Celebrity Birthdays
A look at the famous and the fascinating on the day they were born
AARP Members Only Access, June 2023
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PHOTO BY: Stefania M. D'Alessandro/Getty Images for RFF
June 30: Vincent D’Onofrio, 64
Known for his intensity and commitment to dark roles, Vincent D’Onofrio, 64, was born in Brooklyn, New York, on June 30, 1959, and his earliest brush with entertainment came when he worked backstage in community theater productions as a teenager. Following a slew of odd jobs — including serving as bodyguard for celebrities like Robert Plant and Yul Brynner — D’Onofrio honed his craft at New York’s prestigious Actors Studio and made his Broadway debut in 1984. American filmgoers began to sit up and take notice of his talents when he was cast as an unfit and emotionally unstable Marine recruit in Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, a role for which he gained 70 pounds. He continued to rack up supporting roles in films like Mystic Pizza, JFK and Ed Wood, in which he played Orson Welles. One of his most memorable performances was perhaps his most, well, disgusting: You may remember him stealing scenes in Men in Black as an alien cockroach who wears the ill-fitting skin of an abusive farmer named Edgar, whom he has just killed. He traded in the sci-fi physical comedy for a police procedural when he was cast at Detective Bobby Goren in Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and though he left the series behind after eight seasons, he returned to the juggernaut franchise for the show’s 10th and final season — and has even expressed interest in returning to the role for a reboot if creator Dick Wolf ever decides to revive it. In 2015, D’Onofrio made the leap into another beloved franchise when he began playing the supervillain Kingpin in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, first in the series Daredevil and then returning for Hawkeye, with future appearances scheduled for Echo and Daredevil: Born Again. Always good at playing a baddie, D’Onofrio also costars as the real-life mob boss Vincent “The Chin” Gigante in the Epix crime drama Godfather of Harlem, which recently returned for its third season. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Unique Nicole/GA/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images
June 29: Melora Hardin, 56
Born in Houston on June 29, 1967, Melora Hardin, 56, emerged as something of a triple threat from a very early age: She was singing and writing songs before she turned 5, studying with the Joffrey Ballet company by the age of 13, and acting on The Little Rascals–inspired series The Cliffwood Avenue Kids. Hardin would continue landing guest roles on shows like The Love Boat and Little House on the Prairie, and she had her first chance to lead a series when she was cast as Baby on the short-lived TV adaptation of Dirty Dancing. She gained more prominence with her recurring role as Adrian Monk’s late wife, Trudy, on Monk, but it was her turn as Michael Scott’s boss-turned-girlfriend Jan Levinson on The Office that made Hardin a household name among American sitcom fans. Off-screen, she showed off her musical abilities with appearances as Fantine in a Hollywood Bowl concert production of Les Misérables and as Roxie Hart in Chicago on Broadway, and she returned to TV with her Emmy-nominated turn as Tammy on the groundbreaking transgender dramedy Transparent. In 2017, Hardin took on her biggest role in years as an intimidating but ultimately inspiring fashion magazine editor in chief — inspired by Cosmopolitan’s Joanna Coles — on Freeform’s The Bold Type. A recent contestant on Dancing With the Stars, on which she placed sixth, the actress is now flexing her artistic side by debuting a maximalist, collage-inspired line of wallpapers called Storyboards by Melora Hardin. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic/Getty Images
June 28: Kathy Bates, 75
Years before she became an Oscar-winning cinematic powerhouse, Kathy Bates, 75 — who was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on June 28, 1948 — made a name for herself on the New York stage, where she appeared in such works as Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean and Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune. Following a Tony nomination for her role as a suicidal daughter in 1983’s ’Night, Mother, she began to emerge as an in-demand screen actress. Only a few years into her burgeoning film career, Bates landed the coveted role of the terrifyingly obsessed fan Annie Wilkes in the cinematic adaptation of Stephen King’s Misery. A relative Hollywood newcomer, she earned both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for the role, and the American Film Institute has ranked Annie number 17 on its list of the greatest villains of all time. Bates would go on to appear in films like Fried Green Tomatoes and Dolores Claiborne, another King adaptation, before stealing scenes as the “Unsinkable” Molly Brown in Titanic. She also scored three more Oscar nods for Primary Colors, About Schmidt and, most recently, Richard Jewell in 2020. Over the years, she has also enjoyed a robust career on the small screen, as both a director and an actress, yielding 14 Emmy nominations. In addition to her starring role on the NBC legal drama Harry’s Law, Bates had a recurring role on Six Feet Under and won her first Emmy for playing the Ghost of Charlie Harper (Charlie Sheen’s character) on an episode of Two and a Half Men. (Is there anything she can’t do?) In 2013, Ryan Murphy tapped her to join American Horror Story, and over the seasons, she has appeared as everyone from a sadistic New Orleans slave owner to a haunted hotel manager to a bearded woman in a freak show. For something decidedly lighter, Bates also starred as the owner of a marijuana dispensary in the Netflix sitcom Disjointed. Among her many recent and upcoming projects are two that strike a particularly nostalgic tone: She played grandmother Sylvia Simon in the film adaptation of Judy Blume’s beloved coming-of-age novel Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, and this fall she’ll take on Andy Griffith’s iconic title role in CBS’s new gender-swapped version of Matlock. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Dominic Lipinski/Getty Images
June 27: Vera Wang, 74
Arguably the most famous bridal wear designer working in America today, Vera Wang, 74, was born to Chinese immigrant parents in New York City on June 27, 1949. As a child, she was an avid figure skater, even competing for a spot on the U.S. Olympic team. Wang turned to the world of fashion after graduating from Sarah Lawrence College. At Vogue, she worked her way up from assistant to the fashion director to fashion editor by the age of 23. In 1987, Wang left the magazine to design accessories for Ralph Lauren, and after sketching her own wedding dress, she opened a couture bridal boutique in New York. While Wang initially offered designs by other fashion houses, her own sophisticated creations were soon gaining just as much attention, and she began exclusively selling her own gowns. Wang returned to her figure-skating roots when she dressed Nancy Kerrigan for the 1994 Winter Olympics and soon emerged as something of a cultural icon, with her looks appearing on shows like Sex and the City. Over the years, she’s expanded into unexpected corners of the design world, developing an affordable line for Kohl’s, fragrances, handbags, engagement rings, a line of Wedgwood china and even uniforms for the Philadelphia Eagles cheerleaders. A Council of Fashion Designers of America lifetime achievement award winner, Wang was also recently awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Biden, who joked that he often saw her dresses in the First Lady’s closet. “I have to say that it’s such an honor to craft clothing,” Wang said at the White House ceremony this March. “But, to see it really worn, and enjoyed and experienced by someone like the First Lady, I don’t really think it gets better for any designer, to tell you the truth.” —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Leonardo Munoz/AFP via Getty Images
June 26: Sean Hayes, 53
Multi-hyphenate Emmy winner Sean Hayes, 53, was born in the Chicago suburb of Glen Ellyn on June 26, 1970, and spent his younger years excelling in several art forms: He was a classical pianist, a stand-up and improv comedian, and even a member of a pop band. Following smaller film roles and an appearance in a laundromat-set Doritos Super Bowl commercial, Hayes landed the role of a lifetime when he was cast as the charismatic Jack McFarland in NBC’s groundbreaking LGBT sitcom Will & Grace. Over the course of 11 seasons (including a reboot return in 2017), Hayes picked up seven Emmy nominations, taking home the outstanding supporting actor trophy in 2000. Hayes and costar Eric McCormack even shared one of the first gay kisses on network TV. Hayes has appeared on the big screen in films like The Cat in the Hat and The Three Stooges, but he seems even more at home on the Broadway stage. He made his debut on the Great White Way in 2010 with the Burt Bacharach–penned musical Promises, Promises, for which he earned a Tony nomination, and his celebrated turn hosting the Tony Awards that season won him a second Emmy. Since then, Hayes has returned to Broadway to play God in An Act of God and pianist and composer Oscar Levant in this year’s Good Night, Oscar. For the latter, he took home the 2023 Drama Desk Award for outstanding lead performance in a play, which he shared with Jessica Chastain, and the Tony for best lead actor in a play. He’s scheduled to continue in the role through August, but if you can’t make it to New York before then, you can still enjoy Hayes in his other role as one of the country’s most popular podcasters: Since 2020, he has cohosted the SmartLess podcast with his friends Jason Bateman and Will Arnett, and their recent live tour spawned a documentary that began streaming on Max last month. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Mike Marsland/WireImage/Getty Images
June 25: Ricky Gervais, 62
Known for his irreverence and willingness to speak truth to power, comedian Ricky Gervais, 62, was born in a suburb of Reading, England, on June 25, 1961. He started his career wanting to make people move rather than laugh: At university, he formed a synth-pop duo called Seona Dancing, which scored a minor hit in the Philippines in the mid-’80s. Over the years, he began hosting radio shows and dabbling in sketch comedy, but he really hit the big leagues with the 2001 release of the era-redefining mockumentary The Office, on which he starred as delusional paper company boss David Brent. Though the sitcom only ran for 12 episodes and a two-part Christmas special, it forever changed international comedy, ushering in a slew of imitators, and Gervais himself executive produced the ultra-popular American spin-off. Following the success of The Office, he branched out to stand-up comedy while also trying his hand at podcasting and writing children’s books. His follow-up sitcom, Extras, attracted such big-name guest stars as Ben Stiller, Kate Winslet and Samuel L. Jackson, and earned him an Emmy for outstanding lead actor in a comedy series. In addition, Gervais was a frequent host of the Golden Globes, though his sarcastic wit and no-holds-barred critique of the industry often landed him in hot water. He continued to create and star in shows like Life’s Too Short, which costarred Warwick Davis; the travel docuseries An Idiot Abroad; and Derek, in which he played a care worker at a home for the elderly. Most recently, he took a slightly darker turn with After Life, a black comedy about a widower who contemplates suicide and instead decides to punish those around him by being an outspoken jerk. (Surprise: His plan backfires, and the series ends up being a rather sweet look at community and support.) Gervais is currently touring the world with his “Armageddon” stand-up show. He’ll be playing two nights at Radio City Music Hall later this week, before continuing on to the United Kingdom and Europe. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Amy Sussman/Getty Images
June 24: Mick Fleetwood, 76
The drummer and cofounder of the seminal rock band Fleetwood Mac, Mick Fleetwood, 76, was born in Cornwall, England, on June 24, 1947. In 1967, he was one of the band’s founding members, and while their 1968 single “Albatross” proved a success in the UK during the era’s British blues boom, it was a move to Southern California that would forever change their sound. Fleetwood and his bandmates teamed up with Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, and their albums together stormed up the charts, emerging as critical hits. Their 1975 self-titled album hit number 1 in the States, while the follow-up, Rumours, won the Grammy for album of the year. Along the way, the band landed nine singles on the Billboard Top 10, including “Dreams,” “Little Lies” and “Don’t Stop,” and Fleetwood’s drumming remained a vital part of what made them successful. When Rolling Stone included him at number 60 on the list of the 100 greatest drummers of all time, they wrote, “Fleetwood’s rhythmic personality shines through on every cut from the band’s classic best-seller Rumours. … As a performer, [his] instinctive flair and childlike glee behind the kit remain intact to this day.” The band was inducted into the Rock & Roll of Fame in 1998. Fleetwood has continued to experiment and innovate, releasing solo music and albums with side projects. His latest was a 2021 live album, recorded at the London Palladium, honoring the musical legacy of founding Fleetwood Mac guitarist Peter Green, who died shortly after the performance. Following the death of Christine McVie, Fleetwood took to the Grammy stage with Sheryl Crow and Bonnie Raitt to honor his late bandmate with a performance of her “Songbird.” He has said that reuniting the band without McVie would be “unthinkable.” —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Steve Granitz/FilmMagic/Getty Images
June 23: Selma Blair, 51
A cult favorite actress–turned–fierce advocate for disability rights, Selma Blair, 51, was born on June 23, 1972, in the Detroit suburbs. She first turned to acting after graduating with a degree in photography from the University of Michigan. Despite losing out on some high-profile gigs on Dawson’s Creek and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Blair landed a life-changing role as the girl next door Cecile Caldwell in Cruel Intentions, a contemporary teen update of Dangerous Liaisons for which she and costar Sarah Michelle Gellar shared an MTV Movie Award for best kiss. Her fan base grew over her two seasons on the WB teen comedy Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane. She then stole scenes in films like Legally Blonde, The Sweetest Thing and Guillermo del Toro’s offbeat Hellboy franchise. Back on the small screen, Blair appeared on the sitcoms Kath & Kim and Anger Management, before surprising audiences by channeling Kris Jenner on the O.J. Simpson trial season of American Crime Story. An outspoken activist during the #MeToo movement and a muse to Karl Lagerfeld, Blair revealed in 2018 that she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. “I’m disabled,” she wrote on Instagram. “I fall sometimes. I drop things. My memory is foggy. And my left side is asking for directions from a broken gps. But we are doing it. And I laugh and I don’t know exactly what I will do precisely but I will do my best.” In 2021, she was the subject of an intimate documentary called Introducing, Selma Blair about her struggles with MS, and last year, she told her own story in the emotionally raw and surprisingly funny autobiography Mean Baby: A Memoir of Growing Up. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Taylor Hill/FilmMagic/Getty Images
June 22: Meryl Streep, 74
Inarguably one of the most talented (and celebrated) actresses in Hollywood history, Meryl Streep, 74, was born in Summit, New Jersey, on June 22, 1949, and came out of the gate running after graduating from the Yale School of Drama. Following a few notable New York City stage performances, Streep landed her first film role in 1977’s Julia. Only a year later, she earned her first Oscar nomination, for The Deer Hunter. Streep took home two Academy Awards in rapid succession, as best supporting actress for Kramer vs. Kramer and then best actress for Sophie’s Choice, a wrenching drama in which she played a Holocaust survivor. The role proved her dedication to her craft: To prepare, she took courses in both German and Polish. Over the years, Streep has picked up a record-breaking 21 Oscar nominations, and she’s had particular success playing real people, including labor union activist Karen Silkwood (Silkwood), grieving Australian mother Lindy Chamberlain (A Cry in the Dark), iconic TV cooking personality Julia Child (Julie & Julia) and controversial British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (The Iron Lady), a role that earned Streep her third Oscar. But part of the reason for her continued success is the array of genres she has mastered, from musicals (Mamma Mia!, Into the Woods) to comedies (The Devil Wears Prada, Death Becomes Her) to highbrow literary adaptations (The French Lieutenant’s Woman, Little Women). A two-time Emmy winner, for the 1978 miniseries Holocaust and 2003’s Angels in America, Streep landed her biggest TV role in decades when she played Nicole Kidman’s mother-in-law on the second season of Big Little Lies. She’s set to try out something completely new when she teams up with Steve Martin and Martin Short for Season 3 of the acclaimed Hulu sitcom Only Murders in the Building, which starts streaming in August. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Michael Buckner/Variety/Penske Media via Getty Images
June 21: Gretchen Carlson, 57
Born in Minnesota on June 21, 1966, journalist Gretchen Carlson, 57, had a very impressive youth that set her on a course for big things: A violin soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra by the age of 13, she was her high school’s valedictorian before going on to study at Oxford and Stanford. In 1989, Carlson was crowned Miss America. She began working as a political reporter in Richmond, eventually becoming a local news anchor. In 2002, CBS News tapped her as coanchor of The Saturday Early Show, but she would make her biggest splash on Fox News, first as a cohost on Fox & Friends and then as the host of her own daily show, The Real Story With Gretchen Carlson, which ran for more than 600 episodes. In 2016, her time with the cable news network came to an abrupt end when Carlson sued Fox News founder and CEO Roger Ailes for sexual harassment. She soon received a $20 million settlement as well as an apology from the network, and emerged as an early pioneer in the #MeToo movement. For her willingness to speak truth to power, she was named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World, and she published the book Be Fierce: Stop Harassment and Take Your Power Back. Her story proved so compelling, in fact, that she appeared as a character in two high-profile projects: Carlson was played by Nicole Kidman in the film Bombshell and by Naomi Watts in the Showtime miniseries The Loudest Voice. In recent years, Carlson cofounded the nonprofit Lift Our Voices, which fights against forced arbitration clauses and nondisclosure agreements in employee contracts. Her advocacy has resulted in the passage of new legislation, including the Speak Out Act, which President Biden signed into law in December. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty Images
June 20: Nicole Kidman, 56
One of the most acclaimed actresses of her generation, Nicole Kidman, 56, was born in Honolulu on June 20, 1967, to Australian parents and moved to Sydney as a child. After dabbling in dance and mime as a child, Kidman made her film debut in 1983’s Bush Christmas at the age of 16. Her first Hollywood film was the auto-racing Days of Thunder, and she soon married costar Tom Cruise, with whom she shared the screen again in Far and Away and Eyes Wide Shut, before their much-publicized divorce in 2001. Kidman began to show off her impressive range as an actress in the beloved 1995 satire To Die For, earning a BAFTA nomination for playing an aspiring newscaster who will do anything to get ahead. Her first of many Oscar nominations came with her musical turn as Satine in the lavish musical Moulin Rouge!, and she won the following year for her transformative role as Virginia Woolf in The Hours. Further nominations followed for Rabbit Hole and Lion, but you might be just as impressed with the genre-spanning roster of acclaimed films for which she didn’t receive a nod, including the horror film The Others, the Civil War epic Cold Mountain, the dark parable Dogville and the Diane Arbus biopic Fur. Kidman has also found considerable success on the small screen, earning her first Emmy nomination for playing war correspondent Martha Gellhorn in the HBO film Hemingway & Gellhorn. She added two more trophies to her shelf when she won an Emmy for best actress in the soapy and critically adored Big Little Lies, which also brought her an award as producer when it won best limited series. In recent years, Kidman has divided her time between prestige TV (The Undoing, Nine Perfect Strangers) and films such as Being the Ricardos, for which she earned her fifth Oscar nomination for channeling Lucille Ball. This November, she’ll return to the romantic comedy genre for the first time in years when she appears in Netflix’s A Family Affair, about a young woman (Joey King) who works as an assistant for a movie star (Zac Efron) who starts dating her mother (Kidman). —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Sean Zanni/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
June 19: Salman Rushdie, 76
One of the most controversial literary figures in modern history, Salman Rushdie, 76, was born in Mumbai, India, on June 19, 1947, and educated at the University of Cambridge, where he studied history. After a brief stint as an advertising copywriter, Rushdie published his first book in 1975, a fantasy/sci-fi novel called Grimus. His follow-up in 1981, Midnight’s Children, set him on a course for literary rock star status: The modern Indian fable about a pickle factory worker named Saleem Sinai won the Booker Prize. The novel that changed Rushdie’s life forever was 1988’s The Satanic Verses, a magical realist story that depicts the Prophet Muhammad and was deemed blasphemous by devout Muslims. Many countries banned the book, and in February 1989, Iran’s spiritual leader Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa (an Islamic legal pronouncement) about Rushdie, offering a bounty to anyone who would kill him. He went into hiding with the help of Scotland Yard, though he continued to publish essay and criticism collections, short stories, novels and a children’s book. When the Iranian government announced that it was no longer actively pursuing the fatwa, Rushdie retold his harrowing experience in 2012’s Joseph Anton: A Memoir, which takes its name from an alias he used while in hiding. Over the decades, he’s been knighted by Queen Elizabeth II and awarded the PEN Pinter Prize, which honors a British writer’s body of work. Last year, the fatwa issue reared its ugly head once again when Rushdie was stabbed onstage before he was set to deliver a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York state. He’s been slowly recovering, although he lost sight in one eye. this year, he told The New Yorker in his first interview since the attack that his “main overwhelming feeling is gratitude.” As he explained to David Remnick, “I’ve been better. But, considering what happened, I’m not so bad.” —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Lester Cohen/WireImage/Getty Images
June 18: Ray LaMontagne, 50
Singer-songwriter Ray LaMontagne, 50, has a musical origin story that borders on the spiritual: Born in Nashua, New Hampshire, on June 18, 1973, LaMontagne was working on the assembly line at a shoe factory when he heard the Stephen Stills song “Treetop Flyer” on the clock radio one morning; he was so enthralled that he skipped work to track down the song, trading in his VW bus for an acoustic guitar and recording a soul-folk album in the Maine woods. His 2004 debut, Trouble, showed off his raspy vocals and heartfelt lyrics, and he soon amassed a devoted fanbase, thanks to singles including “You Are the Best Thing,” which peaked at number 90 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2008. That year kicked off a string of commercial and critical successes. His next three albums — 2008’s Gossip in the Grain, 2010’s God Willin’ & the Creek Don’t Rise and 2014’s Supernova — each reached number 3 on the Billboard album charts, and God Willin’ took home the Grammy Award for best contemporary folk album. His most recent release was the 2020 album Monovision, which he wrote, performed, produced and engineered all on his own during the COVID-19 pandemic. Beginning this September, you’ll be able to catch LaMontagne on tour, with notable stops including Ryman Auditorium in Nashville and The Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Taylor Hill/Getty Images
June 17: Tory Burch, 57
If you knew Tory Burch, 57, as a child, you might be surprised to learn that she’s become a highly successful fashion mogul: Born on June 17, 1966, in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, she grew up on a farm as a self-described tomboy. Her first foray in fashion came when she worked at a Benetton in the King of Prussia Mall, and she was soon making her way up the ladder in the fashion industry, from Zoran to Harper’s Bazaar to Ralph Lauren, where she worked as a copywriter. After a stint in publicity at Vera Wang, Burch launched her own fashion empire in February 2004 with the opening of a New York City flagship store and a line that ranged from sportswear to high-end accessories, focusing on bold, graphic prints. “I really wanted to fill a missing niche that I saw in the market at the time,” she told Time magazine. “It was important to me that our clothes were easy to wear and were priced so women could afford them.” Burch continued to innovate in the world of style, holding her first New York Fashion Week runway show in 2011 and expanding into homeware with a “Lettuce Ware” collection that she created alongside Palm Springs pottery maven Dodie Thayer. Recently, Burch teamed up with the School of Fashion at Parsons School of Design on a five-year partnership that will include a scholarship fund and mentorship opportunities for up-and-coming designers. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: JC Olivera/Getty Images
June 16: John Cho, 51
Born in Seoul, South Korea, on June 16, 1972, John Cho, 50, emigrated with his family to Los Angeles when he was 6 years old. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in English literature from the University of California, Berkeley, he moved back to L.A. to teach seventh grade English, and during that time that he dipped his toe in the acting waters by appearing in productions of the Asian American theater company East West Players. Cho first came to prominence in the American Pie franchise in a small but pivotal role as a guy who was attracted to moms (he popularized a now-common slang term that you can look up yourself…), before appearing in Justin Lin’s Better Luck Tomorrow, about a group of overachieving East Asian U.S. high school seniors who dabble in criminal activities. His biggest break came in 2004 with the stoner comedy Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, which overcame its modest budget to spawn a sequel and a Christmas special. He followed in the footsteps of another groundbreaking actor, George Takei, when he took on the role of Sulu in the new Star Trek franchise, and he continued to rack up firsts throughout his career: In 2014, he costarred in the short-lived sitcom Selfie, in which he played the Henry Higgins character in an updated twist on Pygmalion/My Fair Lady, making him the first Asian American actor to lead a romantic comedy on American television. After his turn in the acclaimed 2017 drama Columbus, Cho broke ground once again with Searching, one of the first mainstream Hollywood thrillers to star an Asian American actor. He returned to TV as the lead of Netflix’s live-action remake of the anime classic Cowboy Bebop and is set to appear on the second season of Apple TV+’s The Afterparty, which begins streaming next month. If you haven’t seen the first season, you’re in for a treat: It’s a genre-jumping murder mystery in which every episode is told from a different potential suspect’s point of view — with a unique style (musical, animation, horror) to match. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Araya Doheny/Getty Images for STARZ
June 15: Helen Hunt, 60
Decades before she emerged as one of the most popular TV stars of the 1990s, Helen Hunt, 60, enjoyed an early career as a child actress, thanks to the support of her father, theater director and acting coach Gordon Hunt. She was born in Culver City, California, on June 15, 1963, and by her teen years, she was appearing on series including The Mary Tyler Moore Show (as Murray’s daughter) and Swiss Family Robinson. After a recurring turn on St. Elsewhere, Hunt graduated to the A-list in 1992 when she was cast as the lovable Manhattan career woman Jamie Buchman on NBC’s Mad About You, a role that earned her four consecutive best actress Emmys. Her success translated to the big screen as well, where Hunt led a blockbuster action flick, Twister, before earning an Academy Award for best actress for her turn as an overworked single mother and waitress in As Good as It Gets. In the early 2000s, Hunt was practically unavoidable at the movie theater: In 2000 alone, she starred in Dr. T & the Women, Pay It Forward, Cast Away and What Women Want! She flexed her creative muscles behind the camera, making her feature directorial debut in 2007 with the gentle comedy Then She Found Me, before earning another Oscar nomination for her work in 2012’s The Sessions, about a sex surrogate who treats a man in an iron lung. During the height of the sitcom reboot craze, Hunt reteamed with Paul Reiser for a limited eighth season of Mad About You in 2019; though it was far from a critical success, she’s had more luck on the Starz dramedy Blindspotting, a sequel to the 2018 film of the same name, on which she plays a supportive (if sometimes messy) mother who takes in her daughter-in-law and grandson after her son is incarcerated. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Hoda Davaine/Dave Benett/Getty Images
June 14: Boy George, 62
One of the most flamboyantly glam pop stars of the 1980s, Boy George, 62, was born into a working-class Irish clan in London on June 14, 1961 — and he described himself as the “pink sheep” of the family. After being expelled from school, he took on a series of odd jobs, including stints as a milliner and a makeup artist for the Royal Shakespeare Company. During the ’80s, George became influenced by the New Romantic movement, and he formed a band called Culture Club, comprising members of different ethnic and religious backgrounds. Their 1982 debut, Kissing to Be Clever, spawned the hit single “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me” and their follow-up, Colour by Numbers, launched “Karma Chameleon,” which topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the U.S. for four weeks. After a lead vocal slot on the Band Aid charity single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” George faced personal troubles, battling heroin addiction and getting arrested for drug possession. After Culture Club disbanded, George released solo music, and his highest-charting single was “The Crying Game,” which appeared in the film of the same name. In 2002, George debuted his autobiographical West End musical, Taboo, which transferred to Broadway with the financial backing of Rosie O’Donnell; despite negative reviews, the production earned four Tony nominations. He has become something of a fixture on reality television, hosting The Voice UK and The Voice Australia, and appearing as a contestant on The New Celebrity Apprentice and last year’s edition of I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! In 2018, George reunited with Culture Club to release their first studio LP in nearly two decades, and the band is hitting the road next month on a tour with fellow new wave artists Howard Jones and Berlin, after a stint opening for Rod Stewart. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images
June 13: Stellan Skarsgård, 72
The patriarch of a Swedish acting clan, Stellan Skarsgård, 72, was born on June 13, 1951, in Gothenburg, and he came out of the gate running as a teen star in the title role on the 1968 TV series Bombi Bitt och jag. His star continued to rise with leading roles in Swedish films including the Oscar-nominated The Ox and smaller parts in international films such as The Unbearable Lightness of Being and The Hunt for Red October. His break, so to speak, came with the 1996 Lars von Trier film Breaking the Waves, in which he played a Danish oil rig worker who becomes paralyzed in an accident. He and the Danish provocateur director collaborated on many more controversial (and often downright scandalous) films, including the Björk musical Dancer in the Dark, Dogville, Melancholia and Nymphomaniac: Vol. I and II. Despite these decidedly darker roles, Skarsgård has been able to show off his range in a trio of big-budget film franchises, playing Bootstrap Bill in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, Bill Anderson in Mamma Mia! and its sequel, and Erik Selvig in the ever-sprawling Marvel Cinematic Universe. In 2019, the father of eight (including actors Alexander, Gustaf, Bill and Valter) earned some of the most rapturous reviews of his career for the HBO miniseries Chernobyl, in which he played Boris Shcherbina, the deputy prime minister in charge of energy. For the role, he earned a Golden Globe and a Critics Choice Award, plus nominations for the Primetime Emmy and BAFTA. Most recently, he appeared on the Disney+ Star Wars prequel series Andor as Luthen Rael, a member of the Rebel Alliance. He’s set to return to the sci-fi world of Dune, as the monstrous Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, for its upcoming sequel, which hits theaters in November. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Noam Galai/Getty Images
June 12: Timothy Busfield, 66
Best known for his Emmy-winning role on thirtysomething, actor Timothy Busfield, 66, was born in Lansing, Michigan, on June 12, 1957, and he first came to the attention of many American moviegoers as Arnold Poindexter in Revenge of the Nerds. He soon landed a recurring gig on the CBS medical drama Trapper John, M.D., while working in the theater world offscreen. One of his most lasting contributions to that art form came in 1986 when he cofounded a Sacramento, California-based touring children’s theater company, which has been going strong for more than three decades. In 1987, Busfield landed his most sizable role as ad executive Elliot Weston in the ultimate yuppie drama, thirtysomething. Although the character wasn’t always likable, Busfield’s performance was undeniable, and after three Emmy nominations, he finally took home the trophy for outstanding supporting actor in a drama series in 1991. Audiences will also remember him as Kevin Costner’s character’s brother-in-law in Field of Dreams; the film’s setting would have felt familiar to the actor, who played nine seasons of semiprofessional baseball in Sacramento. He became a semi-frequent collaborator with Aaron Sorkin, appearing as the senior White House correspondent in The West Wing and as TV director Cal Shanley in Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Busfield has maintained a steady presence onscreen with guest gigs, including playing Benjamin Franklin on Sleepy Hollow, and he’s also become an impressive force behind the camera: He executive-produced the series Ed, Without a Trace and Lipstick Jungle and directed episodes of Chicago Med, FBI and dozens of other shows. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty Images for Boisdale
June 11: Hugh Laurie, 64
Born in Oxford, England, on June 11, 1959, the son of a gold-medal-winning Olympic rower, Hugh Laurie, 64, studied at Eton College and Cambridge University and followed his dad into the sport: He and his partner even became the 1977 national junior coxed pairs champions. While touring with the Cambridge Footlights comedy revue, he became part of another winning duo when he met actor and playwright Stephen Fry; together, they worked on plays for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, a sketch comedy series, the P.G. Wodehouse adaptation Jeeves and Wooster and the period comedy Blackadder. On the big screen, he appeared in Sense and Sensibility, adapted by fellow Footlights member Emma Thompson, and 101 Dalmatians, in which he played the bumbling dognapper Jasper. In 2004, Laurie landed the role of a lifetime when he was cast as the acid-witted but brilliant physician Gregory House on the Fox medical procedural House, a portrayal that earned him a bevy of awards and a spot in Guinness World Records as the most-watched leading man on television. He played Sen. Tom James on Veep, a part written for him by series creator Armando Iannucci. After his Golden Globe–winning turn on the John le Carré adaptation The Night Manager, Laurie reteamed with Iannucci for a comedic take on the works of Charles Dickens in The Personal History of David Copperfield and the HBO sci-fi comedy Avenue 5, on which he played the captain of a space cruise ship that’s thrown off course and requires three years to get back to Earth. Last year, he wrote, directed and costarred in the three-part Agatha Christie miniseries Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? and he’s set to appear in another literary adaptation this November, Netflix’s All the Light We Cannot See, based on Anthony Doerr’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Steve Granitz/FilmMagic/Getty Images
June 10: Jeanne Tripplehorn, 60
Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 10, 1963, Jeanne Tripplehorn, 60, attended the Juilliard School, and after a few notable appearances in off-Broadway productions, she got her big break playing a psychiatrist in the erotic thriller Basic Instinct. Soon, she emerged as an in-demand actress, with roles in high-profile projects such as The Firm and Waterworld, and she made a splash on the Broadway stage in a production of Chekhov’s Three Sisters opposite Amy Irving and Lili Taylor. In 2006, Tripplehorn made the leap to the small screen with an acclaimed turn as the wife of a Utah polygamist on the HBO drama Big Love, and she earned an Emmy nomination for playing Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in Grey Gardens, about a perhaps equally dysfunctional family. After her prestige turns, she made a swing for mainstream network TV fame on Criminal Minds, but she left the procedural after two seasons. In recent years, after roles in the films Little Pink House and Gloria Bell, Tripplehorn returned to the world of critically beloved television on two period pieces: the 1960s-set limited series Mrs. America, on which she played the sister-in-law of conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly, and the 1880s-set The Gilded Age, on which she plays a social outcast in New York City high society. For something completely different, Tripplehorn starred last year on the Amazon Prime thriller series The Terminal List as the secretary of defense opposite Chris Pratt’s former Navy SEAL officer. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Michael Buckner/Variety/Penske Media via Getty Images
June 9: Aaron Sorkin, 62
Few writers in American pop culture have as distinct a voice as Aaron Sorkin, 62, who was born on June 9, 1961, in New York City. A member of his high school drama club, Sorkin attended Syracuse University, graduating with a degree in musical theater, and his big breakthrough came with the debut of his 1989 Broadway play, A Few Good Men, based on a story he had heard from his sister Deborah, a Navy judge advocate general. The play was adapted into an Oscar-nominated film, in which Demi Moore played a character based on his sister. The late 1990s signaled a turn to the small screen, with his critically acclaimed dramedy Sports Night, set behind the scenes at a cable sports show; despite only lasting two seasons, it kicked off Sorkin’s trademark style of witty, erudite ensembles who always find the opportunity for a brisk “walk and talk.” The style crystalized further on his hit political drama The West Wing, which earned 27 Primetime Emmys, including outstanding drama series four times in a row. He had slightly diminishing returns with his TV follow-ups, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and The Newsroom, but he found another niche. He became the go-to screenwriter for scripts about fascinating real-world figures: a Cold War–era U.S. congressman in Charlie Wilson’s War, Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network (for which he earned a best adapted screenplay Oscar), Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane in Moneyball and the eponymous Apple cofounder in Steve Jobs. In 2017, he made his directorial debut with Molly’s Game and later helmed The Trial of the Chicago 7 and Being the Ricardos. In recent years, Sorkin made his grand return to the Broadway stage, with two high-profile adaptations of beloved mid-century works: first, a dramatic retelling of To Kill a Mockingbird that became a blockbuster smash, and this year’s Lincoln Center revival of Camelot, for which he reimagined the musical’s somewhat dated script. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Dave J Hogan/Getty Images
June 8: Nancy Sinatra, 83
The firstborn child of Frank and Nancy Barbato Sinatra, the younger Nancy Sinatra, 83, was born in Jersey City on June 8, 1940, and she emerged as something of a pop icon in her own right by the mid-1960s. Four of her singles reached the top 40 from 1965 to 1967, and no doubt the standout was the megahit “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’,” which reached number 1 and included a promotional video (think an early music video) that played on jukeboxes. Dressed in red leather boots and a miniskirt, Sinatra was backed by an army of go-go dancers, and the visuals turned the song into one of the defining songs of the era. Other hits included the chart-topping “Somethin’ Stupid,” a duet with her father, and the theme to the James Bond film You Only Live Twice; years later, her cover of Cher’s “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)” sparked a bit of a Nancy renaissance when it appeared on the soundtrack of Kill Bill Vol. 1. Throughout the ’60s, she proved herself a bankable actress as well, appearing in Marriage on the Rocks (as Frank Sinatra’s character’s daughter), the Roger Corman–directed biker flick The Wild Angels and Speedway, a musical in which she starred alongside Elvis Presley. Sinatra kept releasing albums, including 2013’s Shifting Gears, covers of songs including “MacArthur Park” and “I Don’t Know How to Love Him.” This spring, Sinatra was the grand marshal of Palm Springs’ 85th birthday parade, and the archival record label Light in the Attic is in the process of reissuing her classics on vinyl. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Ulf ANDERSEN/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
June 7: Louise Erdrich, 69
A member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, author Louise Erdrich, 69, is one of the most renowned and widely read Native American voices of her generation. She was born in Little Falls, Minnesota, on June 7, 1954, and grew up in North Dakota, where her parents taught at a Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school. After attending Dartmouth as part of the school’s first class of women, she and her future husband, Michael Dorris, collaborated on the short story, “The World’s Greatest Fisherman,” which picked up the Nelson Algren fiction prize in 1982; they expanded the story into the novel Love Medicine, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction in 1984. At the time, she released her first poetry collection, Jacklight, which focused on the divides between Native and non-Native cultures and incorporated Ojibwa myths and legends. Over the decades, Erdrich’s novels have dived deep into the world of her childhood: Love Medicine kicked off a four-book series about life on and around a reservation in North Dakota; 2003’s The Master Butchers Singing Club expanded outward to look at the German, Polish and Scandinavian people who live in a small town nearby. Her work has been recognized with the 2012 National Book Award for The Round House, about an Ojibwa boy who seeks justice after his mother is sexually assaulted, and the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for The Night Watchman, which was inspired by her grandfather’s fight to stop Native displacement in the 1950s. In addition to her writing, Erdrich is the owner of Birchbark Books & Native Arts, a Minneapolis bookstore largely dedicated to Native writers. Her latest published work is “The Hollow Children,” which appeared in The New Yorker in November and follows a North Dakota school bus driver as he tries to maintain his composure while driving during a historic blizzard. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Daniele Venturelli/WireImage/Getty images
June 6: Natalie Morales, 51
Journalist Natalie Morales, 51, developed a wide understanding of the world from a young age, and she didn’t have to look far for inspiration: As a U.S. Air Force brat, she was born in Taipei on June 6, 1972, to Brazilian and Puerto Rican parents and spent much of her youth overseas, living in Brazil, Spain and Panama. After majoring in journalism and Latin American studies at Rutgers University, Morales worked her way up the ranks at a TV station in Hartford, Connecticut, then made the leap to Court TV and MSNBC. In 2006, NBC hired Morales as a national correspondent on Today, and she spent the next 15 years taking on different roles at the long-running morning institution, including cohost of the third hour, news anchor and West Coast anchor, while pulling double duty as the host of Access Hollywood. She reported on such major news events as the Chilean miner rescue, Hurricane Katrina, the Indian Ocean tsunami, the war in Iraq and the explosion of the space shuttle Columbia, and her efforts were recognized with a 2010 Daytime Emmy. In 2021, Morales stepped down from NBC News after more than two decades to moderate the panel on CBS’s The Talk, and she’s increasing her screen time at the network with a new gig as a CBS News correspondent that allows her to work on stories for 48 Hours, CBS Mornings, CBS Sunday Morning and more. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Nathan Congleton/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
June 5: Suze Orman, 72
Born in Chicago to Russian-Jewish immigrants on June 5, 1951, Suze Orman, 72, emerged as one of the leading financial advisers of her generation, known for her unorthodox style and charismatic personality. After college, Orman worked as a waitress and decided to open her own restaurant, but a stockbroker lost her funds in a series of investments — a setback that kicked off her lifelong obsession with financial responsibility. She enrolled in the Merrill Lynch stockbroker training program, becoming the company’s first female broker in California. She worked her way up the ladder, eventually opening her namesake financial group, but where Orman really shined was as a communicator. In 1994, she published You’ve Earned It, Don’t Lose It, which she sold on QVC, and Oprah Winfrey soon added Orman to her show’s roster of experts. Along the way, she became known for her New Age approach to finance, talking about money’s “energy force” and turning to crystals for guidance. She landed her own CNBC show, which lasted for 13 years. Orman became such a force in pop culture that Kristen Wiig played her six times on Saturday Night Live. After 10 consecutive New York Times bestsellers, the Matriarch of Money has moved into the podcast space with her show Suze Orman’s Women & Money, which is still going strong after more than 450 episodes. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Emily Assiran/Contour by Getty Images for 90's Con
June 4: Scott Wolf, 55
Known as one of the most sensitive heartthrobs on 1990s television, Scott Wolf, 55, was born in Boston on June 4, 1968, and earned a degree in finance from George Washington University before diving into the world of acting. After a slew of bit parts on shows including Saved by the Bell, he landed his breakout gig as Bailey Salinger on Party of Five in 1994. For six seasons, he played the lovable rebel who steps into the role of caretaker after the death of his parents and struggles with alcoholism. Like many “teen” stars of the ’90s, he was playing a 16-year-old at the age of 26, his youthful appearance working in his favor. During his time on the show, he appeared in films such as The Evening Star and Go and starred on Broadway in Side Man. He returned to the small screen as a doctor named Jake Hartman on Everwood and has remained a steady fixture on television, appearing on the alien thriller V, the crime drama Perception and the medical procedural The Night Shift. In 2019, he was cast on the CW drama Nancy Drew as the teenage detective’s widowed father, criminal defense attorney Carson Drew. The series, which returned for its fourth season, is set to complete its run in August. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Randy Brooke/Getty Images
June 3: Anderson Cooper, 56
Known for his prematurely gray hair and charismatic personality, newsman Anderson Cooper, 56, was famously born into the Vanderbilt clan, the son of heiress Gloria, on June 3, 1967. After a childhood in New York City where he worked as a model, he went to Yale and graduated in 1989 with a degree in political science. He landed a job as a fact-checker for Channel One (which broadcast to American classrooms) and used a forged press pass to go to Myanmar, where he self-produced reports. These caught the attention of the news network, and he moved his way up to chief international correspondent, reporting from the Balkans and sub-Saharan Africa. In 1995, he was poached by ABC, which hired him to coanchor World News Now, and he briefly left the news desk to host the reality competition series The Mole. He made the leap to CNN in 2002, anchoring his own series Anderson Cooper 360º and earned national attention for his sensitive front-line reporting from New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and from Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. Beyond his work on CNN, Cooper has hosted his own syndicated daytime talk show and worked as a correspondent on CBS’s long-running news magazine 60 Minutes. He’s also known for his ability to — occasionally! — cut loose, made famous during his alcohol-fueled stints alongside Andy Cohen hosting CNN’s New Year’s Eve coverage. He came out as gay in 2012, and in 2016 became the first openly LGBT person to moderate a presidential debate. His work has earned him two Peabody Awards and 12 Emmys. Last year, he ventured into podcasting with his deeply felt series All There Is With Anderson Cooper, on which he discusses grief and loss with celebrities such as Stephen Colbert and Molly Shannon. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Arturo Holmes/Getty Images
June 2: Wayne Brady, 51
Born in Georgia on June 2, 1972, Wayne Brady, 51, got his start in entertainment playing Tigger at Disney World, though it didn’t exactly go off without a hitch — he fainted from the heat inside the costume on his first day! Most people know Brady from his big break on the improv megahit Whose Line Is It Anyway?, on which he became especially beloved for his musical prowess and quick wit, and he earned a 2003 Primetime Emmy for outstanding individual in a variety or music program. A man of a million talents, Brady went on to host a ’60s-inspired variety show and a daytime talk show, which ran for two years and earned him Daytime Emmys for outstanding talk show and host. Unsurprisingly, Brady was a perfect fit for the Broadway stage, first stepping into the role of Billy Flynn in the long-running Chicago revival and later playing the drag queen Lola in Kinky Boots; in Chicago, he landed an impressive role as Aaron Burr in the touring cast of Hamilton. Brady’s talents have made him a formidable force on competition shows: He won The Masked Singer as the Fox in 2019, and in 2022 came in third place on Dancing With the Stars Season 31. He may have found his perfect role as an ultra-charismatic game show host. For 14 years, he’s hosted Let’s Make a Deal, amounting to nearly 1,800 episodes and an avalanche of Daytime Emmy nominations. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images
June 1: Jonathan Pryce, 76
An actor’s actor who has shown off his impressive skills on stage and screen, in highbrow fare and blockbusters, Sir Jonathan Pryce, 76, was born in Holywell, Wales, on June 1, 1947. After graduating from the acclaimed drama school RADA, he emerged as a force of nature on the U.K. stage, remembered for his Olivier Award–winning roles in Hamlet and Miss Saigon and his Tony-winning roles in Comedians and the Saigon Broadway transfer. On the big screen, he made a splash in Terry Gilliam’s dystopian drama Brazil, and he’s shown off an impressive range in Evita, The Age of Innocence, Tomorrow Never Dies and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. In recent years, Pryce has had something of a career renaissance, sparked perhaps by his role as the religious leaders Thomas Wolsey in Wolf Hall and the High Sparrow on Game of Thrones. He costarred with Glenn Close in the critically adored drama The Wife and earned his first Oscar nomination almost 45 years after his screen debut for playing yet another religious figure, Pope Francis, in The Two Popes. Following a spin as a retired MI5 agent on Apple TV+’s Slow Horses, Pryce is channeling yet another real-life figure, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, in the final two seasons of The Crown. “We should be so lucky to be considered a piece in their legacy,” Pryce told Town & Country about the prince, who died in 2021. “I think we’re a very small part of the greater picture.” —Nicholas DeRenzo
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