If they were alive today...

....it would be the birtday of these notables:

Bettie Page would be 88.  She was the most iconic pin-up girl of the 20th century.  Her trademark image of the sweet looking "good/bad" girl with the bangs transcended her own generation and she continues to populate the fantasies of new generations of drooling boys everywhere.  Hugh Hefner said of her, "Her appearance in PLAYBOY was a milestone," and that “she became, in time, an American icon, her winning smile and effervescent personality apparent in every pose".



Greg Moore would be 36.  The Canadian racecar driver had a very promising career ahead of him when he was killed in a spectacular crash at the Marlboro 500 race in Fontana, California on Halloween Day, 1999.  It was somewhat startling to me to read the headline that day, "GREG MOORE DEAD".  I'd never heard of him before....but my name is also Greg Moore.  Gives one pause for thought...



Actor/playwright Jason Miller would be 72.  He won a Pulitzer Prize-winning for his play, That Championship Season, and as an actor is best remembered for playing Father Damian Karras in The Exorcist.  He was married to Jackie Gleason's daughter, Linda, and their son, Jason Patric, is a well-known actor in his own right (The Lost Boys, After Dark, My Sweet).
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And a very happy 65th birthday to the great American filmmaker, John Waters!  The self-proclaimed "Prince of Filth," Waters made a classic triptych of shocking, but brilliant films in the 1970's:  Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble and Desperate Living that are, in my opinion, three of the most hilarious films ever made.  They were done on a shoestring budget, with an unknown cast of misfit Baltimore characters, headed by the now-legendary "Divine"--a 300-pound female impersonator--who, it turns out, was a pretty amazing performer.  Waters continues to make films and I keep going to them, hoping, somehow, that the brilliance of his early films will emerge once again.  Unfortunately, he hasn't made a funny film since Serial Mom in the 90's. But his legions of fans keep their collective fingers crossed that he might come up with a winner once again.