Today's Famous Birthdays

[IceWizard]

William Clement Frawley
(February 26, 1887 – March 3, 1966)

was an American vaudevillian and actor best remembered for playing landlord Fred Mertz in
the American television sitcom I Love Lucy, "Bub" O'Casey in the television comedy series
My Three Sons, and the political advisor to the judge character in the film Miracle on 34th Street.









Walter Clarence "Dub" Taylor Jr.
(February 26, 1907 – October 3, 1994)

was an American character actor who from the 1940s into the 1990s worked extensively in films
and on television, often in Westerns but also in comedies. He is the father of actor and
painter Buck Taylor.











John Herbert Gleason
(February 26, 1916 – June 24, 1987)

was an American actor, comedian, writer, and composer known affectionately as "The Great One".
Developing a style and characters from growing up in Brooklyn, New York, he was known for
his brash visual and verbal comedy, exemplified by his city-bus-driver character Ralph Kramden
in the television series The Honeymooners. He also developed The Jackie Gleason Show, which
maintained high ratings from the mid-1950s through 1970. After originating in New York City,
videotaping moved to Miami Beach, Florida, in 1964 after Gleason took up permanent residence there.

Among his notable film roles were Minnesota Fats in 1961's The Hustler (co-starring with Paul Newman)
and Buford T. Justice in the Smokey and the Bandit series from 1977 to 1983 (co-starring Burt Reynolds).











Anthony Leonard Randall
(born Aryeh Leonard Rosenberg; February 26, 1920 – May 17, 2004)

was an American actor. He is best known for portraying the role of Felix Unger in a television adaptation
of the 1965 play The Odd Couple by Neil Simon. In a career spanning six decades, Randall
received six Golden Globe Award nominations and six Primetime Emmy Award nominations,
winning one Emmy.











Antoine Dominique Domino Jr.
(February 26, 1928 – October 24, 2017),

known as Fats Domino, was an American pianist, singer and songwriter. One of the pioneers of
rock and roll music, Domino sold more than 65 million records. Born in New Orleans to a
French Creole family, Domino signed to Imperial Records in 1949. His first single "The Fat Man"
is cited by some historians as the first rock and roll single and the first to sell more than 1 million
copies. Domino continued to work with the song's co-writer Dave Bartholomew, contributing his
distinctive rolling piano style to Lloyd Price's "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" (1952) and scoring a string of
mainstream hits beginning with "Ain't That a Shame" (1955). Between 1955 and 1960, he had
eleven Top 10 US pop hits. By 1955, five of his records had sold more than a million copies,
being certified gold.














John R. Cash
(born J. R. Cash; February 26, 1932 – September 12, 2003)

was an American country singer-songwriter. Much of Cash's music contained themes of sorrow,
moral tribulation, and redemption, especially in the later stages of his career. He was known for
his deep, calm bass-baritone voice, the distinctive sound of his Tennessee Three backing band
characterized by train-like chugging guitar rhythms, a rebelliousness coupled with an increasingly
somber and humble demeanor, free prison concerts, and a trademark all-black stage wardrobe,
which earned him the nickname the "Man in Black".











Michael Bolotin
(born February 26, 1953),

known professionally as Michael Bolton, is an American singer and songwriter. Bolton performed in
the hard rock and heavy metal genres from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, both on his early solo
albums and those he recorded as the frontman of the band Blackjack. He became better known for
his series of pop rock ballads, recorded after a stylistic change in the late 1980s.

Bolton has sold more than 75 million records, and recorded eight top 10 albums and two number-one
singles on the Billboard charts, as well as winning six American Music Awards and two Grammy Awards.

He represented Connecticut at the American Song Contest 2022 with the song, "Beautiful World"














Victor-Marie Hugo
(26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885)

was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than
sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the greatest
French writers of all time.

His most famous works are the novels The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831) and Les Misérables (1862).
In France, Hugo is renowned for his poetry collections, such as Les Contemplations (The Contemplations)
and La Légende des siècles (The Legend of the Ages). Hugo was at the forefront of the Romantic literary
movement with his play Cromwell and drama Hernani. Many of his works have inspired music, both
during his lifetime and after his death, including the opera Rigoletto and the musicals Les Misérables
and Notre-Dame de Paris. He produced more than 4,000 drawings in his lifetime, and campaigned for
social causes such as the abolition of capital punishment.















Levi Strauss
(born Löb Strauß, German: [løːp ˈʃtʁaʊs];
February 26, 1829 – September 26, 1902)

was a German-born American businessman who founded the first company to manufacture blue jeans.
His firm of Levi Strauss & Co. (Levi's) began in 1853 in San Francisco, California.











Herbert Henry Dow
(February 26, 1866 – October 15, 1930)

was a Canadian-born American chemical industrialist who founded the American multinational
conglomerate Dow Chemical. He was a graduate of Case School of Applied Science in Cleveland, Ohio.
He was a prolific inventor of chemical processes, compounds, and products,
and was a successful businessman.













James Edward Narz
(February 26, 1927 – October 7, 2020),

known professionally as Tom Kennedy, was an American television host best known for his work
in game shows. Game shows Kennedy hosted included
Password Plus, Split Second, Name That Tune, and You Don't Say!