9 Milestone Celebrity Birthdays in March
Queen Latifah, William Hurt, Vince Vaughn and other stars celebrate
by Susan Wloszczyna, AARP, February 28, 2020
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PHOTO BY: Leon Bennett/Getty Images
March 12: Courtney B. Vance, 60
En español | IThis actor is skilled at playing lawyers by now: He was Assistant District Attorney Ron Carver on NBC's Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Johnnie Cochran on FX's limited series The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story — a role that won him an Emmy. Married to the actress Angela Bassett, Vance now heads the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) Foundation and is set to appear in two upcoming series: HBO's Lovecraft Country and National Geographic's Genius, as preacher and activist C.L. Franklin.
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PHOTO BY: Mat Hayward/Getty Images
March 13: William H. Macy, 70
The indie film regular, who aced his role as the sad-sack, hit man-hiring car salesman in 1996's Fargo, has described himself as “sort of a Middle American, Waspy, Lutheran kind of guy” and “everyman.” The star of Showtime's Shameless, which wraps up its 11th and final season this year, is married to actress Felicity Huffman (in the news recently for her role in the recent college admission scandals and resulting two-week prison sentence).
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PHOTO BY: Paras Griffin/Getty Images for ESSENCE
March 18: Queen Latifah, 50
This New Jersey native — born Dana Elaine Owens — released her debut album, All Hail the Queen, in 1989, and soon became a hip-hop icon. She also built a successful acting career, first on TV with her Fox sitcom Living Single, and later in films such as the 1996 drama Set It Off and the 2002 musical Chicago. Last year, she performed in ABC's The Little Mermaid Live! and now has signed on to star in the pilot for CBS’ potential reboot of the 1980s crime drama The Equalizer.
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PHOTO BY: Rich Fury/Invision/AP
March 20: William Hurt, 70
This handsome leading man was in high demand in the ‘80s, especially after he steamed up multiplexes alongside Kathleen Turner's femme fatale in 1981's Body Heat. Then he won an Oscar for a very different role: a cross-dressing gay man in a Brazilian prison in 1985's Kiss of the Spider Woman. Hurt plays a retired Air Force sergeant in the recent war drama The Last Full Measure and will star opposite Scarlett Johansson in this summer's Black Widow.
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PHOTO BY: Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images
March 22: Stephen Sondheim, 90
This legendary Broadway composer and lyricist brought a new level of sophistication to American stage musicals, including Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Sunday in the Park With George. Sondheim, who has received eight Tony Awards — more than any other composer — also wrote lyrics for West Side Story, which will hit the big screen later this year in the form of a Steven Spielberg–directed film.
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PHOTO BY: Michael Tullberg/Getty Images
March 26: Jennifer Grey, 60
The daughter of Oscar-winning actor Joel Grey is best known as the naive Frances “Baby” Houseman in 1987's Dirty Dancing, opposite Patrick Swayze ("Nobody puts Baby in a corner!"). Turns out she can dance in real life, too: In 2010 she won the 11th season of Dancing With the Stars. The actress, who more recently starred in the 2014-2017 Amazon series Red Oaks, is married to the actor Clark Gregg.
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PHOTO BY: Sipa via AP Images
March 26: James Caan, 80
Caan first made a splash on the small screen, opposite Billy Dee Williams, in the 1971 TV-movie tearjerker Brian's Song, as Brian Piccolo, a Chicago Bears player diagnosed with terminal cancer. The following year he nailed his performance as hotheaded Sonny Corleone in The Godfather. Next up, he'll star with Ellen Burstyn in the film Never Too Late, a comic look at a retirement community.
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PHOTO BY: Mike Moore/WireImage
March 26: Sandra Day O'Connor, 90
The Texas-born O'Connor was a groundbreaker — the first woman to serve as a majority leader in the Arizona Senate, then the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court. Appointed by Ronald Reagan in 1981, she was known as a moderate Republican, powerful for casting the deciding vote in many key cases, until retiring in 2006 to care for her husband, John, after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. O'Connor, who became an outspoken supporter of Alzheimer's research, was also diagnosed with the disease a few years ago.
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PHOTO BY: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
March 28: Vince Vaughn, 50
Vaughn's breakout role in the 1996 film Swingers brought him into the fold of Hollywood's “Frat Pack,” leading to such bro-heavy comedies as DodgeBall (2004) and Wedding Crashers (2005), alongside frequent collaborators Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson. Vaughn has signed on for a starring role in an upcoming Netflix comedy that's said to be modeled in part after his 2003 hit Old School.