Top 10 April 3 Birthdays

Honorable Mention: April 3, 1934: Jane Goodall. The world's foremost expert on chimpanzees and their behavior, and one of the world's most successful animal conservationists.

10. April 3, 1945: Bernie Parent. A 5-time NHL All-Star, in 1974 and 1975, he was the goaltender for the Philadelphia Flyers as they won the Stanley Cup. He was the biggest reason they won, as, in both seasons, he won the Vezina Trophy for best goaltender, and the Conn Smythe Trophy for Most Valuable Player of the Playoffs.

An eye injury ended his career in 1979, and he was the 1st Flyer elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame. To this day, they have never won the Cup without him in goal. In 1998, The Hockey News ranked him 63rd on their list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players.

Honorable Mention: April 3, 1898: David Jack. In 1923, playing for Manchester-area soccer team Bolton Wanderers in the FA Cup Final, he became the 1st player to score a goal at the original Wembley Stadium in London. Bolton won that game, and he also won the Cup in 1930, and the Football League title in 1931, 1933 and 1934, with North London team Arsenal.

He, 1960s star Jimmy Greaves of Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur, and 1990s star Alan Shearer of Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United, are the only players to score at least 100 first-division goals for two different English teams.

Honorable Mention: April 3, 1928: Earl Lloyd. Just before the 1950-51 season, the NBA had "3 Jackie Robinsons." Chuck Cooper of the Boston Celtics was the 1st black player drafted in the league, Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton of the New York Knicks was the 1st one signed to a contract, and, the way the schedule worked out, before either Cooper or Clifton could do so, Earl Lloyd of the Washington Capitols was the 1st one to get into a regular-season game.

A forward, he later helped the Syracuse Nationals win the 1955 NBA Championship, and was one of the earliest black head coaches in the NBA, with the 1971 Detroit Pistons. He was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in the "Contributor" category.

Somewhat Honorable Mention: April 3, 1911: Stella Walsh. Although she grew up under that name in Cleveland, she was born in Poland as Stanisława Walasiewicz, and competed for Poland in the Olympics. In 1932, in Los Angeles, she won the women's 100 meters. In 1936, in Berlin, she finished 2nd to American runner Helen Stephens.

Here is where it gets dicey. A Polish reporter tried to stand up for Stella by claiming that Stephens was really a man. Stephens submitted to an inspection by a female Olympic official, who determined that she was 100 percent female, and got to keep her Gold Medal.

Here is where the preceding gets ironic. In 1980, during a robbery in Cleveland, Stella Walsh was shot and killed. An autopsy revealed that she was, as we would say today, intersex. Her birth certificate listed her as female, and she identified as such throughout her life, including a brief marriage to a man. But it makes the 1936 controversy even more bizarre.

Honorable Mention: April 3, 1934: Jim Parker. Perhaps the greatest guard in football history, he helped Ohio State win the 1954 National Championship, and the Baltimore Colts win the 1958 and 1959 NFL Championships.

He made 8 Pro Bowls, and was named to the NFL's 75th and 100th Anniversary All-Time Teams. In 1999, The Sporting News listed him 24th on their list of the 100 Greatest Football Players. In 2010, the NFL Network listed him 32nd on their list of the 100 Greatest Players.

Honorable Mention: April 3, 1948: Hans-Georg Schwarzenbeck. A centreback, he helped Bayern Munich win 6 Bundesliga (German league) titles, and the European Cup (now the UEFA Champions League) in 1974, 1975 and 1976. He also helped West Germany win the 1974 World Cup.

Somewhat Honorable Mention: April 3, 1949: Lyle Alzado. One of the most fearsome defensive ends of his generation, he helped the Denver Broncos reach Super Bowl XII, and the Los Angeles Raiders win Super Bowl XVIII. He was a 2-time Pro Bowler, but also criticized for his violence: His tactic of removing his helmet and throwing it at an opponent led to the tactic getting banned.

He was heavily involved in youth programs, but was also among the first major athletes to admit steroid use, after having denied it, because it gave him cancer, which killed him. Shortly before, he appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated, with the caption, "I LIED."

Honorable Mention: April 3, 1967: Pervis Ellison. Just a freshman, "Never Nervous Pervis" led the University of Louisville to the 1986 National Championship, and fans thought they were looking at a legend in the making. But he couldn't get UL back to the Final Four, and although he played 11 seasons in the NBA, winning the Most Improved Player award in 1992, injuries limited him to role-player status.

Honorable Mention: April 3, 1971: Picabo Street. She won the Gold Medal in the women's super-giant slalom at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.

9. April 3, 1926: Gus Grissom. One of America's original "Mercury 7" astronauts, Virgil Ivan Grissom -- you can see why NASA allowed him to be publicly known by his nickname "Gus" -- was the 2nd American in space, and commanded the 1st 2-person U.S. space mission, Gemini 3. He was supposed to be the commander of Apollo 1, but a fire during an engine test killed him and crewmates Ed White and Roger Chaffee, in America's 1st spaceflight-related tragedy.

8. April 3, 1938: Jeff Barry. With his former wife, Ellie Greenwich, he wrote "Da Doo Ron Ron" and "And Then He Kissed Me" for The Crystals; "Be My Baby" and "Baby, I Love You" for The Ronettes; "Wait 'Til My Bobby Gets Home" and "Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)" for Darlene Love; "Do Wah Diddy" for The Exciters, though Manfred Mann had the biggest hit version; "Chapel of Love" and "People Say" for The Dixie Cups; "Maybe I Know" for Lesley Gore; "Leader of the Pack" for The Shangri-Las; and "River Deep -- Mountain High" for Ike & Tina Turner.

Without Ellie, he wrote "Tell Laura I Love Her" for Ray Peterson, "Chip Chip" for Gene McDaniels, all of The Archies' hits including "Sugar, Sugar," "Montego Bay" for Bobby Bloom, "I Honestly Love You" for Olivia Newton-John, and "Without Us," the theme to the sitcom Family Ties.

Honorable Mention: April 3, 1886: Dooley Wilson. We know him as Sam the piano player in Casablanca. Ironically, he had never played the piano before: He was a drummer.

Honorable Mention: April 3, 1941: Jan Berry. With Dean Torrence, he had several surf-rock hits in the 1960s.

Honorable Mention: April 3, 1942: Wayne Newton. A prodigy singer, he starred on a couple of episodes of Bonanza, including a Christmas episode, before becoming "Mr. Las Vegas" and "The Midnight Idol."

Honorable Mention: April 3, 1942: Billy Joe Royal. A big country singer in the 1960s, known for "Down In the Boondocks," one of several "I'm poor, she's rich, but somehow we'll make it work" songs to be a hit in that era.

Honorable Mention: April 3, 1943: Richard Manuel. One of the keyboard players in the band named The Band.

Honorable Mention: April 3, 1944: Tony Orlando. A teen idol in the 1960s, he and his backing duo Dawn hosted a CBS variety show in the 1970s.

Honorable Mention: April 3, 1949: Richard Thompson. Lead singer and guitarist for Fairport Convention, he later released 6 albums with his wife Linda Thompson, the last, Shoot Out the Lights, detailing their breakup.

Honorable Mention: April 3, 1968: Sebastian Bach. Lead singer of the metal band Skid Row, he has also starred on Broadway. Talk about a career shift, but it worked.

Honorable Mention: April 3, 1985: Leona Lewis. Although she remains a star in her native Britain, she never followed up her U.S. success with her 2008 Number 1 hit "Bleeding Love."

7. April 3, 1782: Alexander Macomb. He won the Battle of Plattsburgh in 1814, a key American victory in the War of 1812, and was the Commanding General of the U.S. Army from 1828 until his death in 1841.

6. April 3, 1898: Henry Luce. The co-founder of Time, Inc., he co-founded the magazine Time, and founded Life, Fortune and Sports Illustrated. Unfortunately, he was also incredibly conservative, and gave too much credit to Nationalist Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek in his magazines.

Honorable Mention: April 7, 1916: Herb Caen. Writing for the San Francisco Chronicle for nearly 60 years, a Pulitzer Prize citation called him the voice and conscience of that city.

Honorable Mention: April 3, 1885: Bud Fisher. In 1907, he created Mutt and Jeff, the first successful comic strip.

5. April 3, 1961: Eddie Murphy. In the 1980s, he might well have been the funniest person alive. Certainly, no comedian was bigger at the box office.

Honorable Mention: April 3, 1893: Leslie Howard. He played Sir Percy Blakeney, one of the earliest superheroes, in the 1934 version of The Scarlet Pimpernel. He played Romeo Montague, to Norma Shearer's Juliet Capulet, in the 1936 version of Romeo and Juliet. He played Professor Henry Higgins in the 1938 version of Pygmalion.

But most Americans will remember him for playing Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind. In 1943, the Nazis shot down his plane off the coast of Spain, believing him to be involved in British propaganda efforts. The former was definitely true; the latter, I hope so.

Honorable Mention: April 3, 1904: Sally Rand. The burlesque star became a legend displaying her "fan dance" striptease number at the 1933-34 Century of Progress Fair in Chicago.

Somewhat Honorable Mention: April 3, 1904: Iron Eyes Cody. He was the ironically-named crying Indian in the Keep America Beautiful commercials in the early 1970s: "People start pollution. People can stop it." Ironically, he wasn't a Native American at all: He was Espera Oscar de Corti, an Italian-American from Louisiana.

Honorable Mention: April 3, 1942: Marsha Mason. She got her start starring in plays written by her then-husband Neil Simon.

Somewhat Honorable Mention: April 3, 1958: Alec Baldwin. He has a knack for playing less-than-honorable men, none more so than Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live. His real life has faced some tough scrutiny, too, for good reason.

Honorable Mention: April 3, 1959: David Hyde Pierce. He played Dr. Niles Crane on Frasier, and John Dean in Oliver Stone's film Nixon.

Honorable Mention: April 3, 1968: Charlotte Coleman. I've only seen one of her films, playing Scarlett in Four Weddings and a Funeral, but this tiny little English redhead made a big impression on me. She died of an asthma attack at age 33.

Honorable Mention: April 3, 1972: Jennie Garth. She played Kelly Taylor on Beverly Hills 90210.

Honorable Mention: April 3, 1975: Aries Spears. A member of the cast of MADtv, he was known for his impersonations of Bill Cosby, R. Kelly and Jay-Z.

Honorable Mention: April 3, 1982: Cobie Smulders. She played Robin Scherbatsky, a.k.a. Robin Sparkles, on How I Met Your Mother; and S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Maria Hill in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Honorable Mention: April 3, 1986: Amanda Bynes. Like Britney Spears, the former star of All That and its spinoff The Amanda Show recently emerged from a conservatorship battle, and will soon be acting again.

4. April 3, 1922: Doris Day. With Les Brown's big band, she was one of the top singers if the 1940s. She became one of the highest-grossing film actresses of the 1950s. And she was a renowned animal rights advocate.

3. April 3, 1924: Marlon Brando. Like his most famous character, Vito Corleone in The Godfather, he did some things that would be considered terrible now. But he may also have been the greatest actor who ever lived, and so I come to show him the proper respect.

2. April 3, 1930: Helmut Kohl. Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1982 to 1998, he oversaw the reunification of the country in 1989 and 1990.

Honorable Mention: April 3, 1930: Lawton Chiles. He was a U.S. Senator from Florida from 1971 to 1989, and Governor from 1991 until his death in 1998.

Dishonorable Mention: April 3, 1823: William M. Tweed. No American politician has ever been more associated with corruption. He served 1 term in Congress, 1853-54; and 3 terms in the New York State Senate, 1868 to 1873. But it was as Grand Sachem of Tammany Hall, New York City's Democratic political machine, that he gained control of several City and State agencies.

While he put that power to some good use, he also used it to steal about $200 million -- about $4.6 billion in 2022 money. He was finally caught, and died in prison.

Dishonorable Mention: April 3, 1964: Nigel Farage. The former leader of Britain's openly racist UK Independence Party, he was one of the key figures behind "Brexit," the country's departure from the European Union, which sent 1/5th of its economy down the loo. He's also a big fan of Donald Trump, and served as his warmup act before some 2020 campaign rallies.

1. April 3, 1783: Washington Irving. The first American to make his living solely as a writer, his stories of early New York City introduced the name "Knickerbocker" (which eventually became the name of the City's basketball team, called the Knicks for short). And his stories of the Lower Hudson Valley, around his adopted hometown of Tarrytown, made such figures as Rip Van Winkle and the Headless Horseman legend.

Still alive as of this writing: Goodall, Parent, Schwarzenbeck, Ellison, Street, Barry, Newton, Orlando, Thompson, Bach, Lewis, Murphy, Mason, Baldwin, Hyde Pierce, Garth, Spears, Smulders, Bynes, Farage.