Birthday's to share this week : 8th - 14th March 2015.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Jamie Bell does on 14th March - check out the tribute to this Birthday Boy turning 29, at the end of this feature.

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 8th March

• Aidan Quinn - Born 1959, turns 56 - Actor
• Micky Dolenz - Born 1945, turns 70 - Singer | Songwriter | Producer | Director | Writer | Actor
• James Van Der Beek - Born 1977, turns 38 - Actor
• Freddie Prinze Jnr. - Born 1976, turns 39 - Actor | Producer | Writer

Monday 9th March

• Oscar Isaac - Born 1980, turns 35 - Actor
• Juliette Binoche - Born 1964, turns 51 - Actress

Tuesday 10th March

• Olivia Wilde - Born 1984, turns 31 - Actress | Producer
• Sharon Stone - Born 1958, turns 57 - Actress | Producer
• John Hamm - Born1971, turns 34 - Actor | Producer | Director
• Chuck Norris - Born 1940, turns 75 - Actor | Producer | Writer
• Paul Haggis - Born 1953, turns 62 - Director | Producer | Writer

Wednesday 11th March

• Terrence Howard - Born 1969, turns 46 - Actor | Producer
• Johnny Knoxville - Born 1971, turns 44 - Actor | Producer | Writer
• Peter Berg - Born 1964, turns 51 - Director | Producer | Writer | Actor
• Jerry Zucker - Born 1950, turns 65 - Director | Producer | Writer

Thursday 12th March

• Aaron Eckhart - Born 1968, turns 47 - Actor | Producer
• Liza Minelli - Born 1946, turns 69 - Actress | Singer

Friday 13th March

• Common - Born 1972, turns 43 - Actor | Producer | Singer | Songwriter
• Emile Hirsch - Born 1985, turns 30 - Actor | Singer | Songwriter
• William H. Macy - Born 1950, turns 65 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Director

Saturday 14th March

• Michael Caine - Born 1933, turns 82 - Actor | Producer
• Billy Crystal - Born 1948, turns 67 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer | Singer
• Quincy Jones - Born 1933, turns 82 - Singer | Songwriter | Composer | Producer
• Wolfgang Petersen - Born 1941, turns 74 - Director | Producer | Writer
• Jamie Bell - Born 1986, turns 29 - Actor
• Ansel Elgort - Born 1994, turns 21 - Actor

Andrew James Matfin 'Jamie' Bell was born in Billingham, County Durham, England to mother Eileen Matfin and father John Bell, a toolmaker, who left his wife Eileen before Jamie was born. Jamie has an older sister Cathryn. The young Jamie Bell was a pupil at the co-educational Northfields School in Billingham, and his involvement with dance began when he accompanied his sister to her ballet class, and was eventually invited in to the class to take part.Whilst at school he also attended the Stagecoach Theatre Arts School - a global franchise providing training in dance, acting and singing to children aged 4-18. He was a member too of the National Youth Music Theatre.

His screen debut is the stuff of legend with his first role on film and television came with 2000's 'Billy Elliott' for which he was chose from 2000 hopefuls over seven different auditions. Director Stephen Daldry was looking for a young lad who could act, dance and carry the required northern English accent - and he found this in Bell.The film won 57 awards worldwide and a further 62 nominations - including three Academy Award nominations, two Golden Globe nominations, the BAFTA for Bell for Best Lead Actor and two other BAFTA wins and another nine nominations. Bell won fifteen awards for his role as Billy Elliott. The film cost just US$5M to make and grossed in the final analysis US$109M - a bona fide success on all levels!

Later that same year he starred in a single episode of televisions 'Close & True'. His next big screen appearance was in the 2002 British horror film 'Deathwatch' with Andy Serkis, and also that year an adaptation of the Charles Dickens book 'Nicholas Nickleby' which included amongst others Timothy Spall, Jim Broadbent and Anne Hathaway. 'Undertow' came next in 2004 with Dermot Mulroney and Josh Lucas, and then three films in 2005 with 'Dear Wendy', 'The Chumscrubber' and Peter Jackson's remake of 'King Kong' with Andy Serkis again and Naomi Watts and Jack Black.

2006 brought another offering with big time Acting and Directing legend Clint Eastwood in 'Flags of our Fathers'. 'Hallam Foe' came along in 2007 with the Doug Liman Directed 'Jumper' in 2008 with Hayden Christensen, and then 'Defiance' for Edward Zwick with co-star Daniel Craig.

In 2011 we saw Bell in Kevin Macdonald's 'The Eagle' with Channing Tatum, 'Jane Eyre' with Mia Wasikowska, another British horror offering with 'The Retreat' and then with Steven Spielberg for 'The Adventures of Tintin' providing the voice of Tintin, alongside Andy Serkis and Daniel Craig once more. 'Man on a Ledge' came in 2012, 'Snowpiercer' in 2013 and 'Filth' that same year too, and Lars von Trier's 'Nymphomaniac : Vol II' also.

In 2014 he starred in the American period war drama television series 'Turn : Washington's Spies' now in its second season. Currently in post-production is the Marvel reboot of 'Fantastic Four' with Bell playing the role of 'The Thing' with this film due out later this year, with 'The Fantastic Four 2' announced recently for a 2017 release. In between time there will also be 'The Adventures of Tintin : Prisoner's of the Sun' in 2016 with Director Peter Jackson once more and Bell reprising his role as Tintin in providing his voice talents.

He started dating American Actress Evan Rachael Wood in 2005 but the two split in twelve months later. In 2011 the two rekindled their flame and in late October 2012 they married . . . but announced their separation in mid-2014. They have a son together born in July 2013.

Bell has sixteen award wins and seventeen other nominations to his name, from 26 acting credits so far. Only he and Christian Bale have won the Outstanding Performance by a Young Actor Award from the US National Board of Review.

Jamie Bell - still only 29 and so much achieved! Describing yourself as the Eminem of Northeast England, and not delusional, knowing that you are only 5'7" tall with slightly jug ears you nonetheless continue to make you mark with years of opportunity ahead with which to surprise and delight your audience - Happy Birthday to you, from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-