10. March 3, 1958: Miranda Richardson. Although English, she is not, as I previously believed, a member of the Redgrave-Richardson acting family. But she has played a few Queens, including: Queen Mab, Isabella of Spain, Elizabeth I of England, Mary of England (wife of King George V), Elspeth (the evil queen of Snow White), and the Queen of Hearts in Alice In Wonderland.
She's also played Mary Magdalene, both Mary Wollstonecraft and her daughter Mary Shelley, Mrs. Claus, the Duchess of Kent (Queen Victoria's mother), Anna Leonowens (the "I" in The King and I), Virginia Woolf's sister Vanessa Bell, Clementine Churchill (Mrs. Winston) and Eva Braun (for one day, Mrs. Adolf Hitler). That's one hell of a range.
Honorable Mention: March 3, 1934: Jimmy Garrison. A master of the bass fiddle, being the 4th-best member of the John Coltrane Quartet is like being the 7th-best member of the Mercury 7.
Honorable Mention: March 3, 1970: Julie Bowen. She played Claire Dunphy (and Juliana) on Modern Family.
Honorable Mention: March 3, 1982: Jessica Biel. After playing Mary Camden on 7th Heaven, she has mainly appeared in exploitation films since. Granted, she's no Jessica Alba, but she's better than Jessica Simpson.
Honorable Mention: March 3, 1997: Camila Cabello. After singing with Fifth Harmony, she went solo, and has now begun acting, having played the most recent screen version of Cinderella.
9. March 3, 1945: George Miller. The Australian has directed 4 entries in the Mad Max franchise. But he's also directed both Babe the Pig films and both Happy Feet films. His wide range also includes the "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" segment of the 1983 Twilight Zone: The Movie, The Witches of Eastwick, and Lorenzo's Oil.
He was also attached to the 2008 Justice League project; that it fell apart wasn't his fault, and had it gone through, it almost certainly would have been better than the versions we got from Joss Whedon and Zack Snyder.
8. March 3, 1962: Herschel Walker. As a freshman, the running back led the University of Georgia to the 1980 National Championship. As a junior, he won the 1982 Heisman Trophy. The Sporting News rated him the Number 1 college football player of all time; ESPN, Number 2.
He forewent his senior year to join the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League, and was that league's Most Valuable Player in 1985, rushing for 2,411 yards, a professional football record, albeit in 18 games in a not-exactly-major league.
When the USFL went bust, he played for a few NFL teams, until 1997. He made 2 Pro Bowls, but never got close to a Super Bowl. In the NFL, he rushed for 8,225 yards and 61 touchdowns. He caught 512 passes for 4,859 yards and another 21 touchdowns. Counting his USFL stats, he rushed for 13,787 yards at 115 touchdowns, caught 642 passes for 6,343 yards and 28 touchdowns.
Throw in his kick returns in both leagues, and he had a total of 25,123 yards and 145 touchdowns. Remember: It's not the National Football League Hall of Fame: It's the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He should be in it. He is in the College Football Hall of Fame.
Unfortunately, the New Jersey Generals' owner was Donald Trump, and Herschel remains in the category of "the closest things Trump has to friends." Herschel's political activities don't change his athletic success.
Honorable Mention: March 3, 1922: Nándor Hidegkuti. A forward, he was a member of the "Magnificent Magyars" who played for the Hungary national soccer team in the 1950s, winning the Gold Medal at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, embarrassing England at Wembley Stadium in 1953 and reaching the Final of the 1954 World Cup. He later managed league champions in Hungary and Egypt. His club team, MTK Budapest, named their stadium for him after his death.
Honorable Mention: March 3, 1953: Zico. Born Arthur Antunes Coimbra, this midfielder was a 3-time South American Footballer of the Year. He led Rio de Janeiro team Flamengo to 3 league titles and the 1981 Copa Libertadores, the South American version of the UEFA Champions League. He led Brazil to 3rd place at the 1978 World Cup.
As a manager, he led teams to league titles in Turkey, Uzbekistan and Russia, nearly won the leagues in Greece and India, and led the Japan national team to the 2004 Asian Cup.
Honorable Mention: March 3, 1956: Zbigniew Boniek. A right wing, he led Widzew Łódź to the Ekstraklasa (Polish league) title in 1981 and 1982; Juventus of Turin to the Serie A (Italian league) title in 1984 and the 1985 European Cup (now known as the UEFA Champions League); and won the Coppa Italia with Juventus in 1983 and AS Roma in 1986. He also served as President of the Polish Football Association from 2012 to 2021.
Honorable Mention: March 3, 1984: Santonio Holmes. For Holmes, the position of wide receiver was elementary. He helped Ohio State win the 2002 National Championship, and the Pittsburgh Steelers win Super Bowl XLIII, being named the game's MVP.
7. March 3, 1920: James Doohan. He stormed Juno Beach with the Canadian Army on D-Day, survived a bullet to the chest when it struck a silver cigarette case in his pocket, and had his middle finger blown off. That's right: Jimmy Doohan literally gave the Nazis his middle finger.
So he wasn't going to be afraid of Klingons. He played the Chief Engineer of the USS Enterprise, Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott, on the original Star Trek series. (Montgomery is Doohan's middle name, and he's actually of Irish descent.) Because of his disfigurement, "Scotty" was usually shown operating equipment with his left hand. He later played "miracle worker" Scotty in 7 films and an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Honorable Mention: March 3, 1945: Hattie Winston. Depending on your age, you may know her as Margaret Wynborn on Becker, or as a cartoon voice-over artist, including for Rugrats. But if you're in my generation, you remember her on the 1970s PBS kids' show The Electric Company, especially as Valerie the Librarian, apparent girlfriend of Morgan Freeman's Easy Reader.
6. March 3, 1911: Jean Harlow. A kidney disorder ended her life and career at age 26, but not before she became Hollywood's 1st "blonde bombshell," starring in such "Pre-Code" films as Hell's Angels (about pilots, not motorcycle gangsters), Red Dust and Dinner at Eight. Ironically, one of her most-heralded roles was in Red-Headed Woman.
5. March 3, 1968: Brian Leetch. Perhaps the greatest all-around player the New York Rangers have ever had, it was he, not Captain Mark Messier, who was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy for Most Valuable Player of the 1994 Stanley Cup Playoffs. He was the 1st non-Canadian to win the trophy. When Leetch's Number 2 was retired, Messier himself called Leetch "the single greatest Ranger of all time." The authors of the 2009 book 100 Ranger Greats agreed.
He won the Calder Memorial Trophy as NHL Rookie of the Year in 1989, and the James Norris Memorial Trophy as top defenseman in 1992 and 1997. He was named to 11 NHL All-Star Games, and captained the U.S. team to victory at the 1996 World Cup. In 1998, while still active, The Hockey News ranked him 71st on their list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players, 2nd among Americans to 1940s Boston Bruins goalie Frank Brimsek.
4. March 3, 1860: John Montgomery Ward. At a time when baseball players, including pitchers, usually played more than one position, this was "Monte" Ward's skill set: Between 1878 and 1894, he played 826 games at shortstop, 493 at 2nd base, 293 as a pitcher, 110 in center field, 100 in right field, 46 at 3rd base, and 4 in left field. The only positions he never played in the majors were catcher (not surprisingly) and 1st base (which is a bit of a surprise).
He wasn't just versatile, he was successful. He won a National League Pennant with the 1879 Providence Grays. He was an original New York Giant in 1883, and won Pennants with them in 1888 and 1889. His pitching record was 164-103, including a perfect game in 1880. He's the only man to lead the NL in wins, earned run average, strikeouts and stolen bases. He's also the only man to collect over 2,000 hits and win at least 100 games. (Babe Ruth fell 5 wins short of doing that.)
When he pitched that perfect game, he was already the Grays' manager. It was only 31 games, on an interim basis, but it was enough to make him, at 20, the youngest manager in Major League Baseball history. He was entrusted with this because he was known as "a clever base ballist," which became the title of Bryan Di Salvatore's 2001 biography of him. In 1888, at 28, Ward published one of the earliest coaching books in any sport, and also the 1st book that attempted to explain the game's origins: Base-Ball: How to Become a Player, with the Origin, History and Explanation of the Game.
In 1885, while still playing, he graduated from Columbia Law School, which enabled him to launch the 1st real challenge to the team owners' power, the Players' League of 1890. It failed, but he was too good of a player for the owners to hold it against him, and he kept playing. He retired at age 34 to practice law, but went on to win some golf tournaments. (Of course, golf is not a sport.) He died in 1925, and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1964.
3. March 3, 1872: Willie Keeler. At 5-foot-4 and 140 pounds, he is the smallest player in the Baseball Hall of Fame. His lifetime batting average was .341. He collected 2,932 hits. He stole 495 bases. He helped the old National League version of the Baltimore Orioles win Pennants in 1894, 1895 and 1896; and his hometown Brooklyn Dodgers do so in 1899 and 1900.
In 1897, he had a 44-game hitting streak, still the longest in NL history and the 2nd-longest all-time. That season and the next, he won the NL batting title. In 1903, he was an original member of the New York Highlanders, the team that became the Yankees, and nearly led them to another Pennant in 1904. When asked for his advice on hitting, he said, "Keep your eye clear, and hit 'em where they ain't.""They" being opposing fielders.
He died of tuberculosis in 1923. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939. In 1999, The Sporting News made him the earliest-debuted player on their list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, ranking him 75th.
2. March 3, 1962: Jackie Joyner-Kersee. She played basketball at UCLA, but starred in track & field, winning the Gold Medal in the heptathlon and the long jump at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, and the heptathlon again in 1992 in Barcelona. She won her 1st Olympic medal in 1984, and her last in 1996. Sports Illustrated voted her the greatest female athlete of the 20th Century.
1. March 3, 1847: Alexander Graham Bell. There are those that argue that he didn't invent the telephone, that someone beat him to it. Even if that's true, he built the first practical telephone system, and the first telephone company. It became known as The Bell System, not The (Anybody Else) System.
In 1996, Forbes magazine runner Steve Forbes ran for President, and the politically-themed comedian Mark Russell said Forbes had "Ma Bell" as a centerfold.
It caught my attention that this list has Bell and a man named S. Holmes. Both Alexander Graham Bell and Sherlock Holmes were known for having assistants named Watson.
Still alive as of this writing: Bowen, Biel, Cabello, Richardson, Miller, Walker, Zico, Boniek, Holmes, Leetch, Joyner-Kersee.