Birthdays Today: July 19

Sixty-one living people we could verify share today's birthday, from Doctor Strange's Benedict Cumberbatch turning 50 and Queen's Brian May to a former First Minister of Scotland and a Ghanaian boxing legend, plus two Rock and Roll Hall of Fame guitarists born on the exact same July day in 1947 and five notable people across five fields all born on July 19, 1961.

The headliners

Benedict Cumberbatch turns 50 today, and he owns two of the most recognizable character arcs of the last 15 years. He is Sherlock Holmes in the BBC's Sherlock), the role that made him internationally famous, and Dr. Stephen Strange across the Marvel Cinematic Universe, from Doctor Strange) to the multiverse films. He has two Best Actor Oscar nominations, for The Imitation Game as codebreaker Alan Turing and for The Power of the Dog). The genuinely startling part of his story: in 2004, while filming the BBC miniseries To the Ends of the Earth in South Africa, he and two co-stars were abducted at gunpoint by six men after a tire blew out, then driven around for hours and tied up. He talked his way out of being locked in a car boot by telling his captors he had a heart condition. He was appointed a CBE in 2015.

Brian May turns 79 today, and the sound of Queen is partly his handwriting. He co-founded the band with Freddie Mercury and Roger Taylor, wrote "We Will Rock You," "The Show Must Go On," and "Fat Bottomed Girls," and built the Red Special, the homemade guitar he plays on every Queen record, out of an 18th-century fireplace mantelpiece with his father when he was 16. Here is the part that still surprises people: May is also an astrophysicist. He began his PhD at Imperial College in 1970, put it on hold when Queen took off, and finally completed it in 2007. He was a science team collaborator on NASA's New Horizons Pluto mission, served as Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University, and was knighted in 2023. He is also a vocal animal-welfare campaigner.

Anthony Edwards) turns 64 today, and he is the answer to two trivia questions from two different eras. For the 1980s he is Goose, Tom Cruise's doomed radar intercept officer in Top Gun, whose death is the engine of the whole film, and who returned as flashback in Top Gun: Maverick nearly 40 years later. For the 1990s and 2000s he is Dr. Mark Greene on ER), the show's emotional center for its first eight seasons, a role that won him a Golden Globe and four Emmy nominations. The quiet surprise: in 2021 he married Mare Winningham, his ER co-star, decades after they first met on the show. His maternal grandfather was Kem Weber, the German-born designer who helped shape mid-century American furniture.

Howard Schultz turns 73 today, and he is the man who turned a Seattle coffee-bean wholesaler into the largest coffeehouse chain in the world. He ran Starbucks as CEO across two long stretches, 1986 to 2000 and 2008 to 2017, plus an interim return in 2022-23, and took the company public in 1992. The origin story is the part worth knowing: Schultz grew up in the Bayview housing projects in Brooklyn, and when he was seven his father, a delivery driver, fell on ice and broke his ankle, lost his job, and found he had no health insurance and no worker's compensation. Schultz has said that memory is why Starbucks offered health coverage, even to part-time employees. Forbes put his net worth around $4.3 billion in 2020. He also owned the Seattle SuperSonics from 2001 to 2006.

Ilie Năstase turns 80 today, and he was the first name at the top of men's tennis when the ATP rankings began. The Romanian was the inaugural ATP world No. 1 in 1973, held the spot for 40 weeks, and won seven Grand Slam titles across singles, doubles, and mixed doubles, including the US Open and French Open singles. He won over 100 ATP titles in his career and was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1991. The genuinely surprising detail: Năstase was the first professional athlete to sign an endorsement contract with Nike, doing so in 1972, a year before the company's running boom. He also wrote several novels in French in the 1980s and later served as a Senator of Romania from 2014 to 2016.

Christopher Luxon turns 56 today, and he runs a country. He is the 42nd Prime Minister of New Zealand, sworn in on 27 November 2023 after leading the National Party to a plurality of seats, governing in coalition with ACT and New Zealand First. The unusual part is how fast it happened: before entering politics he spent his career in business, as CEO of Air New Zealand from 2013 to 2019 and, before that, a senior Unilever executive who rose to president and CEO of Unilever Canada. He won his parliamentary seat in 2020, gave his maiden speech, and just eight months later was elected leader of the National Party unopposed. Three years after entering Parliament, he was prime minister.

A note before the roll call. The most delightful coincidence on this date is a guitar one: Brian May, born 19 July 1947, shares his exact birthday with Bernie Leadon, the founding guitarist of the Eagles, also born 19 July 1947. Two Rock and Roll Hall of Fame guitarists from two of the biggest bands in history, both turning 79 today, both welcomed into the world on the same day. And that is not even the biggest pile-up on July 19: the date in 1961 produced five notable people across five different fields, all turning 65 today, the actor Campbell Scott, the comedian Lisa Lampanelli, the Soviet Olympic gymnast Maria Filatova, the Indian cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle, and the Japanese horror director Hideo Nakata, who made Ringu.

Also celebrating today

On screen and behind the camera

Vasily Livanov (Soviet and Russian actor, the Sherlock Holmes of Soviet television), turning 91. George Dzundza (character actor, The Deer Hunter, Basic Instinct, and Law & Order), turning 81. Peter Barton) (actor, The Powers of Matthew Star and The Young and the Restless), turning 70. Atom Egoyan (Armenian-Canadian filmmaker, The Sweet Hereafter), turning 66. Campbell Scott (actor, Singles and The Amazing Spider-Man), turning 65. Hideo Nakata (Japanese filmmaker, Ringu and Dark Water), turning 65. Clea Lewis (actress, Audrey on Ellen), turning 61. Nancy Carell (actress and comedian, The Office and Saturday Night Live, wife of Steve Carell), turning 60. Andrew Kavovit (actor, As the World Turns, Daytime Emmy winner), turning 55. Naohito Fujiki (Japanese actor and singer, Great Teacher Onizuka), turning 54. Saïd Taghmaoui (French actor, La Haine and Wonder Woman), turning 53. Nathalie Boltt (South African actress, Penelope Blossom on Riverdale), turning 53. Vinessa Shaw (actress, Hocus Pocus and The Hills Have Eyes), turning 50. Chris Sullivan) (actor, Toby on This Is Us), turning 46. Jared Padalecki (actor, Sam Winchester on Supernatural and Dean on Gilmore Girls), turning 44. Trai Byers (actor, Jamal Lyon on Empire), turning 43. Ryan Dorsey (actor, Ray Donovan and Glee), turning 43. Steven Anthony Lawrence (actor, Beans on Even Stevens), turning 36.

In music

Vikki Carr (Mexican-American pop and Latin singer, "It Must Be Him"), turning 86. Bernie Leadon (founding guitarist of the Eagles, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer), turning 79. Kevin Haskins (drummer of Bauhaus and Love and Rockets), turning 66. Evelyn Glennie (Scottish solo percussionist, Polar Music Prize laureate), turning 61. Urs Bühler (Swiss tenor of the classical crossover group Il Divo), turning 55. Ramin Djawadi (composer, Game of Thrones, Westworld, and Iron Man), turning 52. Jason McGerr (drummer of Death Cab for Cutie), turning 52. Eric Prydz (Swedish DJ, "Call on Me" and "Opus"), turning 50. Michelle Heaton (singer of the pop group Liberty X), turning 47. Popcaan (Jamaican dancehall singer), turning 38. Oh Ha-young (K-pop singer, member of Apink), turning 30.

In sport

Yoshiaki Yatsu (Japanese professional wrestler and former mixed martial artist, All Japan Pro Wrestling tag champion), turning 70. Robert Gibson) (pro wrestler, the Rock 'n' Roll Express, WWE Hall of Fame 2017), turning 68. Azumah Nelson (Ghanaian boxer, two-weight WBC world champion, known as "the Professor"), turning 68. Maria Filatova (Soviet gymnast, Olympic team gold in 1976 and 1980), turning 65. Mark Carreon (MLB first baseman and outfielder, Mets and Giants), turning 63. Teresa Edwards (basketball Hall of Famer, four Olympic gold medals), turning 62. Christian Bergström (Swedish former tennis player, two Wimbledon quarterfinals), turning 59. Preston Wilson (MLB outfielder, 2003 All-Star), turning 52. Rey Bucanero (Mexican professional wrestler, CMLL), turning 52. Adam Morrison (former NBA player, two-time champion with the Lakers), turning 42. LaMarcus Aldridge (former NBA All-Star, seven-time selection), turning 41. Jinder Mahal (former WWE Champion), turning 40. Jon Jones (former UFC light heavyweight and heavyweight champion), turning 39. Trent Williams (NFL offensive tackle, San Francisco 49ers, 12-time Pro Bowl), turning 38. Patrick Corbin (MLB pitcher, 2019 World Series champion with the Nationals), turning 37.

In public life, letters, and on the air

Ethan Canin (American novelist and physician, Iowa Writers' Workshop faculty), turning 66. Lisa Lampanelli (stand-up comedian, the "Queen of Mean"), turning 65. Harsha Bhogle (Indian cricket commentator and journalist), turning 65. Garth Nix (Australian fantasy novelist, the Old Kingdom series), turning 63. Chris Kratt (zoologist and children's television host, Wild Kratts and Zoboomafoo), turning 57. Nicola Sturgeon (former First Minister of Scotland, 2014 to 2023), turning 56. Vitali Klitschko (former WBC heavyweight champion, mayor of Kyiv since 2014), turning 55. Helen Skelton (BBC television presenter, Blue Peter and Countryfile), turning 43. Shane Dawson (YouTuber, one of the platform's early stars), turning 38. James Austin Johnson (Saturday Night Live cast member, Trump and Biden impressions), turning 37. Romee Strijd (Dutch model, Victoria's Secret), turning 31.

Sixty-one living people, verified. If someone you love is on this list, tell them.