Celebrity Birthdays

April 1: Italian pianist and composer Ferruccio Busoni in
1866; Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff in 1873; creepy actor of yore
Lon Chaney in 1883; actor Wallace Beery in 1886; actor Toshiro
Mifune in 1920; Death of a President author William Manchester
in 1922; actress/singers Jane Powell in 1928; actress/singer Debbie
Reynolds in 1932; Love Story actress Ali McGraw in 1938; and
actress Annette O’Toole in 1953.

April 2: Charlemagne, founder of the Holy Roman Empire, in
742; Italian “adventurer” Giacomo Casanova in 1725; Danish
storyteller Hans Christian Andersen in 1805; French sculptor Frederic
Bartholdi (creator of the Statue of Liberty) in 1834; French novelist
Emile Zola in 1840; surrealist artist Max Ernst in 1891; actor
Buddy Ebsen in 1908; actor Alec Guinness in 1914; actor Jack
Webb in 1920; smooth groover Marvin Gaye in 1939; singer/songwriter
Leon Russell in 1941; actress Linda Hunt in 1945; literary and
cultural critic Camille Paglia in 1947; country songstress Emmylou
Harris in 1947; actress Pamela Reed in 1953; comedian Dana
Carvey in 1955; and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit actor
Christopher Meloni in 1961.

April 3: historian and story writer Washington Irving in
1783; author and naturalist John Burroughs in 1837; publisher Henry
Luce in 1898; actress and inventor of the “fan dance” Sally Rand in
1904; actress and all-American good girl Doris Day in 1924; acting
powerhouse Marlon Brando in 1924; astronaut Gus Grissom in 1926;
anthropologist Jane Goodall in 1934; entertainer extraordinaire Wayne
Newton, in 1942; crooner Tony Orlando in 1944; actor Alec
Baldwin in 1958; Fraiser actor David Hyde Pierce in 1959;
funnyman Eddie Murphy in 1961; What I Like About You actress
Jennie Garth in 1971; and Olympic skier Picabo Street in
1971.

April 4: poet Maya Angelou (1928), actor Anthony
Perkins (1932), Toy Story 2’s Estelle Harris (1932),
South African musician Hugh Masekela (1939), The District’s
Craig T. Nelson (1946), producer/director David E. Kelley (1956),
actor Graham Norton (1963), Gothika’s Robert Downey Jr.
(1965), illusionist David Blaine (1973), songstress Kelly Price
(1973), actress Natasha Lyonne (1979) and actor Heath Ledger
(1979)

April 5: industrial engineer Booker T. Washington (1856),
star of Old Hollywood Spencer Tracy (1900), All About Eve’s
Bette Davis (1908), screen legend Gregory Peck (1916), actor
Nigel Hawthorne (1929), U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell
(1937), singer Paula Cole (1968), actress Krista Allen (1972)
and music producer Pharrell Williams (1973)

April 6: actor/director Ivan Dixon (1931), actor Billy Dee
Williams (1937), film producer Barry Levinson (1942), Taxi
actress Marilu Henner (1952), actress Ari Meyers (1969), actor
Paul Rudd (1969) and actress Candace Cameron Bure (1976)

April 7: musician Jimmy Eaton (1906), jazz singer Billie
Holiday (1915), actor James Garner (1928), director Francis Ford
Coppola (1939), martial arts actor Jackie Chan (1954),
lawyer-turned-author Christopher Darden (1956), Academy Award winner
Russell Crowe (1964) and comedian Bill Bellamy (1965)