Look who's turning 65 this month
Find out which celebrities are turning 65 this month!
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| Image Source: Wikipedia |
August 13 - Danny Bonaduce, actor, radio host
You might know Danny Bonaduce as the mischievous redheaded middle son of the musical family of The Partridge Family. Bonaduce won audiences over as Danny Partridge, son of Shirley Partridge (Shirley Jones), during the show’s run from 1970 to 1974. As a young actor, Bonaduce also appeared in Corvette Summer (1978) as a high school student alongside Mark Hamill (Star Wars). He had cameos and recurring roles in a variety of TV shows including Married…with Children, CSI, Monk, and The Drew Carey Show.
Despite struggling with drug and alcohol addiction, Bonaduce successfully reinvented himself several times during his entertainment career. From the late 1980s through the early 2020s, he hosted radio shows in his native Philadelphia, Chicago, Seattle, and elsewhere, becoming a well-known on-air personality.
He also stepped onto the wrestling mat for charity many times. Bonaduce faced off against some famous personalities, most of whom weren’t professional fighters, either, including actor Donny Osmond and baseball player José Canseco.
Bonaduce was arrested more than once on drug and assault charges, but he never lost a sense of humor about his own ups and downs. He titled his 2002 memoir Random Acts of Badness.
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| Image Source: Wikipedia |
August 14 - Magic Johnson, basketball star
Widely acknowledged as the greatest point guard of all time, Magic Johnson was born Earvin Johnson, Jr. in Lansing Michigan. When he was a sophomore in high school, his talent on the basketball court earned him the name Magic. Johnson is famous for his incredible passing skills: with a career total of 905 NBA games, Johnson holds the record for highest average of assists per game (11.2).
Johnson played for the Los Angeles Lakers during his entire career, leading the team to five NBA championships between 1979 and 1991. That period became known as the Showtime era because of Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabar’s spectacular style of play, characterized by lots of fast breaks, high scores, and excitement from the crowd.
Johnson joined the 1992 U.S. Olympic basketball team, dubbed The Dream Team for its roster of NBA stars, namely Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, and Charles Barkley. They won gold in Barcelona.
When Johnson tested positive for HIV, he retired abruptly from the Lakers, but later went on to play two more seasons. In his retirement, Johnson became an advocate for safe sex and HIV/AIDS awareness. He also kept playing basketball, most notably touring the world with the Magic Johnson All-Stars, a barnstorming team he founded.
In 2021, ESPN ranked Johnson the 17th greatest athlete of the 21st century.
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| Image Source: Wikipedia |
August 17 - Jonathan Franzen, author
These days, few novelists reach the height of celebrity that Jonathan Franzen has achieved in his three-decade career. The author is perhaps most famous for his novels The Corrections (2001) and Freedom (2010). The Corrections won the National Book Award and elevated Franzen to the national spotlight.
Franzen’s six novels, short fictions and essays, plus his presence as a public intellectual, have earned him a dual reputation as both an important voice in American letters and an elitist grump. He has the distinction of having been disinvited from Oprah’s Book Club, after he said in an interview that her choice of The Corrections made him “cringe” because of her track record of picking “schmaltzy” books. Nine years later, Oprah picked Freedom, offering Franzen a redemptive moment. He took her up on it and appeared on her show.
Freedom recounts the tragicomic story of the Midwestern Berglund family. According to Franzen, the novel was inspired in part by the death of his friend and highly-acclaimed novelist David Foster Wallace. Freedom received enormous recognition, and some critics lent it the coveted label “The Great American Novel.” It’s currently in production as a limited TV series with Melanie Marnich (Big Love, The Affair) as head writer.
Franzen lives in Santa Cruz, California and describes himself as an avid birdwatcher. He served for almost a decade on the board of the American Bird Conservatory.
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Blog posting provided by Society of Certified Senior Advisors
