Birthday's to share this week : 14th - 20th February 2016.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Simon Pegg does on 14th February - check out my tribute to this Birthday Boy turning 46, 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 14th February

• Simon Pegg - Born 1970, turns 46 - Actor | Producer | Writer  
• Alan Parker - Born 1944, turns 72 - Director | Producer | Writer
• Freddie Highmore - Born 1992, turns 24 - Actor

Monday 15th February

•  Jane Seymour - Born 1951, turns 65 - Actress | Producer 
•  Jessica De Gouw - Born 1988, turns 28 - Actress

Tuesday 16th February

• Elizabeth Olsen - Born 1989, turns 27 - Actress  
• Ice-T - Born 1958, turns 58 - Actor | Producer | Writer | Singer | Songwriter | Composer
• Christopher Ecclestone - Born 1964, turns 52 - Actor

Wednesday 17th February

• Hal Holbrook - Born 1925, turns 91 - Actor
• Lou Diamond Phillips - Born 1962, turns 54 - Actor | Writer | Director
• Michael Bay - Born 1965, turns 51 - Director | Producer | Cameraman
• Dominic Purcell - Born 1970, turns 46 - Actor | Producer
• Jerry O'Connell - Born 1974, turns 42 - Actor | Producer | Director
• Joseph Gordon-Levitt - Born 1981, turns 35 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Director 
• Rene Russo - Born 1954, turns 62 - Actress | Producer
• Brenda Fricker - Born 1945, turns 71 - Actress

Thursday 18th February

• Cybill Shepherd - Born 1950, turns 66 - Actress | Producer
• Greta Scacchi - Born 1960, turns 56 - Actress 
• Molly Ringwald - Born 1968, turns 48 - Actress
• John Travolta - Born 1954, turns 62 - Actor | Producer
• Matt Dillon - Born 1964, turns 52 - Actor
• George Kennedy - Born 1925, turns 91 - Actor
• Milos Forman - Born 1932, turns 84 - Director | Producer | Writer | Actor

Friday 19th February

• Ray Winstone - Born 1957, turns 59 - Actor | Producer  
• Jeff Daniels - Born 1955, turns 61 - Actor | Director | Writer
• Benecio Del Toro - Born 1967, turns 49 - Actor | Producer 

Saturday 20th February

• Miles Teller - Born 1987, turns 29 - Actor
• Sidney Poitier - Born 1927, turns 89 - Actor | Director
• Mike Leigh - Born 1943, turns 73 - Director | Writer
• Peter Strauss - Born 1947, turns 69 - Actor | Producer
• Brenda Blethyn - Born 1946, turns 70 - Actress 

Simon John Beckingham was born and raised in the small Gloucestershire village of Brockworth, in England to mother Gillian Smith, a civil servant, and father John Henry Beckingham, a jazz musician. When he was seven years old his parents divorced and he adopted the surname of his stepfather after his mother remarried. He attended Castle Hill Primary School, Brockworth Comprehensive Secondary School and The Kings School, Gloucester. At 16, Pegg moved to Stratford-upon-Avon studying English Literature and Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon College. In 1991 he graduated from the University of Bristol with a BA in Theatre, Film and Television.

Thereafter he moved to London and started carving out a career in stand-up comedy. From here he secured a number of roles in television series including three episodes on 'Six pairs of Pants' in 1995, 'Faith in the Future' across 15 episodes from 1995-1998, six episodes of 'Asylum' in 1996, twelve episodes of 'We Know Where You Live' and six episodes of 'Is It Bill Bailey' in 1998.

His first film role came with 'Tube Tales' in 1999 - a series of nine chapters within the film each Directed by someone of note - including Bob Hoskins, Jude Law and Ewen McGregor amongst others. This was followed up by 'Guest House Paradiso' with Adrian Edmonton and Rik Mayall. Other film roles followed in 2001 with 'The Parole Officer' and '24 Hour Party People' in 2002, with television appearances on 'Hippies', and the Spielberg/Hanks collaboration 'Band of Brothers'.

In 1999 Pegg's breakthrough came with 'Spaced' which he created and starred in with good friend Nick Frost and Directed by Edgar Wright. He gained a British Comedy Award nomination for his role in 'Spaced' and as a result of this experience he and Edgar Wright co-wrote 'Shaun of the Dead' which was released in 2004. On the strength of this he was invited to appear in a cameo role on George A. Romero's 'Land of the Dead', before 'M:I 3' as Benji Dunn with Tom Cruise in 2006 - a role he has so far reprised twice.

After 'Big Nothing' in 2006, Pegg and Wright finished their second collaboration together with 'Hot Fuzz' starring Pegg and Frost as Police partners investigating a series of macabre deaths in a small sleepy English village. That year also came 'Run Fat Boy, Run' and a cameo once again in George A. Romero's 'Diary of the Dead', with 'How to lose friends and alienate people' in 2008.

2009 saw Pegg star as 'Scotty' for the first time in the reboot of the 'Star Trek' movie franchise at the hands of J.J.Abrams. The next few years saw 'Burke and Hare' as Directed by John Landis, and extra terrestrial offering 'Paul' with Nick Frost once again, and a Benji Dunn reprisal in Mission : Impossible - Ghost Protocol' in 2011.

'A Fantastic Fear of Everything' followed in 2012 and then his second outing as Scotty in 'Star Trek : Into Darkness' a year later with J.J. Abrams once again. Completing his 'Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy' in 2013 with 'The World's End' Directed by Edgar Wright and starring Nick Frost and a host of other British acting talent, he moved onto a cameo in Nick Frosts starring vehicle 'Cuban Fury' and then 'Hector and the Search for Happiness' with Toni Collette, Rosamund Pike and Stellen Skarsgard.

'Kill Me Three Times' was up next in 2014 with Luke Hemsworth and shot in Western Australia and Victoria, with 'Man Up' in 2015, 'Mission : Impossible - Rogue Nation', 'Absolutely Anything' and a small but eternally grateful role in 'Star Wars : The Force Awakens' for J.J. once more rounding out last year.





In the meantime, Pegg has lent his voice talents to the likes of 2009's 'Ice Age : Dawn of the Dinosaurs' as 'Buck' and will do so again in the upcoming next instalment in 2016 with 'Ice Age : Collision Course'. There was also 'The Chronicles of Narnia : The Adventures of the Dawn Trader' in 2010, 'The Adventures of Tin Tin : The Secret of the Unicorn' playing one half of the Thomson Twins to Nick Frost's other, and then 'Boxtrolls' in 2014. Next up for Pegg is 'Star Trek : Beyond' due for release in July this year and is co-written by him, and in which he'll reprise his role again of Scotty.

So far Pegg has 81 acting credits to his name, 23 Writer credits and eight Producer credits and along the way he has accumulated ten award wins and seventeen other film nominations from around the traps.

In mid-2005 Pegg married his long term girlfriend Maureen McCann with whom he has a daughter Matilda, born in 2009. Nick Frost was best man at their wedding. Pegg supports the 'HeForShe' gender equality campaign for womens rights.

Simon Pegg - self confessed 'Star Wars' and 'Star Trek' geek; grounded in horror, comedy and Sci-Fi; a lover of 'The X-Files'; long term collaborator with Nick Frost and Edgar Wright; a great export of British film and television to Hollywood mainstream, fame and fortune on the page, on TV, at the cinema and behind the camera, Happy Birthday to you Simon, from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-