Birthday's to share this week : 1st - 7th November 2015

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Tilda Swinton does on 5th November - check out the tribute to this Birthday Girl turning 55 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 November

• Toni Collette - Born 1972, turns 43 - Actress | Producer
• Lyle Lovett - Born 1957, turns 58 - Actor | Singer | Songwriter
• Robert Luketic - Born 1973, turns 42 - Director

Monday 2nd November

• David Schwimmer - Born 1966, turns 49 - Actor | Producer | Director  
• Stephanie Powers - Born 1942, turns 73 - Actress | Producer 

Tuesday 3rd November

• Kate Capshaw -  Born 1953, turns 62 - Actress | Producer 
• Roseanne Barr - Born 1952, turns 63 - Actress | Producer | Writer  
• Gary Ross - Born 1956, turns 59 - Director | Producer | Writer
• Dolph Lundgren - Born 1957, turns 58 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Director
• Dylan Moran - Born 1971, turns 44 - Actor | Writer

Wednesday 4th November

• Matthew McConaughey - Born 1969, turns 46 - Actor 
• Sean 'Puff Diddy' Combs - Born 1969, turns 46 - Singer | Songwriter | Producer | Actor 
• Ralph Macchio  - Born 1961, turns 54 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Director
• Loretta Swit - Born 1937, turns 78 - Actress

Thursday 5th November

• Tilda Swinton - Born 1960, turns 55 - Actress | Producer | Writer  
• Famke Janssen - Born 1964, turns 51 - Actress | Producer | Writer | Director
• Tatum O'Neal - Born 1963, turns 52 - Actress
• Robert Patrick - Born 1958, turns 57 - Actor | Producer
• Sam Rockwell - Born 1968, turns 47 - Actor | Producer
• Sam Shepard - Born 1943, turns 72 - Actor | Writer 

Friday 6th November

• Ethan Hawke - Born 1970, turns 45 - Actor | Writer | Director
• Vince Colosimo  - Born 1966, turns 49 - Actor
• Adam Devine - Born 1983, turns 32 - Actor | Writer | Producer
• Lori Singer - Born 1957, turns 58 - Actress
• Thandie Newton - Born 1972, turns 43 - Actress
• Sally Field - Born 1946, turns 69 - Actress | Producer | Director
• Emma Stone - Born 1988, turns 27 - Actress

Saturday 7th November 

• Morgan Spurlock - Born 1970, turns 45 - Writer | Producer | Director 

Katherine Matilda 'Tilda' Swinton was born in London, England to mother Judith Balfour, an Australian, and father Major General John Swinton, and Lord Lieutenant of Berwickshire. Her family history can be traced back to The Middle Ages, and hers is one of only three families able to track their unbroken land rights and ancestry dating back to the time before The Norman Conquests. Swinton was privately educated at the independent schools of Queen's Gate School in London, West Heath School in Sevenoaks (where she was classmates with Lady Diana Spencer [aka Princess Diana]) and at Fettes College in Edinburgh. In 1983 she graduated from New Hall College at Cambridge University with a degree in Political and Social Sciences. Whilst at College she joined the Communist Party and then the Scottish Socialist Party, and she began stage acting too in college productions.

In 1984 she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company and appeared in 'Measure for Measure'. Her small screen break came in the mini-series 'Zastrozzi : A Romance'. That same year she worked on her first film with gay experimental Director and Cinematographer, Derek Jarman in what would become a nine year personal and professional relationship starting with 'Caravaggio' in 1986 and taking in 'The Last of England', 'War Requiem', 'The Garden', 'Edward II', 'Blue' and 'Wittgenstein' up to the point of his death in 1994 from AIDS complications.

His premature death left a massive void in Swinton's life from which it took her a long time to fully recover. During that time however, she made 'Orlando' in 1992 for Writer and Director Sally Potter, for which both the Actress and the Director won numerous Awards on the international film circuit. 'Orlando' allowed Swinton to explore her interest in gender presentation and androgyny and from that point onward and throughout her career to the present day, she has dipped in and out of small independent film fare and those more main stream, worked on foreign language offerings, with new emerging Directors, and across multiple genres as old, young, male, female, immortal and otherworldly characters.

1996 saw 'Female Perversions' with 'Conceiving Ada' in 1997, Tim Roth's Directed 'The War Zone' in 1999 with Ray Winstone and Colin Farrell, and 'The Protagonists' that same year, which saw out the decade.

As the new decade turned over there was Danny Boyle's 'The Beach' in 2000 with Leonardo DiCaprio, and Cameron Crowe's 2001 'Vanilla Sky' with an all star cast lead by Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz and Cameron Diaz. Spike Jonze Directed Swinton thereafter in the 2002 'Adaptation' with Nicolas Cage, Meryl Streep and Chris Cooper. The following year brought Norman Jewison's 'The Statement' with Michael Caine, Alan Bates, and Jeremy Northam. 2005 saw the supernatural horror fantasy comic book telling of 'Constantine' with Keanu Reeves, Shia LaBeouf and Djimon Hounsou.

2005 also saw Swinton's first outing as 'The White Witch' in 'The Chronicles of Narnia' series with 'The Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe'. She reprised her role in 2008's 'Prince Caspian' and again in 2010 for 'The Voyage of the Dawn Trader'.

In between there was her Oscar winning role alongside George Clooney in Tony Gilroy's 'Michael Clayton' in 2007. 2008 was a busy year with 'Narnia' as well as 'Burn After Reading' with George Clooney again, and Brad Pitt for the Coen Brothers Directing, and 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' with Brad Pitt again too, and Cate Blanchett and Directed by David Fincher. 'Limits of Control' and 'I am Love' saw out the decade with the last (so far) 'Narnia' instalment in 2010.

The last five years have been equally busy in which we have seen 'We Need To Talk About Kevin', 'Moonrise Kingdom' for Wes Anderson with whom he would work again on 2014's 'The Grand Budapest Hotel'. Then there was 'Only Lovers Left Alive' with Tom Hiddleston and Mia Wasikowska and for Director Jim Jarmusch, and then the excellent 'Snowpiercer' and 'The Zero Theorem' in the meantime before this years 'Trainwreck' and 'A Bigger Splash'.



Next up is 'Hail, Caesar' for the Coen Brothers once again and also starring George Clooney, Ralph Fiennes and Josh Brolin and a whole heap of big name talent, and currently in post-production for a 2016 release. In pre-production for 2016 too is 'Okja' for Korean Director Joon-ho Boon for whom she worked on 'Snowpiercer' and the further expansion of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 'Doctor Strange' also for 2016 and starring Benedict Cumberbatch, and Chiwetel Ejiofor.

Swinton has 71 Acting credits to her name, six Producer credits, three Writing credits and one for Directing for the documentary 'The New Ten Commandments' in 2008. She has an Academy Award and a BAFTA win for Best Supporting Actress for 'Michael Clayton' and a further 56 award wins and another 121 nominations including three Golden Globes and two other BAFTA's.

Swinton has worked with performance art in a live installation in London; with fashion designers and houses and has been often lauded as one of top world's best dressed women; and she has sat on the Jury of the Berlin, Venice, Moscow, Cannes and Sundance Film Festivals. She also founded her own, in and around Scotland; has appeared in music video clips for Orbital and David Bowie and now lives in Scotland with her partner of eleven years Sandro Kopp with her twins Honor and Xavier born in October 1997 to her former partner, Scottish playwright John Byrne.

Tilda Swinton - diverse acting range, unpredictable, experimental, quirky, daringly different, ageing beautifully and gracefully and very much in demand - Happy Birthday to you from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

Birthdays to share this week : 31st August - 6th September.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Do you share your birthday with a well known, highly regarded & famous Actor or Actress; share your special day with a Director, Producer, Writer, Cinematographer or 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!

Check out too the spotlight on this weeks Birthday Boy on 2nd September, Keanu Reeves, at the end of this feature.

Sunday 31st August

• Richard Gere - Born 1949, turns 65 - Actor | Producer
• Chris Tucker - Born 1972, turns 42 - Actor
• Marc Webb - Born 1974, turns 40 - Director | Producer
• Jonathan LaPaglia - Born 1969, turns 45 - Actor
• Jack Thompson - Born 1940, turns 74 - Actor | Producer
• Van Morrison - Born 1945, turns 69 - Singer | Songwriter | Composer

Monday 1st September

• Lily Tomlin - Born 1939, turns 75 - Actress | Producer
• Gloria Estefan - Born 1957, turns 57 - Singer | Songwriter | Actress
• Barry Gibb - Born 1946m turns 68 - Singer | Songwriter
• Craig McLachlan - Born 1965, turns 49 - Actor | Singer

Tuesday 2nd September

• Keanu Reeves - Born 1964, turns 50 - Actor | Producer | Director
• Salma Hayek - Born 1966, turns 48 - Actress | Producer
• Mark Harmon - Born 1951, turns 63 - Actor | Producer

Wednesday 3rd September

• Charlie Sheen - Born 1965, turns 49 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Director
• Jean-Pierre Jeunet - Born 1953, turns 61 - Director | Producer | Writer
• Pauline Collins - Born 1940, turns 74 - Actress

Thursday 4th September

• Noah Taylor - Born 1969, turns 45 - Actor
• Damon Wyans - Born 1960, turns 54 - Actor | Producer | Director
• Beyonce Knowles - Born 1981, turns 33 - Singer | Songwriter | Actress | Producer

Friday 5th September

• Michael Keaton - Born 1951, turns 63 - Actor | Producer
• Raquel Welch - Born 1940, turns 74 - Actress
• Werner Herzog - Born 1942, turns 72 - Director | Producer | Actor | Writer
• Paddy Consadine - Born 1974, turns 40 - Actor | Writer | Director
• Rose McGowan - Born 1973, turns 41 - Actress

Saturday 6th September

• Idris Elba - Born 1972, turns 42 - Actor | Producer
• Roger Waters - Born 1943, turns 71 - Songwriter | Singer | Composer | Writer
• John Polson - Born 1965, turns 49 - Actor | Director | Producer
• Naomi Harris - Born 1976, turns 38 - Actress

Keanu Charles Reeves was born in Beirut, Lebanon to an English born Showgirl and an American born geologist. He lived there for the first six months of his life, before relocating to Sydney where he lived with his mother until age three, by which time his father had already left the relationship. Reeves grew up with various stepfathers thereafter having moved to New York City and then Toronto. His biological father was born in Hawaii, and it is from here that Keanu was given his name - meaning 'cool breeze over the mountains' in Hawaiian.

He attended De La Salle College in Toronto and then Avondale Secondary Alternative School, also in Toronto, thereafter - at this latter institution he could gain an 'education' whilst working as an actor, but he was not academic and so dropped out at age seventeen before gaining a high school diploma. In his early teens he showed promise as an ice hockey player and was offered to try-out for the Canadian League for the Windsor Spitfires. He played in goal and earned the nickname 'The Wall', but gave this up too in favour of pursuing a career in acting.

At age nine he appeared in a theatre production of 'Damn Yankees' and at 15 in 'Romeo & Juliet' also on stage. His screen acting debut came in the comedy television series 'Hangin' In' and during the early 80's he gained some television commercial work, short film roles and other stage plays. His first studio movie role was with Rob Lowe in 'Youngblood' in 1986, followed up later that year with a more sizeable turn in 'River's Edge'. In fact, in 1986 Reeves had seven films released all with his name attached, and all aimed largely at the teen market. It was however, the somewhat unexpected success of 1989's 'Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure' and its 1991 sequel 'Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey', playing Theodore 'Ted' Logan, that catapulted Reeves into the mainstream.

In the early 90's Reeves started to straddle more mainstream offerings such as 'Point Break' and 'Bram Stoker's Dracula' with independent fare such as 'My Own Private Idaho' with close friend River Phoenix. Again though, it was to be 1994's high speed actioner 'Speed' with Sandra Bullock and Dennis Hopper that placed Reeves on the action star pedestal. He did though, and perhaps wisely, turn down the reprisal of his role as  Officer Jack Traven in 'Speed 2' despite the offer of an US$11M pay day - his biggest up to that point! Along the way he also turned down roles in 'Platoon', 'Heat' and 'Speed Racer' - those roles eventually going to Charlie Sheen, Val Kilmer and Matthew Fox respectively.

In the latter half of the 90's he continued to choose between the big action fare - 'Chain Reaction' and 'Johnny Mnemonic' which did less well at the box office than expected, and the indie features such as 'Feeling Minnestoa'. These though were backed up by 'The Devil's Advocate' and 'The Replacements' which restored some credibility, and for which Reeves would take a huge pay cut to ensure that Al Pacino and Gene Hackman could star respectively.




In 1999, he hit pay-dirt once again with his acting in 'The Matrix' and followed this up in 2003 with the release of both sequels - 'The Matrix Reloaded' and 'The Matrix Revolutions' - for which he earned US$40M in fees and 15% of the gross - to give him combined earnings from the trilogy of around US$70M. Interestingly, of that he gave away US$50M to the make-up and effects artists on those films, saying that he had enough money anyway to support himself with for the next couple of centuries.

Following this he has had a series of also-rans and film that have flown under the radar during the first decade of the new century - in terms of box office and critical acclaim. In 2013 he turned his attention to Directing for the first time, and did so with 'Man of Tai Chi', and currently has several projects under development. '47 Ronin' was his last big screen appearance earlier this year, and he has 'John Wick' and 'Knock Knock' currently in post-production for a 2015 release, 'The Whole Truth' still filming also for a 2015 release and 'Rain' - a TV mini-series announced for 2016.

He has 74 acting credits to his name including those others, such as 'Dangerous Liaisons', 'Parenthood', 'Little Buddha', 'Even Cowgirls get the Blues', 'A Walk in the Clouds', 'The Watcher', 'The Gift', 'Hardball', 'Something's Gotta Give', 'Constantine', 'The Lake House', 'A Scanner Darkly', 'Street Kings', 'The Day the Earth Stood Still', and 'Generation Um'. He has ten award wins to his name and twenty other nominations including 12 MTV Movie Awards - but, he also has several Razzie Awards and Golden Raspberry Awards too!

When he is not acting, Producing or Directing he has set up a cancer charity but has chosen not to assign his name to it, and he supports PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals), the SickKids Foundation and Stand Up To Cancer. He is a keen surfer and horse rider - both of which he does in his spare time, and both of which he learned for acting roles, and is an ardent follower of F1 and IndyCar motor sport.

He is known for his intense eyes; has kept us entertained with some truly memorable roles and some forgettable ones too; and although he turns 50 this week the dude still looks and acts the part in a very relaxed, chilled out, laid back way. Good on ya Keanu - Happy Birthday to you from Odeon Online, and congratulations on your first half-century! 'Point Break' also remains one of my favourite films of all time too!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-