Birthday's to share this week : 3rd - 9th July 2016.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Toby Kebbell does on 9th July - check out my tribute to this Birthday Boy turning 34, 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 3rd July 

• Tom Cruise - Born  1962, turns 54 - Actor | Producer
• Tom Stoppard - Born 1937, turns 79 - Writer | Producer | Director
• Patrick Wilson - Born 1973, turns 43 - Actor
• Connie Nielsen - Born 1965, turns 51 - Actress

Monday 4th July

• Eva Marie Saint - Born 1924, turns 92 - Actress
• Neil Simon - Born 1927, turns 89 - Writer | Producer  

Tuesday 5th July

• RZA (aka Robert Fitzgerald Diggs) - Born 1969, turns 47 - Actor | Producer | Writer | Singer | Songwriter | Composer | Director
• Edie Falco - Born 1963, turns 53 - Actress  

Wednesday 6th July

• Eva Green - Born 1980, turns 36 - Actress
• Jennifer Saunders - Born 1958, turns 58 - Actress | Writer | Producer | Singer
• 50 Cent (aka Curtis James Jackson III) - Born 1975, turns 41 - Singer | Songwriter | Actor | Writer | Producer
• Kevin Hart - Born 1979, turns 37 - Actor | Producer | Writer
• Geoffrey Rush - Born 1951, turns 65 - Actor | Producer
• Sylvester Stallone - Born 1946, turns 70 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Director 
• Ned Beatty - Born 1937, turns 79 - Actor

Thursday 7th July

• Akiva Goldsman - Born 1962, turns 54 - Director | Producer | Writer | Actor
• Ringo Starr - Born 1940, turns 76 - Singer | Songwriter | Actor | Producer | Director
• Shelley Duvall - Born 1949, turns 67 - Actress | Writer | Producer

Friday 8th July

• Anjelica Huston - Born 1951, turns 65 - Actress | Producer | Director
• Kevin Bacon - Born 1958, turns 58 - Actor | Producer | Director
• Wally Pfister - Born 1961, turns 55 - Cinematographer | Director | Cameraman
• Billy Crudup - Born 1968, turns 48 - Actor | Singer
• Jaden Smith - Born 1998, turns 18 - Actor | Singer | Songwriter

Saturday 9th July

• Toby Kebbell - Born 1982, turns 34 - Actor
• Tom Hanks - Born 1956, turns 60 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer | Singer
• Jimmy Smits - Born 1955, turns 61 - Actor | Producer
• Chris Cooper - Born 1951, turns 65 - Actor 
• Richard Roundtree - Born 1942, turns 74 - Actor
• Brian Dennehy - Born 1938, turns 78 - Actor | Writer | Producer | Director
• Kelly McGillis - Born 1957, turns 59 - Actress | Producer

Tobias Alistair Patrick Kebbell was born in South Elmsall, Yorkshire, England, and grew up in Nottinghamshire. He was raised by his mother Michelle Mathers, a cook and landscape gardener after she divorced her husband and father of Toby, Robert Kebbell, an engineer, when the young lad was just eighteen months old. Toby is the fourth of five children. He attended a Catholic Primary School, and at fifteen dropped out of school, and two years later joined a Carlton Television Workshop and attended an 'over 16' audition which gave him the framework to launch an acting career.

He came to early prominence at age twenty when cast by Director and Writer, Shane Meadows, in the British psychological thriller 'Dead Man's Shoes', Co-Wriiten and also starring Paddy Considine. Whilst the film did little by way of commercial success, critically it was hit appearing on many 'Top Film' lists - not only for the year of its release (2004) - but for all time - 'Empire', 'Total Film' and 'Time Out' voting it so. The young Actor also picked up an award nomination as Most Promising Newcomer at the British Independent Film Awards. This was followed up that same year with Oliver Stone's 'Alexander' alongside Anthony Hopkins, Jared Leto, Angelina Jolie, Colin Farrell and Val Kilmer, and then a year later in Woody Allen's 'Match Point' with Scarlett Johansson, Brian Cox and Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

2006 brought horror film 'Wilderness' and then the critically lauded Anton Corbijn Directed biopic of Joy Division's frontman Ian Curtis, played by Sam Riley in 'Control'. Kebbell played Rob Gretton, the manager of the band, for which he won the Best Supporting Actor Award at the British Independent Film Awards.

In 2008 Guy Ritchie cast Kebbell as Johnny Quid in 'RocknRolla' alongside Gerard Butler, Tom Wilkinson, Idris Elba, Tom Hardy and Thandie Newton. The next year saw 'Cheri' Directed by Stephen Frears with Michelle Pfeiffer.

The new decade saw 'Prince of Persia : Sands of Time' with Jake Gyllenhaal; 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice' with Nicolas Cage, and 'The Conspirator' with James McAvoy, and Directed by Robert Redford. 'The Veteran' followed in 2011, as did Steven Spielberg's 'War Horse' with Tom Hiddleston, Benedict Cumberbatch, Eddie Marsan, David Thewlis and Emily Watson.

'Wrath of the Titans' with Sam Worthington came next, then 'The East', and then Ridley Scott's 'The Counsellor' with Brad Pitt, Michael Fassbender, Javier Bardem, Cameron Diaz and Penelope Cruz. 2014 saw Kebbell venture down MoCap territory with his role as Koba in 'Dawn of the Planet of the Apes' - a scarred bonobo ape and lieutenant to Caesar as played by Andy Serkis in the first instalment of this rebooted franchise 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes'.

2015 gave us Marvel's attempt at resurrecting 'Fantastic Four' with Kebbell starring as Victor von Doom/Doom alongside Miles Teller (Mr. Fantastic), Michael B. Jordan (The Human Torch), Jamie Bell (The Thing), and Kate Mara (The Invisible Woman). The film recovered its budget and then some, but was critically panned. Then came 'Buddha's Little Finger' and the recently released Duncan Jones fantasy action epic 'Warcraft : The Beginning', with Kebbell returning to MoCap again for his role as Durotan a nobel orc chieftain of the Frostwolf Clan. The film has so far made US$414M off its US$160M budget outlay, but has not fared so well with the critics.

Next up there is 'Gold' with Matthew McConaughey; Timur Bekmambetov's remake of the classic 'Ben Hur' and 'A Monster Calls' with Liam Neeson all due later in 2016. 'Kong : Skull Island' with Tom Hiddleston, John Goodman and Samuel L. Jackson is due in 2017, and then 'Category 5' with Ryan Kwanten as Directed by Rob Cohen. In the meantime Kebbell has starred in several short films, a couple of made of television movies, and television series 'The Street', 'Black Mirror' and 'The Escape Artist' as well as a number of theatre productions.

All up Kebbell has 38 Acting credits, he has one Award win and another four nominations. In 2009 he was linked to entrepreneur and founder/CEO of 'Peek.com' Ruzwana Bashir, but has since stated that he is in no hurry to marry. 

Toby Kebbell - quite possibly the most acclaimed, successful sought after Actor you have never heard of; right up there with Andy Serkis for their MoCap efforts and prowess; a Yorkshire lad done good and very much a star on the rise. Happy Birthday to you Toby, from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-