Today is Christopher Walken’s birthday (born in 1943) and my favorite Walken speech is The Lion.

Happy Birthday Christopher!!

I found an interesting site called 15FunFacts and this article is about Bruce Willis.  Today is Willis’s birthday (born in 1955) and it breaks my heart to read about his physical/mental decline.

Bruce Willis originally wanted to become a journalist before pursuing acting.

He worked as a security guard and private investigator while struggling to break into Hollywood.

Willis has perfect pitch, allowing him to identify musical notes without reference tones.

He speaks some German fluently, a skill developed during his childhood in West Germany.

In the 1980s, he appeared in commercials for products like Levi’s jeans and Honda motorcycles.

Willis nearly lost the role of John McClane in Die Hard due to his height—he’s just 5’9”.

He once scuba dived with sharks while filming a movie, demonstrating his adventurous spirit.

Bruce Willis founded a production company called Cheyenne Enterprises early in his career.

His first major TV role was as detective David Addison in the series Moonlighting.

Willis collects rare sports cars and has owned several Ferraris and Jaguars.

He co-starred with Matthew Perry in a stage play before achieving Hollywood fame.

Willis famously shaved his head for the Die Hard role, creating his signature look.

He has actively raised money for charities supporting children and veterans.

He sings and released several blues albums, showing a passion for music aside from acting.

Willis performed many of his own stunts in action films, including gripping rooftop scenes.

SOURCE: 15FUNFACTS

Today is Kurt Russel’s birthday (born in 1951) and I found this article about interesting facts about Kurt on Mental Floss.

Kurt Russell originally had his sights set on being a professional baseball player.

On March 17, 1951, Kurt Russell was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, to parents Bing and Louise Russell, but grew up in Thousand Oaks, California. He took heavy inspiration from his father, himself an actor and later owner of a minor league baseball team, the Portland Mavericks. In addition to acting in family films for The Walt Disney Company like 1969’s The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes and 1975’s The Strongest Man in the World, Russell was also pursuing a career in professional baseball. In 1971, he joined the Bend Rainbows and later played for his father’s Mavericks. When a shoulder injury halted his athletic ambitions in 1973, he began focusing on acting full-time. The news was not broken to him so gently. Remembering the doctor who told him his shoulder would end his baseball career, Russell remembered him asking, “Aren’t you also an actor?” When Russell said he was, the doctor said, “Well, you’re an actor all the time now.”

Kurt Russell passed up a chance to be in Star Wars to do a television Western.

When George Lucas was casting Star Wars in 1975, he saw a number of actors, including Russell, who auditioned for both Han Solo and Luke Skywalker. Russell was interested in the film, but later said that he was also being offered a role on a television Western called The Quest around the same time and asked Lucas if he could make a decision about whether he wanted Russell in the movie—and if so, in which part. “I don’t know which part I prefer you in,” Russell recalled Lucas as saying. “I don’t know if I like you as Han and this guy as Skywalker, or this guy as Han and you as Skywalker. I don’t know.” When Lucas couldn’t give him an answer, Russell opted to do The Quest.

Kurt Russell was nominated for an Emmy for playing Elvis Presley.

Following his string of Disney films, Russell began tackling more mature roles, including the title character in the 1979 television miniseries Elvis directed by Halloween filmmaker John Carpenter. Playing Elvis Presley earned Russell an Emmy Award nomination and also marked the beginning of his working relationship with Carpenter, who cast Russell in 1981’s Escape From New York, 1995’s sequel Escape From L.A., and 1982’s The Thing, among others.

The King has followed Russell around, or vice versa. Russell had a small part in an Elvis film while as a child actor, appearing in 1963’s It Happened at the World’s Fair. In 2001, he appeared as a criminal who was also an Elvis impersonator in 3000 Miles to Graceland. Most notably, he agreed to dub over an actor playing Presley in 1994’s Forrest Gump as a favor to Robert Zemeckis, who directed Russell in 1980’s Used Cars.

Bull Durham was written for Kurt Russell.

If you’ve ever wondered why a former baseball player like Russell never made a baseball movie, he came close. Writer and director Ron Shelton wrote 1988’s Bull Durham, about an aging slugger named Crash Davis, specifically for Russell. The studio, however, insisted that Shelton cast Kevin Costner instead.

Kurt Russell was paid twice his going rate for Stargate because he was considered impossible to dislike.

It’s often been said of Russell that he possesses an inherent likeability. Perhaps audiences won’t like every film he appears in, but they like the actor himself. According to Russell, that was once backed by research. Recalling that the producers of 1994’s science-fiction movie Stargate offered him twice his going rate to secure his services, he cited audience satisfaction as the reason why. “They said, ‘Oh, well, we ran a questionnaire around the world,’” Russell told GQ in 2016. “They wanted to rate actors on their unlikeability. They wanted to find someone who was likeable because the part, as written, was not. And they said, ‘You know the only star out there who has zero unlikeability?’ ‘Kurt Russell.’ Zero unlikeability!” Russell added that the research was done a long time ago and “that number may have changed significantly.”

Kurt Russell may have stealth-directed Tombstone.

In 1993’s Tombstone, Russell plays a world-weary Wyatt Earp attempting to bring order to the lawless town of Tombstone. Directed by George P. Cosmatos, the film has become a classic of the Western genre. According to an interview with Russell in True West magazine in 2006, it was he, not Cosmatos, who did most of the heavy lifting behind the scenes. After screenwriter Kevin Jarre was let go from directing, producers asked Russell if he wanted to direct it. He did, but he didn’t want to put his name on it. Instead, he said, he gave Cosmatos a shot list every night for the following day’s shooting, an arrangement that Cosmatos agreed to and apparently had with Sylvester Stallone on 1985’s Rambo: First Blood Part II. Russell later criticized the True West interview, saying that he preferred not to discuss what went on with Tombstone in a public forum. “I told [George] that if the studio heads talked to me and the producers talked to me about what took place on Tombstone in terms of George’s involvement, in confidence I would tell them the private and real truth,” he told The San Diego Reader in 2016. “Publicly, I have no interest in tainting anything about Tombstone. The credits are what the credits are, and I will leave it at that.”

Kurt Russell once reported a UFO sighting while flying an airplane.

Russell is an aviation buff who has his pilot’s license. While flying his plane with Oliver Hudson (Goldie Hawn’s son, who Russell raised and considers his own son) in 1997, he reported a strange event. “I was flying Oliver to go see his girlfriend, and we were on approach,” Russell told the BBC. “I saw six lights over the airport in absolute uniform in a V shape. Oliver said to me—I was just looking at him, I was coming in, we’re maybe a half-mile out—and Oliver said, ‘Pa, what are those lights?’ Then I kind of came out of my reverie and I said, ‘I don’t know what they are. He said, ‘Are we OK here?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I’m gonna call in,’ and I reported it.” The lights soon became known as the Phoenix Lights, which were witnessed by several people. Russell didn’t make his sighting public until 2017.

Kurt Russell is not crazy about an Escape From New York remake.

Talks have been ongoing for a remake of Escape From New York, the 1981 film that put Russell on the map as a viable action hero. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly in 2017, Russell was asked how he felt about someone else playing Snake Plissken. “I didn’t play Snake Plissken,” Russell said. “I created him!” Asked if he would do a cameo or play a supporting role, he was more succinct. “F**k that! I am Snake Plissken!”

SOURCE: MENTALFLOSS

Today is Luke Combs’ birthday ( born in 1990) and this is one of my favorite Luke Combs’ songs!

I found this article about Burt Reynolds (9 Things You Never Knew About Burt Reynolds) on the remindmagazine.com website.

1 He was almost a Pro Football Player

While growing up in West Palm Beach, Florida, he was extremely committed to football in high school and had plans to go to Miami, but since he was so into the ladies, he went to Florida State because the ratio of girls to boys was higher. After being offered a contract to play for the Baltimore Colts, his dreams of going pro were dashed when he succumbed to a knee injury. He at least starred in a few movies about his favorite sport.

2 He started out in Spaghetti Westerns

In the early 1960s, both Burt and Clint Eastwood were under contract at Universal, but they couldn’t get the movie roles they desired. So, they both went to Italy to do movies and got their start in Spaghetti Westerns. Eastwood struck gold with The Good, The Bad & the Ugly; meanwhile, Burt made what is considered one of the worst movies of the genre, Navajo Joe in 1966.

3 Late Night talk shows loved him

Burt soon became a fixture on late-night talk shows due to his funny and charming personality. It was one appearance on the Johnny Carson Show that Deliverance director John Boorman spotted him and wanted to cast him immediately for the film. Burt felt it was truly the first good movie he made, as he would often make fun of himself and his roles in the talk show circuit.

4 A famous photo shoot made him a sex symbol

The infamous Cosmopolitan photo shoot stemmed from once hosting the Johnny Carson Show and Cosmo editor Helen Gurley Brown was one of the guests. Making the point that Hugh Hefner had female centerfolds for years, she felt it was time for the ladies to have one and asked Burt to do the photo shoot. While he was a little concerned about how it would affect his career and being taken as a serious actor, he took the gamble anyway and it shot him to sex symbol status. However, Hollywood was not happy about it and the photo shoot is thought to have ruined his chances of getting an Oscar nomination for Deliverance.

5 He claimed bankruptcy several times

Living a very extravagant lifestyle with a private jet, helicopters, the Tampa Bay Bandits football team, a house in Hawaii, several houses in Florida, the Burt Reynolds Dinner Theater, and donations of money left and right, he spent every dime he made as he made it. It wasn’t until a few bad investment opportunities that he had to claim bankruptcy and sign his residual checks over for several years to pay off the bankruptcy. The crown jewel of his money though went to the Jupiter Ranch, a 144-acre ranch that he bought in Jupiter, Florida. He once held an opening for the sprawling estate in 1974. He invited the press and locals and 10,000 people showed up! Sadly, he once again had to claim bankruptcy in the ’90s and had to sell it.

6 Smokey and the Bandit tanked at first

Hal Needham was the stunt guy in Hollywood and, wanting to direct, he wrote the script for Smokey and the Bandit. Hal and Burt were best friends since he was Burt’s stuntman, although Burt did many of his own stunts. Hal got him to sign on for the film. While the film tanked at both NYC and LA premieres, Burt said they released it wrong. Being known for his Southern charm, he said it had to be released in the South, and so it was. It went on to be the 2nd biggest movie in 1977, behind a little movie called Star Wars.

7 A stunt gone wrong left him badly injured

While filming City Heat with Clint Eastwood, he got injured doing one of the stunts, which led to a hairline fracture in his jaw that turned into TMJ syndrome. With it being incredibly hard for him to eat, he lost a ton of weight, and at the time he was rumored to have AIDS. Due to the tremendous amount of pain he was in, he became a pain pill addict and almost died from trying to quit them cold turkey once. He sadly struggled with this addiction for many years.

8 He had many loves

When Burt and Loni Anderson finally married in 1988, he bought her wedding ring in every gem possible so she could never say it didn’t match her dress. The pair were together since 1982 and shared an adopted son, Quinton, but later went through a very messy divorce after splitting in 1993. It was in 2015 that Burt came out saying that he let the real love of his life, Sally Field, get away.

9 He HATED Boogie Nights

While always hungry for an Academy Award, he didn’t receive his first award until it came in the form of an Emmy with his hit TV show Evening Shade in the early ’90s. When Boogie Nights came along, he was adamant he didn’t want to do it and was often yelling at the director about how much he didn’t want to. It wasn’t until Nights director Paul Thomas Anderson said to him, “You act this way in the film, and it will win you an Academy Award” that he agreed. He was nominated for his only Academy Award as porn producer Jack Horner but lost out to Robin Williams. He still despised doing the role.

SOURCE: REMINDMAGAZINE.COM  KAREN RUUD

Today is Joe Pesci’s birthday (born in 1943) so I brought an article from discoverwalks.com detailing 10 little known facts about Joe!

Joe Took Acting And Music Classes When He Was Young 

Joe Pesci was born on 9th February 1943 in Newark, but he was raised in Belleville, both in New Jersey. His parents were Angelo Pesci who worked multiple blue-collar jobs including driving a forklift and bartending, and Maria (Mesce) Pesci who was a barber. They were both Italians, the family was catholic and Joe had two siblings. From as young as 5 years old, the boy was enrolled in dancing, music, and acting classes. He immediately started acting on New York stage productions and when he was 10 years old, he was a regular on a TV variety show called Startime Kids that was airing on New York’s WNBC. His co-host was Connie Francis, who went on to become a successful actress and singer. 

As A Teenager He Changed His Focus From Acting To Music 

Joe went to Belleville High School. As a teenager, he lost interest in acting and decided to explore his musical talent. He co-founded a successful rock band, The Four Seasons, with Bob Gaudio, Frankie Valli, and Tommy DeVito. After graduation from high school, the young Joe took up various jobs, including cutting people’s hair just like his mum did. He also worked as a waiter and singer at night clubs still molding his talent.  He released an album titled ‘Little Joe Sure Can Sing!’ under the name Joe Ritchie in 1968. Thirty years later, in 1998, he released his second album Vincent LaGuardia Gambini (his character in the movie ‘My Cousin Vinny’) Sings Just for You. His third album, Pesci… Still Singing, was released in 2019. This time the silent period was 21 years. 

He Was Part Of A Comedy Duo 

He is very hard-working and proactive, still working as a waiter. He tried standup comedy, teaming up with Frank Vincent, and together the duo did insult comedy which was quite popular then. The two developed a bond and they performed as “Vincent and Pesci” from 1970 to 1976. 

Joe’s Rib Was Broken While Acting

In 1976, Joe landed his first role in the film, Death Collector, a low-budgeted crime movie. When Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro saw Pesci’s acting skills therein, they were incredibly impressed.  In 1979, the actor/director duo cast Pesci for a role as Joey LaMotta in their upcoming project, The Raging Bull. As they were filming, De Niro accidentally broke Joe’s rib when he hit him with a bit of strength. Doors opened wide for the actor after this and he got offered several other roles. Fast forward to 1995, in another project (The Casino) with both Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro, Joe broke the same rib he had broken 15 years before. He was hit with a baseball bat in his last scene. 

He Played Golf Every Morning While Filming ‘Home Alone’ 

In 1990, Pesci played one of the dim-witted burglars in the Christmas comedy film, Home Alone. He was delighted that there was a golf course near the set, and the producers allowed him time to play golf before filming started. With so many children on the set, adult cast members used the word “fridge” instead of bad language. Anyone who said terrible words would deposit change into their personal swear jar. Joe filled up his jar on the first day. Although most of the stunt scenes had doubles, Joe did some of the stunts on his own. Some were quite painful because he suffered severe burns when he was set on fire and had to treat some painful burns. 

Joe Has Acted With De Niro In Amazing Films 

Joe Pesci and Robert De Niro work very well together. They are mostly in Mafia and Mob movies. Most of these famous films were directed by Martin Scorsese and in some, the two don’t appear together.  These films included Casino, Goodfellas, The Good Shepherd, A Bronx Tale, Raging Bull, Once Upon A Time In America, and The Irishman. The actor announced his retirement from acting to focus on music in 1999. He has however come out of retirement several times after that to act in films, some of which did very well at the box office. 

This Actor Has Been Married And Divorced Three Times 

Joe has been in three marriages but they all ended in divorce. He was also engaged at some point but the relationship ended before they said I do. He has two daughters, one from his first marriage and the other from his third marriage. 

He Gained Weight For A Role That He Didn’t Act 

Pesci sued a production company, Fiore Films, the makers of the movie Gotti. They had promised him a role in the film and he had gained 14 kilograms (30 lbs) in readiness. He sued them for $3 million, which was the payment he had been promised. The case was settled out of court and the terms were not disclosed.

Joe Was Almost Arrested For Attempted Murder  

After her divorce from Joe, actress Claudia Haro got engaged to Garret Warren, an ex-stuntman. In May of 2000, Garret was shot at the front door of his house in Westlake Village in California. Luckily, he survived but he wears an eye patch since he lost his right eye.  A witness claimed to have seen Joe Pesci paying the hitman but after thorough investigations, evidence pointed to Claudia. She had hired a hitman to kill Garret, which earned her 12 years and 4 months in prison. 

He Won An Oscar That He Was Not Expecting   

When Joe Pesci’s name was called out as the winner of the Best Supporting Actor award for the film Goodfellas at the 1991 Oscars, he was excited but also mostly surprised. He made his way to the stage, received the award, and gave the shortest acceptance speech in history. 

He said, “It’s my privilege. Thank you!” Then he walked off the stage. It was one of the shortest acceptance speeches in Oscar history. When asked why his speech was so short, he confessed that he didn’t think he would win, so he hadn’t prepared a speech. 

SOURCE: DISCOVERWALKS.COM

How could you NOT be intrigued by an article with that name? I found this article on CLEDEMY.COM and it was written by RASHMI PANCHAL.

This famous American actor was born on January 7, 1964, in Long Beach, California. His dad, August Coppola, was a professor of literature, and his mom, Joy Vogelsang, was a dancer and choreographer. Nicolas was raised in a Catholic family –his father was of Italian descent, while his mother was of Polish and German ancestry! He is the youngest of three sons. His two brothers are Marc “The Cope” Coppola and director Christopher Coppola.

He changed his name

In 2012, Nicolas told The Huffington Post that he decided to change his last name after actors on the set of the film Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) resented him! It was the first movie by Nicolas and the actors hated him because his uncle was a well-known director Francis Ford Coppola. Unfortunately, most of his scenes in that movie ended up getting cut. To stand out from his relatives, Nicolas chose “Cage.” He took the name after being inspired by the African-American comic book superhero Luke Cage.

At the foot of Cage’s bed, a naked home intruder ate a fudgsicle

While talking about his home invasion thriller Trespass in the year 2011, Cage told reporters that he was once victimized in his home! He shared that a person had broken into his Orange County home. He was sleeping, and “I opened my eyes, and there was a naked man wearing my leather jacket eating a Fudgsicle in front of my bed.” He further added, “I know it sounds funny…but it was horrifying.” Later, Cage convinced the man to leave before the police arrived. While Cage didn’t press charges, he said he never stayed in the house again. 

Cage once owned 15 houses, including a haunted house

There are many interesting possessions Cage has accrued throughout his life–such as shrunken pygmy heads, an octopus, and his amazing houses located around the world.  Many of those houses were foreclosed on in the wake of debt, including America’s “Most Haunted House.” In 2007, Cage bought the LaLaurie House in New Orleans. He claimed that he bought this to get inspiration to write a book; however, the book was never produced, and two years later, the house was sold.

Cage once slept in Dracula’s castle

While promoting the film Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance in 2011, popular actor Idris Elba recalled an incident. One day, noticing Cage was tired, Elba asked if they had gotten any rest. He answered, “Yeah, man, I went up to Dracula’s castle…the ruins up in the mountains, and I stayed the night.” He further added, “I just had to channel the energy, and it was pretty spooky up there.” He was probably talking about Bran Castle near Transylvania, which may have been Dracula’s residence in the novel of Bram Stoker.

While filming ‘Vampire’s Kiss,’ Cage ate live cockroaches

While playing Peter Low in the 1988 film Vampire’s Kiss, Cage ate a live cockroach! Eating the cockroach was his idea as a calculated on-screen move. According to Bierman, the director, the script actually required the character to eat a raw egg. However, Bierman and Cage decided an egg wasn’t extreme enough, so Cage decided to eat a cockroach.

Cage owns a pyramid-shaped Tomb in New Orleans

Cage owns a tomb that is located in St. Louis Cemetery in the French Quarter in New Orleans.  The tomb is ready for him to be placed inside when the time arrives.  The tomb can only be seen on a licensed tour offered by New Orleans Catholic Church and it sits among the tombs of notable figures, like Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau. It is not known how much Cage paid for this nine-foot-high pyramid tomb when he bought it in 2010, but according to a report, it was $40,000. It has the inscription “everything from one” in Latin.

Cage was the victim of a massive comic book heist

In 1997, comic book fan Nicolas Cage bought a copy of Action Comics #1, the highly sought-after issue of 1939. It was the issue that introduced Superman and even ushered in the superhero genre of the 20^th century. The book, however, along with some other rare titles, was stolen in January 2000 from Cage’s home. The case went cold for 11 years before the book showed up in the storage locker of San Fernando Valley. After a police investigation, Cage got his book back, and he sold it for a then-record of $2.1 million!

Nicolas Cage accidentally bought a skull of a dinosaur

The extravagant spending habits of Cage have been well documented; however, very few of them can match his grandiose gesture of spending $276,000 at a 2007 auction for a Tyrannosaurus bataar skull. Unfortunately, he didn’t know that the skull had been stolen from the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. In 2014, contacted by the Department of Homeland Security, Cage agreed to hand it over…so that it could be returned.

A Japanese corn snack used Cage’s likeness without permission

In October 2017, Cage’s fans in Japan were very happy to see the actor’s face emblazoned on a snack package!  It was a crunchy corn snack known as Deluxe Umaibou Nicolastick! The snack was intended to promote his movie, Army of One, in a few theaters; however, no one asked him for his consent.

Cage helped Johnny Depp break into acting

Johnny Depp and Nicolas Cage were good friends, and during a casual game of Monopoly, Cage told Depp that he should try acting! Later in 2019, Cage told The New York Times that Depp was actually dismissive of the suggestions and even said that he couldn’t act and wanted to be a musician! However, Cage pestered and had Johnny Depp meet with his agent. Soon after, Depp was cast in the movie A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984).

One of Cage’s kids is named after Kal-El, his favorite superhero

Cage has two sons, Weston, and Kal El. Weston was born in 1990 and is the child of Cage and his long-time girlfriend, Christian Fulton. Weston is a musician, has entered acting, and even wrote a comic book with his father called Voodoo Child.

Cage’s third wife, Alice Kim, gave birth to the boy Kal-El in 2005. The name of the actor’s younger son is the same name given to Superman when he lived on Krypton. The name is believed to resemble the Hebrew words for “Voice of God.”

After Cage was arrested in 2011, Dog the Bounty Hunter posted his bail

In 2011, Cage was arrested in New Orleans for domestic abuse and disturbing the peace. He had been fighting with his wife, Alice Kim, according to the police. Duane “Dog” Chapman, also famous as Dog the Bounty Hunter, came to help Cage, posting the $11,000 bond required to be released. According to Chapman, he just performed his duties as a bail bondsman.

Cage has been married five times

In February 2021, Cage walked down the aisle with Riko Shabata in Las Vegas, NV, making it the fifth marriage of the actor. He married Patricia Arquette (1995-2001), Lisa Marie Presley (2002-2004), Alice Kim (2004-2016), and also Erika Koike (2019).

Nicolas Cage worked his way out of $6 million in debt

In an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes, this talented actor, Nicolas Cage, revealed that at one point in his life, he was $6 million in debt! So, he had to act in different kinds of movies, including a few “crummy movies”, but he managed to work himself out of that debt.

SOURCE: CLEDEMY.COM RASHMI PANCHAL