Birthday's to share this week : 5th - 11th November 2017.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Emma Stone does on 6th November - check out my tribute to this Actress Producer Birthday Girl turning 29, 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 5th November

• Elke Sommer - Born 1940, turns 77 - Actress
• Tilda Swinton - Born 1960, turns 57 - Actress | Producer | Writer | Director
• Tatum O'Neal - Born 1963, turns 54 - Actress | Producer
• Famke Janssen - Born 1964, turns 53 - Actress | Writer | Producer | Director
• Robert Patrick - Born 1958, turns 59 - Actor | Producer 
• Sam Rockwell - Born 1968, turns 49 - Actor | Producer

Monday 6th November

• Nigel Havers - Born 1951, turns 66 - Actor 
• Vince Colosimo - Born 1966, turns 51 - Actor
• Ethan Hawke - Born 1970, turns 47 - Actor | Writer | Director | Producer | Singer
• Sally Field - Born 1946, turns 71 - Actress | Producer | Director | Writer
• Lori Singer - Born 1957, turns 60 - Actress | Producer
• Thandie Newton - Born 1972, turns 45 - Actress | Producer
• Rebecca Romijn - Born 1972, turns 45 - Actress | Producer
• Emma Stone - Born 1988, turns 29 - Actress | Producer | Singer

Tuesday 7th November

• Morgan Spurlock - Born 1970, turns 47 - Producer | Writer | Director | Actor 
• Adam Devine - Born 1983, turns 34 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Singer | Songwriter | Director  

Wednesday 8th November

• Richard Curtis - Born 1956, turns 61 - Writer | Producer | Director 
• Parker Posey - Born 1968, turns 49 - Actress | Singer
• Gretchen Mol - Born 1972, turns 45 - Actress   

Thursday 9th November

• Lou Ferrigno - Born 1951, turns 66 - Actor 
• Tony Slattery - Born 1959, turns 58 - Actor | Writer | Television Personality  

Friday 10th November

• Ennio Morricone - Born 1928, turns 89 - Composer | Songwriter | Musician | Conductor
• Roland Emmerich - Born 1955, turns 62 - Director | Producer | Writer 
• Hugh Bonneville - Born 1963, turns 54 - Actor 
• Walton Goggins - Born 1971, turns 46 - Actor | Producer
• Taron Egerton - Born 1989, turns 28 - Actor  

Saturday 11th November

• Stanley Tucci - Born 1960, turns 57 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer
• Leonardo DiCaprio - Born 1974, turns 43 - Actor | Producer | Writer
• Scoot McNairy - Born 1977, turns 40 - Actor | Producer
• June Whitfield - Born 1925, turns 92 - Actress
• Demi Moore - Born 1962, turns 55 - Actress | Producer
• Calista Flockhart - Born 1964, turns 53 - Actress | Singer

Emily Jean Stone was born in Scottsdale, Arizona to mother Krista Jean Yeager, a housewife and homemaker and father Jeffrey Charles Stone, the CEO and founder of a general contracting company. She attended Sequoya Elementary School and then Cocopah Middle School in Scottsdale. By her own admission she did not particularly like school but having a controlling nature she was determined to do well and score 'A's' in all subjects. As a child she suffered from panic attacks which negatively impacted her social skills, but attending therapy coupled with her local theatre interests in play acting helped cure her of this ailment. She first developed an interest in acting at the age of just four, and for several years took voice coaching lessons. Her acting debut came at age eleven in a stage production of 'The Wind in the Willows', after which she was home schooled for two years, and during which time she appeared in a further sixteen productions at the Phoenix Valley Youth Theatre. She travelled to Los Angeles to audition for the Nickelodeon Produced live action sketch comedy variety show 'All That' but was unsuccessful. Following this her parents enlisted her for private acting lessons. She then attended Xavier College Preparatory Catholic Girls High School in Phoenix but dropped out after just one semester to pursue a career as an Actress. 

In 2004 Stone moved with her mother to Los Angeles and auditioned for just about every role that she felt best qualified for . . . meeting with rejection at every turn. At the same time she registered for the Screen Actors Guild but the name of Emily Stone was already taken by someone else. She initially opted to use the stage name of Riley Stone but following one-off appearances on 'Medium', 'Lucky Louie' and 'Malcolm in the Middle' she favoured Emma Stone, and that name stuck. She auditioned for the Sci-Fi action drama series 'Heroes' but was unsuccessful here too, and appeared in the illegal car racing action drama series 'Drive' which was canned after just seven episodes in 2007. Stone got her first feature film role in 'Superbad' in 2007 starring Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen, Bill Hader, Dave Franco and Michael Cera. Stone was praised for her performance and it garnered her a Young Hollywood Award for the most 'Exciting New Face'. 'The Rocker' followed in 2008, then Comedy Romance 'The House Bunny' with Anna Faris, Colin Hanks and Hugh Heffner; followed by 'Ghosts of Girlfriends Past' with Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner and Michael Douglas; 'Paper Man' with Ryan Reynolds, Jeff Daniels and Lisa Kudrow, and the commercially successful adventure comedy horror offering 'Zombieland' with Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Bill Murray and Abigail Breslin seeing out the decade.  

2010 saw Stone launch with lending her voice to the animated feature film 'Marmaduke' with an all star voice cast including Steve Coogan, Kiefer Sutherland, Owen Wilson and Christopher Mintz-Plasse. Also that year saw 'Easy A' in which Stone got top billing as a clean cut high school student who uses the schools grape vine and rumour mill to progress her social and financial standing. The film also starred Stanley Tucci, Thomas Haden Church, Patricia Clarkson, Lisa Kudrow and Malcolm McDowell, garnered Stone a number of award wins and nominations including her first Golden Globe nod, and was financially successful too.  

2011 saw 'Friends with Benefits'; then 'Crazy, Stupid Love' with Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore, and Kevin Bacon and then a change of pace with the historical drama offering 'The Help' which picked up eighty award wins and another 116 nominations - among them Academy Awards, Golden Globes, BAFTA's and SAG's wins and nods. Stone starred with Octavia Spencer, Viola Davis, Jessica Chastain, Sissy Spacek and Bryce Dallas Howard. The film grossed US$217M off the back of a US$25M production budget. The reboot of the 'Spider-Man' franchise for Marvel with Marc Webb's rendition of 'The Amazing Spider-Man' followed in 2012 with Stone playing Gwen Stacy to Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker/Spider-Man's first love interest. Stone would reprise the role in 2014's 'The Amazing Spider-Man 2' again opposite Andrew Garfield. The two films combined grossed a total US$1,47B off a budgeted US$480M with Critics saying positive things about the Stone/Garfield pairing in the film and the on-screen chemistry that exists that only serves to heighten both performances.

Historical 1949 LA set gangster and mobster action crime drama 'Gangster Squad' was released in 2013 with Sean Penn, Ryan Gosling, Josh Brolin, Nick Nolte, Anthony Mackie, Giovanni Ribisi, Michael Pena and Robert Patrick with this time Critics being kind to the pairing of Stone and Gosling, but less positive about the film generally. The film recovered US$106M from its US$75M outlay. The next year saw the Woody Allen Written and Directed 'Magic in the Moonlight' with Colin Firth. In between time there had been an appearance on a single episode of '30 Rock' and 'iCarly', and Stone lent her voice talents to the video game 'Sleeping Dogs' and the DreamWorks animated feature 'The Croods' together with Ryan Reynolds, Nicolas Cage and Catherine Keener, grossing US$588M from a US$135M budget expense.

2014 was seen out with the hugely successful Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu Co-Written and Directed 'Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)' starring Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Zach Galifianakis, Naomi Watts, and Andrea Riseborough. The film collected 193 Award wins and another 277 nominations including four Academy Award wins and five nominations, two Golden Globe wins and five nominations, one BAFTA win and nine nominations, and one SAG win and three nominations, of which Stone was nominated at each of these prestigious Awards for her Best Supporting Actress performance. The film also took US$104M in Box Office receipts against its US$18M budget investment.

This led to a turn with Writer/Director Woody Allen again in 2015 with the release of 'Irrational Man' alongside Joaquin Phoenix, and then later that same year in the Cameron Crowe Written and Directed 'Aloha' opposite Bradley Cooper, Rachel McAdams, Bill Murray, Alec Baldwin, Jaeden Lieberher and Danny McBride.








After appearing in uncredited roles in 'The Interview' and 'Popstar : Never Stop Never Stopping', along came Damien Chazelle's Written and Directed song and dance drama 'La La Land' with Stone playing the female lead as Mia opposite Ryan Gosling's Sebastian with Rosemary DeWitt, John Legend and J.K. Simmons. The film was a huge critical success bagging 212 Award wins and a further 248 nominations including six Academy Awards and eight nominations, seven Golden Globe wins, five BAFTA wins and six nominations and one SAG win and one nomination. Amongst these Awards ceremonies Stone picked up the award for Best Leading Actress at each. The film also returned US$446M from its US$30M budget.

Released just a short time ago, next up for Stone was the biographical sports drama 'Battle of the Sexes' in which Stone portrays tennis legend Billie Jean King as she faces off against former mens tennis champion Bobby Riggs played by Steve Carell back in 1973 in what was back then the most widely watched television sports event in history. The film also stars Andrea Riseborough, Bill Pullman, Alan Cumming, Elisabeth Shue and Jessica McNamee. Whilst the film garnered mixed Critical Reviews and did lacklustre Box Office, Stone's performance was largely praised.

This brings us up to date, with next up for Stone is the Netflix series 'Maniac' alongside Jonah Hill which is currently in production for airing in 2018. Then there is the Yorgos Lanthimos Directed 18th Century historical biographical feature film 'The Favourite' about royal intrigue, envy, betrayal and passion in the court of Queen Anne, and starring Olivia Coleman, Rachel Weisz, Nicholas Hoult and due in 2018 too. Currently in pre-production is 'Cruella' a live action feature film following the evil exploits of Cruella de Vil, following the storyline from '101 Dalmatians' with Stone playing the title character. And finally, and also in pre-production, Stone is set to reprise her role as Eep in the animated feature follow up 'The Croods 2' due in 2020.

All up Stone has forty-two Acting credits to her name and two Producer credits for upcoming TV series 'Maniac' and action comedy feature film 'Little White Corvette'. During her career to date she has also amassed 54 award wins and another 109 nominations including the Academy Award win, Golden Globe win, BAFTA win, AACTA win and SAG win for 'La La Land' as well as other wins from around the festival and awards circuit for 'The Help', 'Birdman' and 'Easy A'. For a few years from 2010 Stone and 'Spider-Man' Co-Star Andrew Garfield were said to be romantically linked, but by 2015 they were reported to have split. She is a supporter of charitable organisations and worthy causes including for the promotion of breast cancer awareness, Earth Hour, autism awareness, and various fundraisers for the Motion Picture and Television Fund, Entertainment Industry Foundation and the World Wide Fund for Nature.

Emma Stone - branded by some publications as one of her generations most talented Actresses; has appeared on numerous 'Top' lists over the years including Top 20 Rising Stars Under 30, Top 20 Actresses Under 30, 100 Most Powerful People in the World, Top 10 Best Value Stars, 100 Most Influential People in the World, Hot 100, 100 Sexiest Women in the World, 100 Most Beautiful Women, 100 Hottest Women, Top 99 Women, Most Desirable Women, Best Dressed Woman and in 2017 made it to the top of the highest paid Actress league by raking in a cool US$26M. With your trademark bright green eyes, husky voice, red hair and always playing out of your comfort zone you have proven yourself time and again as the accolades will attest to. So much achieved, and not even thirty yet! Happy Birthday to you Emma, from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-