Top 10 February 22 Birthdays

Somewhat Honorable Mention: February 22, 1403: King Charles VII of France. He owed his crown to 2 people: Joan of Arc, who turned the Hundred Years' War around, and whom he later abandoned; and King Henry VI of England, his incompetent opponent.

Honorable Mention: February 22, 1918: Robert Wadlow. An overactive pituitary gland made him the tallest human being ever measured. By his 22nd birthday in 1940, he was 8 feet, 11 1/2 inches tall, and 439 pounds (but still looked skinny), and showed no signs of having stopped growing. Unfortunately, his huge size made walking difficult, and he had to wear braces, which led to an infection. Antibiotics were still a few years away, and he died.

Honorable Mention: February 22, 1918: Don Pardo. He first worked for NBC in 1938. He last worked for them in 2014, just before his death. He was the announcer for Saturday Night Live from 1975 until 2014. On a 1998 episode, there was a flash-forward to the year 2011, when he was replaced by "Robot Don Pardo." Turned out, he was still at it by then.

10. February 22, 1927: Guy Mitchell. A major pop singer of the 1950s.

Honorable Mention: February 22, 1930: Marni Nixon. You might not know her name or her face, but you know her voice. She sang Marilyn Monroe's songs in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Deborah Kerr's songs in The King and I and An Affair to Remember, Natalie Wood's songs in West Side Story, and Audrey Hepburn's songs in My Fair Lady.

Honorable Mention: February 22, 1933: Ernie K-Doe. He's known for only 1 song, but it was a Number 1 hit: "Mother-in-Law" in 1961.

Honorable Mention: February 22, 1971: Lea Salonga. An unofficial Broadway legend, and an official Disney Legend.

Honorable Mention: February 22, 1974: James Blunt. You couldn't get away from his Number 1 hit "You're Beautiful" in 2006 -- no matter how hard you tried. And what was with that video?

9. February 22, 1857: Robert Baden-Powell. Founder of the Scout Association, which oversees the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts.

8. February 22, 1874: Bill Klem. He was a National League umpire from 1905 to 1941, and worked at a record 18 World Series, and at the 1st Major League Baseball All-Star Game in 1933. In 1953, 2 years after his death, he and Tom Connolly of the American League were the 1st umpire in each League to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

7. February 22, 1819: James Russell Lowell. Part of Massachusetts' legendary Lowell family, he was the leading poet of the Abolitionist movement before the American Civil War. He later served as U.S. Ambassador to Spain, and then to Britain.

Honorable Mention: February 22, 1892: Edna St. Vincent Millay. In 1923, she became the 1st woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry.

6. February 22, 1934: Sparky Anderson. He was the 1st manager to lead teams in each League to win the World Series: The 1975 and 1976 Cincinnati Reds, and the 1984 Detroit Tigers.

Honorable Mention: February 22, 1915: Gus Lesnevich. Light Heavyweight Champion of the World from 1941 to 1948.

Honorable Mention: February 22, 1918: Sid Abel. He helped the Detroit Red Wings win the Stanley Cup in 1943, then served as the center on the "Production Line," with Gordie Howe on the right and Ted Lindsay on the left, winning the Cup again in 1950 and 1952. He then retired (with Alex Delvecchio taking over as the center on the Line), served as head coach for 4 different NHL teams, including the Wings, and as a longtime broadcaster for them. He was named to the NHL's 100th Anniversary 100 Greatest Players in 2017.

Honorable Mention: February 22, 1933: Bobby Smith. The forward was the leading scorer for the North London-based Tottenham Hotspur team that won the English Football League and the FA Cup in 1961, the 1st team in the 20th Century to win that "Double."

Honorable Mention: February 22, 1947: John Radford. The forward starred on the North London-based Arsenal team that won the Football League and FA Cup "Double" in 1971. In the 1971 FA Cup Final, he provided the assists on both of Arsenal's goals, by Eddie Kelly and Charlie George.

Honorable Mention: February 22, 1969: Brian Laudrup. A winger, he helped Brøndby win Denmark's league in 1987 and '88, AC Milan win Italy's Serie A and the UEFA Champions League in 1994, and Glasgow's Rangers the Scottish Premier Division in 1995, '96 and '97. He starred for the Denmark team that won an upset victory at Euro 92. His brother Michael Laudrup was an even better player.

Honorable Mention: February 22, 1972: Michael Chang. He won the French Open when he was only 17. He played another 14 years, and went 0-2 in major Finals.

5. February 22, 1975: Drew Barrymore. We first saw her as a kid in E.T., watched her through her rebellious teenager phase, and saw her grow into an actor worthy of the family name. She now hosts a talk show.

Honorable Mention: February 22, 1900: Luis Buñuel. Mexican poet Octavio Paz called the Spanish director's films "the marriage of the film image to the poetic image, creating a new reality...scandalous and subversive." American director John Huston said, "Regardless of genre, a Buñuel film is so distinctive as to be instantly recognizable."

Honorable Mention: February 22, 1907: Robert Young. He starred on Father Knows Best and Marcus Welby, M.D., and was the longtime spokesman for Sanka coffee.

Honorable Mention: February 22, 1928: Bruce Forsyth. According to The Guinness Book of World Records, he had the longest career of any male entertainer in the world. Essentially, he was Britain's Dick Clark.

Honorable Mention: February 22, 1944: Jonathan Demme. He directed Melvin and Howard, Swing Shift, Something Wild, Married to the Mob, Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia and Rachel Getting Married.

Honorable Mention: February 22, 1959: Kyle MacLachlan. Best known as the star of Twin Peaks. In 1991, he played Ray Manzarek, the band's keyboard player, in Oliver Stone's film The Doors. The real Manzarek ripped that film, saying it was full of lies, but still praised MacLachlan's performance as him.

Honorable Mention: February 22, 1968: Jeri Ryan. Her casting as Seven of Nine saved Star Trek: Voyager. She managed to rise above the catsuit and make her an interesting character. The character's return may have saved Star Trek: Picard as well.

4. February 22, 1962: Steve Irwin. Aw, crikey, he was mocked and parodied a lot, but for his efforts at wildlife conservation, and his advocacy for his homeland of Australia, he was no joke.

3. February 22, 1932: Ted Kennedy. He started out as the least-regarded of the brothers, and had his share of rough moments. But he became the greatest U.S. Senator of the 20th Century.

Honorable Mention: February 22, 1955: David Axelrod. He ran both of Barack Obama's successful Presidential campaigns.

Somewhat Honorable Mention: February 22, 1952: Bill Frist. A heart surgeon, he served as a U.S. Senator from Tennessee from 1995 to 2007, and as Senate Majority Leader from 2003 to 2007. He wasn't as nasty as Bob Dole, he wasn't as racist as Trent Lott, and he wasn't as obstructive of Mitch McConnell. But he was still a Southern Republican.

2. February 22, 1950: Julius Erving. A forward, "Doctor J" broke the Long Island single-game high school basketball scoring record previously held by Carl Yastrzemski and Jim Brown. Unlike them, he stuck with basketball.

After starring at the University of Massachusetts, he led the New York Nets to the 1974 and 1976 ABA Championships, thrilling fans with his dunks. He took the Philadelphia 76ers to 4 NBA Finals, finally winning the Championship in 1983. He proved that Philly fans can appreciate a stylish athlete, a "pretty boy," as long as he's also tough. He had a statue outside the Sixers' arena even before Wilt Chamberlain did.

Honorable Mention: February 22, 1940: Chet Walker. A forward, "Chet the Jet" led Bradley University to the 1960 NIT title, and started on the Philadelphia 76ers' 1967 NBA Champions.

Honorable Mention: February 22, 1940: Dick Van Arsdale. A 3-time NBA All-Star, the guard helped the Phoenix Suns reach the 1976 NBA Finals.

Honorable Mention: February 22, 1940: Tom Van Arsdale. Dick's twin brother, and teammate at Indiana University, he was also a 3-time All-Star, with the Cincinnati Royals. The brothers were reunited on the Suns for the 1976-77 season, after which they retired.

Somewhat Honorable Mention: February 22, 1968: Jayson Williams. A high school basketball star in Queens, the center became an All-American at St. John's University, and an NBA All-Star with the New Jersey Nets in 1998. But his career came to an end with an awful injury the next season.

In 2002, he accidentally killed a man while demonstrating a shotgun at a party at his house. After 8 years of legal proceedings, he finally pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, and served 2 years in prison.

Honorable Mention: February 22, 1986: Rajon Rondo. A guard, he is a 4-time NBA All-Star, a 3-time NBA assists leader, and holds the NBA record for most time between Championships, winning with the 2008 Boston Celtics and the 2020 Los Angeles Lakers. He now plays for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

1. February 22, 1732: George Washington. Because he was born in the British Empire before it switched to the Gregorian Calendar, he considered his birthdate to be February 11, 1731. To the end of his life, on December 14, 1799, he celebrated his birthday on February 11. We now celebrate it as Presidents Day on the 3rd Monday in February.

Still alive as of this writing: Salonga, Blunt, Radford, Laudrup, Chang, Barrymore, MacLachlan, Ryan, Axelrod, Frist, Erving, Walker, both Van Arsdale twins, Williams, Rondo.