The (Other) End of the Internet

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Since my birthday is in just a few days, I spent some time looking up celebrities who share my birthday. I found a nice list at BrainyHistory.com. Here is a small part of that list.

1. 1797 Kaiser Wilhelm I, crowned German emperor in 1871 after defeating Emperor Napoleon III in the Franco Prussian War.

2 1887 Leonard Martin Marx, better known as Chico Marx, the eldest of the Marx brothers. He was known for such great one-liners as “I wasn’t kissing her, I was whispering in her mouth” and “Mustard’s no good without roast beef”.

3. 1908 Louis L’Amour, American Author, was born Louis Dearborn LaMoore. He wrote 89 novels about the American Frontier. A quote of his that I really like is, “For one who reads, there is no limit to the number of lives that may be lived, for fiction, biography, and history offer an inexhaustible number of lives in many parts of the world, in all periods of time.”

4. 1913 Mladen Sekulovich who, at the age of 22, changed his name to Karl Malden. Born in Chicago, this actor played Mike Stone on TV’s Streets of San Francisco as well as doing ads for American Express.

5. 1923 Marcel Marceau, born in Strasbourg, France, is probably the world’s most famous mime. I know that he’s the only person I think of when the subject of mimes comes up. I thought it kind of ironic to find a list of quotes from someone whom I’ve never heard speak. The one quote on the list that best explains this irony is, “Never get a mime talking. He won’t stop.”

6. 1930 Pat Robertson, televangelist. Mr. Robertson was also the Republican Presidential candidate in 1989. The only other thing I know about Pat Robertson is that he was once quoted as saying, “I have a zero tolerance for sanctimonious morons who try to scare people.”

7. 1931 William Shatner, born in Montreal, Canada. Do I really need to say it? Star Trek. Captain James T. Kirk. A few years after Leonard Nimoy managed to alienate most of his fans by writing a book called, “I Am Not Spock”, Mr. Shatner went on Saturday Night Live and almost succeeded ending his acting career by doing this skit in which he told an auditorium full of screaming fans, “Get a life, will you?” About 10 or 12 years ago, he published a book about his Star Trek experience which was appropriately titled, “Get A Life”.

8. 1938 Glen Campbell singer. His best known hits include By the Time I get to Phoenix, Galveston, and Rhinestone cowboy

9. 1948 Wolf Blitzer, American Journalist

10. 1948 English theatre composer Andrew Lloyd Webber. His songs include “The Music of the Night” from The Phantom of the Opera, “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” from Jesus Christ Superstar, “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina” from Evita and “Memory” from Cats.

11. 1949 Rock bassist Fran Sheehan, from the group Boston, born in Boston, Massachusetts (appropriately enough). His work can be heard in one of my favorite songs, More than a Feeling.

12. 1952 sportscaster/talk show host, Bob Costas, born in Queens, New York.

13. 1976 Reese Witherspoon, American Actress. I remember her best from Pleasantville, but then I don’t generally watch many of the newer movies, like the 1998 movie, Twilight - which I understand she’s also in, along with Paul Newman, Susan Sarandon, and James Garner.

This is probably less than half of the names on the list at BrainyHistory.com. Sometime when your bored, I highly recommend checking the events which occurred on your birthday.

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