Famous Birthdays on April 28

James Douglas Muir Leno is an American television host, comedian, writer and actor. After doing stand-up comedy for years, Leno was chosen in 1992 to replace Johnny Carson as the host of NBC's The Tonight Show; Leno hosted The Tonight Show until September 2009 when Conan O'Brien took over as host and Leno started a primetime talk show, The Jay Leno Show, which aired weeknights at 10:00 p.m. ET, also on NBC. O'Brien turned down NBC's offer to have Leno host a half hour monologue show before The Tonight Show to boost ratings amid reported viewership diminishing, which sparked the 2010 Tonight Show conflict that resulted in Leno's returning to hosting the show on March 1, 2010. He hosted his last episode of his second tenure on February 6, 2014. That year, he was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame. From 2014 to 2022, he hosted Jay Leno's Garage, and from 2021 to 2023, hosted the revival of You Bet Your Life.

Kim Althea Gordon is an American musician, singer and songwriter best known as the bassist, guitarist, and vocalist of alternative rock band Sonic Youth. Born in Rochester, New York, she was raised in Los Angeles, where her father was a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. After graduating from Los Angeles's Otis College of Art and Design, she moved to New York City to begin an art career. There, she formed Sonic Youth with Thurston Moore in 1981. She and Moore married in 1984, and the band released a total of six albums on independent labels before the end of the 1980s. It then released nine studio albums on the label DGC Records, beginning with Goo in 1990. Gordon was also a founding member of the musical project Free Kitten, which she formed with Julia Cafritz in 1993.

Jorge Garcia is an American actor and comedian. He first came to public attention with his performance as Hector Lopez on the television show Becker, but subsequently became best known for his portrayal of Hugo "Hurley" Reyes in the television series Lost from 2004 to 2010. He starred in the Fox television series Alcatraz and played a minor character on ABC's Once Upon a Time. He starred as Jerry Ortega on Hawaii Five-0 and can be seen in the Netflix film The Ridiculous 6. Recently, he starred in the comedy series Bookie (2023-2025). Garcia also appeared on the cover of Weezer's 2010 album Hurley in a close-up shot from a photo he took with vocalist Rivers Cuomo.

James Dixon Barnes is an Australian rock singer. His career, both as a solo performer and as the lead vocalist with the rock band Cold Chisel, has made him one of the most popular and best-selling Australian music artists of all time. By 2022 he had achieved 15 solo number-one albums in Australia, more than any other artist. He has won many awards, and been nominated for many more. In 2005 he was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame as a solo artist, after also having been an inductee in 1992 as a member of Cold Chisel. His music has covered many genres, including hard rock, blues rock, soul, R&B, country, country rock, and electronic. Some of his albums were recorded at his own recording studio, Freight Train Studios.

Frederick I was King of Sweden from 1720 until his death, having been prince consort of Sweden from 1718 to 1720, and was also Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel from 1730. He ascended the throne following the death of his brother-in-law absolutist Charles XII in the Great Northern War, and the abdication of his wife, Charles's sister and successor Ulrika Eleonora, after she had to relinquish most powers to the Riksdag of the Estates and thus chose to abdicate. His powerless reign and lack of legitimate heirs of his own saw his family's elimination from the line of succession after the parliamentary government dominated by pro-revanchist Hat Party politicians ventured into a war with Russia, which ended in defeat and the Russian tsarina Elizabeth getting Adolf Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp instated following the death of the king. Whilst being the only Swedish monarch called Frederick, he was Frederick I of Hesse-Kassel and thus Frederick I also of Sweden, though other Swedish monarchs with non-repeating names had not been enumerated.

Andrew Flower is a Zimbabwean cricket coach and a former cricketer. As a cricketer, he captained the Zimbabwe national cricket team and is widely regarded as the greatest Zimbabwean cricketer ever and one of the greatest wicket-keeper-batters of all time. He was Zimbabwe's wicket-keeper for more than 10 years and is, statistically, the greatest batsman the country has produced. His highest score in ODI cricket which was his 145 he made against India in the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy is also the highest score made by a Zimbabwe player at any tournaments. During his peak from October to December 2001, Flower was ranked as the best Test batsman in the world. He was widely acknowledged as the only Zimbabwe batsman of proper test quality in any conditions. After retirement, he served as the coach of the English cricket team from 2009 to 2014. Under his coaching, England won the 2010 ICC World Twenty20. Flower became the second foreign coach in the team's history. Currently, he is the head coach of London Spirit in The Hundred and Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the Indian Premier League.

David Richard Freese is an American former professional baseball third baseman. He began his Major League Baseball (MLB) career with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2009, where, two seasons later, he was a key player during the 2011 postseason, batting .545 with 12 hits in the 2011 National League Championship Series (NLCS). At the time, he also set an MLB postseason record of 21 runs batted in (RBIs), which earned him the NLCS MVP Award and World Series MVP Award. In addition, Freese won the Babe Ruth Award, naming him the MVP of the 2011 MLB postseason. He also played for the Los Angeles Angels, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Los Angeles Dodgers.

Ye Jianying was a Chinese Communist revolutionary leader and politician, one of the Ten Marshals of the People's Republic of China. He was the top military leader in the 1976 coup that overthrew the Gang of Four and ended the Cultural Revolution, and was the key supporter of Deng Xiaoping in his power struggle with Hua Guofeng between 1978 and 1981, which ended in Hua fading into political obscurity. In his capacity as Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, Ye served as China's head of state from 1978 until 1983, being succeeded in that capacity by Li Xiannian with the restoration of the post of Chairman of the People's Republic of China by a new constitution.

Nezahualcoyotl Acolmiztli, "Fasting Coyote" was tlatoani (king) of the Acolhua altepetl (city-state) of Texcoco from 1431 to his death in 1472, in pre-Columbian Mexico. He is noted for his achievements as a philosopher (tlamatini), warrior, architect, legislator and poet, earning him the nickname of "the Poet-King". In his lifetime, he was also known by his poetic nickname Yoyontzin. His difficult younger years following his father's assassination, and his efforts to reconquer his realm after being taken over by the powerful Tepanec Empire turned him into a hero in pre-Columbian society. In order to defeat the Tepanec Empire, and its ruler Maxtla, he formed an alliance with the tlatoque (kings) of Mexico-Tenochtitlan and Tlacopan, becoming one of the founders of the Aztec Triple Alliance, commonly known as the Aztec Empire. His odyssey has captured the public imagination, which has been compared to the Shakespearean story of Prince Hamlet, albeit he remains an enigmatic figure, due to the lack of sources from his own lifetime or from his contemporaries.

Thomas Leo Browning was an American left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played from 1984 to 1995, spending almost his entire career with the Cincinnati Reds. In his rookie season in 1985, Browning won 20 games and was runner-up for the National League (NL) Rookie of the Year Award; he was the Reds' first 20-game winner in 15 years, and equaled the most wins by a Cincinnati lefthander since 1925. He quickly became a mainstay in the team's pitching rotation, leading the NL in games started four of the next five years. Browning pitched the twelfth perfect game in major league history on September 16, 1988, against the Los Angeles Dodgers, just the third perfect game by a lefthander; it was the highlight of a season in which he was 18–5, posting the league's second-highest winning percentage. He helped the Reds to a sweep in the 1990 World Series, winning Game 3 against the defending champion Oakland Athletics. In 1991, his last full season, Browning was named to the NL All-Star team.

Pedro ("Pete") Ramos Guerra is a Cuban former professional baseball pitcher, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Washington Senators / Minnesota Twins, Cleveland Indians, New York Yankees, and the expansion Washington Senators, all of the American League (AL), and the Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Cincinnati Reds, all of the National League (NL), over the course of a 15-year career. Ramos was elected to the AL All-Star team in 1959. He led the league in losses four times, in 1958 (18), 1959 (19), 1960 (18), and 1961 (20). On April 11, 1961, the first game for the newly relocated Twins, Ramos was the winning pitcher, when the team defeated the Yankees, 6–0, at Yankee Stadium.

Mary Eileen McDonnell is an American film, stage, and television actress. She received Academy Award nominations for her roles as Stands With A Fist in Dances With Wolves and May-Alice Culhane in Passion Fish. McDonnell is well known for her performances as President Laura Roslin in Battlestar Galactica, First Lady Marilyn Whitmore in Independence Day, and Rose in Donnie Darko. She was featured as Captain Sharon Raydor during seasons 5–7 of the TNT series The Closer and starred as Commander Sharon Raydor in the spin-off series Major Crimes on the same network. In 2023, she played Madeleine Usher in the miniseries The Fall of the House of Usher on Netflix.

Miodrag (Misha) Radulovacki, was a Serbian American scientist and inventor. He was professor of pharmacology in the College of Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), Radulovacki's research accomplishments include: (1) the Adenosine Sleep Theory, and (2) pioneering pharmacological studies for the treatment of sleep apnea, together with research collaborator, David W. Carley,. Radulovacki and Carley invented several drug therapies for the treatment of sleep apnea which have been patented by the UIC. The UIC recognized them as the 2010 "Inventors of the Year." Radulovacki published more than 170 scientific papers. Radulovacki was also a Foreign Member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

William Anthony Colón Román was an American salsa musician and social activist. He began his career as a trombonist but also sang, wrote, produced and acted. Colón was a pioneer of salsa music and a best-selling artist in the genre, having been a key figure in the beginnings of the New York City scene associated with Fania Records. He was also noteworthy for having assumed the gangster image in his album covers before it was culturally popular. From the 1980s on, he was at times deeply involved in the politics of New York City. His hit songs include "Aguanilé" with Hector Lavoe, "Tiburón", and "El gran varón".

Carolyn Sue Jones was an American actress of television and film. She began her film career in the early 1950s and by the end of the decade, in 1958, had achieved recognition with a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for The Bachelor Party (1957) and, that same year, won a Laurel Award for Top Supporting Female Performance, as well as a Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year–Actress for her turn in Marjorie Morningstar. Her film career continued for another 20 years. In 1964, Jones began playing the role of Morticia Addams in the black-and-white television sitcom The Addams Family.

Saeb Muhammad Salih Erekat was a Palestinian politician and diplomat who was the secretary general of the executive committee of the PLO from 2015 until his death in 2020. He served as chief of the PLO Steering and Monitoring Committee until 12 February 2011. He participated in early negotiations with Israel and remained chief negotiator from 1995 until May 2003, when he resigned in protest from the Palestinian government. He reconciled with the party and was reappointed to the post in September 2003. Erekat died in the Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital in Jerusalem of complications from COVID-19 on 10 November 2020, at the age of 65.

Jan Hendrik Oort was a Dutch astronomer who made significant contributions to the understanding of the Milky Way and who was a pioneer in the field of radio astronomy. The New York Times called him "one of the century's foremost explorers of the universe"; the European Space Agency website describes him as "one of the greatest astronomers of the 20th century" and states that he "revolutionised astronomy through his ground-breaking discoveries." In 1955, Oort's name appeared in Life magazine's list of the 100 most famous living people. He has been described as "putting the Netherlands in the forefront of postwar astronomy".

Charles Alfred Leavell is an American musician. A member of the Allman Brothers Band throughout their commercial zenith in the 1970s, he subsequently became a founding member of the band Sea Level. He has served as the principal touring keyboardist and musical director of the Rolling Stones since 1982. As a session musician, Leavell has performed on every Rolling Stones studio album released since 1983 with the exception of Bridges to Babylon (1997) and Hackney Diamonds (2023). He has also toured and recorded with Eric Clapton, George Harrison, David Gilmour, Gov't Mule, Train, John Mayer, and Widespread Panic.

Roman Polák is a Czech former professional ice hockey defenceman. Polák was drafted in the sixth round, 180th overall, at the 2004 NHL entry draft by the St. Louis Blues, the organization with which he spent his entire NHL career prior to joining the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2014. He rejoined the Maple Leafs in 2016, after a brief stint with the San Jose Sharks. In the 2018 offseason, Polák signed a one-year deal with the Dallas Stars. Polák began and ended his career in his native Czech Republic with HC Vítkovice of the Czech Extraliga (ELH).