When a child is born ... on December 25
We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy birthday as well. MARION MCMULLEN looks at celebrities born on the big day
‘TIS the season for Christmas carols, Santa Claus and birthday cake ... if you happen to be born on December 25. Pogues singer Shane Macgowan reached number two in the charts with classic Christmas hit Fairytale Of New York, featuring Kirsty Maccoll, in 1987 and the ballad regularly tops the best festive song lists. He also happens to be a Christmas Day baby and reaches his 61st birthday this year.
The Irish performer says he normally celebrates his birthday on Christmas Eve and was actually born in Kent because his parents were visiting relatives there at the time.
Comedian and DJ Kenny Everett was born in Seaforth, Merseyside, on Christmas Day, 1944, and named Maurice James Christopher Cole.
He dressed as Scrooge for a comedy spoof of A Christmas Carol for his 1985 TV show and also played Tiny Tim and the Queen in the BBC special. The cast included Spike Milligan as the ghost of Scrooge’s old partner Marley and Peter Cook as the Ghost Of Christmas Yet To Come.
The colourful character died at the age of 50 in 1995, but BBC Radio 2 brought out a “new” Kenny Everett special 15 years after his death in 2010 called Kenny Everett’s Christmas Selection Box.
Crossroads star Noele Gordon was born Joan Gordon in London’s East Ham in 1919. She was given the middle name of Noele because she made her appearance on Christmas Day.
Noele played motel owner Meg Mortimer in the ITV soap from 1964 to 1981. She appeared in two episodes in 1983 as a surprise and there were plans to bring her back as an occasional character but sadly she died in 1985 after battling cancer.
Casablanca and The African Queen movie star Humphrey Bogart was born in New York on Christmas Day, 1899. It led to him being nicknamed The Last Century Man and he was once voted the greatest movie star of all time.
His wife Lauren Bacall said that he always joked that he was cheated out of a present every year because his birthday fell on Christmas Day.
American jazz singer and bandleader Cab Calloway was also born in New York on Christmas Day, 1907, and became famous for songs like Minnie The Moocher, The Jumpin’ Jive and Hi-de-ho Man.
Minnie The Moocher was the first jazz album to sell a million copies and he performed it in The Blues Brothers movie in 1980. He worked at the famous Harlem Cotton Club in the 1930s and once said: “My audience was my life. What I did and how I did it, was all for my audience.”
Flamboyant British eccentric Quentin Crisp found widespread recognition when John Hurt starred in the TV adaptation of his 1968 memoir The Naked Civil Servant.
Sting also later wrote the song Englishman In New York about him.
The one-time life model was born Denis Charles Pratt in Surrey on Christmas Day, 1908, but changed his name when he was in his 20s.
He presented Channel 4’s first Alternative Christmas Speech in 1993.
British TV mogul and film producer Lew Grade was born in Russia on December 25, 1906.
Lord Grade brought viewers shows like The Saint, Thunderbirds and Space 1999 and Jim Henson modelled Dr Bunsen Honeydew on him as a thank you for financing The Muppet Show. Lord Grade was said to be delighted.
Oscar winner Sissy Spacek was born at 12.03am in Texas on Christmas Day, 1949. The Carrie star, who appeared in 2008 movie Four Christmases with Reese Witherspoon, Robert Duval and Vince Vaughn, once said: “I lived an idyllic Huckleberry Finn life in a tiny town. Climbing trees, tagging after my brothers. Happy.”
Christmas Day birthdays are rare though. A Harvard University study reported that it is the least common day for births – after February 29.
English physicist Sir Isaac Newton seemed to beat the odds when he was born on Christmas Day, 1642.
Unfortunately his birthday was later switched to January 4 when England changed over to the Gregorian calendar in 1752.
The scientist, who developed his law of gravity after watching an apple fall from a tree, once said: “I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.”