


• Mary Tyler Moore, actress and comedian, known for her role as Laura Petrie, on The Dick Van Dyke Show and as Mary Richards on The Mary Tyler Moore Show; she has appeared in various films over the years, including her performance came in Ordinary People, 1936


• Barbara Steele, actress, the scream queen of gothic horror movies of the 1960's, including Black Sunday, The Horrible Dr. Hichcock, The Ghost, and The Pit and the Pendulum, 1937


• Jonathan Vincent JON Voight, actor, a four-time Oscar nominee, who came to prominence at the end of the sixties in 1969's Midnight Cowboy, for which he earned his first Academy Award nomination; he starred in Deliverance, and received the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1978 for Coming Home, 1938


• Ray Thomas, musician, the flutist for and a composer in The Moody Blues, 1941


• Richard Clare RICK Danko, musician and singer, bass player and vocalist for The Band, December 29, 1942 – December 10, 1999


• Marian Evelyn MARIANNE Faithfull, singer and actress, whose career spans over four decades, 1946


• Edward Bridge TED Danson III, actor, 1947


• Colin Flooks, aka Cozy Powell, rock drummer, December 29, 1947 - April 5, 1998


• Yvonne Marianne Elliman, singer and actress., 1951


• Gelsey Kirkland, ballet dancer, 1952


• Avigail GAIL Atari, actress and singer, 1953


• Nancy Jane Sherlock Currie, Ph.D., Colonel, USA, astronaut, the Manager of the Safety and Mission Assurance Office for the Space Shuttle Program at Johnson Space Center, 1958


• Paula Poundstone, comedian and voice actor, 1959


• Devon Markes White, former MLB centre fielder, who won two World Series and five Gold Gloves with the Toronto Blue Jays, 1962


• Francisco Bustamante, billiards player, winner of many tournaments, including the 2005 Masters 9-Ball and the 2006 World Cup of Pool, 1963


• David Tench McKean, illustrator, photographer, comic book artist, graphic designer, filmmaker, and musician, whose work incorporates drawing, painting, photography, collage, found objects, digital art, and sculpture; he has collaborated with Neil Gaiman on several projects; MirrorMask, his first feature film as director, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2005 - the screenplay was written by Neil Gaiman, from a story by Gaiman and McKean; he is also an accomplished jazz pianist, and founded the record label Feral Records, 1963


• Andrew ANDY Wachowski, film director and writer, 1967


• Jennifer Ehle, stage and screen actress, 1969


• David JUDE Heyworth Law, actor, 1972


• Theo N. Epstein, Executive Vice President/General Manager of the Boston Red Sox, 1973


• Richmond Lockwood RICHIE Sexson, MLB first baseman, currently playing for the Seattle Mariners, 1974


• James Richard JIMMY Journell, pitcher, who plays for the Bridgeport Bluefish of the Atlantic League; he has MLB experience with the St. Louis Cardinals, 1977


• Alexis Amore, actress, exotic dancer, and model, 1978


• Angela Jolene Trullinger Villarreal, aka Angela Vía, singer/songwriter, 1981


• Jessica Danielle Andrews, country music singer, 1983

R.I.P.:

• Thomas Becket, aka Thomas à Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 to 1170, assassinated by followers of Henry II in Canterbury Cathedral, c. 1118 – December 29, 1170


• Joseph Saurin, mathematician, who was the first to show how the tangents at the multiple points of curves could be determined by mathematical analysis, 1659 – December 29, 1737


• Leopold Kronecker, mathematician and logician, December 7, 1823 – December 29, 1891


• Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin, mystic, who held an influence in the later days of Russia's Romanov dynasty, January 22, 1869 – December 29, 1916


• Carl Friedrich Georg Spitteler, poet and author, awarded the 1919 Nobel Prize for Literature, April 24, 1845 – December 29, 1924


• Wilhelm Maybach, engine designer and industrialist; together with Gottlieb Daimler, he developed light high-speed internal combustion engines, February 9, 1846 – December 29, 1929


• Paul Whiteman, orchestral leader, who started out as a classical violinist and violist, then became the leader of a jazz-influenced dance band , March 28, 1890 – December 29, 1967


• Tim Hardin, folk musician and composer, December 23, 1941 – December 29, 1980


• Jean-Claude Forest, writer and illustrator of comics, the creator of Barbarella, September 11, 1930 - December 29, 1998


• Earl John Hindman, actor, best known as Wilson W. Wilson, Jr. on the sitcom Home Improvement, October 20, 1942 – December 29, 2003


• Dinsdale Landen, actor, known mainly for his television appearances; in 1989, he appeared on Doctor Who as Dr. Judson in the serial The Curse of Fenric, September 4, 1932 - December 29, 2003


• Julius Axelrod, biochemist, who shared the 1970 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Bernard Katz and Ulf von Euler, May 30, 1912 – December 29, 2004


• Kenneth William Burkhardt, aka KEN Burkhart, MLB right-handed pitcher and umpire, who played from 1945 through 1949, and served as a National League umpire from 1957 to 1973, November 18, 1915 - December 29, 2004