Staying Fit
Photo Collage: MOA Staff; (Source: Swan Gallet/WWD via Getty Images; Molly Riley/AP Images; Paul Archuleta/Getty Images; Taylor Hill/FilmMagic/Getty Images; Axelle/Bauer-Griffen/FilmMagic/Getty Images)
Jan. 7: Nicolas Cage, 60
Photo Collage: MOA Staff; (Source: Taylor Hill/FilmMagic/Getty Images)
The nephew of director Francis Ford Coppola, Nicolas Cage won the best actor Oscar for his turn as a self-destructive writer with alcoholism in Leaving Las Vegas, and in the years since, he’s carved out one of the most truly unique careers of any working actor. Few A-listers have swung so wildly between prestige projects (Adaptation) and big-budget blockbusters (Con Air), family fare (National Treasure) and indie dramas (Pig). Among the latest characters he’s added to his résumé are Dracula in Renfield, a bizarro version of himself in The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, and in the recent Dream Scenario, an everyman professor who mysteriously begins appearing in millions of strangers’ dreams.
Jan. 8: Carolina Herrera, 85
Born in Venezuela in 1939, Carolina Herrera had no formal training before she launched her first clothing line in the early 1980s, but she soon became known for her sophisticated styling and signature look: crisp tailored white shirts with colorful ball skirts and wide belts. A CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America) lifetime achievement award winner, Herrera has dressed many first ladies, from Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis to Michelle Obama, and she stepped down from her eponymous label in 2018. “Just don’t say I am retiring,” she told The New York Times upon the announcement. “I am not retiring! I am moving forward.”
Jan. 9: Jimmy Page, 80
Jimmy Page had already found success with British blues outfit the Yardbirds before founding Led Zeppelin in 1968. His new group went on to be hailed as one of the most influential bands in rock history, thanks to anthems including “Stairway to Heaven,” though it proved relatively short-lived, breaking up in 1980 after the death of drummer John Bonham. Page released a series of solo albums, and he reunited with his former Zeppelin bandmates for a few special one-off performances, such as Live Aid in 1985 and their Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction in 1995. Page appeared as a talking head in the 2022 documentary If These Walls Could Sing, about the Abbey Road studio, and Rolling Stone recently ranked him at number 3 on its list of the greatest guitarists of all time.
Jan. 10: George Foreman, 75
Photo Collage: MOA Staff; (Source: Paul Archuleta/Getty Images)
A gold-medal-winning Olympic boxer, George Foreman was a two-time heavyweight champion, breaking records as the oldest person to hold the title when he recaptured it at the age of 45. He retired in 1997 with a record of 76 wins and five losses and was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2003. By the mid-1990s, he had already kicked off his second chapter: launching his Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine, which sold more than 100 million units. In 2023, he got the biopic treatment with the film Big George Foreman.
Jan. 12: Haruki Murakami, 75
Japan’s best-selling living novelist, Haruki Murakami broke out in 1987 with his coming-of-age novel Norwegian Wood, and his fame continued with the ambitious The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, which blends genres and often dips into absurdity. Over the years, he’s also published short-story collections, nonfiction works on Japanese current events (including the sarin gas Tokyo subway attack) and a memoir called What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. In 2022, a film adaptation of his short story “Drive My Car” won best international feature film at the Academy Awards, and in April, he released his first new novel in six years, The City and Its Uncertain Walls.
Jan. 12: Jeff Bezos, 60
One of the richest people in the world, Jeff Bezos has come a long way since founding Amazon — then simply a website for selling books — out of his Seattle garage in 1994. Over the years, as Amazon grew to become a world-dominating e-commerce giant, the former investment banker set his sights on other markets: He founded the space exploration company Blue Origin in 2000 and bought The Washington Post in 2013, and his net worth in 2023 was an astounding $171 billion. Among his recent projects was the construction of a multimillion-dollar 10,000 Year Clock in West Texas, which is designed to tick once a year and have a cuckoo emerge every millennium.
You Might Also Like
Celebrity Birthdays in December
Ben Kingsley, Tyra Banks, Brad Pitt, Kim Basinger and many more
Celebrity Birthdays in November
Lauren Hutton, Tracy Morgan, King Charles III, Jamie Lee Curtis and more
Celebrity Birthdays in October
Sheryl Underwood, Tony Shalhoub, Jane Krakowski, Neil deGrasse Tyson and more