Top February 17 Birthdays

 

Honorable Mention: February 17, 1924: Margaret Truman Daniel. The only child of President Harry Truman, she wanted to be an opera singer. A scathing review of a 1950 concert in The Washington Post led to a nasty response from her father. Fortunately, she found something she was very good at: Writing murder mystery novels set in Washington, D.C.

Somewhat Honorable Mention: February 17, 1981: Paris Hilton. Just because she's frequently self-centered doesn't mean she's a rotten person. And she's gotten pretty far on what little talent she has.

10. February 17, 1929: Chaim Potok. A rabbi who proved equally adept at writing history and novels, both about how Jewish people fit into both their own world and the larger world around them.

9. February 17, 1942: Huey P. Newton. One of the most misunderstood Americans of the late 20th Century, as co-founder of the Black Panther Party, he started support programs including food banks, clothing banks, medical clinics, sickle-cell anemia tests, legal advice seminars, housing cooperatives, bus service for family members of prisoners, and, foreseeing the Public Enemy song "911 Is a Joke," a private ambulance service.

8. February 17, 1937: Mary Ann Mobley. The actress was one of the few Miss Americas who remained memorable once she left Atlantic City.

7. February 17, 1843: Aaron Montgomery Ward. He founded the Montgomery Ward department store chain and, more importantly, the mail-order business that allowed people far from big cities to order department-store items from "the Monkey Ward catalog." As far as I can tell, he was not closely related to baseball pioneer John Montgomery Ward.

6. February 17, 1920: Curt Swan. He first drew Superman for DC Comics in 1948, and last in 1986. Nobody has ever drawn the character better.

5. February 17, 1874: Thomas J. Watson. He ran IBM from 1914 until his death in 1956, and made it one of the world's biggest companies. And yet, it is usually argued that his son, Thomas Jr., surpassed him.

4. February 17, 1925: Hal Holbrook. Given how old Samuel Clemens was when he adopted the identity, it can be argued that Hal Holbrook "played Mark Twain" longer than Clemens did. And it got to the point where he didn't need makeup to play Twain, either.

It's also interesting that when "Deep Throat" was finally revealed to be Mark Felt, he did look a bit like Holbrook did when he played that character in the shadows in All the President's Men. He also played Abe Lincoln (3 times), 2 fictional Presidents, and a lot of fictional Senators.

Honorable Mention: February 17, 1929: Patricia Routledge. Maybe one day, Hetty Wainthropp will have to investigate the murder of That Bucket Woman. "Boo-kay!"

Honorable Mention: February 17, 1954: Rene Russo. If she could be Jake Taylor's girlfriend and Martin Riggs' wife, being Thor's mother was going to be a piece of cake.

Honorable Mention: February 17, 1962: Lou Diamond Phillips. He’s played Emilio Aguinaldo, Ritchie Valens, “Night Stalker” Richard Ramirez, and lots of cops.

Honorable Mention: February 17, 1970: Dominic Purcell. He played a wrongly convicted man on Prison Break, and a supervillain-turned-time-traveling-hero in the Arrowverse.

Honorable Mention: February 17, 1971: Denise Richards. A Bond Girl? I'll buy it. A nuclear physicist? Sorry, I ain't buying that. But she did both at once.

Honorable Mention: February 17, 1974: Jerry O'Connell. He's played kids, cops, scientific geniuses, and now, a Starfleet officer.

Honorable Mention: February 17, 1981: Joseph Gordon-Levitt. He's played Robert Todd Lincoln, Jiminy Cricket, Batman's Robin (sort of), Philippe Petit, Edward Snowden, a young Bruce Willis (sort of), and a an elderly alien pretending to be a teenage human.

Honorable Mention: February 17, 1989: Chord Overstreet. He played Sam Evans on Glee. Maybe I should make that "Somewhat Honorable Mention."

3. February 17, 1941: Gene Pitney. He wrote, but didn't sing, "Rubber Ball," "Hello, Mary Lou" and "He's a Rebel." He sang, but didn't write, "A Town Without Pity," "(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Valance," "Twenty Four Hours from Tulsa," "I'm Gonna Be Strong," "It Hurts to Be In Love," and a great cover of "The Great Pretender." He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame within his lifetime.

Honorable Mention: February 17, 1972: Billie Joe Armstrong. The lead singer of Green Bay.

Honorable Mention: February 17, 1991: Ed Sheeran. Well, the kids like him.

2. February 17, 1963: Michael Jordan. Mike Tyson was born in the same hospital in Brooklyn 3 years later, but while he stayed, Jordan grew up in Wilmington, North Carolina. Let the record show that he was never, ever the greatest basketball player of all time: Wilt Chamberlain was, and remains. And I don't care if Jordan takes that personally.

Honorable Mention: February 17, 1893: Wally Pipp. He deserves to be remembered as more than the guy whose headache made possible the baseball career of Lou Gehrig. (For one thing, that's not why he was replaced: He was replaced because he wasn't hitting.) He led the American League in home runs in 1916 and 1917, and helped the Yankees win the 1921 and 1922 American League Pennants, and the 1923 World Series.

Honorable Mention: February 17, 1930: Roger Craig. He helped the Dodgers win the World Series in Brooklyn in 1955 and Los Angeles in 1959. He was also an original New York Met in 1962. He was the pitching coach for the Detroit Tigers' 1984 World Champions, and managed the San Francisco Giants to the 1989 National League Pennant.

Honorable Mention: February 17, 1959: Rowdy Gaines. The swimmer won 3 Gold Medals at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

Honorable Mention: February 17, 1960: Lindy Ruff. Yes, "Lindy" is his real name, not a nickname or a shortening of anything else. The defenseman played 13 seasons in the NHL, for the Buffalo Sabres and the New York Rangers. He coached the Sabres into the 1999 Stanley Cup Finals, and is now the head coach of the New Jersey Devils.

Honorable Mention: February 17, 1996: Luc Robitaille. The left wing played in 8 NHL All-Star Games, scored 668 goals, reached the Stanley Cup Finals with the 1993 Los Angeles Kings, and won the Cup with the 2002 Detroit Red Wings.

1. February 17, 1936: Jim Brown. If there is any doubt that the man often called the greatest football player ever ranks higher than the man often called the greatest basketball player ever, include their acting careers: Jim Brown was in several movies better than Space Jam.

Still alive as of this writing: Hilton, Routledge, Russo, Phillips, Purcell, Richards, O'Connell, Gordon-Levitt, Overstreet, Armstrong, Sheeran, Jordan, Craig, Gaines, Ruff, Robitaille, Brown.