Birthday's to share this week : 18th - 24th May.

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 of repute; or share an interest in whoever might notch up another year in the coming week? Then, look no further! Whilst there will be too many to mention in this small but not insignificant and beautifully formed 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 over the coming week. If so, Happy Birthday to you from Odeon Online!

Check out too the spotlight on this weeks Birthday Girl on 20th May, Cher at the end of this feature.

Sunday 18th May

• Tina Fey - Born 1970, turns 44 - Actress | Writer | Producer
• Chow Yun Fat - Born 1955, turns 59 - Actor
• Miriam Margolyes - Born 1941, turns 73 - Actress

Monday 19th May

• Grace Jones - Born 1948, turns 66 - Singer | Songwriter | Actress
• Claudia Karvan - Born 1972, turns 42 - Actress | Writer | Producer
• Amanda De Cadenet - Born 1972, turns 42 - Actress
• Pete Townshend - Born 1945, turns 69 - Singer | Songwriter

Tuesday 20th May

• Timothy Olyphant - Born 1968, turns 46 - Actor | Producer
• Cher - Born 1946, turns 68 - Singer | Songwriter | Actress
• Anton Corbijn - Born 1955, turns 59 - Director
• Busta Rhymes - Born 1872, turns 42 - Singer | Songwriter | Actor

Wednesday 21st May

• Nick Cassavetes - Born 1959, turns 55 - Director | Actor | Writer
• Judge Reinhold - Born 1957, turns 57 - Actor
• Mr. T. - Born 1952, turns 62 - Actor

Thursday 22nd May

• Maggie Q. - Born 1979, turns 35 - Actress
• Naomi Campbell - Born 1970, turns 44 - Supermodel | Actress | Producer
• Gary Sweet - Born 1957, turns 57 - Actor
• Morrissey - Born 1959, turns 55 - Singer | Songwriter

Friday 23rd May

• Joan Collins - Born 1933, turns 81 - Actress
• Drew Carey - Born 1958, turns 56 - Actor | TV Personality | Producer | Writer
• Tom Tykwer - Born 1965, turns 49 - Director | Producer | Writer | Songwriter

Saturday 24th May

• John C. Reilly - Born 1965, turns 49 - Actor | Writer
• Kristen Scott Thomas - Born 1960, turns 54 - Actress
• Alfred Molina - Born 1953, turns 61 - Actor | Producer
• Jim Broadbent - Born 1949, turns 65 - Actor
• Roger Deakins - Born 1949, turns 65 - Cinematographer
• Bob Dylan - Born 1941, turns 73 - Singer | Songwriter

Cher was born Cherilyn Sarkisian in El Centro, California. She has been active in the entertainment industry since 1962 when she met Sonny Bono who was working with Phil Spector and he was persuaded to allow Cher to sing backing vocals on a number of songs that would later become smash hits. The rest as they say is history!

In 1964 she and Sonny Bono were married and for the rest of that decade carved out a very successful music and television career. In June 1975 however, the couple divorced and three days later Cher married singer Gregg Allman but that was short-lived and the couple divorced just a few years later.  By now Cher was well & truly carving out her own direction in life - ever growing in confidence and stature and determined to go it alone in very much a mans world. With her distinctive voice, strong sense of feminine autonomy, and her own grit and determination she continued her own solo singing career and started to jump back into television and movies. Her first film appearance was in 1967 in 'Good Times', but it was the 80's that really saw her star begin to shine. With roles in 'Silkwood', 'Mask', 'Suspect', 'The Witches of Eastwick', 'Moonstruck', 'Mermaids', 'Tea with Mussolini' and more recently 'Burlesque', and the lending of her voice to a lioness in 'Zookeeper' she has a small, but not insignificant filmography to her long and distinguished career.

Cher would be one of only very few singers who have made the successful move from singing to acting (think Madonna, think Tina Turner, think Dolly Parton . . . not!) Like a phoenix rising from the ashes of her career time and time again, she continues to reinvent herself and keep herself relevant. She is the only artist to have #1 songs on the US Billboard Chart in each of the last six decades. She has sold over 100 million albums in her own right and another 40 million when with Sonny Bono. She is a fashion designer, a book author, the Manager of a Production Company and regular TV Personality. She Directed her first TV movie in 1996 - 'If These Walls Could Talk'.

She won the Best Actress Academy Award in 1988 for 'Moonstruck' and was nominated a few years earlier for 'Silkwood'. She has won three Golden Globes for 'Moonstruck' 'Silkwood' and 'The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour' and has been nominated another three times. Cher was also nominated for two Bafta's, and in total has 22 award wins to her name and a further 20 nominations. She has earned squillions from her world tours and residences, and continues to delight her fans the world over.

Always entertaining, hardly ever predictable, never dull and at times shocking - Cher, Happy Birthday from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-