Celebrity Milestone Birthdays in December

December 2

En español | Stone Phillips, 60: The former coanchor of Dateline NBC recently chronicled his parents’ move from St. Louis to North Carolina; his mom, Grace, has dementia and needs to be closer to family. The documentary, Moving With Grace, aired on PBS stations last spring.

December 4

  Marisa Tomei, 50: Tomei, who rocked her Oscar-winning role as Mona Lisa Vito in 1992’s My Cousin Vinny, currently costars with Hugh Grant in a new rom-com (not yet released in the U.S.) called The Rewrite. She was rumored to be engaged last year but remains single.

December 5

  Joan Didion, 80: The esteemed writer’s best-selling memoir, The Year of Magical Thinking, about the death of her husband, was stunningly frank and poignant. She was given the National Humanities Medal in 2013 for producing works of “startling honesty and fierce intellect.”

December 8

  Teri Hatcher, 50: The Desperate Housewives star left the show in 2012, then became a full-time student at Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Pasadena, Calif. Twice divorced, she has one daughter, Emerson, 17; last summer they toured colleges together, tweeting along the way.

December 9

  Judi Dench, 80: She’s played everyone from Queen Elizabeth in Shakespeare in Love to the flinty M in recent James Bond movies. She’s also been 60 or older for all six of her Oscar nominations and one win, and recently called “retire” “the rudest word in my dictionary.”

December 11

Brenda Lee, 70: The singing sensation was known in the 1960s as “Little Miss Dynamite” for her song “Dynamite” and her size (4 foot 9). Lee went on to a country music career, and in 2013 celebrated her 50th wedding anniversary with hubby Ronnie Shacklett.  

December 18

“Stone Cold” Steve Austin, 50: The World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) megastar retired from the ring in 2003 but has stayed busy. He recently hosted a reality TV show on CMT, Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Challenge, where contestants faced hard-core tests of strength and endurance.

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December 18

Ray Liotta, 60: Many consider his role as Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese’s1990 movie Goodfellas a career high point for Liotta, who stars in the upcoming indie drama Sticky Notes and a Western miniseries, Texas Rising, on the History Channel.

December 21

Chris Evert, 60: The tennis great had a stunning string of Grand Slam victories through the 1970s and ’80s. Evert now has a line of chic sportswear, Chrissie by Tail, that’s billed as “classy” but “suitable for fierce competition.”

December 25

Annie Lennox, 60: Lennox’s new album, Nostalgia, includes her haunting versions of classics like “Summertime” and “Strange Fruit.” Though there’s no reversing time, the British singer has said, “a part of me — kind of, sometimes — wants to slow it down and go back.”

December 27

Mick Jones, 70: The British guitarist and songwriter (not to be confused with Clash guitarist Mick Jones) cofounded the synthesizer-heavy band Foreigner, which is now in the midst of a world tour. “The band’s really rockin’,” Jones said recently. “It’s all good.”

December 28

Gayle King, 60: Most famous as Oprah’s best gal pal, King is a coanchor on CBS This Morning and helps edit her BFF’s magazine. She’s got the energy for it: She recently told a reporter that she wakes up at 3:30, gets about four hours of sleep and avoids caffeine.

December 28

Denzel Washington, 60: The Oscar winner hasn’t stopped playing the hero: He stars in the action-thriller The Equalizer, which a film critic praised for showing that “those who qualify for a senior discount can be crusaders, too.”  

December 28

Maggie Smith, 80: The British actress, who’s flawless as the proud Crawley family matriarch on Downton Abbey, won an Oscar for her star turn in 1969’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. In March she’ll hit movie screens again in The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

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