Did you know about Jonathan Brandis
Beginning his career as a child model, Brandis moved on to acting in commercials and subsequently won television and film roles.
Famous Birthdays on April 13
April 13 has 209 recorded notable births across history, from 1229 to 2002. This focused page highlights 20 people with the strongest available profile context.
1976 — Jonathan Brandis
American actor (died 2003)
By thisDay.info Editorial Team · — Wikipedia
Famous Birthdays
209 source records
1229 – 2002
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Today in history
Major events on April 13
See what else happened on this day in history.
Did you know about Ron Perlman
A frequent collaborator of Hellboy director Guillermo del Toro, he has had roles in the del Toro films Cronos (1992), Blade II (2002), Pacific Rim (2013), Nightmare Alley (2021), and Pinocchio (2022).
Did you know about Ricky Schroder
As a child actor billed as Ricky Schroder he debuted in the film The Champ (1979), for which he became the youngest Golden Globe award recipient, and went on to become a child star on the sitcom Silver Spoons (1982–87).
Did you know about Samuel Beckett
For his foundational contribution to both literature and theatre, Beckett received the 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature, "for his writing, which—in new forms for the novel and drama—in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation."
Did you know about Baron Davis
Davis holds the NBA's career playoff record for steals per game with an average of 2.28 over 50 games.
More major people born on April 13
Notable people are ranked by substantive profile depth and public notability.
1950
Ron Perlman
American actor
Ronald N. Perlman is an American actor. His credits include the roles of Amoukar in Quest for Fire (1981), Salvatore in The Name of the Rose (1986), Vincent in the television series Beauty and the Beast (1987–1990), for which he won a Golden Globe Award, One in The City of Lost Children (1995), Johner in Alien Resurrection (1997), Koulikov in Enemy at the Gates (2001), Hellboy in both Hellboy (2004) and its sequel Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008), Clay Morrow in the television series Sons of Anarchy (2008–2013), Nino in Drive (2011), and Benedict Drask in Don't Look Up (2021). A frequent collaborator of Hellboy director Guillermo del Toro, he has had roles in the del Toro films Cronos (1992), Blade II (2002), Pacific Rim (2013), Nightmare Alley (2021), and Pinocchio (2022).
1970
Ricky Schroder
American actor
Richard Bartlett Schroder is an American actor and filmmaker. As a child actor billed as Ricky Schroder he debuted in the film The Champ (1979), for which he became the youngest Golden Globe award recipient, and went on to become a child star on the sitcom Silver Spoons (1982–87). He has continued acting as an adult, usually billed as Rick Schroder, notably in the Western miniseries Lonesome Dove (1989) and on the police drama series NYPD Blue (1998–2001). He made his directorial debut with the film Black Cloud (2004) and has produced several films and television series, including the anthology film Locker 13 and the war documentary The Fighting Season.
1906
Samuel Beckett
Irish novelist, poet, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1989)
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish playwright, novelist, and poet. Written in both English and French, his literary and theatrical works feature bleak, impersonal, and tragicomic episodes of life, coupled with black comedy and literary nonsense. As a key proponent of Irish literature, he is best known for his tragicomedy play Waiting for Godot (1953), and is widely regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of the 20th century, credited with transforming modern theatre. For his foundational contribution to both literature and theatre, Beckett received the 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature, "for his writing, which—in new forms for the novel and drama—in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation."
1979
Baron Davis
American basketball player
Baron Walter Louis Davis is an American former professional basketball player who is a television host and sports analyst. He was a two-time NBA All-Star, made the All-NBA Third Team in 2004, and twice led the NBA in steals. He was drafted with the third overall pick in the 1999 NBA draft by the Charlotte Hornets. He also played in the NBA for the New Orleans Hornets, Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Clippers, Cleveland Cavaliers, and New York Knicks. Davis played college basketball for the UCLA Bruins, earning All-American honors before turning professional after his sophomore year. He was a star high school player while at Crossroads School. Davis holds the NBA's career playoff record for steals per game with an average of 2.28 over 50 games.
1939
Seamus Heaney
Irish poet and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2013)
Seamus Justin Heaney was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. Among his best-known works is Death of a Naturalist (1966), his first major published volume. American poet Robert Lowell described him as "the most important Irish poet since Yeats", and many others, including the academic John Sutherland, have said that he was "the greatest poet of our age". Robert Pinsky has stated that "with his wonderful gift of eye and ear Heaney has the gift of the story-teller." Upon his death in 2013, The Independent described him as "probably the best-known poet in the world".
1942
Bill Conti
American composer and conductor
William Conti is an American composer and conductor. He is best known for his film scores, including Rocky (1976), Rocky II (1979), Rocky III (1982), Rocky V (1990), Rocky Balboa (2006), The Karate Kid (1984), The Karate Kid Part II (1986), The Karate Kid Part III (1989), The Next Karate Kid (1994), For Your Eyes Only (1981), Dynasty and The Right Stuff (1983), which earned him an Academy Award for Best Original Score. He also received nominations in the Best Original Song category for "Gonna Fly Now" from Rocky and for the title song of For Your Eyes Only. He was the musical director at the Academy Awards a record nineteen times.
1732
Frederick North
Lord North, English politician, Prime Minister of Great Britain (died 1792)
Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford, styled The Honourable Frederick North before 1752 and Lord North between 1752 and 1790, being best known to history by the latter title, was a British statesman who served as Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1770 to 1782. Aligned with the Whigs from 1754, he had developed strong Tory sympathies by the time he became Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1767. North is most often remembered for losing the 13 colonies in the American Revolutionary War. The war ended in 1783 with the Treaty of Paris, as part of which Britain recognised American independence.
1825
Thomas D'Arcy McGee
Irish-Canadian journalist and politician (died 1868)
Thomas D'Arcy McGee was an Irish-Canadian politician, Catholic spokesman, journalist, poet, and a Father of Canadian Confederation. The young McGee was an Irish Catholic who opposed British rule in Ireland, and was part of the Young Ireland attempts to overthrow British rule and create an independent Irish Republic. He escaped arrest and fled to the United States in 1848, after which some of his political positions reversed. He remained ardently Catholic, but his Irish nationalism moderated. He became disgusted with American republicanism, Anti-Catholicism, and classical liberalism. McGee became intensely monarchistic in his political beliefs and in his religious support for the embattled Pope Pius IX.
1872
John Cameron
Scottish international footballer and manager (died 1935)
John Cameron was a Scottish footballer and manager. He played as a forward for Queen's Park, Everton and Scotland and was noted as an effective goal-maker and goalscorer. In 1899 he became player-manager at Tottenham Hotspur and guided them to victory in the 1901 FA Cup. As a result, they became the only club outside the English Football League to win the competition. In 1898 he became the first secretary of the Association Footballers' Union, which was the ill-fated fore-runner of the Professional Footballers' Association. He later coached Dresdner SC and during the First World War he was interned at Ruhleben, a civilian detention camp in Germany. After the war he coached Ayr United for one season and then became a football journalist, author and publisher. He had previously worked as a columnist for various newspapers before the war.
1879
Edward Bruce
American lawyer and painter (died 1943)
Edward Bright Bruce was the administrator of the New Deal art projects of the United States Department of the Treasury: the Public Works of Art Project (1933–1934), the Section of Painting and Sculpture (1934–1943), and the Treasury Relief Art Project (1935–1938). Ned Bruce was a successful lawyer and entrepreneur before giving up his business career altogether at the age of 43 to become an artist. However, like most artists during the Depression, he found it impossible to make a living making art, and he grudgingly returned to business as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C. In 1932 he joined the Treasury Department, where his expertise in monetary policy and art guided federal efforts to employ workers in the visual arts during the Great Depression in the United States.
1832
Juan Montalvo
Ecuadorian author and diplomat (died 1889)
Juan María Montalvo Fiallos was an Ecuadorian essayist and novelist. His writing was strongly marked by anti-clericalism and opposition to presidents Gabriel García Moreno and Ignacio de Veintemilla. He was the publisher of the magazine El Cosmopolita. One of his best-known books is Las Catilinarias, published in 1880. His essays include Siete tratados (1882) and Geometría Moral. He also wrote a sequel to Don Quixote de la Mancha, called Capítulos que se le olvidaron a Cervantes. He was admired by writers, essayists, intellectuals such as Jorge Luis Borges and Miguel de Unamuno. He died in Paris in 1889. His body was embalmed and is exhibited in a mausoleum in his hometown of Ambato.
1771
Richard Trevithick
Cornish-English engineer and explorer (died 1833)
Richard Trevithick was a British inventor and mining engineer. The son of a mining captain, and born in the mining heartland of Cornwall, Trevithick was immersed in mining and engineering from an early age. He was an early pioneer of steam-powered road and rail transport, and his most significant contributions were the development of the first high-pressure steam engine and the first working railway steam locomotive. The world's first locomotive-hauled railway journey took place on 21 February 1804, when Trevithick's unnamed steam locomotive hauled a train along the tramway of the Penydarren Ironworks, in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales.
1636
Hendrik van Rheede
Dutch botanist (died 1691)
Hendrik Adriaan van Rheede tot Drakenstein was a Dutch military officer and colonial administrator of the Dutch East India Company. Between 1669 and 1676 he served as a governor of Dutch Malabar at Kochi and employed twenty-five people on his book Hortus Malabaricus, describing 740 plants in the region. As Lord of Mydrecht, he also played a role in the governance of the Cape colonies. Many plants such as the vine Entada rheedei are named for him. The standard author abbreviation Rheede is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.
1948
Drago Jančar
Slovenian author and playwright
Drago Jančar is a Slovenian writer, playwright and essayist. Jančar is one of the best-known contemporary Slovene writers. In Slovenia, he is also known for his political commentaries and civic engagement. Jančar's novels, essays, and short stories have been translated into 21 languages and published in Europe, Asia, and the United States. The most numerous translations are into German, followed by Czech and Croatian.His plays have also been staged by a number of foreign theatres, and in Slovenia they are frequently considered the highlights of the theatrical season. He lives and works in Ljubljana.
1950
William Sadler
American actor
William Thomas Sadler is an American actor. He began his career in various Broadway productions including Neil Simon's Biloxi Blues (1985). Known as a character actor, his best known film roles include Die Hard 2 (1990), Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (1991), The Shawshank Redemption (1994), The Green Mile (1999), The Mist (2007), and Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020). He portrayed President Matthew Ellis in various Marvel Cinematic Universe media including Iron Man 3 (2013) and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2015–2016), and he also portrayed Gino Fish in the Jesse Stone television films.
1932
Orlando Letelier
Chilean-American economist and politician, Chilean Minister of National Defense (died 1976)
Marcos Orlando Letelier del Solar was a Chilean Marxist and diplomat during the presidency of Salvador Allende. A member of the Socialist Party of Chile, he fled from the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, and accepted several academic positions in Washington D.C. after his exile from Chile. In 1976, agents of Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA), the Pinochet regime's secret police, killed him in Washington by a car bomb. The agents had been working in collaboration with members of the Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations, an anti-Castro militant group.
1907
Harold Stassen
American lawyer and politician, 25th Governor of Minnesota (died 2001)
Harold Edward Stassen was an American Republican Party politician, military officer, and attorney who was the 25th governor of Minnesota from 1939 to 1943. He was a leading candidate for the Republican nomination for president of the United States in 1948. Though he was considered for a time to be the front-runner, he lost the nomination to New York governor Thomas E. Dewey. He thereafter regularly continued to run for the presidency and other offices, such that his name became most identified with his status as a perennial candidate.
1951
Peabo Bryson
American singer (died 2026)
Robert Lee "Peabo" Bryson was an American singer and songwriter. After collaborating with singers Luther Vandross and Cissy Houston on his debut album Peabo (1976), he signed to Capitol Records and released the 1978 albums Reaching for the Sky and Crosswinds, which were certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). He later released the collaborative projects We're the Best of Friends (1979) with Natalie Cole and Born to Love (1983) with Roberta Flack, the latter of which included the hit single "Tonight, I Celebrate My Love".
1593
Thomas Wentworth
1st Earl of Strafford, English soldier and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (died 1641)
Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford was an English statesman who played a major role in the period leading up to the outbreak of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. A prominent supporter of Charles I, from 1632 to 1640 he was Lord Deputy of Ireland, where he established a strong authoritarian rule. Recalled to England, he became a leading advisor to the King, attempting to strengthen the royal position against Parliament. When Parliament condemned Strafford to death, Charles reluctantly signed the execution warrant and he was executed.