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 9th November
- Lou Ferrigno - Born 1951, turns 63 - Actor | Bodybuilder
- Tony Slattery - Born 1959, turns 55 - Actor | Writer | Television Personality
Monday 10th November
- Walton Goggins - Born 1971, turns 43 - Actor | Producer
- Roland Emmerich - Born 1955, turns 59 - Director | Producer | Writer
- Ennio Morricone - Born 1928, turns 86 - Composer
Tuesday 11th November
- Leonardo DiCaprio - Born 1974, turns 40 - Actor | Producer | Writer
- Stanley Tucci - Born 1960, turns 54 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer
- Scoot McNairy - Born 1977, turns 37 - Actor | Producer
- Demi Moore - Born 1962, turns 52 - Actress | Producer
- Calista Flockhart - Born 1964, turns 50 - Actress
Wednesday 12th November
- Anne Hathaway - Born 1982, turns 32 - Actress | Singer
- Radha Mitchell - Born 1973, turns 41 - Actress | Producer
- Ryan Gosling - Born 1980, turns 34 - Actor | Producer | Writer
- Neil Young - Born 1945, turns 69 - Singer | Songwriter | Composer | Writer | Producer | Actor
Thursday 13th November
- Gerard Butler - Born 1969, turns 45 - Actor | Producer
- Steve Zahn - Born 1967, turns 47 - Actor
- Jimmy Kimmel - Born 1967, turns 47 - Television Personality | Writer | Producer | Actor
- Whoopi Goldberg - Born 1955, turns 59 - Actress | Producer | Writer
Friday 14th November
- Olga Kurylenko - Born 1979, turns 35 - Actress
- Josh Duhamel - Born 1972, turns 42 - Actor
- Patrick Warburton - Born 1964, turns 50 - Actor
Saturday 15th November
- Jonny Lee Miller - Born 1972, turns 42 - Actor
- Edward Asner - Born 1929, turns 85 - Actor
- Yaphet Kotto - Born 1939, turns 75 - Actor
- Sam Waterston - Born 1940, turns 74 - Actor
- Shailene Woodley - Born 1991, turns 23 - Actress
Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio was born in Los Angeles, California to mother Irmelin Indebirken and father George Paul Di Caprio with German/Russian ancestry on his mothers side and German/Italian on his fathers. Raised as an only child his parents divorced when he was just a year old - his father was a renowned underground comic/graphic novel artist who produced and distributed such material too, and his mother was a legal secretary.
Growing up he attended the Los Angeles Centre for Enriched Studies, then Seeds Elementary School and John Marshall High School which he dropped out of having completed his third year. Some of his childhood was spent in Germany with his maternal grandparents, and as a result he speaks fluent German. His parents recognised early on that that young Leonardo had some talent in performance art, and so signed him up with a talent agent. From this DiCaprio gained some exposure on television commercials and educational programmes. In 1990 he landed a spot on the TV Series spin-off of the movie of the same name 'Parenthood' which brought some critical acclaim and a couple of award nominations. He also gained exposure on other TV shows including 'The New Lassie', 'Roseanne' and on the short-lived soap opera 'Santa Barbara'.
His film debut came in 1993 in the direct-to-video comedy Sci-Fi horror offering 'Critters 3' which was followed by a regular stint on the short-lived ABC Sit-Com 'Growing Pains'. This in turn led to DiCaprio being singled out in a casting call by Robert De Niro to star alongside him in the 1992 film 'This Boys Life', which then gave rise to 'What's Eating Gilbert Grape' in 1993 playing the mentally handicapped brother to Johnny Depp's lead character. This role brought critical acclaim and DiCaprio's first Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations.
1996 brought further attention with Baz Luhrmann's modern retelling of 'Romeo+Juliet' with Claire Danes. Made for a modest US$10M it raked in almost ten times that amount, and started to polarise DiCaprio as the young heart-throb actor of the moment. This was further reinforced a year later when James Cameron cast him as the young Jack Dawson in 'Titanic' - a role he was reluctant to take on at first. Made for US$200M it grossed US$2.2B almost globally and until 2010 was the highest grossing film of all time, and turned DiCaprio into a bonafide commercial film superstar and global heart-throb phenomenon. For his role in 'Titanic' DiCaprio earned US$2.5M.
As the decade closed out starring roles followed, now that he had proved himself in the 'Titanic' blockbuster - but these were to less critical acclaim than those aforementioned, and included 'The Man in the Iron Mask' and 'The Beach'. The first half of the new century brought new and diverse roles, challenging characters, rich stories and acclaimed acting and Directing talent with which to work. Notable outings included 'Catch Me if You Can' with Steven Spielberg in 2002, 'Gangs of New York' with Martin Scorsese that same year, 'The Aviator' in 2004 again with Scorsese, 'Blood Diamond' in 2006 with Edward Zwick and also that year 'The Departed' again with Scorsese. All of these were critically and financially successful, and garnered DiCaprio further award nominations and wins.
The years that followed brought other high profile Directors and opportunities with which to stretch his talents - 'Body of Lies' with Sir Ridley Scott, 'Revolutionary Road' with Sam Mendes, and in 2010 with Scorsese again on 'Shutter Island', and later that year with Christopher Nolan on 'Inception' - the latter turning in US$825M worldwide off a US$160M budget. Clint Eastwood also beckoned next Directing him in his Bio-Pic of J. Edgar Hoover in 'J.Edgar' in 2011, and this was followed up in 2012 with his turn as Calvin Candy in Quentin Tarrantino's 'Django Unchained', and then Baz Luhrmann once again in 2013 for 'The Great Gatsby'. These latter two were also financially successful earning US$425M and US$350M respectively. Next up was his fifth collaboration with Martin Scorsese playing Jordan Belfort in 'The Wolf of Wall Street' released early in 2014 and to date has grossed almost US$400M with further accolades bestowed. Next up is 'The Reverant' for a 2015/16 release and is filming now and Directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.
DiCaprio has 37 acting credits thus far to his name and 16 credits as a Producer. His other films include 'The Quick and The Dead', 'The Basketball Diaries', 'Total Eclipse', 'Marvin's Room', 'Celebrity' and 'Don's Plum'. He has 51 worldwide awards wins and 122 other nominations, and these include : Academy Award nominations for 'What's Eating Gilbert Grape', 'The Aviator', 'Blood Diamond' and 'The Wolf of Wall Street' as well as a Best Picture nomination for 'The Wolf of Wall Street' on which he was also Producer. He won the Golden Globe Award too for 'The Wolf of Wall Street' and 'The Aviator' plus eight other nominations, and he has received to date three BAFTA nominations for 'The Wolf of Wall Street', 'The Departed' and 'The Aviator'.
He is environmentally very active advocating that global warming is 'the number one environmental challenge'. He was appointed in September this year as the United Nations Representative on Climate Change. He donated US$1M to earthquake relief in Haiti in 2010, and later that same year a further US$1M to the 'Wildlife Conservation Society'. He is also an activist for the 'Animal Legal Defence Fund' and actively supports gay rights. He is unmarried but his dating exploits with models and actresses is well documented in the media.
Starting out DiCaprio earned US$75K for 'What's Eating Gilbert Grape' in 1993, compared to the US$20M price tag he received for each of 'The Beach', 'Catch Me if You Can', 'The Aviator', 'The Departed', 'Blood Diamond' and 'The Great Gatsby'. By comparison he earned all up US$59M from 'Inception'. Clearly with such a filmic pedigree, the pulling power he has to open and establish a movie, and his Production capability and earnings too he is a Hollywood force to contend with - and he turns only 40 today, on 11th November 2014.Leonardo DiCaprio - diverse and exciting film career, huge pulling power, Scorsese collaborator, extensive emotional range, talented beyond question, and a man on an environmental mission - Happy Birthday to you from Odeon Online.
-Steve, at Odeon Online-
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