Today's Famous Birthdays

[IceWizard]

Will Geer
(born William Aughe Ghere; March 9, 1902 – April 22, 1978)

was an American actor, musician, and social activist, who was active in labor organizing and
other movements in New York and Southern California in the 1930s and 1940s. In California
he befriended rising singer Woody Guthrie. They both lived in New York for a time in the 1940s.
He was blacklisted in the 1950s by Hollywood after refusing, in testimony before Congress,
to name persons who had joined the Communist Party.

In his later years, he was well known for his role as the grandfather figure Zebulon Walton
in the TV series The Waltons until his death.











Carl Lawrence Betz
(March 9, 1921 – January 18, 1978)

was an American stage, film, and television actor. He appeared in a variety of television series,
including the CBS soap opera Love of Life; he is best remembered for playing Donna Reed's
television husband, Dr. Alex Stone, from 1958 to 1966 in the ABC sitcom The Donna Reed Show.
Then between 1967 and 1969, Betz played defense attorney Clinton Judd in ABC's courtroom
drama Judd, for the Defense, winning an Emmy Award in 1969 for his work on that series.










Charles Alan Siebert
(March 9, 1938 – May 1, 2022)

was an American actor and television director. As an actor, he is probably best known for his role
as Dr. Stanley Riverside II on the television series Trapper John, M.D., a role he portrayed from
1979 to 1986, and for his numerous appearances on the $25,000 Pyramid. After 1986, although
he continued working as an actor, Siebert's career was focused on working as a director for
episodic television for such shows as Xena: Warrior Princess, and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.











Raúl Rafael Carlos Juliá y Arcelay
(March 9, 1940 – October 24, 1994)

was a Puerto Rican actor. Born in San Juan, he took an interest in acting while still in school and
pursued the career upon completion of his studies. After performing locally for some time, he was
convinced by actor and entertainment personality Orson Bean to move and work in New York City.
Juliá, who had been bilingual since his childhood, soon gained interest in Broadway and Off-Broadway
plays. He took over the role of Orson in the Off-Broadway hit Your Own Thing, a rock musical
update of Twelfth Night. He performed in mobile projects, including the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater.

He is also known for his performances in films; his film debut came in 1971 acting alongside Al Pacino
in The Panic in Needle Park. During the 1980s, he worked in several films; he received two nominations
for the Golden Globe Awards, for his performances in Tempest and Kiss of the Spider Woman; he won
the National Board of Review Award for Best Actor for the latter. He also appeared in Francis Ford Coppola's
One from the Heart (1982), Sidney Lumet's The Morning After (1986), Romero (1989) and Clint Eastwood's
The Rookie (1990). In 1991 and 1993, Julia portrayed Gomez Addams in two film adaptations of
The Addams Family. In 1994, he filmed The Burning Season and a film adaptation of the
Street Fighter video games. The same year, Juliá suffered several health afflictions, eventually dying
after suffering a stroke. His funeral was held in Puerto Rico, attended by thousands. For his work
in The Burning Season, Juliá won a posthumous Golden Globe Award, Primetime Emmy Award,
and Screen Actors Guild Award











Brian Gerard Kaelin
(born March 9, 1959),

known as Kato Kaelin, is an American actor and radio and television personality, who was a witness
in the O. J. Simpson murder case.

Kaelin was born on March 9, 1959, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Kaelin was nicknamed "Kato" as a child
after the character played by Bruce Lee on the television series The Green Hornet. He graduated from
Nicolet High School in Glendale, Wisconsin, in 1977.









Emmanuel Lewis
(born March 9, 1971)
is an American actor, best known for playing the title character in the 1980s television sitcom Webster.

Lewis was born in Brooklyn, New York, and graduated from Midwood High School in 1989. He earned
a bachelor's degree from Clark Atlanta University in 1997. He would only attend the fall semester so
he could continue his career in the winter, spring and summer.










Amasa Leland Stanford
(March 9, 1824 – June 21, 1893)

was an American industrialist and politician. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the
8th governor of California from 1862 to 1863 and represented California in the United States Senate
from 1885 until his death in 1893. He and his wife Jane were also the founders of Stanford University,
which they named after their late son. Prior to his political career, Stanford was a successful
merchant and wholesaler who built his business empire after migrating to California during the
Gold Rush. As president of the Central Pacific Railroad and later the Southern Pacific from
1885 to 1890, he held tremendous power in the region and a lasting impact on California.

Stanford is widely considered a robber baron.










Margaret Murray Washington
(March 9, 1865 - June 4, 1925)

was an American educator who was the principal of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute,
which later became Tuskegee University. She also led women’s clubs. She was the third wife of
Booker T. Washington. She was inducted into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame in 1972.










Mickey Leroy Gilley
(March 9, 1936 – May 7, 2022)

was an American country music singer and songwriter. Although he started out singing straight-up
country and western material in the 1970s, he moved towards a more pop-friendly sound in
the 1980s, bringing him further success on not just the country charts, but the pop charts as well.

Among his biggest hits are "Room Full of Roses", "Don't the Girls All Get Prettier at Closing Time",
and the remake of the Soul hit "Stand by Me". Gilley charted 42 singles in the top 40 on the
US Country chart. He was a cousin of Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl McVoy, and Jimmy Swaggart.

For many years, Gilley lived in the shadow of his well-known cousin, Jerry Lee Lewis, a successful
rock and roll singer and musician in the 1950s and early 1960s. Gilley grew up in Louisiana, just
across the Mississippi River from where Lewis grew up. Gilley's family moved to the east side of
Houston, Texas, in the 1940s, where he attended Galena Park Highschool. He was primarily a
guitarist at the time and took his guitar to school to entertain classmates.

Gilley, Lewis, and their cousin, Jimmy Swaggart, played together as children.
Lewis taught them his piano style.










Robert James Fischer
(March 9, 1943 – January 17, 2008)

was an American chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy,
he won his first of a record eight US Championships at the age of 14. In 1964, he won with an
11–0 score, the only perfect score in the history of the tournament. Qualifying for the 1972
World Championship, Fischer swept matches with Mark Taimanov and Bent Larsen by 6–0 scores.
After another qualifying match against Tigran Petrosian, Fischer won the title match against
Boris Spassky of the USSR, in Reykjavík, Iceland. Publicized as a Cold War confrontation
between the US and USSR, the match attracted more worldwide interest than any chess
championship before or since.











Charles deWolf Gibson
(born March 9, 1943)

is an American broadcast television anchor, journalist and podcaster. Gibson was a host of
Good Morning America from 1987 to 1998 and again from 1999 to 2006, and the anchor of
World News with Charles Gibson from 2006 to 2009.

In 1965, Gibson worked as the news director for Princeton University's student-run radio station,
a radio producer for RKO, and a reporter for local television stations. In 1975, he joined
ABC News, where he worked as a general assignment reporter and a
correspondent from Washington, D.C.