Birthdays to share this week : 6th July - 12th July.

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 week? 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 over the coming week. If so, Happy Birthday to you from Odeon Online!

Check out too the spotlight on this weeks Birthday Boy on 6th July, Sylvester Stallone, at the end of this feature.

Sunday 6th July

• Sylvester Stallone - Born 1946, turns 68 - Actor | Director | Writer | Producer
• Geoffrey Rush - Born 1951, turns 63 - Actor
• Jennifer Saunders - Born 1958, turns 56 - Actress | Writer
• Ned Beatty - Born 1937, turns 77 - Actor
• Burt Ward - Born 1945, turns 69 - Actor
• 50 Cent (Curtis James Jackson III) - Born 1975, turns 39 - Singer | Songwriter | Actor | Producer

Monday 7th July

• Shelley Duvall - Born 1949, turns 65 - Actress
• Ringo Starr - Born 1940, turns 74 - Singer | Songwriter | Actor | Producer
• Akiva Goldsman - Born 1962, turns 52 - Director | Producer | Writer | Actor

Tuesday 8th July

• Kevin Bacon - Born 1958, turns 56 - Actor | Producer
• Anjelica Huston - Born 1951, turns 63 - Actress | Director
• Jaden Smith - Born 1998, turns 16 - Actor
• Billy Crudup - Born 1968, turns 46 - Actor
• Pauline Quirke - Born 1959, turns 55 - Actress

Wednesday 9th July

• Tom Hanks - Born 1956, turns 58 - Actor | Producer | Writer | Director
• Kelly McGillis - Born 1957, turns 57 - Actress
• Chris Cooper - Born 1951, turns 63 - Actor
• Jimmy Smits - Born 1955, turns 59 - Actor | Producer
• Richard Wilson - Born 1936, turns 78 - Actor
• Brian Dennehy - Born 1938, turns 76 - Actor | Producer | Writer | Director

Thursday 10th July

• Sofia Vergara - Born 1972, turns 42 - Actress | Producer
• Chiwetel Ejiofor - Born 1977, turns 37 - Actor
• Jessica Simpson - Born 1980, turns 34 - Actress | Singer | Producer

Friday 11th July

• Rachael Taylor - Born 1984, turns 30 - Actress
• Stephen Lang - Born 1952, turns 62 - Actor
• Mark Lester - Born 1958, turns 56 - Actor

Saturday 12th July

• Michelle Rodriguez - Born 1978, turns 36 - Actress
• Topher Grace - Born 1978, turns 36 - Actor
• Bill Cosby - Born 1937, turns 77 - Actor | Writer | Television Personality
• Cheryl Ladd - Born 1951, turns 63 - Actress
• Brian Grazer - Born 1951, turns 63  - Producer

This week there is a veritable stash of fine silver screen talent celebrating their birthday, and so who to choose to hone the spotlight on to and single out for attention in this fine segment. Oscar winners that take in Rush, Hanks, Ejiofor, Stallone, Grazer, Cooper, Huston and Goldsman are all worthy, but this week this Correspondent is opting for one Mr. Sylvester Stallone - because he is often maligned, often derided and often shortchanged in the movie writing world, and so I thought I would give him a further moment in the glory by dedicating this segment to him this week!

Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone was born in the infamous Hells Kitchen district of New York City. By the time he was 13 he had been expelled from fourteen schools for anti-social or violent behaviour , but eventually he attended the American College of Switzerland and graduated from the University of Miami with a Bachelor of Arts Degree.

His first acting break came in 1970 in 'The Party at Kitty and Studs' - a soft porn flick that earned him the princely sum of US$200. The 1975 cult sic-fi action thriller 'Death Race 2000' saw him with a more significant role alongside David Carradine, and this earned him US$700 - a far cry from the US$20M he commanded for the 2001 'Driven' and the 2002 'D-Tox' and the combined US$30M he'll get from 'Expendables 2 and 3'! It was the 1974 'The Lords of Flatbush' starring alongside a young Henry Winkler and Richard Gere that started to get Stallone the attention he was seeking. It was however, 1976's 'Rocky' that really catapulted Stallone into the stratosphere with his creation of Rocky Balboa that garnered the film ten Academy Award nominations (including two for Stallone himself for Screenplay and Acting) and took out the Best Picture statue that year. In turn the creation of Rocky Balboa gave rise to a number of sequels over the ensuing decades making it one of the most successful film franchises in cinema history.

Still with the franchises after 'Rocky II' in 1979, 'Nighthawks' and 'Victory' in 1981 and 'Rocky III' in 1982, 'First Blood' hit the screens and struck a chord with the cinema going public still smarting from Vietnam, and as such 'John Rambo', like 'Rocky' found a place in our subconscious and spawned a number of sequels and again another massive franchise win for Stallone.

Throughout the 80's Stallone was unstoppable as the action star with a screen presence within the action genre matched only by Willis and Schwarzenegger. The 80's for Stallone were marked with Rocky, or Rambo, or standalone fare such as 'Cobra', 'Over the Top' and 'Tango and Cash'. The 90's saw some change of direction, but still firmly anchored in action with a sideline in comedy, but it was 1997's 'Cop Land' (for which Stallone took a paycheque of just US$60K) to play the part of overweight downtrodden police officer alongside Liotta, DeNiro and Keitel that resurrected his tiring fading star.

In the meantime Stallone was part owner alongside Willis and Schwarzenegger in the hugely successful 'Planet Hollywood' Restaurant chain that saw new outlets opening across the globe almost by the month for a period of five years or so in the late 90's.

To date Stallone has 27 Screenwriting credits to his name, nine Directing credits, eleven Producing credits and 68 Acting credits. He continues to be prolific in his output across all these disciplines and remains heavily in demand starring with Hollywood heavyweights, and those lining up to play a role in his films (refer 'The Expendables' cast list for proof of this!). He is the only Actor in Hollywood History to have starred in films that have opened at the top of the box office charts in five consecutive decades, with 2010's 'The Expendables' opening weekend haul of US$35M claiming the #1 spot at the US Box Office. He has two Academy Award, two Golden Globe and two BAFTA nominations for 'Rocky' (Screenplay and Acting) and a total 28 awards wins and 32 other nominations from across the world (some of these are though 'Razzies').

He has five children although his son, Sage, died tragically in 2012 aged 36. The others are Seargeoh, Sophie, Sistine and Scarlet, and he has been married three times : to Sasha Czack from 1974 to 1985, to Brigitte Nielsen from 1985 to 1987 and to Jennifer Flavin from 1997 to the present day.

Stallone's filmography, aside from those already mentioned includes 'Lock Up', 'Cliffhanger', 'Daylight', 'Demolition Man', 'The Specialist', 'Judge Dredd', 'Get Carter', 'Bullet to the Head', 'Escape Plan' and 'Grudge Match', 'Reach Me' and 'The Expendables 3' are due for release soon, with 'Expendables 4' and 'Creed' announced for a future release.

Sly Stallone - often derided yet multi-talented in demand action legend who still knows how to pull an audience and we love you for it - Happy Birthday to you from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-