Famous Birthdays on April 6

William December Williams Jr. is an American actor, novelist and painter. He has appeared in over 100 films and television roles over six decades. He is best known for portraying Lando Calrissian in the Star Wars franchise and has also appeared in critically acclaimed and popular titles such as Mahogany (1975), Scott Joplin (1977), and Nighthawks (1981), as Harvey Dent in Batman (1989) and The Lego Batman Movie (2017), The Last Angry Man (1959), Carter's Army (1969), The Out-of-Towners (1970), The Final Comedown and Lady Sings the Blues, Hit! (1973), Fear City and Terror in the Aisles, Alien Intruder (1993) and The Visit (2000).

Mir Osman Ali Khan, Asaf Jah VII was the last Nizam (ruler) of Hyderabad State, the largest state in the erstwhile British Indian Empire. He ascended the throne on 29 August 1911, at the age of 25 and ruled the State of Hyderabad until 1948, when the Indian Union annexed it. He was styled as His Exalted Highness (H.E.H) the Nizam of Hyderabad, and was widely considered one of the world's wealthiest people of all time. With some estimates placing his wealth at 2% of U.S. GDP, his portrait was on the cover of Time magazine in 1937. As a semi-autonomous monarch, he had his mint, printing his currency, the Hyderabadi rupee, and had a private treasury that was said to contain £100 million in gold and silver bullion, and a further £400 million of jewels. The major source of his wealth was the Golconda mines, the only supplier of diamonds in the world at that time. Among them was the Jacob Diamond, valued at some £50 million, and used by the Nizam as a paperweight.

Myleene Angela Klass is a British musician, singer, television presenter, model, writer and designer. She was a member of the pop group Hear'Say, and later released a solo classical crossover album in 2003, followed by additional "lullaby" albums from 2022 onward. Klass then went into television and radio presenting, hosting series including Popstar to Operastar (2010–2011) and BBQ Champ (2015) on ITV and The One Show (2007) on BBC One. She was a regular panellist on the ITV lunchtime chat show Loose Women in 2014 and again from 2024 onwards. In 2006, Klass was runner-up on the sixth series of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!, and returned in 2023 for the "all-stars" series I'm a Celebrity... South Africa, which she won.

William Marrion Branham was an American Christian minister and faith healer who initiated the post-World War II healing revival, and claimed to be a prophet with the anointing of Elijah, who had come to prelude Christ's second coming; He is credited as "a principal architect of restorationist thought" for charismatics by some Christian historians, and has been called the "leading individual in the second wave of Pentecostalism." He made a lasting influence on televangelism and the modern charismatic movement, and his "stage presence remains a legend unparalleled in the history of the Charismatic movement". At the time they were held, Branham's inter-denominational meetings were the largest religious meetings ever held in some American cities. Branham was the first American deliverance minister to successfully campaign in Europe; his ministry reached global audiences with major campaigns held in North America, Europe, Africa, and India.

Gustave Moreau was a French artist and an important figure in the Symbolist movement. Jean Cassou called him "the Symbolist painter par excellence". He was an influential forerunner of symbolism in the visual arts in the 1860s, and at the height of the symbolist movement in the 1890s, he was among the most significant painters. Art historian Robert Delevoy wrote that Moreau "brought symbolist polyvalence to its highest point in Jupiter and Semele." He was a prolific artist who produced over 15,000 paintings, watercolors, and drawings. Moreau painted allegories and traditional biblical and mythological subjects favored by the fine art academies. J. K. Huysmans wrote, "Gustave Moreau has given new freshness to dreary old subjects by a talent both subtle and ample: he has taken myths worn out by the repetitions of centuries and expressed them in a language that is persuasive and lofty, mysterious and new." The female characters from the Bible and mythology that he so frequently depicted came to be regarded by many as the archetypical symbolist woman. His art fell from favor and received little attention in the early 20th century but, beginning in the 1960s and 70s, he has come to be considered among the most paramount of symbolist painters.

Gōeidō Gōtarō is a former sumo wrestler from Osaka Prefecture, Japan. He made his professional debut in January 2005 and reached the top makuuchi division in September 2007. Long regarded as one of the most promising Japanese wrestlers in sumo, Gōeidō holds the modern record for the most consecutive appearances at sumo's third highest rank of sekiwake, at 14 tournaments. He was finally promoted to the rank of ōzeki following the July 2014 tournament, after scores of twelve wins against three losses in two of the previous three tournaments. However, he only managed to win ten or more bouts in a tournament as an ōzeki on six occasions, and was kadoban, or in danger of demotion, eight times. He won his only top division tournament in September 2016 with a perfect 15–0 record and was a runner-up seven times in his career. He retired in January 2020 after two consecutive losing records that would have seen him demoted, to become an elder of the Japan Sumo Association under the name of Takekuma.

Jean-Pierre Changeux is a French neuroscientist known for his research in several fields of biology, from the structure and function of proteins, to the early development of the nervous system up to cognitive functions. Although being famous in biological sciences for the MWC model, the identification and purification of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor, the theory of epigenesis by synapse selection and the global neuronal workspace theory for conscious processing are also notable scientific achievements. Changeux is known by the non-scientific public for his ideas regarding the connection between mind and physical brain. As put forth in his book, Conversations on Mind, Matter and Mathematics, Changeux strongly supports the view that the nervous system functions in a projective rather than reactive style and that interaction with the environment, rather than being instructive, results in the selection amongst a diversity of preexisting internal representations.

Ng Ser Miang is a Singaporean entrepreneur, diplomat, retired sailor, and sports administrator. He founded Trans-Island Bus Services in 1982 and is a board member of Singapore Press Holdings. Ng has been the vice-president of the Singapore National Olympic Council since 1990, and served as the president of the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics organising committee. From 2009 to 2013, and again from 2020 to 2024, he served as a vice-president of the International Olympic Committee. In 2013, he was a candidate for the presidency of the International Olympic Committee, but lost to Thomas Bach. Domestically, Ng was a Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP) from 2002 to 2005, and served Singapore as the Ambassador to Norway and Hungary under prime ministers Goh Chok Tong and Lee Hsien Loong.

Georgios Mylonas was a Greek Center Union politician and government minister. He was a close aide to Greek statesman and premier Georgios Papandreou, and was repeatedly elected deputy for the Ioannina seat with the Center Union. Mylonas had served as an undersecretary to the premier's office and education undersecretary from 1963 to 1965. He assumed the transport ministry in the first post-junta government in 1974 and was Minister for Culture from 1989 to 1990. Mylonas was the author of the book Escape From Amorgos, detailing his escape from the island, where he was exiled during the 1967-1974 military dictatorship. The escape was organized by his then, son-in-law Elias B.M. Kulukundis and his daughter Eleni Mylonas with the help of Maria Becket.

Philip Henry Gosse, known to his friends as Henry, was an English naturalist, populariser of natural science, prolific author, "Father of the Aquarium", scientific illustrator, lecturer, entrepreneur and pioneer in the study of marine biology and ornithology. Gosse created and stocked the world's first public marine aquarium at London Zoo in 1853, and coined the term "aquarium". His 1854 work The Aquarium: An Unveiling of the Wonders of the Deep Sea was the catalyst for the aquarium craze in mid-Victorian England. Over thirty years later, Gosse co-authored a three-volume work on Rotifera, considered at the time "the most complete and exhaustive history of the Rotifera in any language", with drawings of "extreme minuteness, accuracy, and beauty".

Willis Edward Hall was an English playwright and radio, television and film writer who drew on his working-class roots in Leeds for much of his writing. Willis formed an extremely prolific partnership with his life-long friend Keith Waterhouse producing over 250 works. He wrote plays such as Billy Liar, The Long and the Short and the Tall, and Celebration; the screenplays for Whistle Down the Wind, A Kind of Loving and Alfred Hitchcock's Torn Curtain; and television programmes including Budgie, Worzel Gummidge and Minder. His passion for musical theatre led to a string of hits, including Wind in the Willows, The Card, and George Stiles' and Anthony Drewe's Peter Pan: A Musical Adventure.

Johann Kuhnau was a German polymath, known primarily as a composer today. He was also active as a novelist, translator, lawyer, and music theorist, and was able to combine these activities with his duties in his official post as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, which he occupied for 21 years. Much of his music, including operas, masses, and other large-scale vocal works, is lost. His reputation today rests on his Biblical Sonatas, a set of programmatic keyboard sonatas published in 1700, in which each sonata depicted in detail a particular story from the Bible. After his death, Kuhnau was succeeded as Thomaskantor by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Gerald Joseph Mulligan, also known as Jeru, was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, pianist, composer and arranger. Though primarily known as one of the leading jazz baritone saxophonists—playing the instrument with a light and airy tone in the era of cool jazz—Mulligan was also a significant arranger working with Claude Thornhill, Miles Davis, Stan Kenton, and others. His piano-less quartet of the early 1950s with trumpeter Chet Baker is still regarded as one of the best cool jazz ensembles. Mulligan was also a skilled pianist and played several other reed instruments. Several of his compositions, including "Walkin' Shoes" and "Five Brothers", have become standards.

James Dewey Watson was an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist. In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick co-authored an academic paper on DNA entitled, "Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid". Published in the scientific journal Nature, the paper proposed the existence of the double helix structure of the DNA molecule, having built on research by Rosalind Franklin and Raymond Gosling. In 1962, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to James Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material".

Michael Rooker is an American actor. He first rose to prominence for portraying the titular role in Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986), and is best known for starring as Merle Dixon in the AMC series The Walking Dead (2010–2013) and as Yondu Udonta in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), and its sequel Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017). He is a recurring collaborator of Guardians of the Galaxy director and co-CEO of DC Studios James Gunn, appearing in all of his films to date including Slither (2006), Super (2010) and The Suicide Squad (2021), along with the TV series Peacemaker.

John Dezso Ratzenberger is an American actor, widely known for his role as Cliff Clavin on the comedy series Cheers (1982–1993), for which he earned two Primetime Emmy nominations. Ratzenberger reprised the role in the short-lived spin-off The Tortellis, an episode of Wings, as well as in an episode of Frasier. He has voiced various characters in Pixar animated feature films including Hamm in the Toy Story franchise, Yeti the Abominable Snowman in the Monsters, Inc. franchise, The Underminer in The Incredibles franchise, Mack in the Cars franchise, Fritz in the Inside Out franchise, and many others.

Dilip Balwant Vengsarkar is a former Indian cricketer and a cricket administrator. He was considered to have a very good drive. Along with Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Viswanath, he was a key player in the Indian batting line up in the late 70s and early 80s. He was a member of the Indian team that won the 1983 Cricket World Cup. Vengsarkar also led the national side to 1988 Asia Cup victory. He was also a part of the Indian squad which won the 1985 World Championship of Cricket. He went on to play until 1992.

Jean-Marc Boivin was a French mountaineer, extreme skier, hang glider and paraglider pilot, speleologist, BASE jumper, film maker and author. The holder of several altitude records for hang gliding and paragliding, the creator of numerous first ascents and first ski descents in the Alps, a member of the team that broke the record for a sub-glacial dive and the first person to paraglide from the summit of Mount Everest, Boivin was a pioneer of extreme sports. He died from injuries incurred after BASE jumping off Angel Falls in Venezuela, the highest waterfall in the world.

Patrick Doyle is a Scottish composer and occasional actor best known for his film scores. During his 50-year career in film, television and theatre, he has composed the scores for over 60 feature films. A longtime collaborator of actor-director Kenneth Branagh, Doyle is known for his work on films such as Henry V, Sense and Sensibility, Hamlet, Carlito's Way, Quest for Camelot, and Gosford Park, as well as Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Thor, Brave, Cinderella, Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile.