Curated playlist
1970 births
- Matt DamonMatt Damon once turned down 10 percent of the profits from Avatar, a film that went on to become the most successful of all time. Director James Cameron made the offer while Damon was still working on the Bourne films, and Damon did not…
- Paul ZbyszewskiPaul Zbyszewski wrote both the first and the last episodes of his ABC series Day Break. The show ran only a short time.
- Christopher NolanChristopher Nolan has no smartphone and no email address. He hand-delivers his scripts to the actors he wants.
- Kevin SmithKevin Smith maxed out credit cards and sold his comic books to make Clerks. The film raised $27,575 and won at Sundance.
- RaekwonRaekwon was accidentally shot four times in a crossfire. He later called it an "important eye opener."
- Rachel WeiszRachel Weisz first made headlines in 1984 by saying no. She was a teenage model who had started working at the age of 14, and she turned down an offer to star in King David opposite Richard Gere. The British actress, born on the 7th of…
- Paul Thomas AndersonPaul Thomas Anderson, the American filmmaker known by his initials PTA, earned a C+ on his very first film school assignment. The task at New York University was simple: write a single page of screenplay. Anderson handed in a page from…
- Queen LatifahQueen Latifah picked her name from a book of Arabic names at age eight. She added the title "Queen" herself.
- Naomi CampbellYves Saint Laurent threatened to pull his ads to get Naomi Campbell on French Vogue.
- Uma ThurmanUma Thurman and Quentin Tarantino once imagined a character from one image: a bride covered in blood. The two of them came up with it on the set of Pulp Fiction, long before anyone shot a frame of what became Kill Bill. That picture suits…
- Gianni InfantinoOn the 19th of November 2022, just before the World Cup opened in Qatar, Gianni Infantino told reporters that he “felt Qatari, Arab, African, gay, disabled, and like a migrant worker”. Infantino is the president of FIFA, the organisation…
- River PhoenixRiver Phoenix was an American actor and musician, and at the 92nd Academy Awards his brother Joaquin spoke one of River's lyrics aloud. Accepting the Best Actor prize, Joaquin told the room that River wrote it at 17: "run to the rescue…
- Hiroshi MinagawaHiroshi Minagawa goes by the nickname Nigoro, and his name sits in the credits of some of the most admired role-playing games to come out of Japan. He is an artist, a designer, and a director. His earliest credit in the list of his works…
- Keiichiro ToyamaKeiichiro Toyama went from Silent Hill horror to Gravity Rush, where the heroine changes which way is down.
- Jennifer ConnellyJennifer Connelly was eleven years old when she walked into an audition for the director Sergio Leone and tried to pass as a ballerina. She had never taken a ballet lesson. She simply imitated what she imagined a dancer would do. Leone was…
- Marcelo CassaroHoly Avenger, a Brazilian manga-style comic, was printed left-to-right instead of right-to-left.
- Dallas AustinAfter his brother threw his keyboard, Dallas Austin left Columbus, Georgia. He rode a bus to Atlanta around 1986.
- Megyn KellyMegyn Kelly stood on a rally stage in Pittsburgh on the 4th of November 2024, one day before the presidential election, and endorsed Donald Trump. She told the crowd he would be a "protector" of women. Afterward she posted a selfie with…
- Melania TrumpMelania Trump holds a set of firsts that no earlier first lady of the United States shares. She is the first naturalized citizen to hold the title. She is also the first first lady whose native language is not English. Other names mark…
- Emma Smith (scholar)In 2016, Oxford scholar Emma Smith authenticated a newly found copy of Shakespeare's First Folio.
- 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…
- David BenioffDavid Benioff was a club bouncer and a high school wrestling coach before Game of Thrones. He later co-ran the show.
- Susan AtheyA summer job preparing computer sales bids set Susan Athey on the path to economics.
- Ram BergmanRian Johnson had spent seven years trying to make his script Brick when he met producer Ram Bergman.
- DMXDMX was the first artist to open five straight studio albums at number one on the Billboard 200.
- Tetsuya NomuraTetsuya Nomura started at Square as a debugger, not a designer. A hand-drawn plan book later got him noticed.
- Claudia GrayClaudia Gray is a pen name, and she has written Star Wars books and Jane Austen murder mysteries.