Curated playlist

1968 births

Gábor BeteghGábor Betegh spent most of his adult life on a badly charred papyrus roll from a Macedonian grave.
Josh BrolinJosh Brolin was trading stocks full time in 2006 when he booked the lead role in the Coen brothers' Academy Award-winning film No Country for Old Men. The film became both a critical and a commercial success. Brolin is an American actor…
Naomi WattsDavid Lynch offered Naomi Watts the lead in Mulholland Drive after seeing only her headshot.
Will SmithWill Smith turned down the lead role in The Matrix to make Wild Wild West. He later called that choice a mistake.
Sam RockwellSam Rockwell won an Oscar for playing a racist, bullying police deputy. He delivered burritos by bicycle first.
Felipe VIFelipe VI, King of Spain, stands 1.97 metres tall, or 6 feet 5 and a half inches. That height earned him a Guinness World Record as the tallest reigning monarch in the world. It is a small fact about a man whose public life has been shaped…
Celine DionCeline Dion spent her earliest months sleeping in a dresser drawer, because her family could not afford a crib. She was the youngest of 14 children, born on the 30th of March 1968 in Charlemagne, Quebec. Nothing about that crowded, careful…
Robert RodriguezRobert Rodriguez paid for his first feature by joining medical testing studies. El Mariachi cost $7,000 in 1992.
Didier DeschampsDidier Deschamps is one of only three men to win the World Cup as both player and manager.
Daniel CraigIn 2021, the English actor Daniel Craig was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It sits at 7007 Hollywood Boulevard, an address that winks at the code number 007. Two days later his final film as that famous spy opened in the…
Simon P. KeefeSimon P. Keefe wrote four Mozart books on his own between 2001 and 2017. He also edited eight more volumes.
Davor ŠukerDavor Šuker won the 1998 World Cup Golden Boot in Croatia's first World Cup. He scored six goals in seven matches.
Timothy OlyphantTimothy Olyphant once turned down the lead in a film that its studio was ready to approve if he said yes. The producer Neal H. Moritz recalled the studio's position this way: "If you can get Timothy Olyphant to play that role we will…
LL Cool JLL Cool J became the first rapper to receive the Kennedy Center Honors in 2017.
Chris Perkins (game designer)Chris Perkins retired from Dungeons and Dragons in April 2025 and joined Critical Role's game company by June.
John SingletonAt 24, John Singleton became the first African American nominated for the Best Director Oscar.
Shawn LevyShawn Levy once played a morgue worker on Stranger Things. He later helped run the show as executive producer.
Timothy McVeighTimothy McVeigh was driving on Interstate 35 in Noble County, Oklahoma, when state trooper Charles J. Hanger noticed his yellow 1977 Mercury Marquis had no license plate. Hanger also noticed a bulge under the driver's jacket. McVeigh…
Mohamed AttaMohamed Atta left behind at least eight variations of his name on documents, and al-Qaeda knew him by yet another, Abd al-Rahman al-Misri. He told some people he was from the United Arab Emirates. During flight training in Florida, he…
Junot DíazJunot Díaz arrived in New Jersey at six unable to speak English. He later won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
Kylie MinogueKylie Minogue's hit "I Should Be So Lucky" was written in under 40 minutes.
Akira YamaokaAkira Yamaoka is the Japanese composer and sound designer behind the music of almost every Silent Hill game. When Konami went looking for someone to score the first one, he put himself forward. His reason was blunt. He believed he was the…
The Lady of RageThe Lady of Rage rapped on The Chronic and Doggystyle before she had an album of her own.
Toni KukočToni Kukoč waited three years after the Bulls drafted him to play an NBA game. He then won three titles in Chicago.
Damon AlbarnDamon Albarn was due to speak at a rally in Hyde Park in February 2003. A million people had taken to the streets of London to protest the coming war in Iraq. He never gave the speech, because he was too emotional. Afterwards he explained…
Brendan FraserIn September 2022, the film The Whale premiered at the Venice International Film Festival, and the audience gave its star, Brendan Fraser, a standing ovation that lasted six minutes. Fraser is an American and Canadian actor, and that night…
Lyle and Erik MenendezLyle and Erik Menendez became known to the public through a telephone call placed late on the 20th of August 1989. Lyle told a 9-1-1 operator, "Someone killed my parents!" He said he had just come home and found their bodies. Erik could be…
Hugh JackmanHugh Jackman likes to tell the story of the thirteen seconds he spent out of work. In his words, "I was technically unemployed for thirteen seconds." The count began on the night of his final graduation performance at drama school, when a…
Gillian AndersonGillian Anderson was arrested on her graduation night. She had broken into her own high school in Grand Rapids, Michigan, hoping to glue the locks of its doors shut. Her classmates had voted her "class clown," "most bizarre girl" and "most…
Guy FieriGuy Fieri, an American restaurateur, author and television presenter, was called the "face of the network" by The New York Times in 2010. The network was Food Network. The same article said he brought an "element of rowdy, mass-market…
Joseph HenrichJoseph Henrich started out as an aerospace engineer at a defense contractor.
Dan CaineJohn Daniel "Razin" Caine is an American general, born in 1968, who became chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 2025. His appointment broke three precedents at once. No earlier chairman had reached the job without first holding…
Kristin ChenowethKristin Chenoweth is 4 feet 11 inches tall, and as a child she sang a song about it. At the age of 12, she stood alone before the national conference of the Southern Baptist Convention and performed "Four Feet Eleven," an Evie song. Its…
Brian Cox (physicist)Brian Cox, the English physicist and musician, once admitted to a chat show host that he did badly in A-level maths. "I got a D... I was really not very good... I found out you need to practise." That grade belongs to a man who now holds…
Lisa Marie PresleyLisa Marie Presley was nine years old in August 1977 when her father, Elvis, died and left her a share of his estate. The will made her a joint heir beside two much older relatives: her 61-year-old grandfather, Vernon, and her 87-year-old…
Vlade DivacVlade Divac was traded for a teenage Kobe Bryant. The Lakers center had arrived from Yugoslavia speaking no English.