WHO LOVES YA, BABY?
ENDEAVOUR and Game Of Thrones actor Anton Lesser was born in Birmingham in 1952 on the most romantic day of the year. He played Shakespeare’s tragic young lover in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Romeo And Juliet in 1980 and he is among those featured on the CD From Shakespeare – With Love (The Best Of Sonnets).
BLACK Panther star Danai Gurira’s father was teaching chemistry at Grinnell College, Iowa, when she was born on February 14, 1978. She moved from America to her parents’ native Zimbabwe when she was five and her name means “loving each other”.
FORMER EastEnder Dean Gaffney, left, was a Valentine’s Day baby. He was born in London on February 14, 1978. He took part in Channel 4’s Celebs Go Dating last year and was under strict instructions from his then 22-yearold twin daughters not to embarrass them. He said of dating: “I don’t want to be in a club these days, it’s about a good bottle of wine and a nice meal now.”
IT’S no joke. American comedy star Jack Benny was also a Valentine’s Day baby. He was born in Chicago in 1894 and died on Boxing Day 80 years later. His showbusiness theme song was Love In Bloom, and he and his wife
Mary were married for 47 years. He made arrangements to have a rose delivered to her each day after his death, until she passed away almost nine years later.
SHAUN Of The
Dead and Mission Impossible actor Simon Pegg, right, was born in Gloucester on Valentine’s Day in 1970. He married his long-term girlfriend Maureen in Glasgow in 2005, with friend and movie and TV collaborator Nick Frost as his best man. Gwyneth Paltrow was among the guests.
THE Good Doctor and Bates Motel actor Freddie Highmore, below, has said it can be strange going to restaurants on his birthday when they are filled with couples celebrating Valentine’s Day. He was born in 1992 in London’s Camden Town and made his movie debut aged just seven.
BUGSY Malone, Fame and The Commitments film director Alan Parker, inset, made his appearance on Valentine’s Day in 1944. He was born in Islington and his first screenplay was a love story about young romance, called Melody. It was filmed in 1971, with Oliver! actor Mark Lester and Tracy Hyde playing Melody.
CANADIAN Lois Maxwell was another Valentine’s Day baby and found fame as the original Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond films. She went to drama school with future 007 Roger Moore and appeared in 14 of the movies, saying of her co-stars: “I always said I’d have Roger (Moore) for a husband, but Sean (Connery) for a weekend lover”.
FOOTBALLING star Kevin Keegan was born at his aunt’s house in Doncaster on Valentine’s Day, 1951. He entered the music charts in 1970 with a track called
Head
Over
Heels In
Love, and his
This Is Your Life television special was broadcast on
his 28th birthday.
WELSH performer Rhydian Roberts, below, was born on February 14, 1983, and came to public attention on
The X Factor in 2007, singing romantic songs like Somewhere, from the musical West Side Story, the Westlife hit You Raise Me Up and Somebody To Love, by Queen.