Category Archive: Entertainer

Nov 26

November 26: Charles M. Schulz

snoopdog

Charles M. Schulz (1922) It was on this date, November 26, 1922, that the creator of Snoopy, Lucy, Charlie Brown and the other characters of the “Peanuts” comics world, cartoonist Charles M. Schulz, was born in St. Paul Minnesota. There is little dispute that Schulz, or “Sparky,” as his friends called him, started out his …

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Permanent link to this article: http://freethoughtalmanac.com/?p=4099

Nov 10

November 10: Richard Burton

Richard Burton

Richard Burton (1925) It was on this date, November 10, 1925, that Welsh actor Richard Burton was born Richard Walter Jenkins Jr. in Pontrydyfen, the twelfth of thirteen children, born to a hard-drinking miner. He took his stage and screen name from a schoolmaster who helped him enter Oxford, Philip Burton, and studied acting there. …

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Permanent link to this article: http://freethoughtalmanac.com/?p=3884

Nov 06

November 6: Griff Rhys-Jones

Griff Rhys-Jones

Griff Rhys-Jones (1953) It was also on this date, November 6, 1953, that British comedian Griff Rhys-Jones was born in Cardiff, Wales. A partner and foil of Mel Smith, at one time Rhys-Jones had the distinction of being the richest comedian in British comedy. He is also one of the best educated: he attended Cambridge …

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Permanent link to this article: http://freethoughtalmanac.com/?p=3834

Nov 06

November 6: Greg Graffin

Greg Graffin

Greg Graffin (1965) It was on this date, November 6, 1965, that the lead singer for punk rock group Bad Religion, and a Ph.D. in Paleoanthropology from Cornell University, Greg Graffin, was born in Madison, Wisconsin. Aside from being co-founder of his own punk-rock group, Graffin is considered one of the five leading bone tissue …

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Permanent link to this article: http://freethoughtalmanac.com/?p=3819

Nov 03

November 3: Ludovic Kennedy

Ludovic Kennedy

Sir Ludovic Kennedy (1919) It was on this date, November 3, 1919, that British writer and broadcaster Ludovic Henry Coverley Kennedy was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. Ludovic Kennedy, the son of a sea captain who died in battle, saw action himself in World War II in the Royal Navy, then embarked on a successful career …

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Permanent link to this article: http://freethoughtalmanac.com/?p=3761

Nov 02

November 2: Burt Lancaster

Burt Lancaster

Burt Lancaster (1913) It was on this date, November 2, 1913, that American actor Burt Lancaster was born Burton Stephen Lancaster, one of five children, in New York City. Lancaster had a tough life on the streets of New York and attended a Protestant church. There he was strongly influenced by its pastor and the …

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Permanent link to this article: http://freethoughtalmanac.com/?p=3757

Nov 01

November 1: Larry Flynt

Larry Flynt

Larry Flynt (1942) It was on this date, November 1, 1942, that magazine publisher Larry Claxton Flynt was born in Salyersville, Kentucky. The publisher of around twenty sex magazines, Larry Flynt is known equally well for the most famous of them, the ground-breaking Hustler, and for his brushes with obscenity law. Flynt grew up poor …

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Permanent link to this article: http://freethoughtalmanac.com/?p=3748

Oct 13

October 13: Lenny Bruce

Lenny Bruce

Lenny Bruce (1925) It was on this date, October 13, 1925, that American comedian Lenny Bruce was born Leonard Alfred Schneider on Long Island, New York. As the name might suggest, Bruce grew up a tough Jewish kid who expressed his ethnicity with humor. “You and I know what a Jew is,” he said. “One …

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Permanent link to this article: http://freethoughtalmanac.com/?p=3638

Oct 09

October 9: Imagining John Lennon

John Lennon

John Lennon (1940) It was on this date, October 9, 1940, that John Winston Lennon was born in Liverpool, England. John Lennon had working-class roots, but went to art school and loved popular music. Having gotten together with songwriting collaborator Paul McCartney, who introduced Lennon to George Harrison, and a drummer to be named later …

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Permanent link to this article: http://freethoughtalmanac.com/?p=3513

Oct 03

October 3: Gore Vidal

Gore Vidal

Gore Vidal (1925) It was on this date, October 3, 1925, that American writer Gore (Eugene Luther) Vidal Jr was born in West Point, New York, where his father was an instructor at the military academy. He grew up near Washington, DC, in the house of his blind grandfather, the populist Democrat, Senator Thomas Pryor …

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Permanent link to this article: http://freethoughtalmanac.com/?p=3422

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