Birthday's to share this week : 6th - 12th September 2015.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Idris Elba does on 6th September - check out the tribute to this Birthday Boy turning 43 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 6th September

• Idris Elba - Born 1972, turns 43 - Actor | Producer 
• John Polson - Born 1965, turns 50 - Actor | Producer | Director  
• Rosie Perez - Born 1964, turns 51 - Actress | Producer | Director

Monday 7th September

• Evan Rachel Wood - Born 1987, turns 28 - Actress
• Toby Jones - Born 1967, turns 48 - Actor   
• Dario Argento - Born 1940, turns 75 - Director | Producer | Writer | Actor   

Tuesday 8th September 

• Martin Freeman - Born 1971, turns 44 - Actor 
• David Arquette - Born 1971, turns 44 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Director 

Wednesday 9th September

• Adam Sandler - Born 1966, turns 49 - Actor | Producer | Writer | Singer | Songwriter
• Hugh Grant - Born 1960, turns 55 - Actor
• Michelle Williams - Born 1980, turns 35 - Actress

Thursday 10th September

• Guy Ritchie - Born 1968, turns 47 - Director | Producer | Writer
• Coln Firth  - Born 1960, turns 55 - Actor | Producer
• Ryan Phillippe - Born 1974, turns 41 - Actor | Director | Wtiter 

Friday 11th September

• Brian De Palma - Born 1940, turns 75 - Director | Producer | Writer
• Harry Connick Jnr :- Actor | Singer | Songwrie
• Tony Gilroy - Born 1956, turns 59 - Director | Producer | Writer  

Saturday 12th September

• Hans Zimmer - Born 1957, turns 58 - Singer | Songwriter | Composer
• Ian Holm - Born 1931, turns 84 - Actor 
• Freddie Jones - Born 1927, turns 88 - Actor
• Linda Gray - Born in 1940, turns 75 - Actress | Director
• Rachel Ward - Born 1957, turns 58 - Actress | Director | Writer

Idrissa Akuna 'Idris' Elba was born in the London suburb of Hackney to mother Eve, a Ghanaian working a clerical job, and father Winston, from Sierra Leone and a Ford Motor Company factory worker. The young Elba was raised in East Ham and went to school in Canning Town where his interest in acting was first sparked. Reading the weekly publication 'The Stage'  which covers the entertainment industry, Elba responded to an advertisement, auditioned for a stage play and was successful and subsequently hooked up with his first Agent. In 1986 he also started DJ'ing to help out in his Uncle's business and a year later he started up his own DJ company. He left school in 1988 having secured a place at London's National Youth Music Theatre, and was able to secure regular work on the BBC 'Crimewatch' programme acting out murder reconstructions. At 19 he was working the nightclub scene as 'DJ Big Driis' but within a year was auditioning for television roles.

His career kicked off in television in 1994 with a string of TV series that saw out the rest of the decade starting with '2point4 Children', 'Space Precinct', 'Absolutely Fabulous', 'Bramwell', two episodes of 'The Bill', four episodes of the 'Ruth Rendell Mysteries', two episodes on 'The Governor', six on 'Insiders', seven on 'Family Affairs' and six on 'Ultraviolet' before his 1999 film debut on the French comedy 'Belle maman' with Catherine Deneuve. There was then twelve episodes of 'Dangerfield' that saw out the end of the decade.

From that time on he dipped into both film and television roles constantly having moved to New York City early on in the new decade. In 2001 there was a support role on 'Law and Order' before 'The Wire' which for Elba ran from 2002 until 2004 across 37 episodes. In the meantime there were movies 'Sorted' and 'Buffalo Soldiers' with Joaquín Phoenix and Ed Harris, with brief stints on 'CSI : Miami', 'Hack', 'Soul Food', 'Girlfriends' and 'Jonny Zero'.

From here films started to feature more regularly with the likes of 'The Gospel' in 2005, 'Daddy's Little Girls' in 2007, and horror thriller 'The Reaping' that same year with Hilary Swank. Later that year there was '28 Weeks Later' with Jeremy Renner and Robert Carlyle, 'American Gangster' for Director Ridley Scott and starring Denzel Washington, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Josh Brolin and Russell Crowe, and then a complete change of pace in closing out a busy year with 'This Christmas' with Delroy Lindo.

2008 & '09 brought the 'Prom Night' remake, Guy Ritchie's London gangster flick 'RocknRolla' with Gerald Butler, Tom Hardy and Tom Wilkinson, 'The Human Contract' with Jason Clarke, 'The Unborn' with Gary Oldman, 'Obsessed' with Beyoncé Knowles before seven episodes on 'The Office' to wind up another decade.

2010 kicked off with 'Legacy : Black Ops', 'The Losers' with Zoe Saldana and Chris Evans, 'The Takers' and Marvel's 'Thor' in 2011 with Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston and Anthony Hopkins. Of course Elba has reprised his role of Heimdall in 2013's 'Thor : The Dark World' and in 2015's 'Avengers : Age of Ultron'. 

In between there was the forgettable 'Ghost Rider : Spirit of Vengeance', the more memorable  'Prometheus' for Ridley Scott once again, 'Pacific Rim' for Guillermo del Toro, and his star turn and Academy Award nominated role as Nelson Mandela in 'Mandela : Long Walk to Freedom'. 'No Good Deed', ' Second Coming' and 'The Gunman' with Sean Penn have been more recent.

During this time there has been four seasons of the BBC's highly acclaimed 'Luther' for which Elba was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for all four seasons and won the gong in 2012, as well as three Primetime Emmy Award nominations. There is talk too of concluding the successful small screen series with a big screen feature length film.

Next up there is 'Beasts of No Nation', 'A Hundred Streets' and 'Bastille Day' in post-production, 'The Jungle Book' and 'Finding Dory' both filming for a 2016 release and to which Elba has lent his voice talents, 'Star Trek : Beyond' also filming and 'The Trap' due in 2017 and starring too Al Pacino, Benicio del Toro, and James Franco.

Amongst big and small screen acting gigs, Elba has carved out a respectable music career appearing in numerous music videos, recording his own work, DJ'ing and rapping his way around various other artists and guest appearances or doing his own thing.

All up Elba has 74 acting credits to his name, he won the Golden Globe for 'Luther' and has nine other award wins and 38 nominations. He was married first time around in 1999 to Hanne 'Kim' Nasgaard with whom he has a daughter Isan born in 2002, then Sonya Nicole Hamlin in 2006 for a brief time, and now he is hooked up with Naiyana Garth since 2013 with whom he has a young son, Winston, born in 2014.

Idris Elba - deep baritone voice; jobbing disc jockey; New York resident; works across all genres with a track record in Sci-Fi, Superhero fare, crime and horror; has been voted best dressed, most beautiful and sexiest man over the years so there is much to celebrate, and, it's your Birthday too - Happy Birthday Idris, from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-