Today's Famous Birthdays

[IceWizard]

Shirley Temple Black
(born Shirley Jane Temple; April 23, 1928 – February 10, 2014)

was an American actress, singer, dancer, and diplomat, who was Hollywood's number-one
box-office draw as a child actress from 1934 to 1938. Later, she was named United States
ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia, and also served as Chief of Protocol of the United States.









Alan Oppenheimer
(born April 23, 1930)

is an American actor. He has performed numerous roles on live action television since the 1960s,
and he has had an active career doing voice work since the 1970s. As a character actor,
Oppenheimer has had diverse roles in popular American television programming, from playing
a Nazi in Hogan's Heroes, to playing an Israeli secret agent as well as a double-agent KAOS
scientist on Get Smart, to being the second actor to play Dr. Rudy Wells in The Six Million Dollar Man
(Martin Balsam played the role in the pilot film). Oppenheimer took over as Rudy starting with
the second film, "Wine, Women and War" up until the introduction of the bionic woman in 1975,
whereupon Martin E. Brooks took over as Wells until cancellation). He was the original
Mickey Malph (Ralph Malph's dad) on Happy Days. He played a recurring role during the first
two seasons of St. Elsewhere as Helen Rosenthal's husband, Ira. He had a recurring role as
Mayor Alvin B. Tutwiller on Mama's Family. He then continued in science fiction genre in the
1973 cult classic Westworld, where he played the head IT technician. He has also appeared in
three Star Trek series, always playing a different character. He appeared in the
Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Rightful Heir" as a Klingon cleric, Koroth,
a primary instigator of the cloning of Kahless; on Deep Space Nine as a
Starfleet Captain Declan Keogh in command of the USS Odyssey; and as an
alien ambassador in Voyager.








Lee Majors
(born Harvey Lee Yeary; April 23, 1939)

is an American actor. Majors portrayed the characters of Heath Barkley in the American television
Western series The Big Valley (1965–1969), Colonel Steve Austin in the American television science
fiction action series The Six Million Dollar Man (1973–1978), and Colt Seavers in American television
action series The Fall Guy (1981–1986).








Sandra Dee
(born Alexandra Zuck; April 23, 1942 – February 20, 2005)

was an American actress. Dee began her career as a child model, working first in commercials,
and then film in her teenage years. Best known for her portrayal of ingénues, Dee earned a
Golden Globe Award as one of the year's most promising newcomers for her performance in
Robert Wise's Until They Sail (1958). She became a teenage star for her performances in
Imitation of Life and Gidget (both 1959), which made her a household name. By the late 1960s,
her career had started to decline, and a highly publicized marriage to Bobby Darin ended in
divorce. The year of her divorce, Dee's contract with Universal Pictures was dropped. She
attempted a comeback with the 1970 independent horror film The Dunwich Horror, but rarely
acted after this time, appearing only occasionally in television productions throughout the
1970s and early 1980s. The rest of the decade was marred by alcoholism, mental illness, plus
near total reclusiveness, particularly after her mother died in 1988. Afterwards she sought
medical and psychological help in the early 1990s, and died in 2005 of complications from
kidney disease, brought on by lifelong anorexia nervosa.










Valerie Anne Bertinelli
(born April 23, 1960)

is an American actress. She first achieved recognition as an adolescent, portraying
Barbara Cooper Royer on the sitcom One Day at a Time (1975–1984), for which she
won two Golden Globe Awards for Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries or
Television Film. She subsequently earned adult stardom as Gloria on the religious
drama series Touched by an Angel (2001–2003) and Melanie Moretti on the sitcom Hot
in Cleveland (2010–2015), the latter of which gained her a Screen Actors Guild Award
nomination. In 2012, she was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Bertinelli has hosted several programs for Food Network, such as the cooking shows
Valerie's Home Cooking (2015–2023) and Kids Baking Championship (2015–present),
winning two Daytime Emmy Awards for the former out of six nominations.
In December 2021, Bertinelli signed a new deal with Food Network. Bertinelli was
married to musician Eddie Van Halen from 1981 to 2007, with whom she has one child,
Wolfgang. She was married to Tom Vitale from 2011 to 2022.









George Lopez
(born April 23, 1961)

is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He is most known for starring in his self-produced
ABC sitcom. His stand-up comedy examines race and ethnic relations, including Mexican American
culture. Lopez has received several honors for his work and contributions to the Latino community,
including the 2003 Imagen Vision Award, the 2003 Latino Spirit Award for Excellence in Television
and the National Hispanic Media Coalition Impact Award. He was also named one of
"The Top 25 Hispanics in America" by Time magazine in 2005.









Roy Kelton Orbison
(April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988)

was an American singer, songwriter, and musician known for his impassioned singing style, complex
song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. His music was described by critics as operatic, earning
him the nicknames "The Caruso of Rock" and "The Big O." Many of Orbison's songs conveyed vulnerability
at a time when most male rock-and-roll performers chose to project machismo. He performed while
standing motionless and wearing black clothes to match his dyed black hair and dark sunglasses.
Born in Texas, Orbison began singing in a rockabilly and country-and-western band as a teenager.
He was signed by Sam Phillips of Sun Records in 1956, but enjoyed his greatest success with
Monument Records. From 1960 to 1966, 22 of Orbison's singles reached the Billboard Top 40.
He wrote or co-wrote almost all of his own Top 10 hits, including "Only the Lonely" (1960),
"Running Scared" (1961), "Crying" (1961), "In Dreams" (1963), and "Oh, Pretty Woman" (1964).
Orbison died of a heart attack in December 1988 at age 52.









David Edwin Birney
(April 23, 1939 – April 27, 2022)

was an American actor and director whose career included performances in both contemporary
and classical roles in theatre, film, and television. He is noted for having played the title role in
the television series Serpico. He also starred in Bridget Loves Bernie, an early 1970s TV series
about an interfaith marriage that also starred Meredith Baxter (who he married after the series ended).
He also portrayed Dr. Ben Samuels in St. Elsewhere from 1982 until 1983.








Brent Muscat
(born April 23, 1967)

is an American musician best known as the guitarist of glam metal band Faster Pussycat.
Faster Pussycat was formed in the 1980s Hollywood glam metal boom. The original line up
consisted of Brent, along with Taime Downe and Greg Steele. The band's most successful
album Wake Me When It's Over earned "Gold" status from the RIAA. Brent formed Deluxe
back in 1994 with Marc Anthony vocals, Tommy T-bone Caradonna
(ex-White Lion, Alice Cooper, Lita Ford) on bass and Gary Kaluza (ex-Glory Chain) on guitar.








Timothy James McVeigh
(April 23, 1968 – June 11, 2001)

was an American domestic terrorist who perpetrated the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that
killed 168 people, 19 of whom were children, injured 680, and destroyed one-third of the
Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. The bombing was the deadliest act of terrorism in the United States
prior to the September 11 attacks. It remains the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history.
McVeigh was executed by lethal injection on June 11, 2001, at the Federal Correctional Complex in
Terre Haute, Indiana. His execution, which took place just over six years after the offense, was
carried out in a considerably shorter time than for most inmates awaiting execution.