Today's Famous Birthdays

[IceWizard]

Dewey "Pigmeat" Markham
(April 18, 1904 – December 13, 1981)

was an American entertainer. Though best known as a comedian, Markham was also a singer,
dancer, and actor. His nickname came from a stage routine, in which he declared himself to be
"Sweet Poppa Pigmeat". He was sometimes credited in films as Pigmeat "Alamo" Markham.
His boisterous, indecorous "heyeah (here) come da judge" schtick, which made a mockery of
formal courtroom etiquette, became his signature routine. Markham would sit at an elevated
judge's bench (often in a black graduation cap-and-gown, to look more impressive), and deal
with a series of comic miscreants. He would often deliver his "judgments", as well as express
frustration with the accused, by leaning over the bench and smacking the accused with
an inflated bladder-balloon.








Barbara Hale
(April 18, 1922 – January 26, 2017)

was an American actress who portrayed legal secretary Della Street in the dramatic television
series Perry Mason (1957–1966), earning her a 1959 Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting
Actress in a Drama Series. She reprised the role in 30 Perry Mason made-for-television
movies (1985–1995).








Robert Francis Hastings
(April 18, 1925 – June 30, 2014)

was an American actor. He was best known for his portrayal of Lt. Elroy Carpenter on McHale's Navy
and voicing Commissioner James Gordon in the DC Animated Universe.









James Child Drury Jr.
(April 18, 1934 – April 6, 2020)

was an American actor. He is best known for having played the title role in the 90-minute weekly
Western television series The Virginian, which was broadcast on NBC from 1962 to 1971.









Hayley Catherine Rose Vivien Mills
(born 18 April 1946)

is an English actress. The daughter of Sir John Mills and Mary Hayley Bell and younger sister
of actress Juliet Mills, she began her acting career as a child and was hailed as a promising
newcomer, winning the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer for her performance in
the British crime drama film Tiger Bay (1959), the Academy Juvenile Award for Disney's Pollyanna
(1960) and Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress in 1961. During her early
career, she appeared in six films for Walt Disney, including her dual role as twins Susan and
Sharon in the Disney film The Parent Trap (1961). Her performance in Whistle Down the Wind
(a 1961 adaptation of the novel written by her mother) saw Mills nominated for the
BAFTA Award for Best British Actress and she was voted the biggest star in Britain for 1961.









James Howard Woods
(born April 18, 1947)

is an American actor. He is known for fast-talking intense roles on stage and screen. He received
various accolades including three Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, three Screen Actors Guild
Awards as well as nominations for two Academy Awards. He started his career in minor roles on
and off-Broadway. In 1972, he appeared in The Trial of the Catonsville Nine alongside Sam Waterston
on Broadway. In 1978, he made his television breakthrough alongside Meryl Streep, playing her
husband in the acclaimed NBC miniseries Holocaust, which received the Primetime Emmy Award
for Outstanding Limited Series. Woods early film roles include in The Visitors (1972),
The Way We Were (1973) and Night Moves (1975). He rose to prominence portraying Gregory Powell
in The Onion Field (1979). He earned two Academy Awards nominations: one for Best Actor for
Salvador (1986) and for Best Supporting Actor for Ghosts of Mississippi (1996). His career spans
five decades and includes collaborations with some of the most acclaimed filmmakers of his time,
such as John Carpenter, Elia Kazan, Martin Scorsese, David Cronenberg, Sergio Leone, Clint Eastwood,
Sydney Pollack, Arthur Penn, Oliver Stone, Rob Reiner, Richard Attenborough, and Sofia Coppola.
Notable film roles include in Videodrome (1983), Once Upon a Time in America (1984), Nixon (1995),
Chaplin (1992), Casino (1995), Contact (1997), Vampires (1998), Any Given Sunday (1999),
and The Virgin Suicides (1999).








Frederick Allan Moranis
(born April 18, 1953)

is a Canadian actor, comedian, musician, songwriter, writer and producer. He appeared in the
sketch comedy series Second City Television (SCTV) in the 1980s and several Hollywood films,
including Strange Brew (1983), Ghostbusters (1984) and Ghostbusters II (1989),
Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Spaceballs (1987), Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989, and its
1992 and 1997 sequels), Parenthood (1989), My Blue Heaven (1990), and The Flintstones (1994).
n 2020, after a hiatus of nearly 23 years from live-action films, Moranis signed to appear in a
new sequel to Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, called Shrunk.










Jane Elizabeth Leeves
(born 18 April 1961)

is an English actress, best known for her role as Daphne Moon on the NBC sitcom Frasier
(1993-2004), for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award.
She also played Joy Scroggs on TV Land's sitcom Hot in Cleveland. Leeves made her screen
debut with a small role in 1983 on the British comedy television show The Benny Hill Show,
and appeared as a dancer in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. She moved to the
United States, where she performed in small roles. From 1986 to 1988, she had her first
leading role in the short-lived sitcom Throb, then secured a recurring part in the television
sitcom Murphy Brown.








Conan Christopher O'Brien
(born April 18, 1963)

is an American television host, comedian, writer, and producer. O'Brien is best known for having
hosted late-night talk shows for almost 28 years, beginning with Late Night with Conan O'Brien
(1993–2009) and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien (2009–2010) on the NBC television network,
and Conan (2010–2021) on the cable channel TBS. Before his hosting career, he was a writer for
the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1988 to 1991, and the Fox animated
sitcom The Simpsons from 1991 to 1993. He has also been host of the podcast series
Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend since 2018 and is expected to launch a new show on HBO Max.
Born in Brookline, Massachusetts, O'Brien was raised in an Irish Catholic family.










Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown
(April 18, 1924 – September 10, 2005)

was an American singer and multi-instrumentalist from Louisiana. He won a Grammy Award for
Best Traditional Blues Album in 1983 for his album, Alright Again!. Brown was born in Vinton, Louisiana,
and raised near Orange, Texas. His father was a railroad worker and local musician who taught him
several musical instruments, including fiddle by age 5; as well as piano and guitar.









Robert Philip Hanssen
(born April 18, 1944)

is an American former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent who spied for Soviet and Russian
intelligence services against the United States from 1979 to 2001. His espionage was described by the
Department of Justice as "possibly the worst intelligence disaster in U.S. history." Hanssen is currently
serving fifteen consecutive life sentences without parole at ADX Florence, a federal supermax prison
near Florence, Colorado. In 1979, three years after joining the FBI, Hanssen approached the
Soviet Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) to offer his services, beginning his first espionage cycle,
lasting until 1981. He restarted his espionage activities in 1985 and continued until 1991, when he
ended communications during the collapse of the Soviet Union, fearing he would be exposed.
Hanssen restarted communications the next year and continued until his arrest. Throughout his spying,
he remained anonymous to the Russians.