Look who's turning 65 this month
| Image Source: Wikipedia |
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| Image Source: Wikipedia |
January 4 – April Winchell, actor
What do Cruella de Vil and Clarabelle Cow (one of Minnie Mouse’s best friends) have in common? Their voice: both cartoon characters are voiced by April Winchell, a multi-talented voice actor and radio host who turns 65 this month. The talent runs in the family: her dad was the original voice of Tigger in Winnie the Pooh.
New York City-native Winchell has contributed to many radio advertisements over the years as a director and performer. You can hear her voice in hundreds of TV episodes and dozens of films including Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (2006-2016) and the upcoming reboot Mickey Mouse Clubhouse+ (2025), 101 Dalmatians: The Series (1997-8), Tarzan (1999), Pepper Ann (1997-2000), and her original voice role in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988).
New York City-native Winchell has contributed to many radio advertisements over the years as a director and performer. You can hear her voice in hundreds of TV episodes and dozens of films including Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (2006-2016) and the upcoming reboot Mickey Mouse Clubhouse+ (2025), 101 Dalmatians: The Series (1997-8), Tarzan (1999), Pepper Ann (1997-2000), and her original voice role in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988).
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| Image Source: Wikipedia |
January 6 – Howie Long, NFL player and sports analyst
Long played for the Oakland and Los Angeles Raiders his entire career, helping to lead the LA Raiders to Super Bowl glory in 1984. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2000. After retiring from the game, Long entered the entertainment and broadcasting industry. He served as a sports analyst for years on Fox News and won a Sports Emmy in 1996 as an Outstanding Sports Personality/Analyst. He appeared in advertising campaigns for a number of popular brands including Radio Shack, Nike, Pepsi, and Taco Bell. Between 1984 and 2001, he acted in 5 action films, perhaps most famously Broken Arrow (1996).
Howie Long’s son, Chris, is also a retired NFL defensive end with Super Bowl wins to his name. Readers probably know Johnny Whitaker best as the young star of the sitcom Family Affair (1966-1971), where he played the charming and resourceful red-haired orphan Jody Donovan.
In 1965, even before Family Affair, young Johnny was the first actor to play Scotty Baldwin on General Hospital. The role of Scotty would be played by half a dozen actors over the years and become the longest-running character (in real time) on the famous soap opera. As a kid, Whitaker also portrayed a classic American character in the musical Tom Sawyer (1973), and he appeared in episodes of Bewitched and Bonanza.
As an adult, Whitaker mostly left acting and has worked over the years as a computer consultant and talent manager.
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| Image Source: Wikipedia |
January 20 - Will Wright, video game developer
If you’ve spent hours painstakingly modeling a virtual home for your family of Sims, or obsessively laying out your SimCity grid, you can thank (or blame) Will Wright for creating these addictive computer games. SimCity, originally released in 1989 and now
considered one of the most influential computer games ever made, involves designing a city plan and infrastructure and collecting taxes from residents.
When Wright had to rebuild his home after a wildfire a few years after the release of SimCity, he started thinking about a computer game with a similar premise, but focused on building a single home. His first developer passed on the idea, but when Electronic Arts (EA) picked up The Sims, it ultimately earned them over a billion dollars in six years, spawned many spin-offs and imitators, and became a cultural touchstone of the 1990s.
Wright developed multiple other hit games with the theme of simulation, including SimEarth, SimAnt, and Spore. His scientifically-minded and innovative approach has earned him a reputation as one of the most important developers in the history of computer gaming.
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| Image Source: Wikipedia |
January 26 - Charlie Gillingman, musician and composer
Keyboard instrumentalist Charlie Gillingham is best known for his membership in the San Francisco rock band Counting Crows. Their breakout single, “Mr. Jones” (1993), which catapulted them to fame, was, ironically, about working musicians fantasizing about making it big. The song became a 90s anthem. After the release of “Mr. Jones,” Counting Crows toured internationally and opened for artists including the Rolling Stones, the Cranberries, and Bob Dylan.
Gillingham was nominated for an Academy Award for co-composing the Counting Crows song “Accidentally in Love,” ubiquitous on radio waves for years after it appeared in the movie Shrek 2. He’s originally from California and, before becoming a musician, studied artificial intelligence in the 1980s at UC Berkeley.
