Birthday's to share this week : 19th March - 25th March 2017.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week?

Edgar Ramirez does on 25th March - check out my tribute to this Birthday Lad turning 40, 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 19th March

• Ursula Andress - Born 1936, turns 81 - Actress
• Glenn Close - Born 1947, turns 70 - Actress | Producer | Singer
• Harvey Weinstein - Born 1952, turns 65 - Producer | Director | Writer
• Bruce Willis - Born 1955, turns 62 - Actor | Producer | Singer  

Monday 20th March

• Carl Reiner - Born 1922, turns 95 - Director | Producer | Actor | Writer
• William Hurt - Born 1950, turns 67 - Actor
• Spike Lee - Born 1957, turns 60 - Director | Producer | Writer | Actor
• David Thewlis - Born 1963, turns 54 - Actor | Writer | Director
• Michael Rappaport - Born 1970, turns 47 - Actor | Producer | Director
• Holly Hunter - Born 1958, turns 59 - Actress | Producer
• Ruby Rose - Born 1986, turns 31 - Actress

Tuesday 21st March

• Rosie O'Donnell - Born 1962, turns 55 - Actress | Producer | Writer | Singer
• Timothy Dalton - Born 1946, turns 71 - Actor
• Gary Oldman - Born 1958, turns 59 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer
• Matthew Broderick - Born 1962, turns 55 - Actor | Producer | Director | Singer
• Scott Eastwood - Born 1986, turns 31 - Actor | Producer  

Wednesday 22nd March

• William Shatner - Born 1931, turns 86 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer | Singer
• M. Emmet Walsh - Born 1935, turns 82 - Actor
• Bruno Ganz - Born 1941, turns 76 - Actor
• Matthew Modine - Born 1959, turns 58 - Actor | Producer | Director | Cinematographer
• Reese Witherspoon - Born 1976, turns 41 - Actress | Producer | Singer   

Thursday 23rd March

• Amanda Plummer - Born 1957, turns 60 - Actress
• Catherine Keener - Born 1959, turns 58 - Actress | Producer
• Michelle Monaghan - Born 1976, turns 41 - Actress | Producer
• Jaume Collet-Serra - Born 1974, turns 43 - Director | Producer
• Daniel Espinosa - Born 1977, turns 40 - Director | Producer | Writer  

Friday 24th March

• Patrick Malahide - Born 1945, turns 72 - Actor | Writer
• Jim Parsons - Born 1973, turns 44 - Actor | Producer
• Kelly LeBrock - Born 1960, turns 57 - Actress
• Lara Flynn Boyle - Born 1970, turns 47 - Actress | Producer
• Jessica Chastain - Born 1977, turns 40 - Actress | Producer
• Keisha Castle-Hughes - Born 1990, turns 27 - Actress 

Saturday 25th March

• Sarah Jessica Parker - Born 1965, turns 52 - Actress | Producer | Singer 
• Paul Michael Glaser - Born 1943, turns 74 - Actor | Producer | Director
• Edgar Ramirez - Born 1977, turns 40 - Actor | Producer
• Lee Pace - Born 1979, turns 38 - Actor

Edgar Filiberto Ramirez Arellano was born in San Cristobal, Tachira, Venezuela, South America to mother Soday Arellano, a lawyer, and father Filbert Ramirez, an officer in the military service. He graduated from the Andres Bello Catholic University - a private and one of the largest universities in Venezuela, with its main campus in Caracas, in 1999 with a degree in mass communication. He had intended to pursue a career in international relations, and whilst at university he worked as a would-be journalist, reporting mainly on politics. He then became an Executive Director of 'Dale al Voto' - a foundation in Venezuela set up to engage and build the political understanding and reach of young people. For this, Ramirez and his team created campaigns that would appear on radio, television and in cinema. He also took charge of international promotions for the Viart Film Festival - a short film festival held in Caracas open to all students from Spanish speaking countries. Around about that time, Screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga was invited to attend the Viart Film Festival, and he saw Ramirez work in a short film being presented. He was so impressed that he offered Ramirez the chance to audition for 'Amores Perros' which he declined. The film Directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu went on to international acclaim. Hindsight is a wonderful thing! At this point Ramirez decided to reignite his interest in an acting career.

During the '90's Ramirez appeared sporadically in a number of television and film roles locally in Venezuela - kicking off with short lived television series 'Cuando Ilega el amor' in 1990, then 'Aqui esp-p-pantan', a horror fantasy comedy from 1993 involving ghosts terrorising a young couple who have recently moved into their house, and this was followed up in 1999 by '. . . sol y lluvia' about a young Venezuelan woman's dreams and aspirations of becoming Miss Venezuela. 2002 saw 'Plan B' a Venezuelan action crime drama in which Ramirez gained his first lead role. In 2003 he followed this up with a string of appearances on the romantic drama telenovela 'Cosita Rica' which ran from 2003 through 2004 for a total 270 episodes. In 2003 there was also Christmas drama 'Yotama se va volando', and then 'A Dot and a Line' the following year,

2005 saw Ramirez break into the Hollywood scene with his appearance in Tony Scott's 'Domino' inspired by the bounty hunting exploits of Domino Harvey, with Keira Knightley in the lead role, with Mickey Rourke, Delroy Lindo, Lucy Liu, Christopher Walken, Jacqueline Bisset, Mo'Nique and Ramirez as Choco - Domino's love interest. In 2006 he appeared in action crime offering 'El Don' and then Mexican film 'Elipsis' with Ramirez in the lead role once more.




The following year saw Ramirez appear alongside Matt Damon in the hugely successful Jason Bourne series in 'The Bourne Ultimatum', Directed by Paul Greengrass, in the role of Paz, a Blackbriar assassin, and later that same year in 'Cyrano Fernandez' in the lead role in this romantic action drama offering loosely based on the French play 'Cyrano de Bergerac'. The year after, 2008, he appeared in Steven Soderbergh's 'Che' - the biopic of the Argentine Marxist revolutionary Ernesto 'Che' Guevara with Benicio del Toro in the title role, and Ramirez appearing with an all star cast as Ciro Redondo (a Cuban revolutionary who fought amongst Ché Guevara). 'Vantage Point' followed that same year with again an all star cast including William Hurt, Matthew Fox, Forest Whittaker, Dennis Quaid and Sigourney Weaver, with Ramirez cast as Javier, an ex-special forces soldier forced to kidnap the American President in order to get his brother back.

Ramirez saw the decade out with his turn as 'Carlos' about the life of the 1970's Venezuelan revolutionary Carlos the Jackal (Ilich Ramírez Sánchez), covering his first series of attacks in 1973 until his arrest in 1994. This highly acclaimed three part mini-series which ran out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010 for its full five and half hour run time, garnered many award wins and nominations along the way, including Best Actor Golden Globe, Primetime Emmy, and SAG nods for Ramirez and multiple wins too, including France's Cesar Award for Most Promising Actor.

Up next in 2011 was Colombian vengeance action drama 'Greetings to the Devil', followed by the sequel to 2010's 'Clash of the Titans' with 'Wrath of the Titans' in which Ramirez plays Ares, the God of War, alongside Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Toby Kebbel, Bill Nighy and Rosamund Pike. French film 'An Open Heart' was next in 2012 with Juliette Binoche, before his turn in Kathryn Bigelow's multiple award winning 'Zero Dark Thirty' with Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton, Chris Pratt, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Mark Strong and James Gandolfini.

2013 saw Ramirez star in Venezuelan historical biopic 'The Liberator' - the story of Simon Bolivar as portrayed by Ramirez, who fought in over one hundred battles against the Spanish Empire in South America, rode over seventy thousand miles on horseback in the process and his military campaigns covered twice the territory of Alexander the Great. He never once conquered in battle, instead, he liberated, believing in freedom for all! Working with Director Ridley Scott came next in 'The Counsellor' with Michael Fassbender, Javier Bardem, Brad Pitt, Bruno Ganz, Cameron Diaz and Penelope Cruz, and then 'Deliver Us from Evil' for Director Scott Derrickson with Eric Bana playing real life New York Police Officer Ralph Sarchie investigating a number of paranormal crimes who joins forces with Ramirez Mendoza character - a somewhat unconventional Priest versed in the way of exorcism and demonic possession.

Extreme sport crime drama actioner remake of the classic Kathryn Bigelow 'Point Break' opened 2016, with Ramirez playing the Bodhi character previously portrayed by Patrick Swayze, with Luke Bracey playing Johnny Utah as played by a young Keanu Reeves back in 1991. The film received less that favourable Reviews generally and made US$134M from its US$105M budget outlay. David O'Russell's biographical dramedy 'Joy' followed with Jennifer Lawrence as Joy Mangano the inventor of the miracle mop, Robert De Niro and Bradley Cooper with Ramirez playing Tony Miranne, Joy's ex-husband.

'Hands of Stone' was released last year with Ramirez playing Panamanian former professional boxer Roberto Duran. The film received a fifteen minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival last year, but this and Robert De Niro, John Turturro, Usher and Ellen Barkin also starring wasn't enough to save it from mixed critical Reviews and poor Box Office taking back just a quarter of its US$20M budget. Also last year came 'The Girl on the Train' with Emily Blunt and most recently 'Gold' with Matthew McConaughey bringing us up to date.



Next up for Ramirez is Sci-Fi crime fantasy 'Bright' for Director David Ayer and with Will Smith, Joel Edgerton and Noomi Rapace due later this year, then 'Love Child' for Director Todd Solondz with Penelope Cruz, and then television true crime series 'American Crime Story' with Ramirez set to play Gianni Versace in Season Three. Recently announced for 2018 is the pilot season for 'Black or White, Never Grey' running over thirteen episodes of the crime drama offering set in 1989.

Ramirez supports the 'Don't Shoot' campaign for Amnesty International which strives to eliminate the number of injuries and deaths caused by the irresponsible use of guns. He also took part in '5 Senses of Action' - an organisation which benefits children with special needs, and he has acted as the United Nations Children's Fund Goodwill Ambassador in the past too. All up Ramirez has 34 acting credits to his name and five as Producer. He has eleven award wins and a further ten nominations including Golden Globe, Primetime Emmy and SAG nods for 'Carlos'.

Edgar Ramirez - fluent in five languages - Spanish, English, French, Italian and German; had his US$150K watch collection stolen from his home in Caracas; has a deep fascination with human nature and all its virtues and flaws; is disciplined, structured, organised; believes in God, kindness and love; and is able to channel his personal feelings and beliefs into the roles he portrays with a convincing realism. Happy 40th Birthday to you Edgar, from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-