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 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!
Sunday 2nd November
- David Schwimmer - Born 1966, turns 48 - Actor | Director
- Stefanie Powers - Born 1942, turns 72 - Actress | Producer
Monday 3rd November
- Dolph Lundgren - Born 1957, turns 57 - Actor | Producer | Writer | Director
- Kate Capshaw - Born 1953, turns 61 - Actress
- Roseanne Barr - Born 1952, turns 62 - Actress | Writer | Producer
- Gary Ross - Born 1956, turns 58 - Director | Producer | Writer
- Dylan Moran - Born 1971, turns 43 - Actor | Writer
- Lulu - Born 1948, turns 66 - Actress | Singer
Tuesday 4th November
- Matthew McConaughey - Born 1969, turns 45 - Actor | Producer
- Loretta Swit - Born 1937, turns 77 - Actress
- Ralph Macchio - Born 1961, turns 53 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Director
- Sean 'Puff Daddy' Combs - Born 1969, turns 45 - Producer | Actor | Singer | Songwriter
- Curtis Stone - Born 1975, turns 39 - Television Personality | Celebrity Chef
Wednesday 5th November
- Elke Sommer - Born 1940, turns 74 - Actress
- Famke Janssen - Born 1964, turns 50 - Actress
- Tilda Swinton - Born 1960, turns 54 - Actress | Producer
- Tatum O'Neal - Born 1963, turns 51 - Actress
- Robert Patrick - Born 1958, turns 56 - Actor
- Sam Rockwell - Born 1968, turns 46 - Actor | Producer
- Sam Shepard - Born 1943, turns 71 - Actor | Writer
Thursday 6th November
- Ethan Hawke - Born 1970, turns 44 - Actor | Writer | Director
- Mike Nichols - Born 1931, turns 83 - Director | Producer
- Nigel Havers - Born 1949, turns 65 - Actor
- Vince Colosimo - Born 1966, turns 48 - Actor
- Emma Stone - Born 1988, turns 26 - Actress
- Sally Field - Born 1946, turns 68 - Actress | Producer
- Thandie Newton - Born 1972, turns 42 - Actress
- Lori Singer - Born 1957, turns 57 - Actress
- Rebecca Romijn - Born 1972, turns 42 - Actress
Friday 7th November
- Barry Newman - Born 1938, turns 76 - Actor
- Morgan Spurlock - Born 1970, turns 44 - Director | Producer | Writer
Saturday 8th November
- Michael Nyqvist - Born 1960, turns 54 - Actor
- Richard Curtis - Born 1956, turns 58 - Writer | Producer | Director
- Gordon Ramsay - Born 1966, turns 48 - Television Personality | Celebrity Chef | Producer
- Parker Posey - Born 1968, turns 46 - Actress
Matthew David McConaughey was born in Uvalde, Texas to mother Mary Kahleen and father James Donald - a school teacher and petrol station owner respectively. One of three sons, he grew up in Longview, Texas graduating from the local High School there. Showing very little interest in his fathers business interests, he travelled to Australia and spent a year based in Warnervale, New South Wales working several jobs to fund his stay. Upon his return home, he attended the University of Texas with the intent of graduating and making a career in law. In 1993, he graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Radio, Television and Film. His father had played for both the Kentucky Wild Cats and the Houston Cougars football teams, and he was drafted to the Green Bay packers but never played league football. Interestingly his mother and father married each other three times - they were twice divorced from each other and then reconciled clearly having worked out in the end that they couldn't live without each other!
McConaughey's acting career began in 1991 in television commercials before being cast in the Richard Linklater films 'Dazed and Confused' in 1993, which came about as a result of a chance meeting with the films Casting Director in a bar one evening. What followed were largely small forgettable roles in the likes of 'Angels in the Outfield', 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre : The Next Generation' with Renee Zellweger, and 'Boys on the Side'.
However, his big break came with his casting alongside Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Spacey, Donald Sutherland, Sandra Bullock, Oliver Platt and Patrick McGoohan in the 1996 John Grisham adaptation of 'A Time to Kill'. His performance here as young upstart lawyer Jack Brigane led to him starring in the likes of 'Contact' with Jodie Foster, 'Amistad' with Morgan Freeman, 'EdTV' Directed by Ron Howard and 'U-571' with Harvey Keitel so closing out the decade.
Following a string of more high profile films the turn of the century led to more romantic pulp for which he was quickly becoming typecast in the RomCom's of the time - 'The Wedding Planner', 'How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days', 'Failure to Launch' and 'The Ghosts of Girlfriends of Past'.
Of course, there were others roles too during this period, but nothing that garnered real critical acclaim - 'Two for the Money' with Al Pacino, 'Reign of Fire' with Christian Bale, 'Sahara' with Penelope Cruz, 'We Are Marshall' with Matthew Fox, 'Fools Gold' with Kate Hudson and 'Tropic Thunder' with Ben Stiller.
Realising that he was being type cast and often photographed for the world's magazines as bronzed, buffed and half naked only, he knew that something had to change. Playing the waiting game in between 2009's 'Ghosts of Girlfriends Past' and 2011's 'The Lincoln Lawyer' eventually more quality scripts came his way, as did the Directors. There followed 'Magic Mike' in 2012 with Channing Tatum, and Directed by Steven Soderbergh, and he worked again with Richard Linklater on 'Bernie' with Jack Black.
During this more recent period too there has been a McConaughey renaissance with critically acclaimed performances in 'Killer Joe', 'Mud', 'The Wolf of Wall Street' and of course his award winning turn as Ron Woodroof in 'Dallas Buyers Club', with his next offering being the hotly anticipated very soon to be released Christopher Nolan epic 'Interstellar'. After this there is the Gus van Sant Directed 'The Sea of Trees' currently in post-production and due out in 2015. In his spare time McConaughey has also starred in highly acclaimed TV Series 'True Detective' opposite Woody Harrelson.
McConaughey has 51 acting credits to his name so far. He won the Academy Award and the Golden Globe earlier in 2014 for his Best Actor performance in a Lead Role for 'Dallas Buyers Club'. In total he has 42 awards wins and 41 other nominations including a Primetime Emmy Nomination for Lead Actor in a Drama Series for 'True Detective'.
He married Brazillian model and television personality Camila Alves in 2012 with whom he has two sons and a daughter - Levi (born 2008), Vida (born 2010) and Livingston (born 2012). He former the 'Just Keep Livin' Foundation promoting children to lead fit, healthy and active lives into their adulthood, and this comes with a clothing line under the 'J.K.Livin' label.
Matthew McConaughey - known for your heavy Texan drawl, for often being photographed shirtless, for your time in the RomCom wilderness, for your extreme weight loss programme and as a true renaissance man of the last three years or so, Happy Birthday to you from Odeon Online.
-Steve, at Odeon Online-
No comments:
Post a Comment
Odeon Online - please let me know your thoughts?