Births

Robert Poirier, französischer Flieger, Résistancekämpfer und Automobilrennfahrer

Carl Bailey, US-amerikanischer Politiker

Vicente Rojo Lluch, general antifascista español (f.

Vicente Rojo Lluch, general antifascista español (f. 1966)

Heinz Kindermann, österreichischer Literatur- und Theaterwissenschaftler

1895

Lautaro García, chilenischer Maler, Sänger und Dramatiker

1895

Zog I of Albania

1899

René Petit, futebolista e engenheiro francês (m.

René Petit, futebolista e engenheiro francês (m. 1989).

1900s 626

1900

Luis Palacios Rossini, político chileno (f.

Yves Giraud-Cabantous raced in Formula One in the 1950s and finished fourth at the 1950 Monaco Grand Prix. He was French. He raced during the era when drivers died regularly and safety equipment meant a leather helmet. He made it to sixty-nine. Most of his competitors didn't.

1905

Eugen Bodart, deutscher Komponist und Dirigent

1905

Raúl Roulién (Raul Salvador Intini Pepe), actor, cantante, director de cine y guionista brasileño (f.

Raúl Roulién (Raul Salvador Intini Pepe), actor, cantante, director de cine y guionista brasileño (f. el 8 de octubre de 2000); la primera estrella masculina brasileña en Hollywood.

Fernand Jaccard, futebolista e treinador de futebol suíço (m.

Fernand Jaccard, futebolista e treinador de futebol suíço (m. 2008).

Hugh Foot, diplomata e administrador colonial britânico (m.

Hugh Foot, diplomata e administrador colonial britânico (m. 1990).

Pierre Bertaux, französischer Germanist

Richard Sharpe Shaver

Richard Sharpe Shaver claimed he'd discovered an ancient underground civilization called the Deros who controlled human minds with rays. He wrote about it for Amazing Stories in the 1940s. Thousands of readers wrote in saying they'd experienced the rays too. He'd created a conspiracy theory that people wanted to believe.

Louise Rösler, deutsche Künstlerin

1908

Adolfo Bloch, jornalista e empresário russo (m.

Adolfo Bloch, jornalista e empresário russo (m. 1995).

1908

Paul Yoder, US-amerikanischer Komponist und Professor, Dirigent und Schlagzeuger

1908

Ezekias Papaioannou

Ezekias Papaioannou led the communist party in Cyprus for forty years, from 1949 to 1988. He organized strikes, survived British colonial rule, and watched Cyprus split in two. He died at eighty. The communist who never won left behind a party that still exists and an island still divided.

1909

Bill Hewitt, US-amerikanischer American-Football-Spieler

1909

Piotr Jaroszewicz, político e militar polonês (m.

Piotr Jaroszewicz, político e militar polonês (m. 1992).

Helmut Kallmeyer was a chemist who calculated the dosages for the Nazi T4 euthanasia program. He determined how much carbon monoxide would kill disabled children and adults in gas chambers disguised as showers. He survived the war. He lived in Germany until 2006. He was never prosecuted. He died at 95.

Ray Lewis

Ray Lewis won bronze in the 4x400 meter relay at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, running for Canada. He was born in Hamilton and worked for the railway for 40 years after his running career ended. He lived to 93, long enough to see Canadian athletes win 463 more Olympic medals. Bronze doesn't tarnish if you keep it long enough.

Gus Hall

Gus Hall led the Communist Party USA for 40 years. He ran for president four times. He never got more than 80,000 votes. He was arrested, imprisoned, and surveilled by the FBI for decades. He visited the Soviet Union over 50 times. He died in 2000. The Soviet Union had been gone for nine years. He outlasted the country he believed in.

Kirk Alyn

Kirk Alyn was the first actor to play Superman on screen, in two 1940s serials. When the TV show was cast in the 1950s, they didn't hire him. He kept acting in small roles for 50 years. He appeared in the 1978 Superman movie as Lois Lane's father. The first Superman lived long enough to watch another one fly.

Paulette Dubost

Paulette Dubost appeared in over 250 films across 80 years. She acted in Jean Renoir's 'The Rules of the Game' in 1939 and was still working in 2000. She performed through Nazi occupation, the New Wave, and into the digital age. She died at 100. She'd been acting for 87 years.

1912

Anton Benya, österreichischer Gewerkschafter und Politiker

1912

Kurt Dietzel, deutscher Mediziner und Hochschullehrer

1912

Roger Pla, escritor y crítico de arte argentino (f.

Roger Pla, escritor y crítico de arte argentino (f. 1982).

1913

Robert R. Gilruth

Robert Gilruth ran NASA's manned spaceflight program from Mercury through Apollo. He built Mission Control, hired the first astronauts, and made the calls that put men on the moon. He retired quietly in 1973, having managed the impossible without ever flying himself. Some people reach space by staying on the ground.

1913

Franz Stadler, deutscher Verbandsfunktionär, Präsident des ADAC

1913

Marios Makrionitis

Marios Makrionitis became Roman Catholic Archbishop of Athens in 1951. There were only about 50,000 Catholics in all of Greece — an Orthodox country. He served eight years in a city that barely wanted him. He died at forty-six. Leading a tiny flock in a hostile land.

Jean-Toussaint Desanti, philosophe français († 20 janvier 2002).

Robert Pierce, US-amerikanischer Journalist und Evangelist

Sergei Kulagin, sowjetischer Schauspieler

William Allen Egan, político estadunidense (m.

William Allen Egan, político estadunidense (m. 1984).

1915

Pablo Palazuelo, pintor y escultor español (f.

Pablo Palazuelo, pintor y escultor español (f. 2007).

1915

María Telo Núñez, jurista y feminista española (f.

María Telo Núñez, jurista y feminista española (f. 2014).

1916

John W. King, US-amerikanischer Politiker

Danny Murtaugh

Danny Murtaugh managed the Pirates to two World Series titles. He retired four times and came back four times. He had a heart attack in 1970, retired, then returned in 1973. He won the World Series in 1971. He managed until 1976, then died two months after his final retirement. He couldn't stay away. The game killed him.

Walter Lord

Walter Lord wrote A Night to Remember in 1955, interviewing 64 Titanic survivors, some in their 90s. He reconstructed the sinking minute by minute. The book sold millions, became the definitive account, inspired James Cameron's film 40 years later. Lord was a lawyer who wrote on weekends. He never married, lived with his mother until she died, spent his life reconstructing other people's disasters.

Rodney Robert Porter

Rodney Robert Porter was mapping the structure of antibodies when no one was quite sure antibodies had a structure. He found that treating them with the enzyme papain split the immunoglobulin molecule into three fragments — two that bind to antigens and one that doesn't. That Y-shaped structure, which he worked out in the early 1960s, is now in every immunology textbook. He shared the Nobel Prize in 1972 with Gerald Edelman. He died in a car crash in 1985 at 67, still running his Oxford laboratory.

Hans Poser, deutscher Komponist

Franz Schädler, liechtensteinischer Skirennläufer

Billy Conn

Billy Conn was winning on points against Joe Louis in 1941, ahead on every scorecard with two rounds left. Then he tried to knock Louis out instead of coasting. Louis knocked him out in the 13th round. Conn never got that close again. Patience is harder than courage.

1918

Halfdan Hegtun

Halfdan Hegtun hosted Norwegian radio for 50 years, starting under Nazi occupation. He broadcast through German censorship, then through independence, then through oil wealth. Same voice, five different Norways. He retired at 90, still on air.

1918

Kurt Redel, deutscher Dirigent

1918

Kiichi Miyazawa became Prime Minister of Japan at 72. He'd been in politics for 40 years. He served 18 months. He lost a no-confidence vote and resigned. He stayed in Parliament another 14 years. He spent a lifetime climbing, got to the top, and fell almost immediately. He kept showing up anyway.

Eduardo Rudy, actor argentino (f. 1989).

1920

Frank Herbert

Frank Herbert worked as a journalist, photographer, oyster diver, and TV cameraman before writing Dune. He spent six years researching it — reading everything about ecology, religion, Islamic culture, and the politics of oil. He sold the completed novel to Chilton Books, a company that mostly published auto repair manuals. Dune went on to sell forty million copies and inspire everything from Star Wars to Game of Thrones. Herbert wrote five sequels, none of which quite matched the first. He died in 1986, with three more planned.

1920

Nils Liedholm

Nils Liedholm played for AC Milan for 12 years and never got a yellow card. Not one. He was a midfielder, the position that commits the most fouls. He coached Milan for another decade after he retired. Discipline is a skill.

1922

Herbert B. Leonard

Herbert B. Leonard produced Route 66 and Naked City, shows that filmed on location when everyone else used soundstages. He sent crews to every state, shooting highways and streets. He made TV look like America instead of Hollywood.

1922

Katharina Focke, deutsche Bundesministerin

1922

Stefania Woytowicz, polnische Sängerin

1923

Rune Emanuelsson, futebolista sueco (m.

Rune Emanuelsson, futebolista sueco (m. 1993).

1923

Wilhelm Knabe, deutscher Forstwissenschaftler und Politiker

1923

1925

Paul Van Hoeydonck, sculpteur belge († 3 mai 2025).

1925

Jean-Guy Hamelin, évêque catholique québécois († 1er mars 2018).

1925

Andrei Siniavski, escritor russo (m.

Andrei Siniavski, escritor russo (m. 1997).

Louise Hay, escritora estadunidense (m.

Louise Hay, escritora estadunidense (m. 2017).

Ruth Mönch, deutsche Schauspielerin, Sängerin und Moderatorin

Günter Mittag, deutscher Politiker

Raaj Kumar

Raaj Kumar worked as a sub-inspector in the Bombay Police before Bollywood noticed his voice—a baritone so distinctive it didn't need amplification. He quit the force. His first film flopped. His second made him a star. He spoke every line like an arrest.

Jim Elliot

Jim Elliot went to Ecuador in 1956 to make contact with the Huaorani people. He was 28. He and four other missionaries were killed with spears on the first encounter. His widow went back two years later and lived with the tribe for decades. The mission continued without him.

César Milstein

César Milstein fled Argentina in 1963 after the military coup purged university scientists. He went to Cambridge and figured out how to make monoclonal antibodies — identical antibodies produced in unlimited quantities. He didn't patent it. He thought medical discoveries should be free. The technique is worth billions now. He shared the Nobel in 1984. He never regretted giving it away.

Carmina Virgili, geóloga, química, gestora científica y política española (f.

Carmina Virgili, geóloga, química, gestora científica y política española (f. 2014).

Abraham Nehmé, syrischer Erzbischof

Ívar Stefánsson, isländischer Skilangläufer

Didi

Didi captained Brazil to the 1958 and 1962 World Cup victories, inventing the "folha seca" free kick that curved unpredictably. He coached Peru to their first World Cup in 40 years. He died at 72, having won as a player and built as a coach. His free kicks are still studied.

Ludwig Spuhler, deutscher Spion

M. Russell Ballard

M. Russell Ballard spent decades as a senior leader in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, overseeing global missionary work and directing the faith's massive media outreach. His tenure modernized how the church communicates with the public, shifting its focus toward digital engagement and expanding its international presence across six continents.

Bill Maynard

Bill Maynard spent his first professional years as a comic in working men's clubs, then moved into television where he'd become one of Britain's most recognizable character actors. He played Claude Jeremiah Greengrass on Heartbeat for 15 years — a lovable rogue who drove a battered pickup and schemed his way through the Yorkshire moors. The role made him a household name at 64.

Helmut Qualtinger, österreichischer Schauspieler, Schriftsteller und Kabarettist

Neil Harvey

Neil Harvey was 19 when he scored a century in his second Test match for Australia. He played for 14 years, scored 21 Test centuries, and was one of the greatest left-handed batsmen in cricket history. He's 95 now. Longevity after greatness is rarer than greatness itself.

1929

Valdir Pereira

Valdir Pereira — known as Didi — invented the folha seca, the "dry leaf" free kick that dipped and swerved so unpredictably goalkeepers couldn't track it. He won back-to-back World Cups with Brazil in 1958 and 1962. Pelé called him the greatest midfielder he ever played with. He died in 2001, largely forgotten outside Brazil, despite changing how the game is played.

1929

Betty Boothroyd

Betty Boothroyd became the first female Speaker of the House of Commons at 63. She'd been a Labour MP for 16 years. She enforced order in Parliament for eight years, shouting down hecklers in both parties. She retired at 71. She spent her entire career getting there, then left.

1929

1932

James Holshouser

James Holshouser was North Carolina's first Republican governor in 84 years. He won in 1972 by 51 votes after a recount. Fifty-one. He served one term, didn't run again. He'd broken a century of Democratic rule by the margin of a classroom, then walked away.

1935

1937

Walter Trefz, deutscher Förster, Umweltaktivist, Kommunalpolitiker und Naturphilosoph

William Corlett

William Corlett wrote 50 children's books, including the Magician's House series that sold millions. He moved to France at 60 and kept writing until he died at 67. He spent his final years in a farmhouse in Dordogne, producing books about English magic from French countryside. Geography didn't matter; imagination did.

Ralph Hubert « Sonny » Barger, membre fondateur américain du chapitre des Hells Angels d'Oakland, Californie († 29 ju…

Ralph Hubert « Sonny » Barger, membre fondateur américain du chapitre des Hells Angels d'Oakland, Californie († 29 juin 2022).

Galina Kostenko, sowjetische Leichtathletin

Harvey Pekar

Harvey Pekar wrote American Splendor about filing papers at a VA hospital in Cleveland. No superheroes. No adventure. Just standing in line, paying bills, arguing with coworkers. He got artists to draw his scripts for decades. He appeared on Letterman eight times, once throwing a tantrum about GE that got him banned. His comics made the mundane feel like survival.

Paul Hogan

Paul Hogan worked as a rigger on the Sydney Harbour Bridge for 10 years before appearing on a TV talent show in 1971. He did a comedy sketch making fun of pretentious people. It went viral before viral existed. He got his own show. "Crocodile Dundee" made $328 million in 1986. He'd never acted before.

Lynne Stewart

Lynne Stewart was convicted of smuggling messages from her client—the blind sheikh behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing—to his terrorist organization in Egypt. She'd released his statements to Reuters. At trial, she claimed attorney-client privilege covered it. The jury disagreed. She served four years in federal prison, disbarred at 66, still insisting she was defending constitutional rights, not terrorism.

Gary Anderson, tireur sportif américain, double champion olympique.

Giuseppe Beghetto, coureur cycliste italien spécialiste de la vitesse sur piste.

Jean-Claude Gaudin, homme politique français, ministre de l'Aménagement du territoire de 1995 à 1997 et maire de Mars…

Jean-Claude Gaudin, homme politique français, ministre de l'Aménagement du territoire de 1995 à 1997 et maire de Marseille de 1995 à 2020 († 20 mai 1939).

Elvīra Ozoliņa

Elvīra Ozoliņa threw the javelin 59.55 meters in 1964, a world record that stood for 16 years. She was Soviet, Latvian, competing for an empire that occupied her country. She threw farther than any woman alive while wearing the hammer and sickle.

Stanley Bates

Stanley Bates appeared in British television for over 40 years, mostly in working-class roles nobody remembers individually but everyone's seen. He wrote screenplays between acting jobs. He never became famous. He worked steadily until he couldn't, which is what most actors actually do.

1942

Pepe Domingo Castaño, comunicador, escritor y cantante español (f.

Pepe Domingo Castaño, comunicador, escritor y cantante español (f. 2023)

1945

Ewa Lipska, poetista polonesa.

Jean-Jacques Beineix

Jean-Jacques Beineix directed Diva in 1981, his first film, about a bootleg opera recording and two cassette tapes mixed up in Paris. It was stylish, neon-lit, obsessed with surfaces. Critics called it 'cinéma du look' as an insult. Audiences loved it. It became a cult hit worldwide. He made five more films in 30 years, none as successful. Diva defined him and trapped him.

Giedrius Donatas Ašmys, litauischer Politiker

Wolfgang Ender, liechtensteinischer Skirennläufer

Dennis Kucinich

Dennis Kucinich became mayor of Cleveland at 31 in 1977. Youngest mayor of a major American city ever. He refused to sell the city's electric utility to private investors. Banks called his loans. The city defaulted. He lost reelection. Thirty years later, Cleveland's public power system saves residents $200 million a year. He was right, just early.

Vítor Damas, futebolista português (m.2003).

Hansa Yogendra

Hansa Yogendra has taught yoga in Mumbai for decades and runs The Yoga Institute, one of the oldest organized yoga centers in the world. Her mother-in-law founded it in 1918. She's been teaching since the 1960s. She inherited a yoga school older than Indian independence.

Emiel Puttemans

Emiel Puttemans set five world records in 13 months, including the 3000 meters and 5000 meters. He ran the 1972 Olympics with a stress fracture and still won silver. He never won gold at a major championship. His 5000-meter record stood for three years, and he's still considered Belgium's greatest distance runner.

Stephen Shore

Stephen Shore took color photographs when art photography was black-and-white. He shot mundane American scenes — parking lots, motel rooms, breakfast tables. He had his first solo show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art at 23. He made the ordinary worth looking at. He's taught at Bard College for 40 years.

Richard Morris

Richard Morris excavates medieval churches and writes about English landscapes. He's dug up cathedrals and traced how villages formed. He's spent 40 years explaining why English fields look the way they do, why churches sit where they sit.

Bob van Asperen, niederländischer Musiker

Bernard Talvard, escrimeur français.

Bill Zorn

Bill Zorn played folk music in coffeehouses and small venues for decades, never chasing a record deal. He built a regional following in the Pacific Northwest. He's still performing. Most musicians don't get famous. They just keep playing.

Sarah Purcell

Sarah Purcell co-hosted "Real People" on NBC from 1979 to 1984. The show profiled ordinary Americans doing unusual things. It was a hit for five years. She left TV after it ended. She did a few guest spots, then disappeared. She was famous for half a decade, then chose to stop. Most people don't get to walk away. She did.

Armand De Decker, político belga (m.

Armand De Decker, político belga (m. 2019).

Marcelo Picchi, ator brasileiro.

Pedro López

Pedro López confessed to killing 300 girls across Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador. He was caught in 1980. He was released from prison in 1998 for good behavior. He disappeared. Nobody knows where he is. He's likely still alive. He's called "The Monster of the Andes." He may be the most prolific serial killer in history. And he's free.

Johnny Ramone

Johnny Ramone used only downstrokes on his guitar. No alternating up-down like every other guitarist. Just down, down, down, for two hours straight, at 200 beats per minute. His right forearm looked like a blacksmith's. The Ramones played 2,263 concerts in 22 years, almost all under 30 minutes. He never did drugs, never drank on tour. He voted Republican. When he died, he left his guitar to Eddie Vedder with one instruction: keep playing it.

Benjamin Cheever

Benjamin Cheever is John Cheever's son. He edited his father's letters after his death, including the ones about his father's affairs with men. He wrote novels about suburban disappointment. He worked as an editor at Reader's Digest for 15 years. His reviews called him a good writer cursed with a great father. He's still writing. The shadow never moved.

Claude Jade

Claude Jade was 19 when François Truffaut cast her in Stolen Kisses, the first of three films where she'd play the same character across 14 years. She became the face of French cinema's quieter moments — not the bombshell, but the woman you'd actually marry. She died of cancer in 2006 at 58.

Cien Caras, luchador professional Mexicano

1949

Timo Salonen

Timo Salonen won the World Rally Championship in 1985 driving a Peugeot 205 T16. He'd crashed, rebuilt, and driven through Finnish forests at speeds that killed others. He retired at 41, having survived long enough to quit.

1951

Jack O'Connell

Jack O'Connell spent 16 years as California's Superintendent of Public Instruction. He'd been a high school history teacher first. He pushed through smaller class sizes and higher graduation requirements. He left office in 2011. California now ranks 41st in education spending per student. The requirements stayed. The funding didn't.

1951

Adrian Palmer

Adrian Palmer inherited the title 4th Baron Palmer along with Huntley & Palmers biscuit fortune — his family made cookies for the British Empire. He was seventy-one when he died in 2023. The company's gone, but the title remained. He was a baron of biscuits that nobody bakes anymore.

Jan Marijnissen led the Socialist Party in the Netherlands from a literal trailer. He grew up in a Catholic working-class family, dropped out of school at 15, became a Maoist. He rebuilt his fringe party from 0.4% of the vote to 16.6% in two decades, making it the third-largest in parliament. He did it by going door-to-door in poor neighborhoods everyone else ignored.

Mira Haar, atriz, diretora, roteirista e figurinista brasileira.

Nabi Avcı, türkischer Politiker

Aldine Muller, atriz brasileira.

Robert Saxton

Robert Saxton was composing music at 6 years old. Benjamin Britten mentored him as a teenager. He's written five operas, six symphonies, and chamber works premiered across Europe. He teaches at Oxford. His students have won major prizes. He's been composing for 60 years. He's still writing.

Michael Dudikoff was a model with no martial arts training when Cannon Films cast him in American Ninja. He learned to fight on set. The film made $10 million on a shoestring budget and spawned four sequels. He became the face of 1980s direct-to-video action, a genre that didn't exist before him.

1954

Huub Rothengatter

Huub Rothengatter raced in Formula One for three seasons in the 1980s. He never scored a point. He started 30 races and finished 11. He drove for backmarker teams with broken cars. He kept racing anyway. After F1, he became a manager and race steward. He couldn't win races. He spent decades helping others try.

1954

Walter Dahn, deutscher Maler, Fotograf und Tonkünstler

Claudio Sulser, Schweizer Fußballspieler

Jeanne Galway, US-amerikanische Flötistin und Musikpädagogin

Bill Elliott

Bill Elliott won NASCAR's Winston Million in 1985 by winning three of the sport's biggest races in one season. He took home an extra $1 million. He raced for 37 years, won 44 times, and made it to the Hall of Fame. He was called "Awesome Bill from Dawsonville." His hometown still sounds a siren every time he wins. They don't hear it much anymore.

Lonnie Pitchford

Lonnie Pitchford learned blues guitar from an elder who'd known Robert Johnson. He played a one-string diddley bow made from baling wire and a glass bottle. He recorded two albums and toured Europe, keeping the North Mississippi hill country blues alive. He died of AIDS complications in 1998 at 43.

Paul Lennon

Paul Lennon became Tasmania's Premier after his predecessor resigned over a scandal. He lasted three years, lost an election, and left politics entirely. Tasmania has 540,000 people. Running it is less like governing and more like managing a small city that happens to be an island.

Marcelo Bonelli, periodista argentino.

Darrell Hammond

Darrell Hammond did 107 impressions on "Saturday Night Live" across 14 seasons — more than any cast member in history. He played Bill Clinton 87 times. He was also cutting himself in his dressing room between sketches. He'd been abused as a child and didn't tell anyone for decades. He wrote about it in 2011. He's still performing.

Alain Ferté

Alain Ferté raced in Formula One, sports cars, and touring cars across a 30-year career. He never won a Formula One race but won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1997. He's still racing in historic car events. Some people never stop driving fast.

Janice E. Voss

Janice Voss flew five Space Shuttle missions, logging 779 hours in orbit. She held a doctorate in aeronautics and worked on space station design between flights. She died of breast cancer at 55, having spent more time in space than most astronauts ever will. She made orbit routine.

Javed Iqbal, criminoso paquistanês (m.

Javed Iqbal, criminoso paquistanês (m. 2001).

Paulo Castelli, ex-ator e psicólogo brasileiro.

Ernst C. Sigrist, Schweizer Schauspieler

Tente Sánchez, futbolista español.

Jeff Lahti

Jeff Lahti pitched for the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1980s. He was a reliever for six seasons. He saved 52 games. He had a 3.40 ERA. Then his arm gave out. He retired at 30. He never made an All-Star team. He just showed up, threw strikes, and left when his body quit. Most careers end like that.

Stephanie Zimbalist

Stephanie Zimbalist is the daughter of Efrem Zimbalist Jr., but she made her own name playing Laura Holt opposite Pierce Brosnan in Remington Steele. The show ran five seasons and nearly cost Brosnan the Bond role — NBC wouldn't release him. She's spent the last 30 years mostly on stage.

Martha Kearney

Martha Kearney has interviewed every British Prime Minister since John Major. She's hosted BBC Radio 4's Today programme and World at One, asking questions at breakfast and lunch. She's also a beekeeper who writes about hives between broadcasts.

Antonio Cabrini

Antonio Cabrini is the only player to miss a penalty in a World Cup final. Italy beat West Germany anyway in 1982. He'd won 73 caps as a left-back, scored nine goals, and was named in the tournament's all-star team. The miss didn't matter. He still got the medal.

Cristina Mullins, atriz brasileira.

Joseph Atiyeh, syrischer Ringer

Guilherme Karam, ator brasileiro (m.

Guilherme Karam, ator brasileiro (m. 2016).

Joe Castiglione

Joe Castiglione has been the athletic director at Oklahoma since 1998. He hired Bob Stoops, who won a national championship in his second year. He hired Lon Kruger for basketball. He navigated conference realignment, kept Oklahoma in the Big 12, then moved them to the SEC. He's been there 26 years. Athletic directors who last that long either win or know where the bodies are buried.

Steve Coll

Steve Coll won the Pulitzer Prize twice: once for reporting on the SEC, once for Ghost Wars, his book about the CIA in Afghanistan before 9/11. He ran The New Yorker as managing editor, then became dean of Columbia Journalism School. He writes books about ExxonMobil and the Bin Laden family. He's proof you can win Pulitzers and still have a day job.

1958

Ursula von der Leyen

Ursula von der Leyen had seven children before entering politics. She became Germany's first female defense minister in 2013. She's now President of the European Commission — the first woman to hold the job. She learned English watching 'Dallas' as a teenager in Brussels. She runs Europe now.

Nick Bakay

Nick Bakay voiced Salem the cat on Sabrina the Teenage Witch for seven seasons, delivering sarcastic one-liners to a puppet. He's also written for dozens of sitcoms and hosts a sports betting show. The cat made him more famous than anything he's written or appeared in as himself.

Celsa Mel Gowland, cantante argentina de rock y acid jazz.

Miguel de Andrés, futbolista español.

Christin Cooper, US-amerikanische Skirennläuferin

Mayada El Hennawy, syrische Sängerin

Mike Morgan

Mike Morgan pitched for 22 years in the majors. He played for 12 different teams. He went 141-186 with a 4.23 ERA. He was never an All-Star. He never won a championship. He just kept getting signed. He made $21 million being mediocre for two decades. Some guys are just good enough to stay.

Irene Ojala, norwegische Politikerin

Reed Hastings

Reed Hastings co-founded Netflix in 1997 after being charged $40 in late fees on a VHS copy of Apollo 13. That's the story he tells. His co-founder Marc Randolph has suggested the actual genesis was more complicated. Either way, the result was a DVD-by-mail service that became a streaming company that became the model for how media is distributed globally. Hastings stepped down as CEO in 2023, having overseen the company's growth from a startup to 230 million subscribers. He gave $120 million to his alma mater, Bowdoin College.

François Pérusse

François Pérusse created Les 2 minutes du peuple in 1989, two-minute comedy sketches on Quebec radio. He's released 15 albums of them. He's sold over a million copies in a province of eight million people. He voices every character himself. Quebecers can recite his bits from memory. He's been doing two minutes for 35 years. Nobody else has figured out how to leave.

Lorenzo Milá

Lorenzo Milá has been a news anchor for Spanish television for over 30 years. He's reported from war zones, covered elections, and interviewed world leaders. Nobody outside Spain knows his name. Inside it, he's been the voice of the evening news for a generation. He shows up, reads the news, and comes back tomorrow. That's the job.

Simone Carvalho, atriz brasileira.

Isabel de Sebastián, cantante, música y compositora de rock, pop, jazz y world music.

Jorge Cadaval, humorista español.

Mike Teague

Mike Teague played flanker for England during their 1991 World Cup final against Australia. He'd been a carpenter before rugby went professional. His nickname was "Iron Mike" — he once played an entire match with a broken jaw. He earned 27 caps for England and toured with the British Lions twice. The carpenter became one of England's most feared forwards.

Royce do Cavaco, músico, cantor e compositor brasileiro.

André Mattos, ator brasileiro.

Steven Bernstein

Steven Bernstein reshaped the boundaries of modern jazz by blending avant-garde experimentation with the raw energy of brass band traditions. As a founding member of Sex Mob and a key collaborator with The Lounge Lizards, he pioneered a genre-defying sound that brought slide trumpet improvisation into the heart of New York’s downtown experimental scene.

Ted Kooshian

Ted Kooshian plays jazz piano arrangements of old television theme songs. He's recorded The Flintstones, Gilligan's Island, and The Addams Family as bebop. He's been the pianist for the Ed Palermo Big Band for decades, playing Zappa arrangements. He teaches at the New School. He has a doctorate in music theory. He's made a career out of proving that jingles are just melodies waiting for better chords.

Bruno Thiry won the Belgian Rally Championship eight times. He raced in the World Rally Championship for years but never won a WRC event. He was a national champion who couldn't break through internationally. He kept racing until he was 50. He won everything at home. Everywhere else, he was just another driver.

C. J. Ramone

Andrzej Wroński, lutteur polonais, champion olympique.

Burr Steers, US-amerikanischer Drehbuchautor, Filmregisseur und Schauspieler

Peter Greene, actor estadounidense.

Ardal O'Hanlon

Ardal O'Hanlon played Father Dougal Maguire on Father Ted with such convincing stupidity that people assumed he was actually dim. He has a degree in communications. He's written novels, toured as a stand-up for 30 years, and replaced John Nettles on a British detective series. The priest followed him everywhere.

Birgitt Austermühl, deutsche Fußballspielerin

Wanderley Magalhães Azevedo, ciclista brasileiro (m.

Wanderley Magalhães Azevedo, ciclista brasileiro (m. 2006).

Felipe Camiroaga, animador de televisión y actor chileno (f.

Felipe Camiroaga, animador de televisión y actor chileno (f. 2011).

Karyn Parsons

Karyn Parsons played Hilary Banks on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, then walked away from acting to write children's books about Black history. Born in 1966, she created Sweet Blackberry, producing short films about figures like Harriet Tubman and Henry "Box" Brown. She'd spent six years playing a vapid socialite. She spent the next twenty years making sure kids knew stories Hollywood wasn't telling. Sometimes the best career move is inventing a new career.

Felipe Camiroaga

Felipe Camiroaga was Chile's most popular TV host for 20 years. He interviewed celebrities, hosted variety shows, and did comedy. In 2011, he flew to the Juan Fernández Islands to film earthquake relief efforts. His plane crashed in the ocean. All 21 people aboard died. Chile declared three days of national mourning.

Teddy Riley

Teddy Riley invented New Jack Swing by putting hip-hop beats under R&B melodies in his bedroom studio in Harlem. He was 19. He produced Bobby Brown, Michael Jackson, and Lady Gaga. He created a genre that dominated radio for a decade, then disappeared so completely that people forgot it had a name.

1967

Yvonne Reyes

Yvonne Reyes left Venezuela for Spain at 19 with $200 and became one of Spanish television's biggest stars. She hosted variety shows, acted in telenovelas, and was a tabloid fixture for decades. She's now better known for a paternity case involving a former government official than her career.

CL Smooth

CL Smooth recorded "They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)" with Pete Rock in 1992, a tribute to their friend who'd died. It's considered one of the greatest hip-hop songs ever made. The duo split in 1995. They've reunited occasionally. CL kept rapping. He never made another song like that one. Nobody has.

CL Smooth, rapero y productor estadounidense, de la banda Pete Rock & CL Smooth.

Lucho Velasco, actor colombiano.

Ali Benarbia, futbolista argelino.

Ali Benarbia

Ali Benarbia played in France's lower divisions until he was 31, then moved to Monaco and became one of Ligue 1's best playmakers. He joined Manchester City at 33 and was their player of the year. He retired at 36. His peak lasted five years.

Zvonimir Boban

Zvonimir Boban kicked a police officer during a riot at a 1990 match between Dinamo Zagreb and Red Star Belgrade. The officer was beating a Dinamo fan. Boban became a Croatian national hero overnight. He went on to captain the national team and win the Champions League with AC Milan.

Emily Procter

Emily Procter played a ballistics expert on CSI: Miami for 10 seasons, one of the most-watched shows in the world. She's also a serious poker player and decorator. The show ended in 2012. She's barely acted since, focusing instead on raising her daughter and renovating houses.

1970

Matt Damon

Matt Damon sold the Good Will Hunting script with Ben Affleck for $600,000 when he had $800 in the bank. He was 27. They'd written it together in college, workshopping scenes in Boston bars. They won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. He's been a movie star ever since.

1970

Gauri Khan, productora y diseñadora de moda india.

1970

Marc Ellis scored six tries in a single Rugby World Cup match in 1995 — still a tournament record. He was 24. Then he quit professional rugby to become a television presenter. His cooking and travel shows made him more famous in New Zealand than his rugby career ever did. The guy who set an unbreakable record walked away at his peak.

Miran Pavlin, slowenischer Fußballspieler

David Gauke

David Gauke was Justice Secretary when he resigned in 2019 rather than support a no-deal Brexit. He'd been in Parliament 14 years, held four cabinet positions. He quit over a policy, lost his seat in the next election. He chose principle and lost his job.

Uta Deckow, deutsche Journalistin

Kim Myung-min

Kim Myung-min trained as a classical pianist before acting. He's starred in 20 Korean films and TV dramas over 25 years. He's won four Best Actor awards. He played a detective, a doctor, and a Joseon-era painter. He still practices piano daily. He never performed professionally. He acts instead.

Aurélia Nolin, actrice et metteuse en scène française.

Murmel Clausen, deutscher Drehbuchautor

Kari Korhonen

Kari Korhonen draws Fingerpori, a single-panel comic that appears in Finland's largest newspaper. It's been running since 2007. His style is deliberately crude — thick lines, simple faces, terrible puns. Finns either love it or hate it. There's no middle ground. He's published over 30 books of a comic that looks like it was drawn in five minutes.

Jim Fairchild

Jim Fairchild shaped the sound of indie rock through his intricate guitar work with Grandaddy and his later tenure in Modest Mouse. His melodic sensibilities helped define the atmospheric, lo-fi aesthetic of the early 2000s, influencing a generation of musicians to blend analog synthesizers with traditional rock instrumentation.

Bruno Mantovani, französischer Komponist

Koji Murofushi

Koji Murofushi won Olympic gold in the hammer throw in 2004. His father had competed in the same event in the 1972 Olympics. Koji threw 84.86 meters to win. He competed in five Olympics total. He's the only Japanese athlete to win Olympic gold in a throwing event. His father never won a medal. His son did.

Didier Angibeaud, kamerunischer Fußballspieler

Martin Henderson

Martin Henderson left New Zealand for Australia at 17 with $500 and slept on friends' couches. He landed a soap opera role, then moved to Hollywood. He's been the romantic lead in Grey's Anatomy and Virgin River, but he's never quite become a household name despite 30 years of trying.

DJ Q-Ball

DJ Q-Ball joined the Bloodhound Gang as their turntablist in 1996. He scratched on "The Bad Touch," which went to number one in seventeen countries. The video featured the band in monkey suits. He stayed with them through their ban from Russia for desecrating the flag. He's still touring with them. The monkey suits are gone. The scratching remains.

Fredrik Modin

Galo Blanco

Galo Blanco reached a career-high ranking of 43 in singles and won two ATP doubles titles. He played Davis Cup for Spain for a decade. He retired at 32 and became a coach, working with players trying to do what he couldn't — break into the top 20.

Renate Groenewold

Renate Groenewold won 28 medals at the World Single Distance Speed Skating Championships. She competed for 15 years. She never won Olympic gold. She won silver twice, bronze once. She was one of the best speed skaters in the world. Just never the best on the right day.

Frantz Carly Jean Michel, acteur et gestionnaire haïtien.

Seryoga

Seryoga raps in Russian about Belarusian life and became one of Eastern Europe's biggest hip-hop stars. He's sold millions of albums in countries that barely existed when he was born. He made Soviet kids buy rap records.

Erna Siikavirta

Erna Siikavirta plays keyboards for Lordi wearing a monster costume and theatrical makeup. Her character is an alien entity. She joined in 2005, a year before they won Eurovision for Finland — the first hard rock band ever to win it. She's classically trained. She has a master's degree in music. Nobody in the audience sees her face. That's the point. The monster is the performance.

1977

Jamie Marchi

Jamie Marchi has voiced over 300 anime characters in English dubs. She's Panty in Panty & Stocking, Rias in High School DxD, Cana in Fairy Tail. She also writes the scripts, adapting Japanese dialogue to match mouth movements in English. She's been doing it for 20 years in Texas, where most anime dubbing happens. Millions know her voice. Almost nobody knows her face.

1977

Sylvain Maynier, basketteur français.

1977

Erna Siikavirta, pianista, cantante y compositora finlandesa, de la banda Lordi.

Dickon Mitchell, político y abogado granadino, primer ministro de Granada desde 2022.

Mick O'Driscoll

Mick O'Driscoll played rugby for Munster and Ireland for over a decade. He was a lock forward, a hard worker in the second row. He won two Heineken Cups with Munster. He made 18 appearances for Ireland. He was never a star. He was just reliable. He retired and became a coach. Same job, different role.

Antonino D'Agostino

Antonino D'Agostino played over 300 matches in Italy's lower divisions, mostly in Serie C. He never made it to the top flight. He scored 47 goals as a striker, a decent return for a career spent in obscurity. He's still playing amateur football in Sicily.

Patrícia Müller, apresentadora de televisão, escritora e roteirista portuguesa.

Lada Kozlíková, ciclista checa.

Gregori Chad Petree, cantante-compositor y guitarrista estadounidense, de las bandas Shiny Toy Guns, Cloud2Ground y P…

Gregori Chad Petree, cantante-compositor y guitarrista estadounidense, de las bandas Shiny Toy Guns, Cloud2Ground y PC Quest.

Paul Burchill

Paul Burchill wrestled in WWE from 2005 to 2009. He had a pirate gimmick. He swung into the ring on a rope. Fans loved it. WWE dropped the gimmick after a few months. He wrestled four more years without it. He was released in 2009. He never became a star. The pirate thing was the closest he got.

Kristanna Loken

Kristanna Loken beat out 200 actresses to play the T-X in Terminator 3. She trained for months to fight Arnold Schwarzenegger on screen. The movie made $433 million. She's spent the last 20 years in smaller films and television, never recapturing that moment.

Pablo Alberto Cuba, futbolista argentino.

1980

The Miz was on 'The Real World' in 2001 before becoming a wrestler. He joined WWE in 2006 and has held eight championships. He's been wrestling for 18 years. He hosts reality shows. He's acted in 20 WWE films. He turned reality TV into a two-decade wrestling career.

1980

Nick Cannon

Nick Cannon became the youngest staff writer in television history at 17, writing for All That. He created and starred in Wild 'N Out at 22. He's hosted America's Got Talent, The Masked Singer, and fathered 12 children with six women. He's everywhere, always.

روبي، ممثلة ومغنية مصرية.

Raffi Torres

Raffi Torres played 13 NHL seasons and was suspended eight times. He hit people late, hit them high, hit them when they weren't looking. He was suspended for 86 games total. He scored 125 goals. He made $16 million. He spent more time suspended than some players spend in the league. He kept getting signed anyway.

Ruby

Ruby was born in Benha, Egypt, and became one of Arab pop's most controversial stars—not for her music, but for her videos and outfits. Conservatives denounced her. She kept releasing hits. Scandal sold. She knew it. She built a career on it.

Vladimir Kisenkov

Vladimir Kisenkov played professional football in Russia's second division for 15 years. He never made the Premier League, never played internationally. He spent his entire career one tier below the top, close enough to see it.

Kalil Wilson

Annemiek van Vleuten

Annemiek van Vleuten crashed on a descent during the 2016 Olympic road race. Three fractured vertebrae. She woke up in the hospital thinking she'd won gold — she'd been leading when she fell. She was 33. Most cyclists retire younger. She won the world championship at 36, then again at 37, then the Olympics at 39. The crash wasn't the end.

1982

Miloš Pavlović

Miloš Pavlović started racing karts in Serbia during the Yugoslav Wars. Fuel was rationed. Spare parts didn't exist. He kept racing anyway. By 2005, he was competing in European touring car championships. Serbia didn't have a motorsport federation until 2006. He built his career in a country that didn't officially recognize his sport.

1983

Mihkel Kukk

Mihkel Kukk threw javelin for Estonia at the 2008 Olympics, finishing 12th. Born in 1983, his personal best was 84.70 meters — about the length of an entire football field. He competed when Estonia had barely four million people. Every Olympics has athletes from small countries who train in obscurity, peak for one throw, one race, one moment. Most of the world never learns their names. They throw anyway.

Abhishek Nayar played two Tests and three ODIs for India, scoring 19 runs total. He played domestic cricket for Mumbai for 16 years, scoring over 7,000 runs. He won five Ranji Trophy titles. He's now a coach. His domestic career dwarfed his international one. He played anyway.

1984

Domenik Hixon

Domenik Hixon played six NFL seasons as a wide receiver, winning a Super Bowl with the Giants in 2012. He caught 86 passes, scored 11 touchdowns, and retired at 28 after repeated injuries. He got a ring and got out. Sometimes knowing when to stop prevents knowing what comes after.

1984

Jun Ando, futbolista japonés.

1984

Malcolm Shabazz, criminal francoestadounidense (f.

Malcolm Shabazz, criminal francoestadounidense (f. 2013).

Malcolm Shabazz was Malcolm X's grandson, set fire to his grandmother Betty Shabazz's apartment at 12, and served four years in juvenile detention. She died from her burns. He was killed in Mexico at 28, beaten during a robbery. Two generations, two violent deaths.

Razak Omotoyossi, futbolista beninés (f.

Razak Omotoyossi, futbolista beninés (f. 2025).

Elliphant

Elliphant grew up in a Stockholm suburb, dropped out of school at 15, and spent years in India and Bali before returning to make music that sounded like nothing else in Sweden. Born in 1985, she blended dancehall, electronic, and hip-hop when Swedish pop meant something else entirely. Her breakthrough came at 27. She'd spent a decade becoming someone who couldn't have existed at 17. Sometimes you have to leave to figure out what you sound like.

Bruno Mars

Bruno Mars was born Peter Gene Hernandez in Honolulu in 1985. His family performed in a show impersonating Elvis, Michael Jackson, and Little Richard. He was onstage at four, doing an Elvis routine in a jumpsuit. At 25, he wrote "Nothin' on You" and "Billionaire" for other artists before anyone knew his name. Then he released his own album. Turns out spending your childhood impersonating legends is decent preparation for becoming one.

Eiji Wentz, ator e cantor japonês.

Simone Bolelli, italienischer Tennisspieler

Felix Menzel, deutscher Publizist

Eiji Wentz

Eiji Wentz is half-German, half-Japanese, and became a teen idol in Tokyo singing J-pop with WaT. His first single sold 270,000 copies in 2005. He's hosted television shows in both Japanese and English and acted in 15 films. Japan's entertainment industry runs on novelty. Mixed heritage was his, and he turned it into a career.

1986

Mario Sonnleitner, österreichischer Fußballspieler

1986

Taylor Price

Taylor Price played two NFL seasons as a wide receiver, caught 15 passes, scored zero touchdowns. He'd been drafted in the third round. Two years, then cut. He'd made it and couldn't stay.

Aya Hirano

Aya Hirano voiced Haruhi Suzumiya in the anime that made her famous at 19. She sang the theme song, which became a cultural phenomenon in Japan. Then she dated members of her band and her popularity collapsed overnight. She's still working, but she'll never escape that character.

Uendel, futebolista brasileiro.

João Pedro Zappa, ator brasileiro.

Hanne Gaby Odiele

Hanne Gaby Odiele was born intersex. She didn't tell anyone for years. She modeled for Chanel, Dior, Marc Jacobs — walked hundreds of runways with a secret about her chromosomes and anatomy. At 29, she went public. She became one of the first openly intersex models in fashion. Now she campaigns against non-consensual surgeries performed on intersex infants. The body that made her famous became the platform she needed.

Max Felder, deutscher Schauspieler und Synchronsprecher