Today's Famous Birthdays

[IceWizard]

William Tecumseh Sherman
(February 8, 1820 – February 14, 1891)

was an American soldier, businessman, educator, and author.
He served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861–1865),
achieving recognition for his command of military strategy as well as criticism for the
harshness of the scorched-earth policies that he implemented against the
Confederate States. British military theorist and historian B. H. Liddell Hart
declared that Sherman was "the first modern general"








Jules Gabriel Verne 
(8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905)

was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher
Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the Voyages extraordinaires, a series of
bestselling adventure novels including Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864),
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1870), and Around the World in
Eighty Days (1872). His novels, always well documented, are generally set in the
second half of the 19th century, taking into account the technological advances of the time.








Lana Turner
(February 8, 1921 – June 29, 1995)

was an American actress. Over the course of her nearly 50-year career, she achieved fame
as both a pin-up model and a film actress, as well as for her highly publicized personal life.
In the mid-1940s, she was one of the highest-paid actresses in the United States, and one
of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's (MGM) biggest stars, with her films earning more than $50 million
for the studio during her 18-year contract with them. Turner is frequently cited as a popular
culture icon of Hollywood glamour and a screen legend of classical Hollywood cinema.







Lana Turner
(February 8, 1921 – June 29, 1995)

was an American actress. Over the course of her nearly 50-year career, she achieved fame
as both a pin-up model and a film actress, as well as for her highly publicized personal life.
In the mid-1940s, she was one of the highest-paid actresses in the United States, and one
of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's (MGM) biggest stars, with her films earning more than $50 million
for the studio during her 18-year contract with them. Turner is frequently cited as a popular
culture icon of Hollywood glamour and a screen legend of classical Hollywood cinema









John Uhler Lemmon III
(February 8, 1925 – June 27, 2001)

was an American actor. Considered equally proficient in both dramatic and comic roles,
Lemmon was known for his anxious, middle-class everyman screen persona in dramedy
pictures, leading The Guardian to coin him "the most successful tragi-comedian of his age."









Jack Edward Larson
(February 8, 1928 – September 20, 2015)

was an American actor, librettist, screenwriter and producer best known for his portrayal of
photographer/cub reporter Jimmy Olsen on the television series Adventures of Superman.









James Byron Dean
(February 8, 1931 – September 30, 1955)

was an American actor. He is remembered as a cultural icon of teenage disillusionment
and social estrangement, as expressed in the title of his most celebrated film,
Rebel Without a Cause (1955), in which he starred as troubled teenager Jim Stark.
The other two roles that defined his stardom were loner Cal Trask in East of Eden (1955)
and surly ranch hand Jett Rink in Giant (1956)









Edward James Martin Koppel
(born February 8, 1940)

is a British-born American broadcast journalist, best known as the anchor for Nightline,
from the program's inception in 1980 until 2005.

Before Nightline, he spent 20 years as a broadcast journalist and news anchor for ABC.
After becoming host of Nightline, he was regarded as one of the outstanding serious-minded
interviewers on American television. Five years after its 1980 debut, the show had a nightly
audience of about 7.5 million viewers.









Nicholas King Nolte
(born February 8, 1941)

is an American actor. He won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for the 1991 film The Prince of Tides.
He received Academy Award nominations for Affliction (1998) and Warrior (2011), and was
nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series
or Movie for the 1976 miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man.









Robert Klein
(born February 8, 1942)

is an American stand-up comedian, singer, and actor. He is known for his appearances
on stage and screen. He has released four standup comedy specials: A Child of the 50s (1973),
Mind Over Matter (1974), New Teeth (1975), and Let's Not Make Love (1990). The first two
albums received Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album nominations.[1] Klein hosted
Saturday Night Live in its first season in 1975 and again in 1978. Klein made his Broadway debut
in the 1966 production of The Apple Tree opposite Alan Alda. He earned a Tony Award for
Best Actor in a Musical nomination for his performance in Neil Simon's musical comedy
They're Playing Our Song (1979)









Vincent Neil Wharton
(born February 8, 1961)

is an American musician. He is the lead vocalist and occasional rhythm guitarist of heavy metal band
Mötley Crüe, which he fronted from their 1981 formation until his departure in 1992. Neil reunited
with the band in 1996 and continued with them until the band's 2015 retirement, and again from the
band's 2018 reunion onwards. Outside of Mötley Crüe, Neil has also released three studio albums
as a solo artist – the most recent of which, Tattoos & Tequila, was released in 2010.