Today's Famous Birthdays

[IceWizard]

John Allen Astin
(born March 30, 1930)

is an American actor and director who has appeared in numerous stage, television
and film roles, primarily in character roles. He is best known for starring in
The Addams Family (1964–1966), as patriarch Gomez Addams, reprising the
role in the television film Halloween with the New Addams Family (1977) and
the animated series The Addams Family (1992–1993). With the death of Lisa Loring
on January 28, 2023, Astin is the last surviving main cast member of The Addams Family.








Henry Warren Beatty
(born March 30, 1937)

is an American actor and filmmaker. His career spans over six decades and he has
been nominated for 15 Academy Awards, including four for Best Actor, four for
Best Picture, two for Best Director, three for Original Screenplay, and one for
Adapted Screenplay – winning Best Director for Reds (1981). Beatty is the only
person to have been nominated for acting in, directing, writing, and producing
the same film, and he did so twice: first for Heaven Can Wait
(with Buck Henry as co-director), and again for Reds.

Eight of the films he produced earned 53 Academy nominations.









Piers Stefan Pughe-Morgan
(born 30 March 1965)

is an English broadcaster, journalist, writer, and television personality. He began
his Fleet Street career in 1988 at The Sun. In 1994, aged 29, he was appointed
editor of the News of the World by Rupert Murdoch, which made him the youngest
editor of a British national newspaper in more than half a century. From 1995,
Morgan edited the Daily Mirror, but was fired in 2004. He was the editorial director
of First News during 2006 to 2007.









Donna Jeanette D'Errico
(born March 30, 1968)

is an American actress and model. She posed for Playboy as its Playmate of the
Month for September 1995 and had a starring role (1996–1998) on the television
series Baywatch. She continues to act in films and on television.








Vincent Willem van Gogh
(30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890)

was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most
famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about
2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of which date from the last
two years of his life. They include landscapes, still lifes, portraits and self-portraits,
and are characterised by bold colours and dramatic, impulsive and expressive
brushwork that contributed to the foundations of modern art. Not commercially
successful in his career, he struggled with severe depression and poverty, which
eventually led to his suicide at age thirty-seven.











Ralph Pierre LaCock
(born March 30, 1926),

better known by his stage name Peter Marshall, is an American former game show
host, television and radio personality, singer, and actor. He was the original host
of The Hollywood Squares from 1966 to 1981 and has almost fifty television, movie,
and Broadway credits.

Marshall was given his stage name by John Robert Powers. Powers had chosen the
last name Marshall for Peter's sister (who later chose to use Joanne Dru instead),
and Peter adopted it early in his career and paired it with an anglicized version
of his middle name.









Eric Patrick Clapton CBE
(born 30 March 1945)

is an English rock and blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He is regarded as one of
the most successful and influential guitarists in rock music. Clapton ranked second in
Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and fourth in Gibson's
"Top 50 Guitarists of All Time". He was also named number five in Time magazine's
list of "The 10 Best Electric Guitar Players" in 2009.

After playing in a number of different local bands, Clapton joined the Yardbirds in 1963,
replacing founding guitarist Top Topham. Dissatisfied with the change of the Yardbirds
sound from blues rock to a more radio-friendly pop rock sound, Clapton left in 1965 to
play with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. On leaving Mayall in 1966, after one album,
he formed the power trio Cream with drummer Ginger Baker and bassist Jack Bruce, in
which Clapton played sustained blues improvisations and "arty, blues-based psychedelic pop".
After Cream broke up in November 1968, he formed the blues rock band Blind Faith with
Baker, Steve Winwood, and Ric Grech, recording one album and performing on one tour
before they broke up. Clapton embarked on a solo career in 1970.

Alongside his solo career, he also performed with Delaney & Bonnie and Derek and the Dominos,
with whom he recorded "Layla", one of his signature songs.









James Mangrum
(born March 30, 1948),

better known as Jim "Dandy" Mangrum, is the lead singer and frontman for the American
Southern rock band Black Oak Arkansas. He is noted for his raspy voice, long hair,
and wild stage antics. Mangrum was born in the town of Benton Harbor, Michigan, where
his Arkansas-born parents were working at the time. The family returned to their home
state and raised Mangrum in the small town of Black Oak, Arkansas. He was brought up
a Southern Baptist and attended Monette High School, in Monette, Arkansas.

In 1966, Mangrum and members of the group stole musical equipment from Monette high
school and Manila high school, and were arrested for grand larceny. They were sentenced
to 26 years at the Tucker Prison Farm; however, the sentence was suspended.










Stanley Kirk Burrell
(born March 30, 1962),

better known by his stage name MC Hammer (or simply Hammer), is an American rapper.
He is known for hit songs such as "U Can't Touch This", "2 Legit 2 Quit" and
"Pumps and a Bump", flashy dance movements, extravagant choreography and his
eponymous Hammer pants. Remembered for a rapid rise to fame, Hammer has also
been an entrepreneur and celebrity spokesperson.










Tracy Chapman (born March 30, 1964)

is an American singer-songwriter. Chapman is best known for her hit singles "Fast Car"
and "Give Me One Reason". Chapman was signed to Elektra Records by Bob Krasnow in 1987.
The following year she released her debut album, Tracy Chapman, which became a
commercial success, boosted by her appearance at the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday
Tribute concert, and was certified 6× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association
of America. The album received six Grammy Award nominations, including one for
Album of the Year, three of which she won; Best New Artist, Best Female Pop Vocal
Performance for her single "Fast Car", and Best Contemporary Folk Album. In 1989,
Chapman released her second album, Crossroads, which earned her an additional
Grammy Award nomination for Best Contemporary Folk Album.
Her third album, Matters of the Heart, followed in 1992.









Norah Jones
(born Geethali Norah Jones Shankar; March 30, 1979)

is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. She has won several awards for her music
and, as of 2023, had sold more than 50 million records worldwide. Billboard named her
the top jazz artist of the 2000's decade. She has won nine Grammy Awards and was
ranked 60th on Billboard magazine's artists of the 2000s decade chart.

In 2002, Jones launched her solo music career with the release of Come Away with Me,
which was a fusion of jazz with country, blues, folk and pop. It was certified diamond,
selling over 27 million copies. The record earned Jones five Grammy Awards, including
the Album of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best New Artist.[9] Her subsequent studio
albums—Feels Like Home (2004), Not Too Late (2007), and The Fall (2009)—all gained
platinum status, selling over a million copies each. They were also generally well received
by critics. Jones's fifth studio album, Little Broken Hearts, was released on April 27, 2012;
her sixth, Day Breaks, was released on October 7, 2016. Her seventh studio album,
Pick Me Up Off the Floor, was released on June 12, 2020. Jones made her feature film
debut as an actress in My Blueberry Nights, which was released in 2007 and was directed
by Wong Kar-Wai.