Top 10 April 7 Birthdays

10. April 7, 1964: Russell Crowe. He's been Zeus, Noah, Maximus Decimus Meridius, Robin Hood, Inspector Javert, Dr. John Nash, Captain Jack Aubrey, Dr. Henry Jekyll (and Edward Hyde), Heavyweight Champion Jim Braddock, and Jor-El. As the man himself would say, "Are you not entertained?"

9. April 7, 1954: Tony Dorsett. The running back won the 1976 Heisman Trophy as he led the University of Pittsburgh to the National Championship. The next year, he won the NFL Rookie of the Year to help the Dallas Cowboys win Super Bowl XII (and also reach, but lose, Super Bowl XIII).

He made 4 Pro Bowls, rushed for 12,739 yards, caught 398 passes for 3,554 yards, and scored 90 touchdowns. He and Marcus Allen are the only 2 players to win the Heisman Trophy, the National Championship, and the Super Bowl, and be elected to both the College and the Pro Football Halls of Fame. In 1999, The Sporting News ranked him 53rd on its list of the 100 Greatest Football Players. In 2010, the NFL Network ranked him 77th on their list of the 100 Greatest Players.

His son Anthony Dorsett played 8 NFL seasons as a defensive back, including reaching Super Bowls (but losing them) with the Tennessee Titans and Oakland Raiders.

8. April 7, 1860: Will Keith Kellogg. In 1906, he founded the breakfast cereal company that bears his name.

7. April 7, 1770: William Wordsworth. England's Poet Laureate from 1843 until his death in 1850, he had previously helped launch what became known as the Romantic Age in English-language poetry.

Honorable Mention: April 7, 1889: Gabriela Mistral. In 1945, the Chilean poet became the 1st Latin American to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Honorable Mention: April 7, 1890: Marjory Stoneman Douglas. In 1947, the reporter for the Miami Herald published The Everglades: River of Grass, making her one of the leading environmental activists at a time when being one was far from a road to national popularity.

She lived to be 108 years old, long enough to see the opening of a high school named for her outside Fort Lauderdale, one which became the site of a mass shooting in 2018.

Somewhat Honorable Mention: April 7, 1897: Walter Winchell. The gossip journalist would begin his radio broadcasts with the rapid-fire of the words, "Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. America, and all the ships at sea! This is Walter Winchell in New York!"

He was rather selective in his support. When he found out that black singer Josephine Baker was being denied the right to perform at certain places, he stood up for her on his show. But when she wasn't allowed entry into the Stork Club, the Midtown Manhattan nightclub that was Winchell's hangout, he didn't want it exposed as racist, so he turned on her, and spread the lies that had already been told about her.

6. April 7, 1939: David Frost. The man who moved British journalism into the modern era, his interviews with Richard Nixon were as close to a prosecution of the 37th President as we will ever get.

Honorable Mention: April 7, 1931: Daniel Ellsberg. His release of The Pentagon Papers exposed misdeeds of the federal government in regard to the Vietnam War through the end of the Presidency of Lyndon Johnson. In other words, Nixon's conduct of the war had nothing to do with it. But Nixon's determination to discredit Ellsberg sowed the seeds of the biggest backfire in the history of American politics.

Honorable Mention: April 7, 1938: Jerry Brown. That's Edmund G. Brown Jr. The son of Edmund G. Brown Sr., or Pat Brown, elected Governor of California in 1958 and 1962, Jerry was elected Governor in 1974, 1978, 2010 and 2014, making him both the youngest and the oldest person ever to serve in that office.

His other public offices have included Mayor of Oakland, Attorney General of California, Secretary of State of California, and Chairman of the California Democratic Party. He had been mocked as "Governor Moonbeam" during his 1st go-around, and his Presidential campaigns of 1976 and 1992 were treated as a joke. But he built a long and successful redemption, and may have become the greatest Governor that California has ever had.

Somewhat Honorable Mention: April 7, 1944: Gerhard Schröder. A rather successful Chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005, he may have thrown his legacy away with his roles in running the Russian energy companies Rosneft and Gazprom.

Dishonorable Mention: April 7, 1893: Allen Dulles. Brother of John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Allen served as Director of the CIA under "Ike." The effects of his undermining of the governments of Iran, Guatemala, Lebanon and, yes, South Vietnam are still being felt today.

5. April 7, 1928: James Garner. He was Bret Maverick and Jim Rockford, and also appeared in The Great Escape, Grand Prix and Victor/Victoria.

Honorable Mention: April 7, 1915: Stanley Adams. He played Tribble salesman Cyrano Jones on the Star Trek episode "The Trouble With Tribbles."

Honorable Mention: April 7, 1933: Wayne Rogers. After playing a prisoner in Cool Hand Luke, he starred as doctors in 2 CBS shows: M*A*S*H and House Calls.

Honorable Mention: April 7, 1934: Ian Richardson. He played Prime Minister Francis Urquhart in the original British version of House of Cards. (As with the American version, starring Kevin Spacey as Frank Underwood, the initials "F.U." were intentional.)

Honorable Mention: April 7, 1954: Jackie Chan. He stepped into the void created by the death of Bruce Lee to become the world's leading martial-arts film performer.

Honorable Mention: April 7, 1965: Bill Bellamy. Born in Newark, majoring in economics at Rutgers, the comedian coined the phrase "booty call."

4. April 7, 1939: Francis Ford Coppola. Here's a resume. Co-wrote Patton, winning an Oscar. Directed and co-wrote The Godfather, winning an Oscar for each role. Co-wrote, produced and directed The Godfather Part II, winning an Oscar for each of those roles. Wrote, produced and directed The Conversation and Apocalypse Now, both of which won the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) at the Cannes Film Festival.

Directed The Outsiders, Rumble Fish, The Cotton Club, Bram Stoker's Dracula and, uh, The Godfather Part III. 

Honorable Mention: April 7, 1928: Alan J. Pakula. He directed Klute, The Parallax View, All the President's Men, Sophie's Choice, Presumed Innocent and The Pelican Brief.

3. April 7, 1873: John McGraw. With the old National League version of the Baltimore Orioles, he was one of the best 3rd basemen in baseball history, winning Pennants in 1894, 1895 and 1896. His lifetime batting average was .334, and he stole 436 bases. But he was also one of the dirtiest players in a dirty era.

From 1902 to 1932, he managed the New York Giants, winning 10 Pennants and 3 World Series. He had modified the "scientific baseball" he helped invent in Baltimore, and became the leading figure in baseball in the 1st 20 years of the 20th Century, ahead of fellow manager Connie Mack, and ahead of any player, including Ty Cobb and his own pitching ace, Christy Mathewson.

In 1933, he managed the National League side in the 1st All-Star Game, with Mack managing the American League players. In 1937, they were the 1st 2 managers elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Honorable Mention: April 7, 1918: Bobby Doerr. Hall of Fame 2nd baseman for the Boston Red Sox, a 9-time All-Star who helped them win the 1946 American League Pennant. 

Honorable Mention: April 7, 1944: Bill Stoneman. He pitched 2 no-hitters for the Montreal Expos, then served as general manager for the team now known as the Los Angeles Angels, building their 2002 World Champions.

Honorable Mention: April 7, 1960: James "Buster" Douglas. He was only Heavyweight Champion of the World for 263 days in 1990, but he will forever be remembered as the 1st man to beat Mike Tyson, knocking him out and forever removing from him the title of "Baddest Man On the Planet."

Honorable Mention: April 7, 1969: Ricky Watters. A National Champion running back at Notre Dame in 1988, he made 5 Pro Bowls, and helped the San Francisco 49ers win Super Bowl XXIX. He was a big free agent pickup for the Philadelphia Eagles in 1995, but a seemingly lackadaisical play in his 1st game, and a lame response in a postgame interview, poisoned his relationship with their fans.

He recovered with the Seattle Seahawks. He rushed for 10,643 yards, caught 467 passes for 4,248 yards, and scored 91 touchdowns. He is often considered one of the best players not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Honorable Mention: April 7, 1975: Ronde Barber. He played 16 seasons as a cornerback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, setting an NFL record for defensive backs with 215 consecutive starts. He made 5 Pro Bowls, and helped the Buccaneers win Super Bowl XXXVII.

Somewhat Honorable Mention: April 7, 1975. Tiki Barber. An identical twin brother of Jamael Orondé Barber, Atiim Kiambu Barber played 10 seasons with the New York Giants, making 3 Pro Bowls. His 10,449 rushing yards are a record for any New York-based player. He also caught 586 passes for 5,183 yards, and scored 67 touchdowns.

The "Somewhat" refers not to his messy private life, but to the fact that the Giants made just 1 Super Bowl with him, Super Bowl XXXV, and lost it, and then won Super Bowl XLII the season after he retired.

Honorable Mention: April 7, 1979: Adrián Beltré. If it's possible to be a quiet superstar, he was it. He collected 3,166 hits, including 477 home runs. He made 5 Gold Gloves. In spite of all this, he made just 4 All-Star Games. He reached the postseason with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2004; and with the Texas Rangers in 2011, '12, '15 and '16. He will be eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2024.

Dishonorable Mention: April 7, 1983: Franck Ribéry. He survived a childhood car accident that left him with a nasty facial scar, giving him the nickname "Franckenstein." But Zinedine Zidane, the greatest French soccer player of them all, has called him "The Jewel of French Football."

The winger has helped Istanbul team Galatasaray win the 2005 Turkish Cup. He moved to Bayern Munich, where his unrepentant diving was welcomed, as they are a team known for cheating. And his private life has been exposed as squalid. But he helped Bayern win the Bundesliga (German league) 9 times, and the UEFA Champions League in 2013. With the France national team, he reached the 2006 World Cup Final.

2. April 7, 1915: Billie Holiday. Perhaps the greatest jazz singer ever, despite a drug problem that killed her at age 44. Her recordings of "Strange Fruit," "God Bless the Child" and "Autumn in New York" are among the most honored ever.

Honorable Mention: April 7, 1908: Percy Faith. The Canadian bandleader was known for his theme songs to the films Moulin Rouge and A Summer Place, which hit Number in America in 1953 and 1960, respectively.

Honorable Mention: April 7, 1920: Ravi Shankar. Through his friendship with George Harrison of The Beatles, he introduced the sitar to Western audiences, and helped organize the Concert for Bangladesh. His daughter Norah Jones also became a famous singer and musician.

Honorable Mention: April 7, 1937: Charlie Thomas. The last surviving member of the classic 1959-64 lineup of the vocal group The Drifters.

Honorable Mention: April 7, 1948: John Oates. He and Daryl Hall were the top musical duo of the late 1970s and the early 1980s.

Honorable Mention: April 7, 1951: Janis Ian. At 15, she had a hit with "Society's Child," a song about an interracial romance. At 24, she had a hit with "At Seventeen," and won a Grammy for it. At 62, she won her 2nd Grammy, for Best Spoken Word Recording, for her memoir, Society's Child.

1. April 7, 1859: Walter Camp. No one person invented the American version of football, but he is known as "The Father of American Football." He played at Yale University from 1876 to 1881, and coached their team from 1888 to 1892, before moving on to establish the program at Stanford University.

Here's what Camp invented: The line of scrimmage (which separated the game from rugby), the center snap, the system of 4 downs to make 10 yards, establishing a touchdown as 6 points and a field goal as 3, the creation of the defensive score of the 2-point safety, and the establishment of 11 men on a side. He also created the All-America team, honoring the best players at each position in a given season. His books and magazine articles on football helped spread its popularity.

Still alive as of this writing: Crowe, Dorsett, Ellsberg, Brown, Schröder, Chan, Bellamy, Coppola, Stoneman, Douglas (but not Stoneman Douglas), Watters, both Barber twins, Beltré, Ribéry, Thomas, Oates, Ian.