March 12 birthdays
1832 CHARLES BOYCOTT Irish estate manager
Ostracism by Boycott’s local community gave the English language the verb “to boycott”. Campaigning for fairness, Irish National Land League activists convinced Boycott’s workers to withdraw their labour and began a campaign of isolation against him.
1913 AGATHE VON TRAPP Austrian singer
Agathe was the eldest daughter of Georg von Trapp and a member of the Trapp
Family Singers, whose lives were the inspiration for the 1959 musical play and 1965 film The Sound of Music. She was portrayed as the character Liesl.
1928 EDWARD ALBEE American playwright
Albee is known for works such as Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Zoo Story and The Sandbox. Three of his plays won the Pullitzer Prize for Literature and two of his other works won the Tony Award for Best Play.
1933 BARBARA FELDON American actor
Feldon is best remembered for her role as Agent 99 alongside Don Adams in the spy comedy Get Smart. She played the role for the duration of the show’s production from 1965 until 1970 and was twice nominated for an Emmy Award.
1942 RATKO MLADIC Bosnian Serb war criminal
Mladic led the Army of Republika Srpska during the Yugoslav Wars. In 2017, he was found guilty of committing war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
1946 LIZA MINNELLI American entertainer
Minnelli is among a rare group of performers awarded an Emmy, an Oscar and a Tony Award. She rose to international fame with her portrayal of Sally Bowles in 1972’s musical film Cabaret, for which she won an Academy Award for Best Actress.
1948 JAMES TAYLOR American musician
A six-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor has sold more than 100 million albums. His breakthrough came in 1970 with the hit single Fire and Rain, which he backed up with another hit, You’ve Got a friend.