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18 Milestone Celebrity Birthdays in January

Oprah, Kate Moss and George Foreman celebrating this month


spinner image collage of kate Moss, nina totenberg, george foreman, nicolas cage and oprah winfrey on colorful, flashy background with all sorts of shapes and symbols
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

spinner image nicolas cage on colorful, flashy background with all sorts of shapes and symbols
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

spinner image george foreman on colorful, flashy background with all sorts of shapes and symbols
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.

 

Jan. 14: Nina Totenberg, 80

spinner image nina totenberg on colorful, flashy background with all sorts of shapes and symbols
Photo Collage: MOA Staff; (Source: Molly Riley/AP Images)

An award-winning NPR correspondent who focuses on legal affairs, Nina Totenberg has reported acclaimed stories for news programs including All Things Considered and Morning Edition, and her work on the Anita Hill sexual harassment allegations against future Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas helped earn NPR a Peabody Award. In 2022, she released the book Dinners With Ruth: A Memoir on the Power of Friendships, about her relationships with NPR colleagues Cokie Roberts and Linda Wertheimer, her husbands, her family members and especially Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, with whom she shared a nearly 50-year bond.

 

Jan. 14: Jason Bateman, 55

A TV fixture since the early 1980s, Jason Bateman made his debut on Little House on the Prairie, before appearing in Silver Spoons and later The Hogan Family. He made a roaring comeback on the cult-favorite sitcom Arrested Development, winning a Golden Globe for his turn as the levelheaded straight man Michael Bluth. He went on to explore a darker side in the Missouri-set crime drama Ozark. He produced and starred in the series and even picked up his first Emmy for directing an episode. Since 2020, he’s cohosted the interview podcast SmartLess with Will Arnett and Sean Hayes, and it’s become such a hit that it was acquired by Amazon for as much as $80 million and spawned a Max docuseries.

 

Jan. 14: Dave Grohl, 55

After Dave Grohl’s stint as the drummer in Nirvana, the Ohio-born rocker followed the tragedy of Kurt Cobain’s death by founding his own alternative band, the Foo Fighters, which has amassed success both commercial (10 albums in the Billboard 200 Top 10) and critical (15 Grammy wins). In recent years, Grohl has branched out to different media, including penning the 2021 memoir The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music and writing and starring in the horror comedy Studio 666.

 

Jan. 16: Sade, 65

Nigerian-born British singer Sade Adu took the music charts by storm in the 1980s and ’90s with her eponymous band’s sophisticated sound, as exemplified by the hits “Smooth Operator” and “The Sweetest Taboo.” Over the years, they’ve earned four Grammys — including best new artist — and Sade herself was named an officer, and later commander, of the Order of the British Empire. Since 2000, her musical output has been sporadic. After her well-received 2010 album Soldier of Love, she’s released only two soundtrack singles: “Flower of the Universe” from A Wrinkle in Time and “The Big Unknown” from Widows.

 

Jan. 16: Kate Moss, 50

spinner image kate moss on colorful, flashy background with all sorts of shapes and symbols
Photo Collage: MOA Staff; (Source: Swan Gallet/WWD via Getty Images)

Kate Moss’ ascendance in the early 1990s represented a sea change for the modeling industry: The British icon was waifish, short, natural-looking — everything the supermodels of the ’80s weren’t. Known as the “anti-supermodel,” Moss came to be the poster child of the post-grunge “heroin chic” look and courted controversy with her tabloid-fodder relationships and party-girl reputation. But she seems to be turning over a new leaf: In 2022, she joined the celebrity wellness craze by launching her brand, Cosmoss, which includes a vegan skin care line and mood-boosting teas.

 

Jan. 19: Katey Sagal, 70

As the brassy bombshell Peg Bundy on Married … With Children, Katey Sagal represented an entirely new kind of sitcom mom in the late 1980s, and over the years, she’s proved to be an incredibly versatile TV performer. To wit, she played a much more traditional sitcom mom on 8 Simple Rules (handily taking the reins after the death of on-screen husband John Ritter); a complicated motorcycle club matriarch on Sons of Anarchy, for which she won a Golden Globe; a one-eyed animated alien on Futurama, which returned for its 11th season in 2023 after a 10-year hiatus; and Dan Conner’s new wife, Louise, on the retooled Roseanne reboot, The Conners.

 

Jan. 24: Ed Helms, 50

After getting his start as a correspondent on The Daily Show, comedian Ed Helms found success on television (as the catchphrase-spouting Cornell alum Andy Bernard on The Office) and in films (the Hangover trilogy). More recently, Helms cocreated and starred in the sweet (and sadly short-lived) Peacock sitcom Rutherford Falls, about a small-town historian who fights the removal of his controversial ancestor’s statue from a public square while navigating his relationship with his Native American best friend. In November, he and Jennifer Garner starred in the Netflix comedy Family Switch, in which the parents swap bodies with their teenage kids — in other words, a double Freaky Friday.

 

Jan. 26: Bob Uecker, 90

After playing six seasons as a catcher in the major leagues, Bob Uecker retired in 1967, and despite his modest success as a player, he parlayed his affable personality into a robust career as a radio broadcaster for the Milwaukee Brewers. A frequent guest on The Tonight Show, he was dubbed “Mr. Baseball” by Johnny Carson, and he went on to act in the TV show Mr. Belvedere and as play-by-play announcer Harry Doyle in the Major League franchise. Most recently, he made a voice cameo in the 2021 Disney+ series Monsters at Work as a monster parody of himself named Bob Yucker.

 

Jan. 27: Bridget Fonda, 60

A member of the Fonda acting dynasty, Bridget Fonda appeared in films such as Single White Female, A Simple Plan and The Godfather Part III, before earning an Emmy nomination for the AIDS-themed TV movie In the Gloaming. She retired from acting in 2002 to start a family with her husband, musician Danny Elfman, and when a paparazzo recently asked her if she could imagine returning to Hollywood, she said no, because “it’s too nice being a civilian.”

 

Jan. 29: Oprah Winfrey, 70

spinner image oprah winfrey on colorful, flashy background with all sorts of shapes and symbols
Photo Collage: MOA Staff; (Source: Axelle/Bauer-Griffen/FilmMagic/Getty Images)

Is there anything “The Queen of All Media” hasn’t conquered? The first Black female billionaire, Oprah Winfrey made a name for herself hosting her eponymous talk show for 25 seasons, during which she earned so many Emmys that she eventually removed her name from consideration. She revitalized the publishing industry with her book club, launched her own magazine and cable network, and even earned two Academy Award nominations: one for her acting in The Color Purple and one for producing the civil rights drama Selma, in which she appeared as Annie Lee Cooper. Recently, she’s put her considerable influence toward producing projects including Hulu’s The 1619 Project docuseries and the musical reimagining of The Color Purple, which very likely could nab her a second best picture Oscar nod this awards season.

 

Jan. 30: Christian Bale, 50

One of Hollywood’s most chameleonic working actors, Christian Bale trimmed down to a nearly unrecognizable 110 pounds for The Machinist, then gained 100 pounds of muscles to play Batman, ran for hours a day to play the cocaine-addicted boxer Dicky Eklund for his Oscar-winning turn in The Fighter and donned silicone prosthetics to star as Dick Cheney in Vice. After joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe to play the villainous Gorr the God Butcher in 2022’s Thor: Love and Thunder, the Welsh-born actor will be heard but not seen in his latest role: He’s voicing an air munitions factory owner in the English dub of Japanese animation legend Hayao Miyazaki’s World War II–set film The Boy and the Heron.

 

Jan. 30: Olivia Colman, 50

Though she’s beloved for her bawdy and down-to-earth persona in interviews, Olivia Colman has found great success in recent years channeling her more regal side: She won an Oscar playing Queen Anne (The Favourite) and an Emmy playing Queen Elizabeth II (The Crown). Lovers of British television have been fans of Colman’s work for years, as she appeared on the critically acclaimed hits Broadchurch, Peep Show and Fleabag, and after her appearance in last month’s prequel Wonka, she’ll return to the world of kid-friendly literary adaptations with the upcoming Paddington in Peru.

 

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