Birthday's to share this week : 18th - 24th June 2017.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Frances McDormand does on 23rd June - check out my tribute to this Birthday Girl turning 60, 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 18th June

• Paul McCartney - Born 1942, turns 75 - Singer | Songwriter | Composer | Producer | Writer | Actor | Director
• Isabella Rossellini - Born 1952, turns 65 - Actress | Director | Writer | Producer
• Barbara Broccoli - Born 1960, turns 57 - Producer   

Monday 19th June

• Gena Rowlands - Born 1930, turns 87 - Actress 
• Kathleen Turner - Born 1954, turns 63 - Actress | Producer
• Zoe Saldana - Born 1978, turns 39 - Actress | Producer | Writer | Director  
• Paul Dano - Born 1984, turns 33 - Actor | Producer | Writer | Director | Singer

Tuesday 20th June

• Martin Landau - Born 1928, turns 89 - Actor | Producer
• Danny Aiello - Born 1933, turns 84 - Actor | Producer
• Stephen Frears - Born 1941, turns 76 - Director | Producer | Writer | Actor
• John Goodman - Born 1952, turns 65 - Actor | Producer | Singer
• Robert Rodriguez - Born 1968, turns 49 - Director | Producer | Writer | Editor | Actor | Cinematographer | Composer | Songwriter | VFX Producer | Cameraman
• Josh Lucas - Born 1971, turns 46 - Actor | Producer  
• Christoper Mintz-Plasse - Born 1989, turns 28 - Actor 
• Olympia Dukakis - Born 1931, turns 86 - Actress | Producer
• Nicole Kidman - Born 1967, turns 50 - Actress | Producer | Singer

Wednesday 21st June

• Juliette Lewis - Born 1973, turns 44 - Actress | Singer | Songwriter | Producer | Director
• Lana Wachowski - Born 1965, turns 52 - Director | Producer | Writer
• Chris Pratt - Born 1979, turns 38 - Actor | Singer
• Benjamin Walker - Born 1982, turns 35 - Actor   

Thursday 22nd June

• Kris Kristofferson - Born 1936, turns 81 - Singer | Songwriter | Composer | Actor 
• Bruce Campbell - Born 1958, turns 59 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer 
• Randy Couture - Born 1963, turns 54 - Actor | UFC Champion
• Uwe Boll - Born 1965, turns 52 - Director | Producer | Writer | Actor
• Meryl Streep - Born 1949, turns 68 - Actress | Singer  
• Lindsay Wagner - Born 1949, turns 68 - Actress | Producer

Friday 23rd June

• Frances McDormand - Born 1957, turns 60 - Actress | Producer
• Selma Blair - Born 1972, turns 45 - Actress
• Bryan Brown - Born 1947, turns 70 - Actor | Producer
• Russell Mulcahy - Born 1953, turns 64 - Director | Producer | Writer
• Joss Whedon - Born 1964, turns 53 - Writer | Producer | Director | Songwriter | Actor
• Joel Edgerton - Born 1974, turns 43 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Director  

Saturday 24th June

• Peter Weller - Born 1947, turns 70 - Actor | Director | Producer
• Dan Gilroy - Born 1959, turns 58 - Writer | Director | Producer
• Iain Glen - Born 1961, turns 56 - Actor | Producer
• Nancy Allen - Born 1950, turns 67 - Actress 

Frances Louise McDormand was born in Chicago, Illinois and was adopted by a Canadian couple - mother Noreen Nickleson, a registered nurse and Vernon McDormand, a Disciples of Christ Pastor. She has a sister, Dorothy, who is an ordained Minister and Chaplain for the Disciples of Christ too, and another sibling - all three being adopted by the McDormand's who had no biological children of their own. Her father moved the family around a lot during their children's upbringing as part of his role with the Church, to small centres of population across Illinois, Kentucky, Georgia and Tennessee before eventually settling in Pennsylvania in the small community of Monessen. The young Frances attended Monessen High School from where she graduated in 1975. In 1979 she graduated from Bethany College in West Virginia with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in theatre studies. In 1982 she graduated from the Yale School of Drama with a Master of Fine Arts Degree, and where she was a room mate of Holly Hunter for a time.

McDormand scored her film debut in the Coen Brothers first feature film offering in 1984, with 'Blood Simple', and she would go onto star in many of the Coen's films subsequently over the years, right up until the most recent 'Hail, Caesar' in 2016.  From this point on there was really no looking back for the young Actress. In 1985 she scored appearances on a single episode of 'Hunter', on six episodes of 'Hill Street Blues', in television movie 'Scandal Street' and in feature film 'Crimewave' written by the Coen Brothers and Directed by Sam Raimi. 1987 yielded 'Raising Arizona' for Writer/Directors Joel & Ethan Coen and co-starring Nicolas Cage, Holly Hunter and John Goodman. Seven episodes on 'Leg Work' before the highly acclaimed multi-award winning Alan Parker Directed 'Mississippi Burning' with Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe in 1988. 'Chattahoochee' with Gary Oldman and Dennis Hopper saw out the '80's.

Ken Loach's 'Hidden Agenda' with Brian Cox opened the '90's, and then Sam Raimi's 'Darkman' with Liam Neeson, and then an uncredited appearance in the Coen Brother's 'Miller's Crossing' with Albert Finney, followed up closely by an uncredited role in the Coen's Brothers 'Barton Fink' with John Turturro. 'The Butcher's Wife', 'Passed Away' and Robert Altman's 'Shortcuts' with an ensemble cast came along in 1993. John Boorman's 'Beyond Rangoon' and crime drama 'Palookaville' came before perhaps one of McDormand's most noted roles as heavily pregnant police officer in small town mid-western USA 'Fargo' for the Coen Brothers once again, and also starring William H. Macy, Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare. For her performance as Marge Gunderson, McDormand won the Best Actress Academy Award, the SAG Award and was nominated for the Golden Globe and the BAFTA.

She followed this up with 'Primal Fear' with Richard Gere in 1996, John Sayle's 'Lone Star', Bruce Beresford's historical WWII POW drama 'Paradise Road' with Glenn Close, 'Johnny Skidmarks' with John Lithgow, 'Madeline' and 'Talk of Angels' seeing out the decade. In the meantime, there were appearances on television series and made for TV movies.








Curtis Hanson's 'Wonder Boys' with Michael Douglas opened up the new decade with a fanfare of award wins and nominations, followed in quick succession by Cameron Crowe's 'Almost Famous' with Billy Crudup which also picked up a swathe of award wins and nominations, including the Oscar, Golden Globe, BAFTA and SAG nods for Best Supporting Actress. These in turn led to another outing for those talented Writer/Directors the Coen Brothers in 2001's 'The Man Who Wasn't There' with Billy Bob Thornton. The next year saw 'Laurel Canyon', then Michael Caton-Jones 'City by the Sea' with Robert De Niro, followed by 'Something's Gotta Give' in 2003 with Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton.

2005 brought the acclaimed 'North Country' with Charlize Theron, in which again McDormand was nominated for the Oscar, Golden Globe, BAFTA and SAG Awards in her supporting Actress capacity. Sci-Fi actioner 'Aeon Flux' followed immediately afterward that same year with Charlize Theron once again, and then Romantic Dramedy 'Friends with Money' alongside Jennifer Aniston, RomCom 'Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day' with Amy Adams, and another outing for the Writer/Director pairing of the Coen Brothers with 'Burn After Reading' with an all star cast that included George Clooney, Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, J.K.Simmons and Tilda Swinton.

'This Must Be the Place' with Sean Penn opened 2011, and that same year the third instalment in Michael Bay's mega Sci-Fi action franchise 'Transformers : Dark of the Moon', before the little more sedate 'Moonrise Kingdom' for Director and Co-Writer Wes Anderson with Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray and Tilda Swinton again. This was followed up by 'Promised Land' for Gus Van Sant with Matt Damon and then most recently 'Hail, Caesar' for those Coen Brothers again and featuring an ensemble cast that included George Clooney, Josh Brolin, Ralph Fiennes, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Scarlett Johansson and Tilda Swinton once more.

In the meantime, there has also been the television mini-series 'Olive Kitteridge' in which McDormand plays the title role of the four episode series alongside screen husband Richard Jenkins. For her role McDormand was nominated for a Golden Globe, won a Primetime Emmy and won a SAG Award amongst a raft of others too. She has also lent her voice talents to an episode of 'The Simpsons', and to animated feature films 'Madagascar 3 : Europe's Most Wanted' and 'The Good Dinosaur'.

Next up for McDormand is 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri' for Writer/Director Martin McDonagh and co-starring Peter Dinklage, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson and Abbie Cornish. This film is due for release towards the back end of this year. Currently filming and due in March 2018 is animated action comedy for Writer/Director Wes Anderson with 'Isle of Dogs' featuring McDormand's voice talents together with those of an ensemble cast that takes in Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton once more, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Bryan Cranston, Harvey Keitel, Jeff Goldblum, Liev Schreiber and Greta Gerwig.

All up McDormand has 62 acting credits to her name and two as Producer. She has amassed 55 award wins and a further 51 nominations including the Academy Award win for 'Fargo' and three others Oscar nods for 'Mississippi Burning', 'Almost Famous' and 'North Country', plus five Golden Globe nominations and one win for the ensemble cast in 'Short Cuts', a Primetime Emmy for 'Olive Kitteridge', three BAFTA nominations, and the SAG Award win for 'Fargo' and 'Olive Kitteridge' and three other nods. She also has a distinguished stage acting career too with awards wins and nominations for 'A Streetcar Named Desire' in 1988, 'The Country Girl' in 2008 and 'Good People' in 2011. McDormand is only one of twelve Actresses in history to win the 'Triple Crown of Acting' for her Academy Award win with 'Fargo', 'for her Tony Award win with the Broadway stage play 'Good People' and her Primetime Emmy Award win with 'Olive Kitteridge'.

McDormand has been married to Screenwriter and Director Joel Coen since 1984, which may have helped her secure so many roles in the Coen Brothers filmography over the years, and they have an adopted son from Paraguay - Pedro McDormand Coen.

Frances McDormand - ageing gracefully no doubt; still very much at the top of your game, in demand and sought after; a character Actor of repute and with the accolades to prove it; always watchable and entertaining; grounded and real. Happy 60th Birthday to you Frances, from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-