8 January 2015

Birthdays
Freddie Stroma b. 1987 (Extra Terrestrial, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince)
Haruka Abe b. 1985 (47 Ronin)
Christopher Russell b. 1983 (iZombie, Beauty and the Beast [2013], Lost Girl, Supernatural, Bionic Woman, Land of the Dead)
Genevieve Cortese Padalecki b. 1981 (FlashForward, Supernatural, Stephen King’s Dead Zone)
Rachel Nichols b. 1980 (Witches of East End, Continuum, Conan the Barbarian [2011], Star Trek [2009], G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Them [2007], The Amityville Horror [2005])
Sam Riley b. 1980 (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Maleficent, Byzantium)
Sarah Polley b. 1979 (Splice, Mr. Nobody, Dawn of the Dead, eXistenZ, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen)
Amber Benson b. 1977 (Morganville: The Series, Futurestates, Supernatural, Gryphon, Buffy)
Ryan Francis b. 1977 (Poltergeist: The Legacy, Buffy, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Hook, The Stepford Children)
Ron Pederson b. 1977 (Vampire Dog)
Jenny Lewis b. 1976 (Pleasantville, The Charmings, Twilight Zone [1985] )
Matt Bushell b. 1974 (True Blood, Twilight, Heroes, Angel)
Eric Scott Woods b. 1967 (Sand Sharks, Immortal Island, Dark Metropolis, Jonah Hex, Charmed, Quantum Leap)
Maria Pitillo b. 1966 (Godzilla [1998])
Michelle Forbes b. 1965 (The Hunger Games: Mocking Jay – Part 2, Orphan Black, Powers, True Blood, Lost, Battlestar Galactica, Global Frequency, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Escape from L.A. )
Harriet Sansom Harris b. 1955 (The Lost Room, Millennium, Space: Above and Beyond, The X Files, Addams Family Values)
Thomas G. Waites b. 1955 (Buffy, Sliders, Clan of the Cave Bear, The Thing [1982])
Damian Alcazar b. 1953 (The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian)
Dan Woren b. 1952 (NightMan, Star Trek: First Contact, Babylon 5, The Invisible Woman)
John McTiernan b. 1951 (director, Rollerball [2002], Last Action Hero, Predator)
David Bowie b. 1947 (The Prestige, The Hunger [movie and TV], Labyrinth, The Man Who Fell to Earth)
Terry Brooks b. 1944 (Shannara series)
Yvette Mimieux b. 1942 (The Black Hole, Snowbeast, The Neptune Factor, The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm, The Time Machine )
Joan Freeman b. 1942 (Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, Death Moon, Project U.F.O., Land of the Giants, The Outer Limits, Panic in the Year Zero!)
Boris Vallejo b. 1941 (graphic artist)
Graham Chapman b. 1941 died 4 October 1989 (Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Life of Brian)
Roy Kinnear b. 1934 died 20 September 1988 (The Ray Bradbury Theatre, Cinderella: The Shoe Must Go On, Blakes 7, One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland[1972], Scrooge, Taste the Blood of Dracula)
Kerwin Mathews b. 1926 died 5 July 2007 (Nightmare in Blood , The Boy who Cried Werewolf, Octaman, Battle Beneath the Earth, Jack the Giant Killer , The 3 Worlds of Gulliver, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Space Patrol)
Ron Moody b. 1924 (A Kid in King Arthur’s Court, Into the Labyrinth, Unidentified Flying Oddball, Legend of the Werewolf, Alice Through the Looking Box)
Larry Storch b. 1923 (Knight Rider, Small & Frye, The Ghost Busters [1975 TV], Kolchak: The Night Stalker, I Dream of Jeannie)
Madge Ryan b. 1919 died 9 January 1994 (A Clockwork Orange)
Jose Ferrer b. 1912 died 26 January 1992 (Dune, The Swarm, Dracula’s Dog, The Amazing Captain Nemo, Exo-Man, The Sentinel)
William Hartnell b. 1908 died 23 April 1975 (Doctor Who)
Barry MacKay b. 1906 died 12 December 1985 (The Atomic Man, A Christmas Carol)
Gene Roth b. 1903 died 19 July 1976 (Twilight Zone, Atlantis, the Lost Continent, Attack of the Giant Leeches, Earth vs. the Spider, She Demons, Zombies of Mora Tau, Red Planet Mars, Mysterious Island [1951])

Notes from the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. Last year, it was the lovely Yvette Mimieux from the 1960 version of The Time Machine. This year, it's Michelle Forbes as Ensign Ro Laren from Star Trek: The Next Generation, the cute girl with the crinkle cut fry on the bridge of her nose. While the list is short on A-list movie stars, there are plenty of folks with iconic roles in genre, including the First Doctor William Hartnell, as Jose Ferrer in Dune, Kerwin Mathews from several Ray Harryhausen films and Amber Benson from Buffy.

2. Three Canadians, none very typical. It would be hard to spot our Canadians today. There are three folks who show up on Supernatural and only Christopher Russell was born in the Great White North. Today's The other Canadians are Sarah Polley, who does more film work than TV, Ron Pedersen with only one role in genre so it's impossible to judge from his C.V.

3. Wait... they're alive? We have two actors in their nineties and it's been a long time since they worked, so I sort of lost track of them. Many happy returns to Ron Moody and Larry Storch. My bad guys, but I didn't know y'all were still around.

Many happy returns to all the living on the list and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.
 
Movies released
Daybreakers released 2010

Predictor: Daybreakers, released 8 January 2010

Prediction: In the year 2019, a plague transforms nearly all humans into vampires.

Reality: I suppose a vampire apocalypse is technically different from a zombie apocalypse, but it's pretty close. Richard Matheson's 1954 book I Am Legend is considered the progenitor of the genre and he called the monsters vampires, not zombies.
 

Never to be Forgotten: Khan Bonfils 1972(?)-2015

Khan Bonfils, an actor with martial arts training, died on January 5 while rehearsing in a play of Dante's Inferno in London. Looking online, no source gives a date of birth and his age at death is given as 42 or 44. His roles in genre include Batman Begins, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life and Star Wars: Episode I – I Still Can’t Bring Myself to Type the Title, Even in an Obituary.

Best wishes to the family and friends of Khan Bonfils, who died far too young. He is never to be forgotten.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

Back to 1902 with a prediction from H.G. Wells.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!


 

24 December 2014

Birthdays
Laura Aikman b. 1985 (The Hatching, Demons, Virtual Sexuality)
Michael Raymond-James b. 1977 (Once Upon a Time, The Walking Dead, True Blood)
Stephenie Meyer b. 1973 (writer, The Host, Twilight Saga)
Matt Passmore b. 1973 (Son of the Mask)
Carmen Moore b. 1972 (Supernatural, Battlestar Galactica, Caprica, Kyle XY, Stargate: Atlantis, Flash Gordon [TV], Journey to the Center of the Earth [2008 TV], Eureka, Smallville, Battlestar Galactica: The Resistance, The 4400, The Robinsons: Lost in Space, Andromeda, Seven Days, First Wave, Stargate SG-1)
Amuary Nolasco b. 1970 (Transformers, Early Edition)
Mark Millar b. 1969 (writer, Kick-Ass, Superman: Red Son, Wanted)
Diedrich Bader b. 1966 (The Starving Games, Vampires Suck, Evil Alien Conquerors, Quantum Leap, Star Trek: The Next Generation)
Mark Valley b. 1965 (Fringe, The 4400, Brimstone)
Wade Williams b. 1961 (Touch, The Dark Knight Rises, Astronauts, Star Trek: Enterprise, Buffy, Charmed, The X Files, Good vs Evil, What Planet Are You From?, Seven Days, Star Trek: Voyager, NightMan)
Scott Spiegel b. 1957 (Drag Me to Hell, Spider-Man 1 & 2, Darkman, Lionheart, Robot Ninja, The Dead Next Door, Evil Dead I and II)
Julius Tennon b. 1953 (Small Soldiers)
Timothy Carhart b. 1953 (Strange World, The X Files, Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Quantum Leap, The Manhattan Project, Ghostbusters)
Nicholas Meyer b. 1945 (director, Time After Time, Star Trek II, The Day After, Faerie Tale Theatre, Star Trek VI)
Sharon Farrell b. 1940 (Freddy’s Nightmares, Small & Frye, Man from Atlantis, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, The Six Million Dollar Man, It’s Alive, I Dream of Jeannie, My Favorite Martian)
Christiane Schmidtmer b. 1939 died 13 March 2003 (Wonder Woman, The Giant Spider Invasion)
Ava Gardner b. 1922 died 25 January 1990 (On the Beach, Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, One Touch of Venus)
Fritz Leiber b. 1910 died 5 September 1992 (won 1958 Hugo for The Big Time and 1965 Hugo for The Wanderer)
Michael Curtiz b. 1886 died 10 April 1962 (director, Doctor X)

Notes from the birthday list.
1. The Picture Slot. Last year I used Fritz Leiber, an important writer in the history of sci-fi. This year it's Ava Gardner, one of the great beauties in film history, pictured here from One Touch of Venus. Sci-fi and fantasy films were rare back in the day, especially big budget ones that would star someone of Ava Gardner's stature.

As for next year... we are not overflowing with actors in iconic roles here. I might well go with a poster from one of Nicholas Meyer's Star Trek movies.

2. Spot the Canadian! There are a few lists of credits here that have a certain whiff of Canadian origin, but only one with a full-bodied Canadian flavor. The answer will be in comments later today.

3. Fun facts to know and tell. I clicked on Ava Gardner's credits knowing she was in On the Beach and was a little surprised to find the other credits. But the real surprise was Michael Curtiz, an A-list director who directed all kinds of movies, from Casablanca with Humphrey Bogart to Jim Thorpe -- All-American with Burt Lancaster to King Creole with Elvis Presley. I didn't expect any genre movies in his credits, but the 1932 Doctor X is counted as sci-fi. I had no idea. 

4. The Gal at the Door. Sharon Farrell, a beautiful actress whose heyday was the 1960s and 1970s, is celebrating her 74th birthday today. Everyone older than she is dead and everyone younger is alive, so that makes her The Gal at the Door. As always, special wishes for long life to anyone on a birthday list in that situation.

Many happy returns to all the living on this, most especially to Sharon Farrell, and to the dead, thanks for all the memories.

 

 Predictor: What the Rats Brought by Ernest Favenc, published 1904 (collected in Steampunk Prime, edited by Mike Astley)

Prediction: Near Christmas of 1919, the steamship Niagara is found, apparently abandoned fifty miles from Sydney. There are three survivors, who ask to be returned to Australia, claiming a plague had taken the lives of the rest of the crew.

Reality: Spoiler alert... the survivors are vampires. I'm not exactly sure why a vampire story has to be set in the future, but this one was. Go figure.

Never to be Forgotten: Joseph Sargent 1924-2014

The prolific director Joseph Sargent died at the age of 90 last Monday the 22nd. His genre credits are Salem Witch Trials, Space, Tomorrow’s Child, Colossus: The Forbin Project, The Invaders and one episode of the original Star Trek series, The Corbomite Maneuver. Fans will remember this is one of the first times Kirk bluffed an enemy and that no one ever called Kirk's bluffs.

Best wishes to the family and friends of Joseph Sargent. He is never to be forgotten.

Looking one day ahead... INTO THE FUTURE!

It's that most wonderful time of the year for invasions of earth, according to Doctor Who.

Join us then... IN THE FUTURE!