Happy Birthday Lloyd Bridges

It's also Martin Luther King Jr's birthday, but it's never "observed" on the actual date, anyway. Unless it happens to fall on the third Monday of January, commonly known as National "Why is the post office closed?" Day.

Besides, I was more interested in the fact that 2 deceased actors who starred in the great Airplane! share a birthday in the same week. Father of Beau and Jeff Briges, Lloyd passed away in 1998 and would have turned 96 today. Here's a short clip of his running gag from said movie.

Happy Birthday LL Cool J

Happy Belated 75th, Bart Starr

This evening I was strumming through the website for the newspaper from my hometown of Appleton, WI. I killed almost too much time looking through a huge archive of pretty neat historic photos of Appleton, in celebration of the city's 150th anniversary. There was a whole section on Bart Starr, legendary quarterback of the Green Bay Packers, the man responsible for their wins at Super Bowls I and II. This is where I noticed that he had a birthday LAST FRIDAY, and I had no idea! The couple sources I've been using for famous birthdays did not list Bart Starr anywhere. How shameful.

Had I known this, I wouldn't have drawn Richard Nixon. And it's interesting they share a birthday, because among the photos I found was THIS:


FUN FACT: Bart Starr was the first famous person I ever met (as far as I recall). It was on my 7th or 8th birthday. Pretty cool.

ALSO, when the first George Bush made a stop in Appleton during his presidency, he visited a print company that produced sports cards. During his speech, he was naming off various sports legends on the cards, and I remember seeing him on the news saying, "...and of course, here we have the legendary Bart Staff." Schmuck.

Happy Birthday Robert Stack

Robert Stack died in 2003 and would have turned 90 today. I went through the trouble of coloring everything in, but once I converted it to black and white in Photoshop, I was a little more pleased.

Robert Stack starred in several older films I have never seen, but I will always remember him as the host of Unsolved Mysteries. I was in love with that show throughout elementary school and would watch it every Wednesday night. They were all based on true stories, covering everything from murders, kidnappings and the missing; to ghost stories, UFOs, bigfoot, etc. Kind of a non-fiction version of X-Files.

I will also remember him for his great role in Airplane!. Here's a scene where he narrowly escapes an army of soliciting missionaries.

Happy 54th, Kirstie Alley

generic fat joke = funny

Honorable Mentions:

Rob Zombie turns 43
Howard Stern turns 55
Rush "Fathead Pill Popper" Limbaugh is 58

Happy Birthday Naomi Judd

This is kind of a boring subject. I know nothing about her other than she is the mother of 2 other famous Judds and she turns 63 today. It was a toss up between her and Mary J. Blige. But that's part of the birthday challenge. There's no guarantee that each day will offer me a fun subject, while other days might have TOO many good ones to pick from (like tomorrow!).

Happy Birthday George Foreman (60) and Rod Stewart (64)!

The whole punching the tooth out idea was a complete afterthought. I know I should have tilted Rod's head and made his mouth and facial muscles more crooked to better sell the gag. That's what I get for being a wuss and being too comfortable with the likeness in the sketch phase and unwilling to erase.

Happy Birthday Richard Nixon

He would have been 96 and eating cake today.

Happy Birthday David Bowie (62), Stephen Hawking (67) and Elvis Presley (74)!!

I toyed with the idea of birthday cake sharing, balloons and hats, but I'm pretty sure this juxtaposition is interesting enough without the help of any gags.

I'm having a few issues with proportions and an over all claustrophobic feeling (mainly because I was trying to cram this on an 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper), but that can all be fixed if and when I turn this into a full blown painting (and I think I might like to).

Happy 45th, Nicolas Cage

A big fan of Elvis in real life, he also plays one in Wild at Heart. In 2001 Cage got the best Elvis souvenir a fan could possibly ask for. A short marriage to Lisa Marie, making him Elvis Presley's son-in-law.

So here he is from his role in Wild at Heart as Sailor Ripley, in his snakeskin jacket. "This here jacket represents a symbol of my individuality, and my belief in personal freedom."