Birthday's to share this week : 28th December 2014 - 3rd January 2015.

It's New Year week - do you celebrate your Birthday this week? Anthony Hopkins does, on 31st December - check out the tribute to this Birthday Boy 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 28th December

• Denzel Washington - Born 1954, turns 60 - Actor | Producer | Director
• Stan Lee - Born 1922, turns 92 - Writer | Producer | Actor
• Alex Dimitriades - Born 1973, turns 41 - Actor
• Sienna Miller - Born 1981, turns 33 - Actress
• Noomi Rapace - Born 1979, turns 35 - Actress
• Maggie Smith - Born 1934, turns 80 - Actress

Monday 29th December

• Patricia Clarkson - Born 1959, turns 55 - Actress | Producer
• Mary Tyler Moore - Born 1936, turns 78 - Actress | Producer | Singer | Television Personality
• Jude Law - Born 1972, turns 42 - Actor | Producer
• Jon Voight - Born 1938, turns 76 - Actor | Producer
• Ted Danson - Born 1947, turns 67 - Actor | Producer
• Andy Wachowski - Born 1967, turns 47 - Director | Producer | Writer

Tuesday 30th December

• Tracey Ullman - Born 1959, turns 55 - Actress | Writer | Producer | Director

Wednesday 31st December 

• Barbara Carrera - Born 1945, turns 69 - Actress
• Val Kilmer - Born 1959, turns 55 - Actor | Producer
• Ben Kingsley - Born 1943, turns 71 - Actor
• Anthony Hopkins - Born 1937, turns 77 - Actor | Producer | Director | Composer

Thursday 1st January

• Frank Langella - Born 1938, turns 77 - Actor
• Verne Troyer - Born 1969, turns 46 - Actor

Friday 2nd January

• Cuba Gooding Jnr. - Born 1968, turns 47 - Actor | Producer
• Todd Haynes - Born 1961, turns 54 - Director | Producer | Writer
• Taye Diggs - Born 1971, turns 44 - Actor | Producer
• Paz Vega - Born 1976, turns 38 - Actress
• Kate Bosworth - Born 1983, turns 32 - Actress | Producer
• Tia Carrere - Born 1967, turns 48 - Actress | Producer

Saturday 3rd January

• Victoria Principal - Born 1950, turns 65 - Actress | Producer
• Dabney Coleman - Born 1932, turns 83 - Actor
• Robert Loggia - Born 1930, turns 85 - Actor
• Mel Gibson - Born 1956, turns 59 - Actor | Producer | Director

Philip Anthony Hopkins was born in Margam, Port Talbot in South Wales on New Years Eve to mother Annie Muriel Yeates and father Richard Arthur Hopkins. He was not an academic child but did immerse himself in painting, drawing and learning the piano at school. He was enrolled at Jones' West Monmouth Boys School and then Cowbridge Grammar School. At age 15 he briefly met Richard Burton who greatly influenced the young Hopkins and coincidentally was also from Port Talbot. As a result he attended the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff where he graduated from in 1957. After completing his obligatory national service he relocated himself to London where he further studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

His first stage appearance came in 1960 at the Palace Theatre, Swansea in 'Have a Cigarette'. In 1965  he was seen by Lord Laurence Olivier who invited him to join the Royal National Theatre where he went on to become Olivier's understudy. His small screen career started off in 1967 in a BBC televised play 'A Flea in Her Ear' and that same year he appeared in the short film 'The White Bus' (aka 'Red, White and Zero'). However, 1968 saw his first big screen role playing King Richard I in 'The Lion in Winter' with Peter O'Toole, Katherine Hepburn and Timothy Dalton which went on to take out three Academy Awards that year. He continued to tread the boards, but progressively moved toward more television and film roles starring in this earlier years in the likes of 'The Looking Glass War', 'Hamlet', 'When Eight Bells Toll', 'Young Winston' for Director Richard Attenborough, 'The Girl from Petrovka', 'Juggernaut' and then 1977's 'A Bridge Too Far' again Directed by Richard Attenborough and with an all star cast. In the meantime there had been numerous television series and made for television movies, the most notable of which was the TV Mini-Series 'War & Peace' in which he starred in all seventeen episodes running over 1972 and '73.

The 1980's opened up opposite John Hurt in 'The Elephant Man' followed by 'A Change of Seasons' and then as William Bligh in 'The Bounty' with Mel Gibson, Laurence Olivier, Daniel Day-Lewis, Liam Neeson and Edward Fox. 'The Good Father', '84, Charring Cross Road' and again various television series and made for TV films also featured - 'A Married Man', 'Strangers and Brothers' and 'Hollywood Wives' amongst others.

It was the 1990's however, that really saw Hopkins movie career take off with the hugely successful and highly acclaimed Jonathan Demme Directed 'Silence of the Lambs' in 1991 which won the 'Big-5' Academy Awards including the Best Actor Award for Hopkins. He was nominated a further three times in the 90's for the golden statue - for 'Remains of the Day', 'Nixon' and 'Amistad'. There were other notable films too during the decade that included 'Howard's End', 'Dracula', 'Chaplin', 'Shadowlands' with Richard Attenborough Directing once more, 'Legends of the Fall', 'The Edge', 'The Mask of Zorro', 'Meet Joe Black', 'Instinct' and 'Titus'.

As the new century rolled over Hopkins reprised his role as Dr. Hannibal Lecter twice again - in 2001's 'Hannibal' Directed by Ridley Scott, and then Brett Ratner's 2002 'Red Dragon'. What followed included 'The Human Stain', 'Alexander' for Oliver Stone who also Directed Hopkins in 'Nixon', 'Proof', 'Fracture', 'The World's Fastest Indian', the CGI animated 'Beowulf' and his own Written, Directed and Starring 'Slipstream' in 2007.

More recently there has been 'The Wolfman'. 'The Rite', Marvel's 'Thor' and it's sequel 'Thor : The Dark World', '360', 'Hitchcock' as the great Director himself opposite Helen Mirren, 'RED 2' and 'Noah' most recently. 

Coming up there is 'Autobahn' and 'Kidnapping Freddy Heineken' due in 2015, 'Solace' in post-production currently and 'Go with Me' presently filming. The 'Westworld' Television series is filming too for 2015 and 'The Dresser' television movie is in pre-production now.

All up Hopkins has 127 acting credits to his name, three Directer credits for which he also composed his own music scores and a total 51 worldwide award wins and 44 other nominations. The Academy Awards were mentioned before, and in addition there are six Golden Globe nominations and the 2006 Cecil B. DeMille Award win; two Primetime Emmy Award wins for 'The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case' and 'The Bunker' and two other nominations; and four BAFTA Award wins for 'War & Peace', 'Silence of the Lambs', 'Shadowlands' and The Academy Fellowship win in 2008, plus four other nominations.

During his career he has played British Prime Minister David Lloyd George; English King - Richard the Lionheart; two US Presidents - John Quincy Adams and Richard Nixon; German Dictator Adolf Hitler; renowned artist Pablo Picasso; renowned film Director Alfred Hitchcock; and renowned literary scribe Charles Dickens, amongst other real life characters.

He was married to Petronella Barker from 1967 to 1972; to Jennifer Lynton from 1973 to 2002; and to Stella Arroyave from 2003 until the present day. He has a daughter - composer and actress Abigail Hopkins, born in 1968. He has both British and American citizenship and his charitable and philanthropic efforts extend to his Presidency of the National Trust's 'Snowdonia Appeal' to which he personally donated one million pounds sterling. He is  patron of his hometown YMCA and is a volunteer teacher at Santa Monica's Ruskin School of Acting. Additionally he is a prominent member of 'Greanpeace' and a patron of the 'Rehabilitaion for Addicted Prisoners Trust'. He is a reformed alcoholic having given up on Christmas day 1975, he has quit smoking and has been vegetarian now for some years, and he is a piano virtuoso. In the Queen's Birthday Honour's List in 1987 he was awarded the CBE (Commander of the British Empire); in 1992 she bestowed upon him in the New Year's Honour's List the KBE (Knight Bachelor of the Order of the British Empire); and in 2008 he was made a Fellow of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

Anthony Hopkins - owner of deep blue piercing eyes and a deep smooth voice, often playing restrained archetypal English roles, character actor and known for roles of historical personalities, trademarked as bringing to life one of cinemas most chilling characters, and still much in demand and still turning it on for us at 77 - Happy Birthday to you from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

Birthday's to share this week : 16th - 22nd November 2014.

Do you celebrate your Birthday this week? Jodie Foster does, on 19th November - check out the tribute to this Birthday Girl 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 or 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 16th November

• Maggie Gyllenhaal - Born 1977, turns 37 - Actress

Monday 17th November

• Martin Scorsese - Born 1942, turns 72 - Director | Producer | Writer | Actor
• Danny DeVito - Born 1944, turns 70 - Actor | Producer | Director | Writer
• Zoe Bell - Born 1978, turns 36 - Actress | Stuntwoman
• Sophie Marceau - Born 1966, turns 48 - Actress | Director
• Lauren Hutton - Born 1943, turns 71 - Actress
• Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio - Born 1958, turns 56 - Actress

Tuesday 18th November

• Damon Wayans Jnr. - Born 1982, turns 32 - Actor | Writer
• Owen Wilson - Born 1968, turns 46 - Actor | Producer | Writer
• Delroy Lindo - Born 1952, turns 62 - Actor

Wednesday 19th November

• Adam Driver - Born 1983, turns 31 - Actor
• Charlie Kaufman - Born 1958, turns 56 - Writer | Producer | Director
• Ted Turner - Born 1938, turns 76 - Producer | Actor | Media Mogul
• Meg Ryan - Born 1961, turns 53 - Actress | Producer | Director
• Jodie Foster - Born 1962, turns 52 - Actress | Producer | Director

Thursday 20th November

• Bo Derek - Born 1956, turns 58 - Actress
• Sean Young - Born 1959, turns 55 - Actress

Friday 21st November

• Goldie Hawn - Born 1945, turns 69 - Actress | Producer

Saturday 22nd November

• Scarlett Johansson - Born 1984, turns 30 - Actress
• Jamie Lee Curtis - Born 1958, turns 56 - Actress
• Mark Ruffalo - Born 1967, turns 47 - Actor | Producer
• Mads Mikkelsen - Born 1965, turns 49 - Actor
• Robert Vaughan - Born 1932, turns 82 - Actor
• Terry Gilliam - Born 1940, turns 74 - Director | Producer | Writer | Actor | Animator

Alicia Christian Foster was born in Los Angeles. Her mother, Evelyn Ella Almond, worked for a film Producer and her father Lucius Fisher Foster III was a decorated Air Force Lieutenant Colonel turned Real Estate Broker. Her parents divorced three years before Alicia was born, yet she was conceived when her mother visited her father for child support monies for her other older siblings - Buddy Foster, Connie Foster and Cindy Foster Jones. From very early on her siblings insisted on calling the young Alicia, Jodie, and the name stuck!

Foster attended a French language prep school - The Lycée Francais de Los Angeles graduating in 1980. As a teenage actress she often visited and worked in France and so has come to speak French fluently. She also understands German, Spanish and can get by in Italian too. She attended Yale University and graduated in 1985 with a Bachelor's Degree in Literature, and in 1997 the University bestowed her an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts Degree.

She was three years old when she made her acting debut for 'Coppertone Suntan Lotion', and then aged five she secured her first television series appearance on the family comedy show 'Mayberry R.F.D' in 1968. As an aspiring child actress she went on to star in numerous TV shows including 'The Doris Day Show', 'The Partridge Family', 'Bonanza', 'Gunsmoke', 'The Courtship of Eddie's Father' and 'Paper Moon' amongst others. She made her film acting debut in the 1970 TV movie 'Menace of the Mountain' and in 1974 she worked with Martin Scorsese on 'Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore'. She made several films with Disney including 'Napoleon and Samantha' in 1972, 'One Little Indian' in 1973, 'Candleshoe' in 1977 and 'Foxes' in 1980.

It was 1976 however, that really catapulted the young Foster into the spotlight with no less than fig films released that year - the most notable of which was Martin Scorsese's 'Taxi Driver' with Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel and Cybil Shepherd - a role for which she was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award, aged 13. That same year came 'Bugsy Malone', 'Freaky Friday', 'Echoes of Summer' and 'The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane' with Martin Sheen. She won the BAFTA Awards in 1977 for her roles in both 'Bugsy Malone' and 'Taxi Driver' and a Golden Globe nomination for 'Freaky Friday'.

In the 1980's attempting to break into more adult acting roles she starred in such films as 'The Hotel New Hampshire', 'Five Corners', 'Stealing Home' and 'Siesta' all of which performed poorly - financially at least. However, her role in 1988's 'The Accused' alongside Kelly McGillis established her as an adult actress and garnered her an Academy Award win, a Golden Globe win and a BAFTA nomination. She followed this up in 1991 with 'Silence of the Lambs' with Anthony Hopkins, starring as young FBI Trainee Clarice Starling. This role and the film were huge successes, winning Foster her second Academy Award , Golden Globe and her first BAFTA win all for Best Actress.

1991 also saw Fosters Directorial debut with 'Little Man Tate' in which she also stars, and which received critical acclaim too. From there came 'Shadows and Fog' with Woody Allen, 'Sommersby' with Richard Gere, 'Maverick' with Mel Gibson,  and the 'Nell' which gave her a fourth Academy Award nomination. 'Home for the Holidays' in 1995 was her second outing as Director and starred Robert Downey Jnr. and Holly Hunter. 'Contact' in 1997 opposite Matthew McConaughey was a success as was 1999's 'Anna and the King' - a remake of the 1946 film.

As the decade rolled over Foster took on more action orientated roles with 'Panic Room' Directed by David Fincher, 'Flightplan', 'Inside Man' with Denzel Washington and 'The Brave One' Directed by Neil Jordan - all of which brought critical and financial success, as did the 2008 family comedy 'Nim's Island' with Gerard Butler.  In 2011 Foster returned to Directing with 'The Beaver' also starring her former co-star and long term friend Mel Gibson. Costing US$21M to make it raked in just over US$6M - due in part possibly to Gibson's much publicised rants a few years previously which had badly tarnished his reputation. This was followed up by Roman Polanski's 'Carnage' also in 2011 which was a return to form gaining Foster another Golden Globe nomination. 'Elysium' came in 2013 with Matt Damon, and she is currently Directing 'Money Monster' for a 2015 release.

In the late 1970's John Hinkley Jnr. became infatuated with Foster having seen her in 'Taxi Driver'. He saw the film may times over and actively stalked her while she attended Yale University, even sending love letters and calling her on the phone. Hinkley made an assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan on 30th March 1981 to impress Foster, with the President narrowly escaping death when a ricocheted bullet lodged in his lung an inch from his heart. Six gun shots were fired by Hinkley before he was overcome by Security and Police Officers. It took Foster almost two decades to shake off this traumatic chapter in her life and move on with a degree of acceptance and renewal.

She has two sons - Charles Foster born in 1998 and Christopher Foster born in 2001, but she has never acknowledged who the father is. She was in a long term relationship from 1993 to 2008 with movie Producer Cydney Bernard, and in April this year she married Actress and Photographer Alexandra Hedison.

Foster has 75 acting credits to her name and seven Director and Producer credits also. Her awards haul includes two Academy Award wins for 'The Accused' and 'Silence of the Lambs' and two other nominations for 'Taxi Driver' and 'Nell'. She has three Golden Globe wins for 'The Accused', 'Silence of the Lambs' and the Cecil B. DeMille Award bestowed upon her in 2013 plus five other nominations. There are two Primetime Emmy Award nominations, and three BAFTA wins for 'Bugsy Malone', 'Taxi Driver' and 'Silence of the Lambs', plus a nomination for 'The Accused'. All up 56 award wins and 34 other nominations.

Jodie Foster - 52 years of age this week and been in the business for almost half a century - a truly remarkable track record of success in front and behind the camera that keeps you in demand, keeps you diverse, and keeps you fresh as new challenges present themselves to which your experiences, your skills and the future will continue to keep us entertained. Happy Birthday to you from Odeon Online.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-