AARP Hearing Center
Hoda Kotb, Sam Elliott, Blair Underwood, Al Roker and Mary-Louise Parker are celebrating birthdays this month.
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Aug. 2: Mary-Louise Parker, 60
Mary-Louise Parker turns 60 on Aug. 2.
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After getting her start on the soap opera Ryan’s Hope and appearing in films like Fried Green Tomatoes, Parker became a Broadway regular, earning her first Tony in 2001 for the drama Proof. For most Americans, she became a household name when she starred as the drug-dealing suburban mom Nancy Botwin for eight seasons on Weeds, for which she was nominated for three Emmys. When the series ended in 2012, she returned to the warm embrace of Broadway, winning a second Tony for The Sound Inside and later earning another nomination (her fifth) for a revival of Paula Vogel’s memory play How I Learned to Drive; the production was extra special because Parker and costar David Morse were returning to the roles they had originated 25 years earlier off-Broadway. Next up, she’s set to appear in the period drama series The Gray House, about a quartet of female spies who helped the Union win the Civil War.
Aug. 7: Michael Shannon, 50
A Chicago stage fixture known for his imposing and intense characters, Shannon first came to prominence for many American cinema fans with his Oscar-nominated supporting turn in Revolutionary Road. In the years that followed, he showed off his range playing baddies (like General Zod in the Superman franchise, Richard Strickland in The Shape of Water) and complex figures like the puritanical agent Nelson Van Alden in Boardwalk Empire. Following his Emmy-nominated role as the country singer George Jones in George & Tammy, Shannon reunited with a frequent collaborator, director Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter, Loving), on The Bikeriders, about a 1960s motorcycle club.
Aug. 9: Hoda Kotb, 60
Hoda Kotb turns 60 on Aug. 9.
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The beloved broadcast icon has been a part of the NBC News family since 1998, when she was hired as a Dateline correspondent, reporting on such international news stories as the 2004 tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. When Today expanded to a fourth hour, Kotb made the leap to the morning, hosting the chat show portion alongside Kathie Lee Gifford (and later Jenna Bush Hager), and then taking on anchoring duties with Savannah Guthrie in 2018 — the first time two women led the show. In 2019, Kotb took home her first Daytime Emmy, and in recent years, she’s played herself multiple times in films and TV shows, like Marry Me and Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Aug. 9: Michael Kors, 65
Despite dropping out of the Fashion Institute of Technology after only two semesters, the Long Island–born designer successfully launched his first women’s collection in 1981, and over time expanded his business to include lower-priced ready-to-wear clothes as well as menswear, shoes, accessories and more. Kors became the creative director of the French fashion house Celine in 1997 and later won the Menswear Designer of the Year award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America. For those who don’t follow the ins and outs of fashion but love good television, he emerged as a popular, quip-spouting judge on the first 10 seasons of Project Runway. This June, the design legend celebrated the opening of a new boutique on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, his return to the street after a four-year break.
Aug. 9: Sam Elliott, 80
Sam Elliott turns 80 on Aug. 9.
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With his iconic mustache and deep baritone, the Sacramento-born actor has been a mainstay in the Western genre since he made his screen debut in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and over the decades, he’s played cowboys in everything from Tombstone to The Quick and the Dead. Elliott earned his first Oscar nomination in 2019 for A Star Is Born, and lately he’s been lighting up the small screen in two very different shows about the American West: the Netflix sitcom The Ranch, about a family-run ranch in Colorado, and 1883, a prequel to Yellowstone set after the Civil War.
Aug. 14: Earvin “Magic” Johnson, 65
One of the most dominant NBA players of the 1980s, the 6-foot-9 point guard led the L.A. Lakers to five league championships and was the first rookie to be named the NBA finals MVP. He shocked the sports establishment when, in 1991, he announced that he was HIV-positive and would be retiring from the league immediately; of course, he had a brief — and triumphant — return when he played in the 1992 All-Star Game and was a part of the gold-medal-winning “Dream Team” at the Barcelona Olympics. In recent years, Magic Johnson–fueled nostalgia has led to the debut of the HBO Max series Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty and the Apple TV+ docuseries They Call Me Magic, which included interviews with the likes of President Barack Obama and Larry Bird.
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