If they were still alive today...

...the following notables would be celebrating their birthday:

Gorgeous, earthy film star of the 1930's-40's, Ann Sheridan would be 96.  She was dubbed "The Oomph Girl" by studio publicists.  When asked what she thought of this sobriquet, Sheridan succinctly replied, "It's crap!"


French operatic composer Léo Delibes would be 175.  Though he wrote dozens of operas, only one of them is widely known or performed at all today:  Lakmé. You'll recognize the "hit tune" from it, "The Flower Duet," at 1:22 in the clip (below), likely from its frequent use in television commercials.




Wystan Hugh Auden 104.  20th century British poet and librettist who published under the name "W.H. Auden," his greatest work was, arguably, the libretto to Igor Stravinsky's opera, the "neo-Mozartean" masterpiece, The Rake's Progress.  




"Suburban comic" writer Erma Bombeck would be 84.  Her humorous essays on everyday life as a wife and mother led the way for many other female comics and writers.


Fierce chanteuse Nina Simone would be 78.  You would not have wanted to pick a fight with her.  In 1995, annoyed by the noise of the neighbor children playing in the pool next door to her home in the south of France, Simone pulled out a pistol and fired, injuring one of the children.  Whoa!