Today's Famous Birthdays

[IceWizard]

Walter Winchell
(April 7, 1897 – February 20, 1972)

was a syndicated American newspaper gossip columnist and radio news commentator.
Originally a vaudeville performer, Winchell began his newspaper career as a Broadway
reporter, critic and columnist for New York tabloids. He rose to national celebrity in the
1930s with Hearst newspaper chain syndication and a popular radio program. He was
known for an innovative style of gossipy staccato news briefs, jokes and Jazz Age slang.
Biographer Neal Gabler claimed that his popularity and influence "turned journalism into
a form of entertainment".









James Garner
(born James Scott Bumgarner; April 7, 1928 – July 19, 2014)

was an American actor. He played leading roles in more than 50 theatrical films, including
The Great Escape (1963) with Steve McQueen; Paddy Chayefsky's The Americanization
of Emily (1964) with Julie Andrews; Cash McCall (1960) with Natalie Wood;
The Wheeler Dealers (1963) with Lee Remick; Darby's Rangers (1958) with Stuart Whitman;
Roald Dahl's 36 Hours (1965) with Eva Marie Saint; Raymond Chandler's Marlowe (1969)
with Bruce Lee; Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969) with Walter Brennan; Blake Edwards's
Victor/Victoria (1982) with Julie Andrews; and Murphy's Romance (1985) with Sally Field,
for which he received an Academy Award nomination. He also starred in several television
series, including popular roles such as Bret Maverick in the ABC 1950s Western series
Maverick and as Jim Rockford in the NBC 1970s private detective show, The Rockford Files.










William Wayne McMillan Rogers III
(April 7, 1933 – December 31, 2015)

was an American actor, known for playing the role of Captain "Trapper" John McIntyre in
the CBS television series M*A*S*H and as Dr. Charley Michaels on House Calls (1979–1982).
He was a regular panel member on the Fox News Channel stock investment television program
Cashin' In as a result of having built a career as an investor, investment strategist, adviser,
and money manager. Rogers also studied acting at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of
the Theatre in New York City.








Sir David Paradine Frost OBE
(7 April 1939 – 31 August 2013)

was a British television host, journalist, comedian and writer. He rose to prominence during
the satire boom in the United Kingdom when he was chosen to host the satirical programme
That Was the Week That Was in 1962. His success on this show led to work as a host on
American television. He became known for his television interviews with senior political
figures, among them the Nixon interviews with US president Richard Nixon in 1977 which
were adapted into a stage play and film. Frost interviewed all eight British prime ministers
serving between 1964, from Alec Douglas-Home to David Cameron, - who resigned in
2016 - and all eight American presidents in office since Lyndon B. Johnson in 1969 to
Barack Obama, which served until 2017.









Francis Ford Coppola
(born April 7, 1939)

is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is considered one of the major
figures of the New Hollywood filmmaking movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Coppola is the
recipient of five Academy Awards, six Golden Globe Awards, two Palmes d'Or and a
British Academy Film Award (BAFTA).

After directing The Rain People in 1969, Coppola co-wrote Patton (1970), which earned him
the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay along with Edmund H. North. Coppola's
reputation as a filmmaker was cemented with the release of The Godfather (1972), which
revolutionized the gangster genre of filmmaking, receiving strong commercial and critical
reception. The Godfather won three Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actor and
Best Adapted Screenplay (shared with Mario Puzo). The Godfather Part II (1974) became
the first sequel to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Highly regarded by critics,
the film gained Coppola two more Academy Awards, for Best Adapted Screenplay and B









Jackie Chan SBS MBE PMW
(born 7 April 1954), 

is a Hong Kong actor, filmmaker, martial artist, and stuntman known for his slapstick
acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, and innovative stunts, which he typically performs
himself. Chan has been acting since the 1960s, performing in more than 150 films.
He is one of the most popular action film stars of all time.

Chan is one of the most recognisable and influential film personalities in the world, with
a widespread global following in both the Eastern and Western hemispheres. He has
received fame stars on the Hong Kong Avenue of Stars and the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Chan has been referenced in various pop songs, cartoons, films, and video games. He
is an operatically trained vocalist and is also a Cantopop and Mandopop star, having
released a number of music albums and sung many of the theme songs for the films in
which he has starred. He is also a globally known philanthropist and has been named
one of the top 10 most charitable celebrities by Forbes magazine. In 2004, film scholar
Andrew Willis stated that Chan was perhaps the "most recognised film star in the world."
In 2015, Forbes estimated his net worth to be $350 million, and as of 2016, he was the
second-highest-paid actor in the world.

Chan's views on Hong Kong politics have gradually shifted from a pro-democratic stance
in the 1990s to a pro-Beijing stance since the 2010s. Since 2013, Chan has been a
pro-Chinese Communist Party (CPC) politician, having served two terms as a delegate to
the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and, in 2021,
expressing his desire to join the CPC.








Russell Ira Crowe
(born 7 April 1964)

is an actor. He was born in New Zealand, spent ten years of his childhood in Australia,
and moved there permanently at age twenty one. He came to international attention
for his role as Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius in the epic historical film
Gladiator (2000), for which he won an Academy Award, Broadcast Film Critics Association Award,
Empire Award, and London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Leading Actor, along with
10 other nominations in the same category.