Birthdays are always special even if you’re the sort who claims “it’s just another day.” While you’re getting ready for that (not-so) “surprise party” your friends have planned, you might want to quickly give yourself another ego boost: check out these icons you share your birthday with!
Isn’t it a great feeling to be sharing your special day with these remarkably talented people?
Will Smith
If you are a 90s kid, you must have heard the chart-topping 1998 number "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It" by American actor and rapper Will Smith, which was a part of his debut solo album Big Willie Style (1997). Born on this day in 1968, Smith has won four Grammy Awards and has five Golden Globe and two Oscar nominations to his name.
Smith’s solo music career took off with the release of the first Men in Black film in 1997, for which he rapped the theme song.
The song won Smith a Grammy for “best rap solo performance”.
As a Hollywood actor, Will Smith is remembered for his stellar performances in films like Ali (2001) as the eponymous hero in the biopic on boxer Muhammad Ali, as stockbroker Chris Gardner in The Pursuit of Happyness (2006), and as Agent J in Men in Black.
Bishan Singh Bedi
Former Indian cricketer Bishan Singh Bedi was part of the Test cricket team for India from 1966 to 1979 and is known for his slow left-arm bowling prowess. Bedi started his career in cricket at the age of thirteen, and represented Northern Punjab in a domestic cricket match at fifteen.
He is remembered for taking a record 64 wickets in the 1974–75 season of the Ranji Trophy.
Among his successful Test series are India vs Australia 1969–70 and India vs England 1972–73.
Catherine Zeta-Jones
Catherine Zeta-Jones’ career in acting began at a young age, when she performed as a child actor in the West End productions of the musicals Annie and Bugsy Malone. The actress, who is 48 years old today, grew up in Swansea, a city in the south of Wales, and later attended the renowned Arts Educational Schools in London.
She made her mark in Hollywood in the role of a murderous singer in the 2002 musical Chicago.
Since then, she has gone on to win several awards including an Oscar, a British Academy Film Award and a Tony Award.
Married to famous Hollywood actor-producer Michael Douglas, who shares her birthday, Zeta-Jones is known for her roles in films like Mask of Zorro (1998) and Ocean’s Twelve (2004).
Michael Douglas
Michael Douglas established himself as a force to be reckoned with when his 1975 production One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, won the Oscar for Best Picture. Apart from his career as a Hollywood producer, Douglas is also an ace actor, and his performances in films like Fatal Attraction (1987), Black Rain (1989), Basic Instinct (1992), The American President (1995) are memorable.
His Hollywood career aside, Douglas is also known for being a political activist and humanitarian.
Satish Dhawan
Born in 1920 in Srinagar, the Indian aerospace engineer is popularly known as the father of ‘experimental fluid dynamics research’. As the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in 1972, Dhawan took India’s space programme to new heights with his contributions in the field of turbulence and boundary layers.
He also pioneered operations like INSAT, a telecommunications satellite; IRS, the Indian Remote Sensing satellite; and the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).
The satellite launch centre at Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh was renamed ‘Satish Dhawan Space Centre’ in his memory after his death in 2002.
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