Birthday Suits: Immortal Beloveds

Who needs holidays? Make your own with the birthdays of movie people.

Parker, Oleg and Vlad the Impaler (as interpreted by Gary Oldman)

Today's Birthdays 11/08
1431 Vlad the Impaler would have turned 578 years old today if not for that stake through the heart. To be accurate, his exact birthday is unknown but sometimes he's listed on this date which probably has something to do with...
1847 Bram Stoker who wrote the original Dracula, which gave Vlad the immortality that he had mythically already won as the original nosferatu... vampyr. The cinema loves him harder and deeper than Lucy Harker ever could.
1900 Margaret Mitchell wrote Gone With the Wind. She didn't have to impale anyone or renounce heaven to achieve immortality. She just had to write one mammoth book. The movie based on her novel is still the highest grossing film of all time when adjusted for inflation. One of only four films to have ever topped a billion dollars in theatrical:

1. Gone With the Wind (1939)
   
2. Star Wars (1977)
   
3. The Sound of Music (1965)
   
4. E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (1982)

Seems odd that 3/4ths of them came after the birth of television, though.

1913 June Havoc forever known as"Baby June" thanks to the enduring fame of Gypsy on stage and screen. June never achieved the pop culture iconicity that her sister Gypsy Rose Lee did though they've both been played by countless actresses since. But she turns 96 today (wow!). Film appearances include: My Sister Eileen, Gentlemen's Agreement and the infamous Village People movie Can't Stop the Music).
<--- 1935 Alain Delon legendary French beauty who played that Talented Mr. Tom Ripley (Plein Soleil) long before Matt Damon did. Other highlights include Rocco and His Brothers and Le Samouraï
1952 Alfre Woodard, how can you be an Oscar nominee and four-time Emmy winner and still be underappreciated? Yet somehow, she is. Damn you, Hollywood!
1960 Oleg Menshikov terrific Russian actor and star of Oscar foreign film nominees like Est-Ouest, Burnt by the Sun and Prisoner of the Mountains.
1960 Michael Nyqvist, Swedish actor of As in Heaven, Tilsammans (wonderful, rent it) fame. He's also in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo which just won EFA nominations.
1972 Gretchen Mol of The Notorious Bettie Page promise. Where's the big follow up?
1975 Tara Reid once worked with the Coen Bros and Robert Altman. The cautionary tale that Lindsay Lohan forgot to read.

Finally, a happy joint birthday wish to best friends Craig Chester (turning 44) and Parker Posey (turning 41), survivors of the 90s indie movie scene. Posey you know and love as a hipster icon, diva, Party Girl, actress, sassy vampiress, Lex Luthor's gal, Libby Mae Brown ("Who's on top and who's on bottom now???") and many other terrific screen characters. She's a gift that never stops giving. Chester you should know as one of the original stars of the New Queer Cinema in films like Grief and Swoon. He was one of the very few trailblazing out actors of the 90s. This decade he wrote, directed and starred in Adam & Steve but no films since. Hmmm. And because they are so adorable I'm breaking my photographic "birthday suit" rule to include this photo by Lorenzo di Flaneur of the pair celebrating their birthday together in 2006.