Michael Vartan, Bruce Lee1940 Bruce Lee Chinese American trailblazer, 70s icon, legend. Without him, whose to say how long it would have taken martial arts films to gain as much international popularity? Without him, no Uma Thurman in a yellow track suit.
1951 Kathryn Bigelow director, action fan. An Oscar nominee in about 2 months and a week.
1956 William Fichtner actor
1957 Callie Khouri, screenwriter. She'll always have Thelma & Louise
1957 Kevin O'Connell, the most nominated never-winning Oscar anything. He's been nominated 20 times (!) for his sound work. He has only his Emmy and lucrative blockbuster heavy career to comfort him. His next project is the Gyllenhaal action flick Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. [editor's note: You may recall that the second podcast ever here at TFE was an interview with his then working partner Greg P Russell whose own Oscar tally totals 12 nominations without a win.]
1963 Fisher Stevens, Michelle Pfeiffer's boyfriend during her Catwoman years
1968 Michael Vartan, French-American actor (Alias)
1978 Unax Ugalde, Spanish hottie... seduced Julianne Moore's son in Savage Grace and played the young version of Javier Bardem in Love in the Time of Cholera. Co-stars soon in Roland Joffe's There Be Dragons.
1985 Alison Pill, actress of stage (Oleanna) and screen (Milk)
Finally, Tadanobu Asano, hip Japanese actor turns 36 years old today. He recently starred in the Oscar nominated Mongol but that's just one in a series of lauded films he's made this decade. He was also featured in Ichi the Killer, Zatoichi and two films for acclaimed Thai director Pen-Ek Ratanaruang The Invisible Waves and Last Life in the Universe. His face will become even more familiar to international auds in two years time. He's joined the star heavy cast of Kenneth Branagh's Thor (2011). He'll play "Hogun" one of the Warriors Three. The warriors (two) will be played by Ray Stevenson and Stuart Townsend Theron.
