August 22: Happy Birthday James Corden and Tori Amos

0822CordenAmos
James Corden is turning 39 today.  He made his acting debut in a bit part in the original 1996 London production of the musical Martin Guerre.  He began getting small film and television roles in the late nineties and landed his first major role on the British series Fat Friends, which ran from 2000-05.  He and actress Ruth Jones then created the British comedy series Gavin & Stacey; they were the show’s writers and also played major supporting characters.
In 2010 Corden became the host of the panel game show A League of Their Own, which he continues in to this day.  He also currently hosts the latest version of The Late Late Show on CBS.  He has continued working on stage; he appeared in the original West End and Broadway productions of The History Boys, and then starred on both the West End and Broadway in Richard Bean’s One Man, Two Guvnors, winning a Tony Award for Best Lead Actor in a Play for the Broadway production.  He reprised his role of Timms in the film adaptation of The History Boys, and more recently starred as The Baker in the film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-1DIQt-Qi8
Tori Amos celebrates her 54th birthday today.  She displayed a gift for music at an early age—she was admitted to the preparatory school of the Peabody Conservatory when she was just five.  She began composing and making demo tapes while in her teens, and signed a contract with Atlantic in the mid-eighties.  Her first album was a failure, but she found her voice at the beginning of the 1990s with an EP record, Me and a Gun, and her second studio album, Little Earthquakes.
Amos is generally classified as an alternative/indie rock musician, but her music incorporates a variety of styles, including some classical influences, a product of her Peabody training.  She has made over a dozen studio albums, plus some live albums and compilations, and been nominated for eight Grammys.

Mark Williams, known to many for playing Arthur Weasley in the Harry Potter films, is 58.  He also stars as the title character of the BBC’s Father Brown, adapted from G. K. Chesterton’s stories.  Colm Feore, who turns 59, is a veteran of the Stratford Festival of Canada, and has a long film and television resume that includes Face/Off, Bon Cop, Bad Cop, Trudeau, The Borgias, and House of CardsAndrew Wilson, who is 53, has been involved in a lot of projects that featured his younger brothers Owen and Luke.  Jennifer Finnigan, who won three consecutive Daytime Emmys as Bridget Forrester on The Bold and the Beautiful, is 38.  She currently stars on CBS’s SalvationIsrael Broussard is celebrating his 23rd; he has had major roles in films like The Bling Ring, H8RZ, and Good Kids.
Retired tennis star Mats Wilander is 53; he won seven Grand Slam singles titles during his career and was the year-end #1 player in the world in 1988.  Bill Parcells is 76; he is in the Football Hall of Fame as a coach, primarily for leading the New York Giants to victory in two Super Bowls.
Novelist Annie Proulx turns 82 today.  She is the author of several novels, including The Shipping News, a Pulitzer Prize winner, and of a number of short stories, including “Brokeback Mountain,” which was the source of the film of the same title.
Country singer Collin Raye is 57 today.  He released his first solo album, All I Can Be, in 1991.  He was extremely successful in the 1990s, with a long string of Top Ten hits on the Country charts, including four which reached #1.  However, he has had relatively little success since leaving Epic Records at the beginning of the 2000s.
Leni Riefenstahl (1902-2003) was a German actress who moved into directing in the late 1920s.  She might be remembered as a pioneer for this, or for her undoubted technical gifts as a filmmaker, but everything she did will always be overshadowed by the documentary/propaganda films she made in the Nazi years, in particular Triumph des Willens/Triumph of the Will, a glorification of the Nazi regime.
The headliners from August 22 last year were Kristen Wiig and Ty Burrell.
Kristen Wiig, who is 44, was the “winner” of a Razzie for Zoolander 2; to offset that she is currently an Emmy nominee as Outstanding Guest Actress on Saturday Night Live.  She starred in last fall’s Masterminds and will star with Matt Damon in the upcoming film Downsizing, which premieres at the end of the month at Venice.  Ty Burrell is turning 50.  He continues to star as Phil Dunphy on Modern Family, and had a supporting part in the recent release Rough Night.
Richard Armitage celebrates his 46th.  He currently stars on the Epix series Berlin Station, created by espionage novelist Olen Steinhauer, and also was featured in the medieval thriller Pilgrimage, which screened at Tribeca earlier this year.  Cindy Williams turns 70; she was last seen in the TV movie A Dream of Christmas.  Also 46 today is Rick Yune, who appeared in 6 of the 9 episodes of the revived Prison BreakAdewale Akinnouye-Agbaje will star on ABC’s upcoming Ten Days in the Valley; he is 50 today.  Rodrigo Santoro turns 42; he is a regular on Westworld as Hector Escaton.
If today is your birthday, congratulations on sharing your big day with these notable names.  Birthday wishes to everyone celebrating a big day today.  Come back tomorrow for more celebrity birthdays.

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jeffthewildman
6 years ago
Reply to  jestak2

Agreed on Tori. Her first two albums are superb. Although she never crossed over to the mainstream, she found a niche for herself as was common in that era. Today, it’s harder in some ways to do that.

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