Birthday's to share this week : 10th - 16th July 2016.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Travis Fimmel does on 15th July - check out my tribute to this Birthday Boy turning 37, 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 10th July 

• Chiwetel Ejiofor - Born 1977, turns 39 - Actor | Writer | Director
• Sofia Vergara - Born 1972, turns 44 - Actress | Producer 

Monday 11th July

• Rachael Taylor - Born 1984, turns 32 - Actress
• Caroline Quentin - Born 1960, turns 56 - Actress | Writer | Director
• Mark Lester - Born 1958, turns 58 - Actor
• Stephen Lang - Born 1952, turns 64 - Actor | Writer | Producer
• Tom Holland - Born 1943, turns 73 - Director | Writer | Actor  

Tuesday 12th July

• Topher Grace - Born 1978, turns 38 - Actor | Writer | Producer
• Brian Grazer - Born 1951, turns 65 - Producer | Writer | Actor
• Bill Cosby - Born 1937, turns 79 - Actor | Television Personality | Writer | Producer | Singer | Songwriter | Composer
• Michelle Rodriguez - Born 1978, turns 38 - Actress
• Cheryl Ladd - Born 1951, turns 65 - Actress  

Wednesday 13th July

• Patrick Stewart - Born 1940, turns 76 - Actor | Producer | Director
• Robert Forster - Born 1941, turns 75 - Actor | Producer | Director
• Harrison Ford - Born1942, turns 74 - Actor | Producer | Writer
• Cheech Marin - Born 1946, turns 70 - Actor | Producer | Writer | Singer | Songwriter
• Cameron Crowe - Born 1957, turns 59 - Director | Producer | Writer | Actor
• Ken Jeong - Born 1969, turns 47 - Actor | Producer | Writer | Singer  

Thursday 14th July

• Harry Dean Stanton - Born 1926, turns 90 - Actor
• Matthew Fox - Born 1966, turns 50 - Actor
• Jackie Earle Haley - Born 1961, turns 55 - Actor | Writer | Director
• Scott Rudin - Born 1958, turns 58 - Producer
• Joel Silver - Born 1952, turns 64 - Producer
• Deborah Mailman - Born 1972, turns 44 - Actress  

Friday 15th July

• Diane Kruger - Born 1976, turns 40 - Actress
• Brigitte Nielsen - Born 1963, turns 53 - Actress | Producer
• Ken Kercheval - Born 1935, turns 81 - Actor
• Jan-Michael Vincent - Born 1944, turns 72 - Actor
• Forest Whittaker - Born 1961, turns 55 - Actor | Producer | Director | Singer | Songwriter
• Travis Fimmel - Born 1979, turns 37 - Actor  

Saturday 16th July

• Will Ferrell - Born 1967, turns 49 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Singer
• Corey Feldman - Born 1971, turns 45 - Actor | Producer | Singer | Songwriter
• Phoebe Cates - Born 1963, turns 53 - Actress

Travis Fimmel was born near Echuca, Victoria, Australia to mother Jennie - a recreational officer for the disabled, and father Chris, a cattle and dairy farmer. He grew up on a 5,500 acre farm property in Lockington - a town in northern Victoria about 200kms north of Melbourne with his two elder brothers. He left school at age seventeen and had aspirations of playing Australian rules football as his career. In his late teens he relocated to Melbourne to play for the St. Kilda club, but was sidelined before he even began with a broken leg. He gained a place at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology to study architecture and engineering, but chose to travel the world instead.

Whilst training at a Melbourne gym he was talented spotted by a representative of the Chadwick Models Agency. He headed overseas to the US in 2002 and was signed up instantly by 'LA Models' and shortly afterwards became the worlds first male model to sign a six figure deal with an exclusive one year contract with Calvin Klein to model their underwear range for men. He also became the face of CK's 'Crave' mens fragrance. As a consequence People Magazine named him on of the world's sexiest bachelors in 2002 and was regarded as the most in demand male model in the world. He appeared on the front cover of several magazines, appeared on numerous chat shows including those of Jimmy Kimmel and Sharon Osbourne, as well as a slot on entertainment news programme 'Extra!'. He also starred in music video clips for Jennifer Lopez and Janet Jackson.

Fimmel soon thereafter started taking acting lessons with renowned coach and acting mentor Ivana Chubbuck who also coached the likes of Brad Pitt, Gerard Butler, Sharon Stone, Charlize Theron and Halle Berry. From here, he landed the lead role in the 2003 Warner Bros. television series of 'Tarzan' which ran for just eight episodes and starred Sarah Wayne Callies (of 'Prisonbreak' and 'The Walking Dead' fame) as Jane Porter, and Mitch Pileggi as Richard Clayton - billionaire uncle of Tarzan/John Clayton.

From here he secured a role in the made for television movie 'Southern Comfort' in 2006 with Madeleine Stowe and Eric Roberts, and then Australian drama thriller 'Restraint' with Teresa Palmer in 2008, with 'Surfer, Dude' with Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson, Scott Glenn and Willie Nelson that same year. In 2009 he secured a real boost to his television profile starring opposite Patrick Swayze in 'The Beast' about a rookie undercover cop (Fimmel) buddied up with a hard nosed seen it all veteran cop (Swayze). The short-lived series was well received by critics but less so by audiences, but none of that really mattered as after just thirteen episodes the series ended due to Swayze's death from pancreatic cancer.

2010 saw him star in 'Pure Country 2 : The Gift', a musical western film; Australian supernatural horror 'Needle' with Ben Mendelsohn, John Jarrett and Tahyna Tozzi which picked up several awards around the horror circuit. 'Ivory' with Peter Stormare and Martin Landau followed, and then 'The Experiment' with Adrien Brody and Forest Whittaker closed out the year.

After this came a couple of episodes on 'Chase' for the NBC which ran for eighteen episodes and then the made for television movie 'Outlaw Country' with Mary Steenburgen and Luke Grimes in 2011. 'The Baytown Outlaws' came next with Billy Bob Thornton, Eva Longoria and Zoe Bell, and then 'Harodin' with Peter Fonda.

In 2013 Fimmel secured the lead role of Ragnor Lothbrok in the History Channel's series 'Vikings' which has now run for four seasons with a fifth now commissioned. Shot mostly in Ireland which Fimmel describes as beautiful, but wet, the film traces the story of the Norsemen led by Ragnor as they venture forth beyond their native Scandinavia and cause a stir in England and France especially, whilst keeping rival Viking clans at bay too back home. There has also been a spin off series 'Vikings : Athelstan's Journal' in which he has also starred in the majority of episodes being the central character.

Bringing us up to date is 'Maggie's Plan' just released with Ethan Hawke, Greta Gerwig and Julianne Moore, and the Duncan Jones epic action fantasy 'Warcraft : The Beginning' based on the hugely popular video and board game. Both films remain on general release, with the latter now the highest grossing video game adaptation, with a Box Office haul of US$422M.

Next up is Sci-Fi world disaster epic 'Inversion' in pre-production and 'All Quiet on the Western Front' also in pre-production. Fimmel has twenty-two acting credits to his name and just one award nomination - but it remains early days yet! He lists his leisure time pursuits as Australian rules football, surfing, camping, motor bike riding, the beach and getting down & dirty back at the family farm - which these days he finds it increasingly hard to do given his busy work schedule.

Travis Fimmel - underwear model, sword swinging warrior, AFL enthusiast, family farm hand, a star on the rise and increasingly keeping us entertained on the small and big screen - Happy Birthday to you, from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-