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Joaquin Phoenix, Lorraine Bracco, Dale Earnhardt Jr., CeCe Winans and Ang Lee are celebrating birthdays this month.
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Oct. 2: Lorraine Bracco, 70
Lorraine Bracco turns 70 on Oct. 2.
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The Brooklyn-born actress first made a name for herself in the 1970s as a fashion model in Paris. However, American audiences first took notice when she co-starred as real Mob wife Karen Hill in 1990’s Goodfellas, for which she received an Oscar nomination. She returned to the world of organized crime for her career-defining, Emmy-nominated turn as psychiatrist Jennifer Melfi in the beloved HBO crime drama The Sopranos. In addition to a recurring role on Rizzoli & Isles, Bracco starred as herself on the HGTV series My Big Italian Adventure, in which she bought a Sicilian villa for 1 euro and renovated it.
Oct. 3: Clive Owen, 60
After breaking out on British TV with the crime series Chancer, Owen gained big-screen fame with Croupier, playing a struggling writer who works at a casino to make ends meet. A celebrated stage actor, he made a major splash with the Patrick Marber play Closer. When he returned to the material for the 2004 film adaptation, he earned an Oscar nomination. Since then, Owen has become a prestige-TV fixture. He’s played a turn-of-the-20th-century New York doctor (The Knick), author Ernest Hemingway (Hemingway & Gellhorn), President Bill Clinton (American Crime Story), a mysterious tech billionaire (A Murder at the End of the World) and, most recently, iconic detective Sam Spade in the AMC miniseries Monsieur Spade.
Oct. 3: Al Sharpton, 70
The civil rights activist started in the pulpit quite early: He began preaching at 4 and was ordained by the age of 10. By the 1990s, he became known for his protests against racial injustice, and he founded the National Action Network to fight for progressive policies like reparations and affirmative action. Following his failed run for New York City mayor, Sharpton emerged as a colorful media personality, later hosting a talk radio show and a series on MSNBC. Most recently, he appeared at the Democratic National Convention, where he introduced the Central Park Five, a group of Black men who as teenagers were wrongfully convicted of a 1989 rape and eventually exonerated.
Oct. 8: CeCe Winans, 60
CeCe Winans turns 60 on Oct. 8.
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A member of the Winans family gospel dynasty, CeCe began her career in the 1980s as part of a singing duo with her brother, BeBe. After going solo in 1995 with her album Alone in His Presence, she emerged as a commercial and critical darling: She’s the top-selling and most-decorated female gospel singer in history, with 15 Grammy wins and counting. Her latest release was this year’s live album More Than This, which she recorded in Nashville in front of an audience of about 1,200 alongside worship teams from across the city.
Oct. 9: Scott Bakula, 70
After years on the New York stage, Bakula hit it big with the time-travel series Quantum Leap, which saw him “leaping” into other people’s lives and changing history. He returned to the world of sci-fi with 2001’s prequel Star Trek: Enterprise, starring as Capt. Jonathan Archer, and he recently finished up the seventh and final season on NCIS: New Orleans. The Tony-nominated actor returned to his theater roots this year with the off-Broadway musical The Connector, in which he starred as the editor of a fictional highbrow magazine.
Oct. 9: Guillermo del Toro, 60
Mexican director del Toro gained acclaim with genre flicks like Blade II and Hellboy. In 2006, he generated critical acclaim with his disturbing historical fantasy Pan’s Labyrinth, set in fascist Spain. The film earned him his first Oscar nomination, for original screenplay. Another fantasy, the cross-species romance The Shape of Water, produced his first two Academy Award wins, for best director and best picture. And he’d keep the hits coming with Nightmare Alley (a nod for best picture) and his stop-motion Pinocchio (a win for best animated feature). This year, while filming a new adaptation of Frankenstein, del Toro posted on social media that “an oppressive vibe” was haunting him in his Scottish hotel room.
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