11 Milestone Celebrity Birthdays in July
Sandra Oh, Woody Harrelson, Martha Reeves among those celebrating this month
by Susan Wloszczyna, AARP, June 30, 2021
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PHOTO BY: JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images
July 1: Missy Elliott, 50
This Grammy-winning rapper launched her solo career in 1997 with her rap album “Supa Dupa Fly.” But this year, fans of the artist are celebrating the 20th anniversary of her third album, “Miss E ... So Addictive,” a work that notably broke down genre walls, its songs including sounds such as a funky bass, sitar plucking and orchestral horns. This fall, Elliott will appear as the Town Crier in a movie musical version of “Cinderella.” Fun fact: She's also a serious car lover — her collection includes a Lamborghini worth $4.5 million.
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PHOTO BY: Debra L Rothenberg/WireImage
July 8: Toby Keith, 60
A country megastar who has racked up sales of 40 million albums worldwide, Keith received the National Medal of Arts from President Trump in January, alongside fellow country legend Ricky Skaggs. And he's just received another honor: The Academy of Country Music's Merle Haggard Spirit Award, for continuing the legacy of the country legend “by following his/her own path, crafting great songs and epitomizing Merle's spirit through genuine performances and great storytelling.”
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PHOTO BY: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic
July 8: Anjelica Huston, 70
This mesmerizing actress is part of a Hollywood dynasty that includes father John Huston (The Maltese Falcon) and grandfather Walter Huston (The Treasure of the Sierra Madre). She became the third generation in her family to win an Oscar, thanks to her supporting role in 1985's Prizzi's Honor; she played a daughter of a Brooklyn Mafia don opposite her then-companion Jack Nicholson. You can catch Huston next in Wes Anderson's film The French Dispatch, hitting theaters in October.
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PHOTO BY: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
July 12: Cheryl Ladd, 70
The actress's big break came in 1977, when she joined the cast of Charlie's Angels, replacing breakout sex symbol Farrah Fawcett, who left after the first season. Ladd played Kris Munroe, the sister of Fawcett's Jill, and starred in the four remaining seasons. Lately, she has been promoting the benefits of cataract surgery after her own successful operation. As she told an interviewer, “My life is brighter and better than ever."
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July 15: Forest Whitaker, 60
This much-admired actor and filmmaker made his big-screen debut as a student in 1982's Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Whitaker has been in high demand ever since, appearing in films such as 2018's Black Panther and 2006's The Last King of Scotland, in an Oscar-winning performance as the charismatic, volatile and deadly Ugandan leader Idi Amin. Coming up: He'll costar as Aretha Franklin's minister father C.L. Franklin opposite Jennifer Hudson in the biopic Respect, opening in theaters on Aug. 31. And he again plays crime boss Bumpy Johnson on the second season of his 1960s-era Epix series Godfather of Harlem.
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PHOTO BY: Greg Doherty/Getty Images
July 18: Martha Reeves, 80
Along with her backing singers the Vandellas, Reeves was one of the biggest stars in the Motown galaxy, racking up such hit singles in the ‘60s as “Heat Wave,” “Nowhere to Run,” “Jimmy Mack” and her signature anthem “Dancing in the Streets.” After serving on the Detroit City Council from 2005 to 2009, Reeves went back to performing more regularly with the Vandellas — who are now her sisters, Lois and Delphine.
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PHOTO BY: Sean Zanni/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
July 20: Sandra Oh, 50
The Canadian actress who spent 10 seasons on Grey's Anatomy as Dr. Cristina Yang found an equally satisfying role as Eve Polastri in the darkly funny BBC series Killing Eve — playing an MI6 agent obsessed with tracking down an enigmatic female assassin. (The Emmy-winning show will return for its fourth and final season next year.) Oh is also starring as a professor in the Netflix series The Chair, airing in August.
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PHOTO BY: APU GOMES/AFP via Getty Images
July 23: Woody Harrelson, 60
Harrelson, who first found fame on TV's Cheers as simpleminded but good-natured bartender Woody Boyd, is busier than ever these days. He'll costar as the villainous Carnage opposite Tom Hardy in Marvel's Venom: Let There Be Carnage, in theaters this fall, and has two more films in the wings: the Netflix action thriller Kate and HBO's five-part Watergate drama series The White House Plumbers, in which Harrelson will play E. Howard Hunt to Justin Theroux's G. Gordon Liddy.
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PHOTO BY: Ethan Miller/Getty Images
July 24: Lynda Carter, 70
The 1972 Miss World USA winner, actress and singer will be forever famous for her role as Wonder Woman on the TV series that ran from 1975 to 1979. While Carter was too busy with singing engagements to cameo in Gal Gadot's 2017 debut as the character, she showed up in the post-credits scene of the 2020 sequel Wonder Woman 1984 as Asteria, the Golden Warrior of the Amazons. Carter told Parade that when her daughter Jessica, 20, saw Gadot as Wonder Woman, she said, “Mom, I finally get it. I finally understand why everyone idolizes you. I finally get what Wonder Woman means to everyone.”
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PHOTO BY: George Pimentel/WireImage
July 30: Paul Anka, 80
Anka, a crooner, songwriter and actor, is best known for penning such hit songs as “Diana,” “Lonely Boy” and “Put Your Head on My Shoulder” in the ‘50s and ‘60s. He also wrote the theme for The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and the English lyrics to the French song “My Way,” which became Frank Sinatra's signature tune. More recently? Anka showed up on Fox's reality talent show The Masked Singer last year disguised as a stalk of broccoli. Why? He told UPI that “When the opportunity came about, I said, ‘Yeah, I want to get out of the house.'”
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PHOTO BY: Kwaku Alston via Getty Images
July 30: Laurence Fishburne, 60
The versatile actor became a pop-culture icon as Morpheus, the mentor of Keanu Reeves’ hero Neo as he enters the alternate-reality cyberpunk world of the Matrix trilogy. He currently plays patriarch Earl “Pops” Johnson on the hit TV sitcom Black-ish and has plenty of upcoming film projects, including the sports drama Under the Stadium Lights and the action flick The Ice Road with Liam Neeson. How does he relax? By riding his motorcycle. Fishburne has said that while riding, “You really can't think about more than where you are. There's a freedom that comes from that."