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 25th January
- Tobe Hooper - Born 1943, turns 72 - Director | Producer | Writer
Monday 26th January
- David Strathairn - Born 1949, turns 66 - Actor
- Scott Glenn - Born 1941, turns 74 - Actress
- Ellen DeGeneres - Born 1958, turns 57 - Television Personality | Writer | Producer | Actress
- Odeon Online - Born 2014, turns 1 - Movie Blog of choice!
Tuesday 27th January
- Mimi Rogers - Born 1956, turns 59 - Actress | Producer
- Bridget Fonda - Born 1964, turns 51 - Actress
- James Cromwell - Born 1940, turns 75 - Actor | Producer
- Frank Miller - Born 1957, turns 58 - Writer | Producer | Director | Actor
- Alan Cumming - Born 1965, turns 50 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Director | Singer
Wednesday 28th January
- Alan Alda - Born 1936, turns 79 - Actor | Writer | Director
- Frank Darabont - Born 1959, turns 56 - Director | Producer | Writer
- Elijah Wood - Born 1981, turns 34 - Actor | Producer
- Rosamund Pike - Born 1979, turns 36 - Actress
Thursday 29th January
- Katherine Ross - Born 1940, turns 75 - Actress
- Oprah Winfrey - Born 1954, turns 61 - Television Personality | Actress | Writer
- Heather Graham - Born 1970, turns 45 - Actress | Producer | Singer
- Tom Selleck - Born 1945, turns 70 - Actor | Producer | Writer
- Edward Burns - Born 1968, turns 47 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Director
- Marc Singer - Born 1948, turns 67 - Actor
Friday 30th January
- Christian Bale - Born 1974, turns 41 - Actor
- Gene Hackman - Born 1930, turns 85 - Actor
- Phil Collins - Born 1951, turns 64 - Singer | Songwriter | Actor
- Vanessa Redgrave - Born 1937, turns 78 - Actress | Producer
Saturday 31st January
- Minni Driver - Born 1970, turns 45 0 Actress | Producer
- Portia de Rossi - Born 1973, turns 42 - Actress
- Justin Timberlake - Born 1981, turns 34 - Singer | Songwriter | Actor | Producer
- Anthony LaPaglia - Born 1959, turns 56 - Actor | Writer | Producer
- Philip Glass - Born 1937, turns 78 - Composer | Songwriter
- Dexter Fletcher - Born 1966, turns 49 - Actor | Writer | Director | Producer
Christian Charles Philip Bale was born in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, Wales to English parents. His mother Jenny James was a circus performer and his father David Charles Howard Bale was a commercial pilot and talent manager. His childhood years were spent in various locations from Wales to southern England to Portugal to the United States. He attended Bournemouth Boys Grammar School and left at 16. The next year he moved to Los Angeles with his father when his parents divorced in 1991.
His first screen acting role came in a fabric softener television commercial in 1982 and then a 'Pac-Man' breakfast cereal advertisement a year later. In 1984 he played for the first time in a theatre production opposite Rowan Atkinson in 'The Nerd' on London's West End. With work coming in as an up & coming Actor he auditioned for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and the Central School of Speech and Drama and was offered a place by all three institutions to study his craft but was convinced by his parents at the time to continue working - a decision he regrets still to this day!
His big screen debut came in in 1986 in the television film 'Anastasia : The Mystery of Anna' which quickly led to a starring role in in the television mini-series 'Heart of the Country', and then the fantasy film 'Mio in the land of the Faraway' opposite Christopher Lee. It was the 'Anastasia : The Mystery of Anna' movie that brought the young Bale to the attention of Steven Spielberg who cast him in his breakout role in 1987's 'Empire of the Sun'. This brought Bale much critical acclaim, winning too the inaugural award by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures for the Best Performance by a Juvenile Actor.
The success of 'Empire of the Sun' Bale found hard to adjust to and almost gave up acting as a career choice there & then. Kenneth Branagh however, convinced him to take a role in the 1989 big screen telling of Shakespeare's 'Henry V' with a critically acclaimed all star cast. From there he starred with Charlton Heston in 'Treasure Island', in Disney's 'Newsies' with Robert Duvall, 'Swing Kids' with Kenneth Branagh again, and then 'Little Women' with Wynona Ryder who introduced Bale to his future wife in 1994. He returned to Disney in 1995 to provide the voice for Captain John Smith in the animated feature 'Pocahontas' and in 1997 he played alongside Ewen McGregor in 'Velvet Goldmine'.
He saw out the decade and saw in the new with another big screen adaptation of Shakespeare in 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' with again an all star cast and 'All the Little Animals' with John Hurt. This was followed up by his turn as Patrick Bateman in 'American Psycho'. In it Bale inhibited his character of the deranged murdering Wall Street executive for which he trained obsessively to develop his body and prepare his mental state to match that of his character as depicted in the Brett Easton Ellis book.
Next up came 'Shaft' alongside Samuel L. Jackson, 'Captain Correlli's Mandolin' with Nicolas Cage and then in quick succession came 'Laurel Canyon', 'Reign of Fire' and 'Equilibrium'. 2004 saw Bale back to prominence as Trevor Reznik in 'The Machinist' - a role for which he slimmed down drastically by 63lbs (27kgs) to a body weight of just 128lbs (55kgs) by taking a crash diet and going without sleep for prolonged periods.
His next role was the polar opposite requiring Bale to regain all those lost kilos and bulk up considerably gaining 105lbs (45kgs) in muscle in six months to play the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman in Christopher Nolan's 2005 'Batman Begins'. The success of this brought two hugely successful sequels in 2008 with 'The Dark Knight' and then again in 2012 with 'The Dark Knight Rises'. The three films together and as a complete package, and singularly, were received to both critical and commercial acclaim generating US$2.5B in Box Office and after sales receipts off a total production cost of US$585M.
In the meantime, and since, there has been 'The New World' and 'Harsh Times' in 2005; 'Rescue Dawn' and 'The Prestige' in 2006; '3:10 to Yuma' and 'I'm Not There' in 2007; and then 'Terminator : Salvation' and 'Public Enemies' in 2009. 'The Fighter' in 2010 with Mark Wahlberg brought more critical success, leading to 'The Flowers of War' in 2011, 'Out of the Furnace' and 'American Hustle' in 2013 and most recently 'Exodus : Gods and Kings' with Director Ridley Scott in 2014 and still on general release. Next up is Terrence Malick's 'Knight of Cups' with Cate Blanchett due for release later this year, and an as yet untitled project for the same Director which is currently in post-production. Then will come 'Creed of Violence' and 'Jungle Book : Origins' for 2016/17.
Bale has 48 acting credits to his name and a total 59 award wins and a further 58 nominations. He won the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for 'The Fighter' and was nominated for Best Actor for 'American Hustle'. The same was true of the Golden Globes and he was nominated similarly at the BAFTA's.
He has been married to Sandra 'Sibi' Blazic since 2000 and together they have a daughter Emmaline born in 2005 and a son born in mid-2014. He is an active supporter of 'Greenpeace', the 'World Wildlife Fund' and he and his wife sit on the Board of Trustees of the 'Dian Fossey Gorilla Foundation'.
Christian Bale - intense character Actor going to extraordinary lengths to portray the physical, mental and emotional states of his roles; often teams up with Christopher Nolan and Terrence Malick; a natural at putting on an accent - American especially; and often plays either historical roles or those of fractured, obsessive, detached and lonely characters and always with conviction and intensity. Happy Birthday to you from Odeon Online.
-Steve, at Odeon Online-
