Birthday's to share this week : 2nd - 8th April 2017.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Hugo Weaving does on 4th April - check out my tribute to this Birthday Lad turning 57, at the end of this feature.

Do you also share your birthday with a well known, highly regarded & famous Actor or Actress; share your special day with a Director, Producer, Writer, Cinematographer, Singer/Songwriter or Composer of repute; or share an interest in whoever might notch up another year in the coming seven days? Then, look no further! Whilst there will be too many to mention in this small but not insignificant and beautifully written and presented Blog, here are the more notable and noteworthy icons of the big screen, and the small screen, that you will recognise, and that you might just share your birthday with in the week ahead. If so, Happy Birthday to you from Odeon Online!

Sunday 2nd April

• Christopher Meloni - Born 1961, turns 56 - Actor | Producer | Director
• Pedro Pascal - Born 1975, turns 42 - Actor
• Michael Fassbender - Born 1977, turns 40 - Actor | Producer
• Jesse Plemons - Born 1988, turns 29 - Actor
• Linda Hunt - Born 1945, turns 72 - Actress  

Monday 3rd April

• Cobie Smulders - Born 1982, turns 35 - Actress | Singer
• Alec Baldwin - Born 1958, turns 59 - Actor | Producer 
• Eddie Murphy - Born 1961, turns 56 - Actor | Producer | Writer | Singer | Director
• Ben Mendelsohn - Born 1969, turns 48 - Actor |   

Tuesday 4th April

• Craig T. Nelson - Born 1944, turns 73 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Director
• David E. Kelley - Born 1956, turns 61 - Writer | Producer
• Hugo Weaving - Born 1960, turns 57 - Actor | Producer
• Robert Downey Jnr. - Born 1965, turns 52 - Actor | Producer | Singer | Songwriter
• Barry Pepper - Born 1970, turns 47 - Actor
• Estelle Harris - Born 1928, turns 89 - Actress   

Wednesday 5th April

• Hayley Attwell - Born 1982, turns 35 - Actress 
• Roger Corman - Born 1926, turns 91 - Producer | Director | Actor | Writer 
• Peter Greenaway - Born 1942, turns 75 - Director | Writer | Editor | Actor
• Mitch Pileggi - Born 1952, turns 65 - Actor

Thursday 6th April

• Billy Dee Williams - Born 1937, turns 80 - Actor 
• Barry Levinson - Born 1942, turns 75 - Producer | Director | Writer | Actor
• Michael Rooker - Born 1955, turns 62 - Actor | Producer | Director
• Paul Rudd - Born 1969, turns 48 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Singer  
• Zach Braff - Born 1975, turns 42 - Actor | Producer | Director | Singer
• Sofia Boutella - Born 1982, turns 35 - Actress

Friday 7th April

• Francis Ford Coppola - Born 1939, turns 78 - Producer | Director | Writer 
• Ted Kotcheff - Born 1931, turns 86 - Director | Producer | Actor
• Jackie Chan - Born 1954, turns 63 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer | Stuntman | Singer  

Saturday 8th April

• Taylor Kitsch - Born 1981, turns 36 - Actor | Director | Writer | Producer
• John Madden - Born 1949, turns 68 - Director | Producer | Writer
• Robin Wright - Born 1966, turns 51 - Actress | Producer | Director
• Patricia Arquette - Born 1968, turns 49 - Actress | Producer 

Hugo Wallace Weaving was born in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria, Africa to mother Anne Lennard, a tour guide and former teacher and Wallace Weaving a seismologist. At a year old the family returned to England where they lived in Bedford and then Brighton, and then onto Melbourne and Sydney in Australia and then a time in Johannesburg, South Africa before returning back to England. While there, he attended The Downs School, a preparatory school located in Wraxall, near Bristol, Somerset and then Queen Elizabeth's Hospital independent boys school in Clifton, Bristol. In 1976 his family relocated back to Sydney, where Weaving attending the independent boys school, Knox Grammar School. After leaving school he studied at the National Institute of Dramatic Art in Sydney from where he graduated in 1981.

Weaving secured his first film role in a bit part in 1981's ' . . . Maybe This Time', and this was followed up in 1983 with 'The City's Edge'. In the meantime Weaving starred as English Cricket Captain Douglas Jardine in the seven part miniseries 'Bodyline' recounting the events of the 1932-33 English Ashes Test tour of Australia. 'For Love Alone', 'The Right Hand Man', television mini-series 'The Dirtwater Dynasty', made for television movie 'A Long Way From Home : Dadah Is Death' with Julie Christie and John Polson, and then television three part mini-series 'Bangkok Hilton' with Nicole Kidman, Denholm Elliott and Noah Taylor saw out the decade. 

The '90's kicked off with his AACTA Award winning turn in the Jocelyn Moorhouse Written and Directed 'Proof' with Russell Crowe. This was followed up by the likes of Ned Kelly send-up comedy 'Reckless Kelly' for Director and Co-star Yahoo Serious, then comedy crime thriller 'Frauds' with Phil Collins, and 'The Custodian' with Anthony LaPaglia, Naomi Watts, Barry Otto and Bill Hunter. Perhaps his breakout role however, came with 'Priscilla, Queen of the Desert' in which Weaving starred as drag queen Anthony 'Tick' Melrose aka Mitzi Del Bra alongside Terence Stamp, Guy Pearce and Bill Hunter again. Based on its US$2M budget the film grossed US$30M, spawned a stage show, became a cultural touchstone for the LGBT community especially, and reaped in numerous award wins and nominations including an Academy Award for Best Costume Design. 

In 1995 Weaving voiced the character of Rex, the Sheepdog in the hugely popular 'Babe' which won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and picked up six other nominations, together with a Golden Globe win for Best Motion Picture and four BAFTA nods too amongst its total haul of nineteen wins and 24 other nominations. The film took US$254M from its US$30M budget outlay, and as a result of this success Weaving reprised his voice role in the 1998 George Miller Directed, Written and Produced sequel 'Babe : Pig in the City'. Ten part television mini-series 'Bordertown' with Cate Blanchett followed in 1995, and then 'True Love and Chaos' with Ben Mendelssohn, Noah Taylor, Miranda Otto and Naveen Andrews. 1998 saw RomCom 'Bedrooms and Hallways' and then his AFI Award winning turn in crime drama thriller 'The Interview' with Tony Martin and Michael Caton. In between there was further television work on short-lived mini-series and a couple of short films too.

All this led to his starring role as Agent Smith in the ground breaking Sci-Fi actioner 'The Matrix'. Weaving would reprise his role in the two sequels both released back to back in 2003 'The Matrix Reloaded' and 'The Matrix Revolutions'. The first instalment won four Academy Awards and two BAFTA's among its haul of 37 award wins and 45 nominations, with the two subsequent films bringing home another ten award wins and 59 nominations. All up the three films grossed US$1.63B from its combined US$363M budget outlay. Weaving also voiced his character in the video game release 'Enter the Matrix'.

'Strange Planet', 'The Old Man Who Read Love Stories', 'Russian Doll' came before Weaving's recurring role as Elrond in Peter Jackson's immensely popular and successful 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy, kicking off with 'The Fellowship of the Ring' in 2001, then 'The Two Towers' in 2002 and culminating with 'The Return of the King' in 2003. The three films were made for a combined budget of US$281M and grossed worldwide US$2.9B. All up the three film series won seventeen Academy Awards, took a further eleven Oscar nominations, and all up won 438 award wins and took another 375 nominations. Subsequently Weaving his lent his Elrond voice talents to three video game releases - two in 2006 and one in 2009. 'Peaches', 'Little Fish' with Cate Blanchett and Sam Neill and then dystopian political thriller 'V for Vendetta' based on the limited edition DC Comics series of the same name was released in 2006 and took in an all star cast including Natalie Portman, Stephen Rea, Stephen Fry, John Hurt, Eddie Marsan and Tim Pigott-Smith.

The following year Weaving lent his voice talents to hugely successful franchise opener 'Transformers' as Megatron, the leader of the Deceptions who transforms into a silver Cybertronian jet. Weaving voiced Megatron for the first three films - taking in 2009's 'Transformers : Revenge of the Fallen' and 2011's 'Transformers : Dark of the Moon'. These first three films took US$2.67B at the global Box Office against a budget investment of US$545M with 'Transformers : Age of Extinction' released in 2014 and 'Transformers : The Last Knight' due for release imminently. 'The Tender Hook' and 'Last Ride' saw out the decade, with Weaving lending his voice talents once again to George Miller's Academy Award winning animated 'Happy Feet' as Noah the Elder, a role he would reprise in 2011's sequel, 'Happy Feet 2'.

2010 kicked off with Joe Johnston's horror fantasy 'The Wolfman' with Benicio Del Toro, Anthony Hopkins, Asa Butterfield, and Emily Blunt, with more voice work following on 'Legends of the Guardians : The Owls of Ga'Hoole'.  'Oranges and Sunshine', 'The Key Man', and the Marvel adaptation introducing us for the first time to 'Captain America : The First Avenger' as Johann Schmidt/Red Skull followed. The Sci-Fi multi-dimensional, time travelling 'Cloud Atlas' that divided Critics and just about clawed back its US$130M budget featured an ensemble cast headed up by Tom Hanks and Halle Berry and ended up picking up seventeen award wins from around the traps and another 72 nominations. 

Weaving then reprised his role of Elrond in Peter Jacksons adaptation of 'The Hobbit' launching with 'The Unexpected Journey' in 2012 and culminating with 'The Battle of the Five Armies' in 2014. Weaving's character did not appear in the middle instalment 'The Desolation of Smaug' in 2013. The three films were made for a combined US$675M and grossed worldwide US$2.9B and picked up seven Academy Award nominations and a total awards haul of 45 wins and 200 other nominations.

In between time there was 'Mystery Road' with Aaron Pederson, 'The Mule' with Leigh Whannell, 'Healing' with Don Hany, 'Strangerland' with Nicole Kidman and most recently Jocelyn Moorhouse's 'The Dressmaker' with Kate Winslet, Mel Gibson's 'Hacksaw Ridge' with Andrew Garfield, and just out 'Jasper Jones' with Toni Collette. This brings us up to date with drama television series 'Seven Types of Ambiguity' due for airing later this year in Australia, and historical drama film 'Black 47' with Jim Broadbent and Stephen Rea currently filming. 

All up Weaving has 84 Acting credits to his name and two as Producer. He has so far accumulated 23 award wins and another 25 nominations. Aside form an extensive film and television career he has also appeared in numerous stage plays for the Sydney Theatre Company more recently in 'Les Liaisons Dangereuses' in 2012, 'Waiting for Godot' in 2013 and 'Macbeth' in 2014. Weaving has been with his long term partner Katrina Greenwood since 1984 with whom he has two children - Harry (born in 1989) and Holly (born in 1993). Harry has followed in his fathers footsteps and has become an Actor too under the name Harry Greenwood. Weaving is an ambassador for 'Voiceless' the animal protection institute campaigning for animal rights.

Hugo Weaving - a diverse and successful career on film, television and stage; has starred in four mega franchise films series - 'The Matrix', The Lord of the Rings', 'The Hobbit' and 'Transformers' as well as an eclectic collection of local independent fare. Continues to be in demand, like a fine wine is maturing with age, has an instantly recognisable voice, loves working in Australia, and is always surprising us with his roles. Happy Birthday to you Hugo, from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-