Birthday's to share this week : 31st December 2017 - 6th January 2018.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Norman Reedus does on 6th January - check out my tribute to this Actor, Producer, Director and Writer Birthday Lad turning 49, 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 have 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 31st December

• Anthony Hopkins - Born 1937, turns 80 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer | Composer | Singer | Songwriter
• Ben Kingsley - Born 1943, turns 74 - Actor | Producer 
• James Remar - Born 1953, turns 64 - Actor 
• Val Kilmer - Born 1959, turns 58 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer | Singer 
• Barbara Carrera - Born 1945, turns 72 - Actress   

Monday 1st January

• Angourie Rice - Born 2001, turns 17 - Actress 
• Frank Langella - Born 1938, turns 80 - Actor 
• Verne Troyer - Born 1969, turns 49 - Actor 

Tuesday 2nd January 

• Todd Haynes - Born 1961, turns 57 - Director | Writer | Producer | 
• Cuba Gooding Jnr. - Born 1968, turns 50 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer
• Taye Diggs - Born 1971, turns 47 - Actor | Producer | Singer
• Dax Shepard - Born 1975, turns 43 - Actor | Director | Writer | Producer | Editor | Singer  
• Tia Carrere - Born 1967, turns 51 - Actress | Producer | Singer
• Paz Vega - Born 1976, turns 42 - Actress 
• Kate Bosworth - Born 1983, turns 35 - Actress | Producer

Wednesday 3rd January

• Victoria Principal - Born 1950, turns 68 - Actress | Producer
• Florence Pugh - Born 1996, turns 22 - Actress
• Dabney Coleman - Born 1932, turns 86 - Actor 
• Mel Gibson - Born 1956, turns 62 - Actor | Director | Producer | Writer  
• Matt Ross - Born 1970, turns 48 - Actor | Director | Writer 

Thursday 4th January

• Graham McTavish - Born 1961, turns 57 - Actor | Singer
• Julia Ormond - Born 1965, turns 53 - Actress | Producer  

Friday 5th January

• Diane Keaton - Born 1946, turns 72 - Actress | Director | Producer | Singer
• January Jones - Born 1978, turns 40 - Actress 
• Robert Duvall - Born 1931, turns 87 - Actor | Producer | Director 
• Hayao Miyazaki - Born 1941, turns 77 - Writer | Director | Animator | Producer | Editor | Songwriter | Voice Actor
• Roger Spottiswoode - Born 1945, turns 73 - Director | Producer | Writer | Editor
• Clancy Brown - Born 1959, turns 59 - Actor | Producer | Singer
• Vinnie Jones - Born 1965, turns 53 - Actor | Singer
• Bradley Cooper - Born 1975, turns 43 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer  

Saturday 6th January

• Rowan Atkinson - Born 1955, turns 63 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Singer
• Norman Reedus - Born 1969, turns 49 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer 
• Eddie Redmayne - Born 1982, turns 36 - Actor | Singer 
• Sylvia Syms - Born 1934, turns 84 - Actress 
• Kate McKinnon - Born 1984, turns 34 - Actress | Writer | Singer

Norman Mark Reedus was born in Hollywood, Florida, USA to mother Marianne Yarber, a teacher, and father Ira Norman Reedus. In his teenage years he worked in a Harley-Davidson dealership in Venice, California and through his artwork interests was a regular contributor to various shows exhibiting his painting, photography, sculpting and video work skills. His first taste for the acting craft came in the stage play 'Maps for Drowners' at The Tiffany Theatre on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. He was discovered at a Los Angeles party when he started screaming wearing huge sunglasses, and another party guest asked him if he wanted to act in a play. And the rest as they say, is history!

Reedus gained his big screen debut in Guillermo del Toro's horror Sci-Fi offering 'Mimic' in 1997 with Josh Brolin, F. Murray Abraham, Jeremy Northam and Mira Sorvino. This was followed up that same year by coming of age romantic drama 'Floating', then the comedy crime drama 'Six Ways to Sunday' with Debbie Harry and Adrien Brody, and then the likes of 'I'm Losing You', 'Dark Harbour', 'Reach The Rock', 'Davis is Dead', 'Let The Devil Wear Black' before Joel Schumacher's mystery thriller '8MM' with Nicolas Cage, Joaquin Phoenix, James Gandolfini and Peter Stormare. This in turn led to action crime thriller 'The Boondocks Saints' in 1999 with Willem Dafoe, Billy Connolly and Sean Patrick Flanery. Reedus plays brother Murphy MacManus to Flanery's Conor MacManus in this Boston set underworld revenge and retribution offering, which saw Reedus, Flanery and Connolly reprise their roles in the 2009 sequel 'The Boondocks Saints II : All Saints Day'.

The new decade in 2000 opened with 'Beat' with Keifer Sutherland, 'Gossip' with James Marsden and Lena Headey, 'Bad Seed', 'Sand', 'Beatnicks', Luster' and Guillermo del Toro's action Sci-Fi horror sequel 'Blade II' with Wesley Snipes, Ron Perlman and Kris Kristofferson. 'Deuces Wild', 'Nobody Needs to Know', 'Tough Luck', 'Octane' and 'Until the Night' closed out 2004. In the meantime there had been two episodes on television series 'Charmed'. 

2005 saw 'Antibodies', historical biography 'The Notorious Bettie Page' with Gretchen Mol in the title role, then 'A Crime' in 2006 with Harvey Keitel and Ridley Scott's acclaimed 'American Gangster' in 2007 with Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. 'Moscow Chill' was released also in 2007, then 'Hero Wanted' with Cuba Gooding Jnr., horror thriller 'Red Canyon', 'Cadillac Records' in 2008 with Adrien Brody and Sci-Fi action horror offering 'Pandorum' with Ben Foster and Dennis Quaid seeing out 2009 with the aforementioned 'The Boondocks Saints II : All Saints Day'.

2010 saw another busy year with numerous release films including 'Meskada', the Robert Redford Directed 'The Conspirator' with James McAvoy, Kevin Kline, Tom Wilkinson, Danny Huston, Toby Kebbel and Robin Wright, then 'Hello Herman', mystery horror offering 'Night of the Templar', 'Sunlight Jr.' with Matt Dillon and Naomi Watts, followed by 'Pawn Shop Chronicles' with Matt Dillon again and Elijah Wood, Paul Walker, Brendan Fraser and Vincent D'Onofrio, and then 'Stretch' in 2014 with Patrick Wilson, Ed Helms, Ray Liotta, David Hasselhoff and Jessica Alba.

In between time Reedus was cast as the motorcycle riding crossbow wielding Daryl Dixon in the hugely popular and highly acclaimed AMC post zombie apocalypse television series 'The Walking Dead' which has aired for seven seasons so far, with Season Eight due in 2018, and spanning 115 episodes in which Reedus has appeared in 113 of those episodes to date. The series created by Frank Durabont based on the graphic novels by Robert Kirkman have so far garnered 66 award wins and 183 nominations, including three award wins and three nods for Reedus as Best Supporting Actor in the series. He stars beside Andrew Lincoln, Chandler Riggs, Melissa McBride, Lauran Cohan, Danai Gurira and Steven Yuen as the principle cast.

2015 saw another outing for the Griswold clan in 'Vacation' with Ed Helms, Chevy Chase, Chris Hemsworth, Christina Applegate, and Leslie Mann, followed up by Sci-Fi drama 'Air' with Djimon Hounsou, and then the drama 'Sky' with Diane Kruger. 2016 brought along John Hillcoat's Police crime drama film 'Triple 9' with Chiwetel Ejiofor, Woody Harrelson, Casey Affleck, Anthony Mackie, Aaron Paul, Kate Winslet, Gal Gadot and Teresa Palmer. Meanwhile there had been several one off appearances on 'American Dad', 'Turbo FAST', 'Robot Chicken' and 'Voltron' with several video games to which Reedus had lent his voice including 'The Walking Dead : Survival Instinct', 'The Walking Dead : No Man's Land', 'Iron Man : Rise of Technovore' and currently filming is the video game 'Death Stranding' also featuring Mads Mikkelsen and Guillermo del Toro.

Bringing us up to date, is 'Ride with Norman Reedus'. The series follows the Actor and motorcycle enthusiast where he and a guest of the week travel across to a different destination on a motorcycle while exploring the city's biker culture and checking out various locales. The travel series Premiered on AMC in mid-2016, with a second season going to air in late 2017, with a third season commissioned for 2018.

All up Reedus has 72 acting credits to his name, two as Producer, two as Writer and two as Director. He has garnered so far four award wins for his work on 'The Walking Dead' and 'Floating' and a further five nominations.

Aside from his successful acting career, Reedus has modelled over the years for the likes of Prada, Levi's and Lexus, and has also appeared in numerous music videos for prominent recording artists including Keith Richards, Bjork, The Goo Goo Dolls, Ugly Kid Joe, R.E.M. and Radiohead, and more recently Lady Gaga, Hilary Duff and Tricky. He has also showcased his painting, sculpting and photographic works in galleries in New York, Berlin and Frankfurt.

Reedus was in a five year relationship with supermodel Helena Christensen from 1998 through until 2003 with whom they have a son Mingus Lucien Reedus (Born in 1999). In 2005 Reedus was involved in a bad motorcycle accident in Germany resulting in him needing a nose reconstruction with the aid for four screws and a new left eye socket made from titanium.

Norman Reedus - heavily tattooed; reconstructed like a Terminator; collects masks for a hobby; multi-talented; has worked across multiple genres; has his own New York based Production Company called 'Bigbaldhead' (as in the sun rising up like a  . . . ); and is often seen wearing sun glasses, donning a beard or goatee, carrying a weapon of some kind, and speaking in his trademark deep husky voice. We love you in 'The Walking Dead' and watch out for your other productions too with much interest and anticipation. Happy Birthday to you Norman, from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

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-