Milestone Celebrity Birthdays in August

John Stamos, Kathie Lee Gifford and Metallica’s James Hetfield celebrating this month

collage of dave chappelle, lisa ling, robert de niro and kathie lee gifford on colorful, flashy background with all sorts of shapes and symbols

Credit from left: Ben Shmikler/APImages; Araya Doheny/Getty Images; Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images; Terry Wyatt/Getty Images

Nicholas DeRenzo,

AARP

Published August 01, 2023

August 1: Demián Bichir, 60

One of Mexico’s most renowned actors, Bichir made the leap from telenovelas to weightier material, like Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight and the immigration drama A Better Life, for which he earned a best actor Oscar nomination. More recently, he’s worked on two projects about mythical beings that, well, suck: He starred as the father of a teen vampire in last year’s Showtime horror drama Let the Right One In and appeared in this spring’s fantasy film Chupa, about the legendary chupacabra — Spanish for “goat sucker.”

August 3: James Hetfield, 60

It’s been more than four decades since Hetfield cofounded Metallica, the legendary heavy metal act for which he handles lead vocals and rhythm guitar. In 2009, the group became only the second metal band after Black Sabbath to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. In April, they released their 11th studio album, 72 Seasons, and Hetfield will step away from the band (temporarily!) for a project that’s unlike anything he’s done before: He’s set to costar in the Western thriller The Thicket, alongside Peter Dinklage and Juliette Lewis.

August 4: Daniel Dae Kim, 55

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Bursting onto the scene as the mysterious fisherman-turned-hitman Jin-Soo Kwon on Lost, the South Korean–born actor returned to the small screen with the CBS reboot of Hawaii Five-O. Behind the camera, Kim also developed and executive produced The Good Doctor, based on a Korean show of the same name, and he briefly recurred on the series as a surgeon. This summer, he showed up in a pivotal role in the raunchy-with-a-heart-of-gold comedy Joy Ride, about a group of Asian-American friends who travel to China.

August 6: Vera Farmiga, 50

An Oscar nominee for Up in the Air, Vera Farmiga has emerged as a modern day scream queen, earning an Emmy nomination for playing Norma Bates in Bates Motel and starring as paranormal investigator Lorraine Warren in the spine-tingling Conjuring films. Last year, she took on an even more hair-raising assignment when she appeared in the Apple TV+ medical drama Five Days at Memorial, which depicts the real-life horrors faced by a New Orleans hospital in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

August 9: Gillian Anderson, 55

She’s won Emmys for playing skeptical FBI agent Dana Scully on The X-Files and polarizing Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on The Crown, but her mile-wide range and mastery of accents mean Gillian Anderson can do almost anything. Other recent performances have seen her channeling everyone from Eleanor Roosevelt (The First Lady) to Margo Channing (All About Eve on the West End) to the mother of Catherine the Great (The Great). Next month, she returns as sex therapist Jean Milburn in the fourth and final season of Netflix’s teen comedy Sex Education.

August 11: Hulk Hogan, 70

Arguably the most famous pro wrestler the sport has ever produced, the man born as Terry Eugene Bollea crossed over into the mainstream with movie roles (Mr. Nanny) and reality TV shows (Hogan Knows Best). He has returned to the WWE over the years and hasn’t ruled out wrestling again, saying in an interview, “You never say never.” Following decades of beating up his body in the ring, Hogan is now following Mike Tyson and Ric Flair into the world of CBD and THC wellness products.

August 12: Sir Mix-a-Lot, 60

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The Seattle-based rapper liked big butts and he could not lie, and he rode his preferences all the way to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 with 1992’s “Baby Got Back.” While he never quite recaptured the magic of that Grammy-winning single, the man formerly known as Anthony L. Ray has continued to release new music, hosted a morning radio show, flipped houses for a DIY Network special and even collaborated with the Seattle Symphony on a new composition by DJ Gabriel Prokofiev, the grandson of the great Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev.

August 14: Catherine Bell, 55

The British-born actress was such a breakout star during her near-decade on JAG that an entomologist actually named a beetle species after her! In the years since leaving the military legal drama, Bell starred on Lifetime’s Army Wives and in Hallmark’s Good Witch film and TV franchise. Last year, she returned to Lifetime for a ripped-from-the-headlines TV movie, Jailbreak Lovers, in which she starred as a church-going woman who starts a charity to rehabilitate rescue dogs at a prison. The purpose? Break out her lover, a convicted murderer, by smuggling him in a dog crate!

August 15: Alejandro González Iñárritu, 60

After making a splash with his 2000 film Amores Perros, Iñárritu became the first Mexican filmmaker nominated for best director at the Oscars for his 2006 hit Babel. No stranger to the category, he picked up back-to-back trophies for Birdman and The Revenant, making him only the third director to pull off the feat after John Ford and Joseph L. Mankiewicz. His most recent film was last year’s Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths, about a documentarian who returns home to Mexico and begins having visions.

August 15: Debra Messing, 55

An Emmy winner for her role as interior designer Grace Adler on the groundbreaking NBC sitcom Will & Grace, Messing has remained a force on the small screen, later tackling a musical drama (Smash) and a police procedural (The Mysteries of Laura) before returning to Grace in a successful three-season reboot. Next year, she’s taking on perhaps her biggest movie role to date in Barry Levinson’s Wise Guys, in which she’ll play the wife of real-life 1950s mafia boss Frank Costello, played by Robert De Niro.

August 16: Kathie Lee Gifford, 70

kathie lee gifford on colorful, flashy background with all sorts of shapes and symbols

Terry Wyatt/Getty Images

The Daytime Emmy winner has been a force in morning television since 1985, when she first teamed up with Regis Philbin, and more recently, she brought her zany charisma to the fourth hour of Today, a gig she left after 11 years in 2019. Known for her Christian faith, Gifford wrote a Broadway musical about the evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, and last year, she teamed up with Rabbi Jason Sobel to pen the book The God of the Way: A Journey into the Stories, People, and Faith That Changed the World Forever.

August 16: Julie Newmar, 90

The Tony-winning scene-stealer will always be remembered for her role as Catwoman in the campy 1960s Batman series, and she rode that cult-classic status to a cameo in the 1995 drag comedy To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar. Proving that she was nowhere near done with her nine lives, she leapt back into the spotlight, voicing Catwoman once again in two recent animated films, 2016’s Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders and 2017’s Batman vs. Two-Face.

August 16: Madonna, 65

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Earlier this year, the Queen of Pop made headlines when she announced her 40th-anniversary Celebration Tour in a star-studded viral video — reminiscent of her concert film Truth or Dare — that featured the likes of Jack Black, Judd Apatow and Amy Schumer. A recent hospitalization for a serious bacterial infection has forced her to postpone the North American leg, but she plans to kick off the tour in Europe in October, with domestic dates postponed for a later date. Sure to be on the setlist? Her new song “Vulgar,” a duet with Sam Smith that the pair released in June.

August 16: Angela Bassett, 65

As BAFTA Awards host Ariana DeBose rapped in a now-viral clip, “Angela Bassett did the thing.” The “thing” in question: Earning some of the most rapturous views of her career playing Queen Ramonda in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, a regal role that won her the best supporting actress Golden Globe. While Bassett — who currently stars on Fox’s 9-1-1 — didn’t take home the Academy Award, the two-time nominee is getting the last laugh, as she’s set to receive an honorary Oscar at next year’s awards.

August 17: Robert De Niro, 80

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Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images

There may be no more fruitful collaboration between a Hollywood director and a leading man than Martin Scorsese’s with this two-time Oscar winner. For their 10th go-round this year, De Niro is playing real-life cattleman William Hale in the 1920s-set Western crime drama Killers of the Flower Moon, about a series of murders on the Osage Nation after oil is discovered in Oklahoma. Next year, he’ll reteam with his Wag the Dog and Sleepers director, Barry Levinson, on the 1950s gangster flick Wise Guys, in which De Niro will play two competing mob bosses, Frank Costello and Vito Genovese.

August 17: Belinda Carlisle, 65

Before going solo, Carlisle was the lead singer of the Go-Go’s, the most successful all-female rock band in music history, and they finally got the credit they deserved when they were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2021. In May, she released the new EP Kismet, with five tracks written by longtime collaborator Diane Warren. Amazingly, it’s her first new English-language recording since 1996: The last two comprised French chansons (2007’s Voila) and Sikh chants (2017’s Wilder Shores)!

August 18: Madeleine Stowe, 65

Following her celebrated turns in films such as The Last of the Mohicans and Short Cuts, Stowe leaned into her dark side as the manipulative, murderous “Queen of the Hamptons” Victoria Grayson on ABC’s soapy drama Revenge. Her screen appearances have become increasingly rare, and while she hasn’t been in any new projects since the 2019 Netflix musical drama series Soundtrack, all that’s set to change when she appears in Welcome to Derry, a Max Original prequel series to the It films based on Stephen King’s horror classic.

August 19: John Stamos, 60

john stamos on colorful, flashy background with all sorts of shapes and symbols

Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty Images

A bonafide ’80s heartthrob beloved for his role as Blackie Parrish on General Hospital, Stamos made the move to primetime with the heartwarming family sitcom Full House, and he recently returned to the role of rocker Uncle Jesse for the Netflix reboot, Fuller House. Following a recent turn as a girls’ high school basketball coach on the Disney+ series Big Shot, the sometime Beach Boys collaborator will tell his own story in If You Would Have Told Me: A Memoir, which hits shelves this October.

August 20: Robert Plant, 75

The charismatic Led Zeppelin front man started an unexpected new chapter in 2007, when he paired up with bluegrass singer Alison Krauss on the album Raising Sand, and it proved to be an artistic marriage made in heaven: They picked up Grammys for both album and record of the year! They teamed up once again on 2021’s Raise the Roof, which earned three more nominations, and starting this month, he’s heading out on tour across Europe with his acoustic side project Saving Grace.

August 22: Tori Amos, 60

After starting out as a classically trained pianist and the lead singer of an ’80s pop group, the soul-baring singer-songwriter had her big breakthrough with the 1992 album Little Earthquakes, which included the single “Silent All These Years.” Now, she’s celebrating the 30th anniversary of that album in a number of ways, including a new tour, a compilation of B-sides and even a graphic novel version of the album with contributions from the likes of Neil Gaiman and Margaret Atwood.

August 22: Kristen Wiig, 50

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Kevin Winter/Getty Images

One of the biggest SNL breakouts of her generation, the nine-time Emmy nominee parlayed her fan-favorite status into a successful screen career with roles in movies like Bridesmaids, Wonder Woman 1984 and the ongoing Despicable Me animated franchise. Next, she’s set to star in Palm Royale, an upcoming Apple TV+ miniseries about a woman fighting to achieve status in the world of 1960s Palm Beach high society, and another project that’s decidedly less highbrow: She’ll return as Brenda the anthropomorphic hot dog bun in Sausage Party: Foodtopia, a sequel series to the raunchy (and very R-rated) 2016 animated film.

August 23: Park Chan-wook, 60

The legendary South Korean director is known for his brilliant blending of brutality and black humor, and he’s become a regular at some of the world’s most competitive film festivals. He gained international acclaim for the bold, bloody Oldboy, and his 2016 erotic thriller The Handmaiden won the BAFTA for best film not in the English language. Last year, he picked up the Cannes Film Festival award for best director for his neo-noir romantic mystery Decision to Leave, which showed up on many year-end best-of lists.

August 24: Steve Guttenberg, 65

With classics like Police Academy and Three Men and a Baby, Guttenberg emerged as one of the most reliable comic actors of the 1980s, and he recently channeled nostalgia for that decade with a recurring role as chemistry teacher Dr. Katman on The Goldbergs. After taking some time off to care for his dying father, Guttenberg is staging a comeback: He wrote and starred in the biographical comedy Tales from the Guttenberg Bible, which premiered in New Jersey earlier this year and is playing at Long Island’s Bay Street Theatre this month.

August 24: Dave Chappelle, 50

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Ben Shmikler/APImages

In the years since his satirical sketch series Chappelle’s Show went off the air, Rolling Stone’s ninth-best standup comic of all time has courted controversy with his run of six Netflix specials, which reportedly earned him $20 million each. But despite ruffling feathers, he has remained a critical darling, earning two Emmys for hosting Saturday Night Live, four Grammys for best comedy album (most recently for The Closer this February) and even the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

August 25: Tom Skerritt, 90

A rugged film presence for more than 60 years, the U.S. Air Force veteran stole scenes in movies like Alien, Top Gun, Steel Magnolias and A River Runs Through It, and he won an Emmy for his role as Sheriff Jimmy Brock in Picket Fences. In 2021, Skerritt took center stage as the lead in East of the Mountain, an acclaimed indie drama that currently has a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. He stars as a retired heart surgeon and widower who travels to his boyhood home in Eastern Washington with his dog after he learns that he has terminal cancer, and many critics called it his best role in years.

August 25: Tim Burton, 65

Few American directors have as instantly recognizable a style as the gothic-tinged master of the movie macabre Tim Burton, who most recently brought his unique visual style to Disney’s live-action Dumbo in 2019. Last year, he dipped his toe into the TV waters with his first major series, Wednesday, a coming-of-age spinoff of the beloved Addams Family franchise, and he’s reteaming with the show’s Emmy-nominated star, Jenna Ortega, for Beetlejuice 2, in which she’ll play the daughter of Winona Ryder’s Lydia Deetz.

August 28: Scott Hamilton, 65

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Known for his backflip (an illegal move in professional skating!), American figure skater Scott Hamilton was a force to be reckoned with in the early 1980s when he won four consecutive U.S. and world championships and took home a gold medal at the 1984 Olympics in Sarajevo. Since retiring, the World Figure Skating Hall of Famer and cancer survivor has branched out as a commentator, motivational speaker and author of such books as 2020’s Fritzy Finds a Hat, which aims to help children talk about cancer.

August 30: Michael Chiklis, 60

Years after he starred as an NYPD detective–turned–small town police commissioner in the lighthearted series The Commish, Chiklis took on a decidedly more complicated cop role with The Shield, and his performance as the brutal and corrupt LAPD Detective Vic Mackey earned him an Emmy — not to mention a place in most critics’ antihero hall of fame. Next up, he’s set to star in The Senior, the true story of Mike Flynt, who became a college football linebacker at the tender age of 59.

August 30: Lisa Ling, 50

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Araya Doheny/Getty Images

The former cohost of The View has enjoyed a fruitful and award-winning broadcast career since leaving behind the morning-show juggernaut, hosting such series as National Geographic Explorer and Our America. Last year, she explored Asian-American culture and cuisine with the HBO Max travel docuseries Take Out with Lisa Ling, which saw her visiting her family’s old restaurant in Sacramento and other immigrant enclaves around the country, and this May, she joined CBS News as a contributor, which will allow her to dive deep on long-form reported pieces.

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Nicholas DeRenzo is a contributing writer who covers entertainment and travel. Previously he was executive editor of United Airlines’ Hemispheres magazine and his work has appeared in the New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, Travel & Leisure, Sunset and New York magazine.