Birthday's to share this week : 1st - 7th October 2017.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Lena Headey does on 3rd October - check out my tribute to this Actress and Producer Birthday Girl turning 44, 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 1st October

• Julie Andrews - Born 1935, turns 82 - Actress | Writer | Producer | Singer
• Stella Stevens - Born 1938, turns 79 - Actress | Director
• Brie Larson - Born 1989, turns 28 - Actress | Director | Writer | Producer 
• Randy Quaid - Born 1950, turns 67 - Actor | Producer
• Zach Galifianakis - Born 1969, turns 48 - Actor | Writer | Producer 

Monday 2nd October

• Sting (aka Gordon Sumner) - Born 1951, turns 66 - Singer | Songwriter | Composer | Actor  

Tuesday 3rd October

• Tommy Wiseau - Born 1955, turns 62 - Actor | Writer | Director | Producer
• Clive Owen - Born 1964, turns 53 - Actor | Producer
• Denis Villeneuve - Born 1967, turns 50 - Director | Writer 
• Sean William Scott - Born 1976, turns 41 - Actor | Producer
• Lena Headey - Born 1973, turns 44 - Actress | Producer
• Neve Campbell - Born 1973, turns 44 - Actress | Producer | Writer
• Alicia Vikander - Born 1988, turns 29 - Actress | Producer  

Wednesday 4th October

• Susan Sarandon - Born 1946, turns 71 - Actress | Producer | Singer
• Alicia Silverstone - Born 1976, turns 41 - Actress | Producer
• Dakota Johnson - Born 1989, turns 28 - Actress
• Armand Assante - Born 1949, turns 68 - Actor 
• Christoph Waltz - Born 1956, turns 61 - Actor | Director | Producer | Writer  
• Liev Schreiber - Born 1967, turns 50 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer | Narrator 

Thursday 5th October

• Vic Armstrong - Born 1946, turns 71 - Stuntman | Director | Actor
• Clive Barker - Born 1952, turns 65 - Writer | Producer | Director | Actor
• Guy Pearce - Born 1967, turns 50 - Actor | Director
• Tom Hooper - Born 1972, turns 45 - Director | Producer 
• Jesse Eisenberg - Born 1983, turns 34 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Director
• Jacob Tremblay - Born 2006, turns 11 - Actor
• Kate Winslet - Born 1975, turns 42 - Actress   

Friday 6th October

• Britt Ekland - Born 1942, turns 75 - Actress 
• Elisabeth Shue - Born 1963, turns 54 - Actress
• Olivia Thirlby - Born 1986, turns 31 - Actress 
• Ioan Gruffudd - Born 1973, turns 44 - Actor   

Saturday 7th October

• Marco Beltrami - Born 1966, turns 51 - Composer | Conductor | Songwriter | Producer
• Tim Minchin - Born 1975, turns 42 - Singer | Songwriter | Composer | Writer | Actor | Producer
• Shawn and Aaron Ashmore - Born 1979, turn 38 - Actors | Producers
• Olivia Munn - Born 1974, turns 43 - Actress 

Lena Headey was born in Hamilton, the capital city of Bermuda to mother Sue and father John Headey a Police Officer from Yorkshire, England, who was stationed on the island at the time of his daughters birth up until she turned five. At five years of age, the family relocated back to England, to Somerset, and then at age eleven onto Shelley, in West Yorkshire, near to Huddersfield. Attending the secondary school, Shelley College, Lena first gained an interest in acting, and came to the attention of a casting agent during a school production staged at the London Royal National Theatre, subsequently being cast in the 1992 'Waterland' Directed by Stephen Gyllenhaal and starring Jeremy Irons, Ethan Hawke, Pete Postlethwaite, David Morrissey and Maggie Gyllenhaal. 

The following year, 1993, Headey scored roles in episodes of 'Spender', 'How We Used to Live' and 'Soldier Soldier' before her next big screen outing in the highly acclaimed James Ivory Directed 'The Remains of the Day' with Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, Christopher Reeve, Hugh Grant, James Fox and Peter Vaughan. The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, five Golden Globes, and five BAFTA's winning one, amongst a haul of sixteen wins and 33 nominations. That same year came 'Century' with Charles Dance, Clive Owen, Joan Hickson and Miranda Richardson and then the live action 'The Jungle Book' in 1994 Directed by Stephen Sommers and starring Jason Scott Lee, Sam Neill, John Cleese, Cary Elwes and Jason Flemyng. 'Gentlemen Don't Eat Poets' was up next in 1995, 'Face' in 1997 with Robert Carlyle and Ray Winstone, 'Mrs. Dalloway' also that year with Vanessa Redgrave, John Standing, and Robert Hardy, then 'Twice Upon a Yesterday' with Douglas Henshall, Penelope Cruz, Mark Strong and Elizabeth McGovern and 'Onegin' in 1999 with Ralph Fiennes, Toby Stephens and Liv Tyler. In between time through the '90's there were short films, made for television films including 'Fair Game', 'Loved Up' and 'Devil's Advocate' as well as appearances on television series including 'Gold' and 'Band of Gold', 'Merlin' and 'Ballykissangel' and 'Kavanagh QC'. 

2000 launched with RomCom 'Ropewalk' and then mystery thriller 'Gossip' with James Marsden, Norman Reedus, and Kate Hudson, followed by drama 'Aberdeen' with Stellan Skarsgard and Charlotte Rampling for which Headey won critical acclaim. Comedy crime caper 'The Parole Officer' with Steve Coogan and Stephen Dilane, then 'Possession' with Gwyneth Paltrow, Aaron Eckhart and Toby Stephens, and 'Ripley's Game' with John Malkovich, Dougray Scott and Ray Winstone, followed by crime comedy 'The Actors' with Michael Caine, Michael Gambon, Dylan Moran and Miranda Richardson. Horror adventure offering 'The Cave' came next in 2005 which fared poorly at the Box Office and critically, but Terry Gilliam's 'The Brothers Grimm' with Matt Damon, Heath Ledger and Monica Bellucci fared much better, as did 'Imagine Me & You' with Piper Perabo, with critics hailing Headey's performance as a lesbian in the movie.

Historical action fantasy '300' as Directed by Zack Snyder was released in 2006 with Gerard Butler, Michael Fassbender, David Wenham, Rodrigo Santoro with Headey in the role as Queen Gorgo - a role she would reprise in 2014's '300 : Rise of an Empire' with Noam Murro this time Directing.









A change of pace came next with 'St. Trinian's', then horror thriller 'The Broken', WWI biographical adventure film 'The Red Baron', then Hollywood set drama 'Whore' and then another horror thriller 'Laid to Rest' before Sci-Fi horror drama 'Tell Tale' directed by Michael Cuesta and starring Josh Lucas and Brian Cox. In the intervening years there had been further short film appearances, and television series appearances on the likes of 'The Long Firm' and 'The Super Hero Squad Show' in which Headey lent her voice talents to Mystique and Black Widow.

Headey headlined the television series 'Terminator : The Sarah Connor Chronicles' over 31 episodes and two seasons in 2008 and 2009 starring as Sarah Connor with Thomas Dekker playing her son sent back from the future John Connor, as they both try to evade the government authorities as they scheme a way of destroying Skynet to prevent Armageddon. The show was nominated for four Primetime Emmy Awards and all up picked up three award wins and a total 25 nods.

The new decade rolled over with 'Pete Smalls is Dead' with Peter Dinklage, the reboot of the Sci-Fi action crime film 'Dredd' with Karl Urban as Judge Dredd and Headey as Ma-Ma, the leader of a gang of drug dealers and the films principle villain. She starred opposite Ethan Hawke again in the Sci-Fi horror thriller 'The Purge' which was made on a tiny budget of just US$3M and recouped US$90M at the Box Office, and followed this up with fantasy action film 'The Mortal Instruments : City of Bones', then 'The Adventurer : The Curse of the Midas Box' with Michael Sheen, Sam Neill and Ioan Gruffudd, which in turn led to 'Low Down' with Peter Dinklage again, John Hawkes, Glenn Close, and Elle Fanning. 'Zipper' closed out 2015 with Patrick Wilson, Ray Winstone and Richard Dreyfuss.

Action horror romance (but not as Jane Austen wrote it!) 'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies' was released in 2016 with Lily James, Jack Huston, Sam Riley and Charles Dance, and then 'Kingsglaive : Final Fantasy XV' to which Headey lent her voice in this feature length Sci-Fi animated action adventure together with those of Sean Bean and Aaron Paul. Crime drama film 'Thumper' was released in the US in April this year, but has not seen a release in Australia (yet!). In the meantime, Headey has also lent her voice talents to the children's animated series 'Danger Mouse' and 'Uncle Grandpa'.

All this of course leads us into Headey's portrayal of Cersei Lannister in the HBO series 'Game of Thrones' which has so far aired over seven seasons since 2011 with Headey appearing in 58 episodes to date. Based on the George R.R. Martin collection of books 'A Song of Ice and Fire', Headey plays a ruthless queen for which she has received widespread critical acclaim, including Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2014, 2015 and 2106. All up the show has garnered 253 award wins and a further 422 nominations, with Season Seven recently finished airing, with the final season, Season Eight going to air in 2018.

Next up for Headey and due for release in 2018 is drama film currently in Post-Production 'The Flood' with Iain Glen, and also due in 2018 is biographical comedy drama 'Fighting With My Family' Written, Directed and starring Stephen Merchant with Dwayne Johnson, Vince Vaughn and Nick Frost.

All up Headey has 73 Acting credits to her name so far, and two as Producer. She has five award wins  - four of which are for 'Game of Thrones' and the other for film, 'Aberdeen', and an additional 35 award nominations including Golden Globe, Primetime Emmy and SAG Awards nods. For nine years Headey dated English Actor Jason Flemyng from 1994 to 2003. Thereafter she married musician Peter Loughran in mid-2007 with whom she has a son, Wylie (born in 2010). The couple separated in 2011 and divorced in late 2013. In July 2015 Headey gave birth to a daughter, Teddy, with Director Dan Cadan. Headey has actively campaigned on behalf of animal rights, and she also supports the LGBT organisation 'NOH8'.

Lena Headey - one time vegetarian; heavily tattooed; trained in archery, horse-riding; practices yoga often; and takes boxing classes too. Has starred with many of her GOT cast colleagues in film and television outside of the GOT series, including Peter Dinklage, Charles Dance, Stephen Dilane, Sean Bean and Peter Vaughan; and is happy to play to any genre taking in action, adventure, fantasy, Sci-Fi, horror, comedy, biographical, historical despite never having been to acting school and is self taught in her chosen profession. Ranked on numerous 'Hot 100' lists back in 2007, 2008 and 2009 especially and is known for her distinctive, mellow and rich tone of voice, her arched eyebrows and her calming personality. We await the outcome of 'GOT S8' with huge anticipation, and will continue to watch closely what you do next. In the meantime Lena, a Happy Birthday to you, from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-