Curated playlist
1963 births
- Hideo KojimaKonami reportedly barred Hideo Kojima from The Game Awards 2015, where his Metal Gear Solid V won two prizes.
- Yoko UenoYoko Ueno sang in four different bands before her first solo CD. The Japanese artist later made nine solo CDs.
- Spoonie GeeAfter his mother died, twelve-year-old Spoonie Gee moved in with his uncle, a Harlem record producer.
- Grand Wizzard TheodoreThe scratch on a record began as a Bronx teenager's accident. Grand Wizzard Theodore says he found it in 1975.
- Quentin TarantinoQuentin Tarantino turned down Speed and Men in Black to write Pulp Fiction in Amsterdam.
- Whitney HoustonWhitney Houston sold more than 220 million records and carried a nickname that needed no first name: "the Voice". She was born in 1963 and died in 2012. In between, she became one of the most awarded performers in history. In 2023, Rolling…
- Brad PittBrad Pitt left the University of Missouri two weeks short of completing the coursework for his degree. As graduation approached, he did not feel ready to settle down. He loved films, which he once called "a portal into different worlds for…
- Karl MaloneKarl Malone played 193 playoff games without winning a championship. That is more than any player without a ring.
- George MichaelGeorge Michael refused to appear in his own music videos, so five supermodels lip-synced in his place.
- David GolumbiaDavid Alan Golumbia was born in Detroit in 1963 and died in Richmond on the 14th of September 2023. He was an American academic and author, and his working life was spent studying the technologies that many of his contemporaries embraced…
- Johnny DeppJohnny Depp, the American actor, musician and filmmaker, saw his film Jeanne du Barry open the 2023 Cannes Film Festival to a standing ovation that lasted seven minutes. Playing King Louis XV, he was acting in French for the first time.…
- Kathleen McGowanKathleen McGowan's self-published novel sold 2,500 copies, then a major publisher picked it up.
- Hakeem OlajuwonHakeem Olajuwon did not touch a basketball until he was 15. The Nigerian goalkeeper later won an NBA title.
- Allison ShearmurAllison Shearmur broke into Hollywood by winning a campus contest.
- Michael JordanMichael Jordan was cut from his high school varsity team as a sophomore for being too short.
- Charles BarkleyCharles Barkley became the shortest player ever to lead the NBA in rebounding.
- Conan O'BrienConan O'Brien went from writing The Simpsons to hosting late night, and critics said he would fail.
- Michel GondryMichel Gondry pioneered "bullet time" in a 1996 vodka ad. The effect was later adapted for The Matrix.
- Larry NassarLarry Nassar, whose full name is Lawrence Gerard Nassar, was born on the 16th of August 1963 and trained as an osteopathic physician. For decades, parents and athletes trusted him with the care of young bodies. In 2016, after an…
- Garry KasparovGarry Kasparov won the world chess title at 22 by beating Anatoly Karpov 13-11.
- Jürgen SchmidhuberAI researchers coined the verb "schmidhubered" for Jürgen Schmidhuber's habit of contesting credit.
- Amir GhalenoeiWhen Esteghlal fell to the third division, Amir Ghalenoei stayed. Five teammates left, and he became captain.
- Jensen HuangJensen Huang founded Nvidia in a Denny's booth, where he once worked as a dishwasher. Three engineers pooled $600.
- James MangoldJames Mangold studied acting because his CalArts teacher urged him to. It gave him a feel for performance.
- Satoshi KonWhen Satoshi Kon died in 2010, the news landed as a shock. He had kept his illness private, and only a short time earlier he had appeared at public events with no visible sign that anything was wrong. Kon was a Japanese film director,…
- Michel WeberMichel Weber opened Belgium's first philosophical counseling service. He champions process philosophy.
- Ha-Joon ChangHa-Joon Chang argues rich countries got wealthy with one set of policies, then told poorer ones to use another.
- Carl L. ThunbergCarl L. Thunberg co-founded a hardcore punk band in 1979 and later became a historian.
- Julian LennonJulian Lennon's nursery school painting inspired a Beatles song. It showed his classmate Lucy O'Donnell among stars.
- Detlef SchrempfDetlef Schrempf won the NBA Sixth Man Award twice as the league's best reserve.
- Lalit ModiLalit Kumar Modi founded the Indian Premier League, the Twenty20 cricket tournament that grew into one of the biggest sports leagues in the world. He ran it as its first chairman and commissioner for three years, until 2010. Then the…