Birthday's to share this week : 8th - 14th October 2017.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Steve McQueen does on 9th October - check out my tribute to this Director, Producer and Writer Birthday Boy turning 48, 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 8th October

• Sigourney Weaver - Born 1949, turns 68 - Actress | Producer 
• Kristanna Loken - Born 1979, turns 38 - Actress | Producer 
• Paul Hogan - Born 1939, turns 78 - Actor | Writer | Producer
• Chevy Chase - Born 1943, turns 74 - Actor | Writer | Singer | Producer
• Edward Zwick - Born 1952, turns 65 - Director | Producer | Writer
• David Yates - Born 1963, turns 54 - Director | Producer | Writer
• Matt Damon - Born 1970, turns 47 - Actor | Producer | Writer

Monday 9th October

• Brian Blessed - Born 1936, turns 81 - Actor | Director
• Tony Shalhoub - Born 1953, turns 64 - Actor | Producer | Director
• Scott Bakula - Born 1954, turns 63 - Actor | Producer | Writer
• Guillermo del Toro - Born 1964, turns 53 - Producer | Director | Writer | Actor | Make-up FX
• Peter Docter - Born 1968, turns 49 - Writer | Director | Producer | Actor | Animator
• Steve McQueen - Born 1969, turns 48 - Director | Writer | Producer | Actor | Cinematographer
• Chris O'Dowd - Born 1979, turns 38 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Director
• Brandon Routh - Born 1979, turns 38 - Actor | Producer  

Tuesday 10th October

• Charles Dance - Born 1946, turns 71 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Director
• Martin Kemp - Born 1961, turns 56 - Actor | Director | Producer | Writer | Singer | Songwriter  

Wednesday 11th October

• David Morse - Born 1953, turns 64 - Actor | Producer
• Sean Patrick Flanery - Born 1965, turns 52 - Actor | Producer | Director
• Lennie James - Born 1965, turns 52 - Actor | Writer
• Luke Perry - Born 1966, turns 61 - Actor | Producer | Writer
• Justin Lin - Born 1973, turns 44 - Producer | Director | Writer | Editor
• Dawn French - Born 1957, turns 60 - Actress | Writer | Producer | Singer
• Joan Cusack - Born 1962, turns 55 - Actress | Writer  

Thursday 12th October

• Hugh Jackman - Born 1968, turns 49 - Actor | Producer | Singer
• Josh Hutchinson - Born 1992, turns 25 - Actor | Producer  

Friday 13th October

• Chris Carter - Born 1956, turns 61 - Writer | Producer | Director 
• Sasha Baron Cohen - Born 1971, turns 46 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Singer | Songwriter
• Kelly Preston - Born 1962, turns 55 - Actress   

Saturday 14th October

• Lori Petty - Born 1963, turns 54 - Actress | Writer | Director | Producer
• Mia Wasikowska - Born 1989, turns 28 - Actress | Writer | Director
• Christopher Timothy - Born 1940, turns 77 - Actor | Director | Producer | Writer
• Cliff Richard (aka Harry Webb) - Born 1940, turns 77 - Singer | Actor 
• Steve Coogan - Born 1965, turns 52 - Actor | Writer | Producer 
• Ben Whishaw - Born 1980, turns 37 - Actor 

Steven Rodney McQueen was born in London, England and hails from Trinidadian and Grenadian ancestry. He was raised in the west London suburb of Hanwell, in the Borough of Ealing where he attended the Drayton Manor High School. He subsequently stated, long after leaving, that he did not have a very good experience with his school years saying that he was placed in a class for pupils best suited for manual labour types and more menial career pathways, and that because he was dyslexic and suffered with a lazy eye, that these could have been reasons for him being marginalised in this way. He studied A-level Art at Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College, followed by Art and Design at the Chelsea College of Art, and then Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, University of London which is where his initial interest in film was first ignited. He spent a brief period at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University but left this finding the course too restrictive and not experimental enough. He cites those who have had the most profound influence on his career as being the likes of Andy Warhol, Sergei Eisenstein, Buster Keaton and Billy Wilder.

McQueen's film debut came in his 1993 ten minute short, 'Bear' which he Directed and also stars in, and which he presented at London's Royal College of Art. The film, shot in black and white, depicts a wrestling match between two naked black men (Vernon Douglass and McQueen) who alternate questionable relations and glances of aggression and erotic attraction. He followed this up in 1995 with the black and white seven minute short film 'Five Easy Pieces' about a woman walking a tight rope; then 'Stage' in 1996 which McQueen also Wrote and Produced, and that same year 'Just Above My Head' is another ten minute short offering which McQueen also stars in. 1997 saw the one minute 'Exodus' which he also Wrote and Edited, the two minute 'Catch' and the five minute 'Deadpan' which McQueen stars in again too recreating that classic 1928 silent Buster Keaton film 'Steamboat Bill, Jnr' in which the facade of a house collapses around Keaton who is saved by standing exactly in the right spot as a window, shot from varying camera angles. 'Drumroll' followed in 1998 and the six minute 'Prey' closed out the decade in 1999.  

McQueen continued Directing, Writing and Producing short films from 2000 until his first full length feature film in 2008. 2000 kicked off with 'Cold Breath', then the fifteen minute 'Illuminer' in which he also stars in 2001, the fifteen minute 'Girls, Tricky' that same year, and then the 23 minute '7th Nov.'. 'Western Deep' - a 24 minute short film exploring the sensory overload of miners working a South African gold mine as they are exposed to dark claustrophobic conditions and the ever deafening noise of heavy drilling machinery all around them came in 2002, and then the 24 minute 'Carib's Leap' later that year too.  2004 saw the six minute 'Charlotte' with Charlotte Rampling, then fourteen minute long 'Pursuit' in 2005, 'Unexploded' in 2007, 'Running Thunder' running for twelve minutes, and the eighteen minute 'Gravesend' take us up to his first feature. In between time McQueen was commissioned to go to Iraq as the official war artist in 2006, and the following year he showcased 'Queen and Country' an art installation commemorating the deaths of British soldiers killed in action during the Iraq War by presenting their portraits as a sheet of postage stamps. 

2008 saw that debut as Writer and Director on 'Hunger' a British/Irish historical drama Co-Production that starred Michael Fassbender as Bobby Sands, an Irish member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army who died in 1981 whilst on hunger strike while imprisoned at Northern Ireland's Maze Prison. The film also starred Liam Cunningham and Premiered at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival winning the Camera d'Or Award for first time feature film makers. The film went onto win the BAFTA for Director/Writer McQueen, won major prizes at Toronto, Venice and Sydney and all up accumulated 45 award wins and a further 33 nominations. 

Later that year McQueen returned to short films with the eleven minute 'Rayners Lane', then the seven minute 'Static' in 2009 and then the thirty minute 'Giardini' also in 2009. The latter two films he also Wrote, and he took a Producer credit on 'Giardini' too. 

This leads us to 'Shame' in 2011, again Written and Directed by McQueen and starring again Michael Fassbender. Made for US$6.5M the film grossed US$18M at the Box Office and was Critically praised picking up 49 award wins and another 90 nominations including one Golden Globe and two BAFTA nods and four major award wins at the 2011 Venice Film Festival. Carey Mulligan and James Badge Dale also star in this confronting film about a sex addict whose life is suddenly turned upside down and inside out when his estranged sister rocks up on his doorstep.

2013 saw the release of '12 Years a Slave' - a historical biographical drama adapted from the 1853 slave memoir 'Twelve Years a Slave' by Solomon Northup, a New York State born into freedom African-American who was kidnapped in 1841 by two conmen in Washington D.C. and sold into slavery. For the following twelve years Northup was put to work on the plantations across Louisiana before being released. The film cost US$17M to make and grossed US$188M at the Box Office and was widely acclaimed by Critics and audiences alike. Starring Michael Fassbender as slave owner Edwin Epps and Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomon Northup, the film also starred an ensemble cast including Benedict Cumberbatch, Brad Pitt, Paul Giamatti, Paul Dano, Lupita Nyong'o, Sarah Paulson and Scoot McNairy. The film went on to win three Academy Award wins including Best Motion Picture of the Year, Best Performance by an Actress for Lupita Nyong'o, and Best Adapted Screenplay and was nominated for another six including Best Director for McQueen. The film also picked up the Golden Globe win for Best Motion Picture and six other nominations; two BAFTA's including Best Film and Best Lead Actor for Chiwetel Ejiofor and eight other nominations; one SAG Award win and three other nods. All up '12 Years a Slave' reaped a total 238 Award wins and another 326 nominations, appeared on one hundred Critics 'Top Ten' lists for the Best Films of 2013 and was rated at number-one on 25 of those, and was the first film to receive a Best Picture Academy Award by a black Director or Producer.

McQueen followed this up with the ten minute short film 'Ashes' in 2014, then the nine minute short film for singer Kanye West and his new single 'All Day/I Feel Like That' in 2015, and finally the three minute 'Mr. Burberry' in 2016 promoting Burberry's new fragrance for men.

Next up for McQueen is 'Widows' based on the television crime drama series of the same name from 1983 and 1985 created by Linda La Plante. This big screen adaptation is currently in Post-Production for a late 2018 release and is Directed, Co-Produced and Co-Written for the screen by McQueen with 'Gone Girl' scribe Gillian Flynn also Co-Writing the Screenplay. The Chicago set film tells the story of four armed robbers who are killed during a bungled heist attempt, only to have their widows step up to take over the job and the legacy they left behind. The film stars an ensemble cast including Viola Davis, Elizabeth Debicki, Michelle Rodriguez, Cynthia Erivo, Jacki Weaver, Colin Farrell, Liam Neeson, Robert Duvall, Jon Bernthal, Lukas Haas and Daniel Kaluuya.

All up McQueen has 32 Director credits to his name, eight as Writer, six as Producer, five as Actor (on his own short films), three as Cinematographer and one as Editor. He has amassed 83 Award wins and another 86 nominations including the Oscar and the BAFTA for Best Picture for '12 Years a Slave'. He is married to Bianca Stigter, a Dutch cultural critic and they have two children together. He was awarded an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) by HRH Queen Elizabeth II in 2002 and this was elevated to a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the Queen's 2011 New Years Honours List to mark his services to the visual arts.

Steve McQueen - cut his teeth for fifteen years honing his film making skills on short films and art installations; was 38 years of age when he Directed his first feature length film, has cast Michael Fassbender in all three of his first three features; shoots his films mostly using just one camera; shoots his dialogue scenes in often just one single take or a series of extended takes; is not adverse to filming confronting and at times brutal subject matter; and was voted in 2014 by Time Magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. With such a track record, we look forward to your next Production, and in the meantime Steve, Happy Birthday to you, from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-