Famous Birthdays on August 17

Rachel Hurd-Wood is an English actress. She is known for her performances in the fantasy adventure film Peter Pan (2003), the supernatural horror film An American Haunting (2005), the thriller film Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006), the dark fantasy horror film Dorian Gray (2009), the action-adventure war film Tomorrow, When the War Began (2010) and the BBC Three television series Clique (2017–18).

David Conrad is an American actor. From 2005 to 2010, he starred in the television series Ghost Whisperer alongside Jennifer Love Hewitt. He is still periodically active.

Gail Berman is an American producer and television executive. She is co-owner and founding partner of The Jackal Group, a production entity formed in partnership with Fox Networks Group. The Jackal Group develops and produces scripted, unscripted, and 'factual' entertainment programming for FNG's channels, including Fox Broadcasting Company, FX/FXX, the National Geographic Channels, and Fox International Channels. The partnership also provides for opportunities in digital and film, as well as for non-21st Century Fox distribution entities.

Daniel John Dakich is an American basketball sportscaster. He is a former player, assistant coach, interim head coach for the Indiana University Hoosiers, former head coach at Bowling Green State University and a member of the Indiana Basketball Hall Of Fame. He currently is the host of Don't @ Me on Fox Sports OutKick.

Richard Hunt was an American actor and puppeteer, best known as a Muppet performer on Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock, and other projects for The Jim Henson Company. His roles on The Muppet Show included Scooter, Statler, Janice, Beaker, and Sweetums and characters on Sesame Street included Gladys the Cow, Don Music, Forgetful Jones and the right head of the Two-Headed Monster.

Frederick Anderson Goodwin FRSE FCIBS is a Scottish chartered accountant and former banker who was chief executive officer (CEO) of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) between 2001 and 2009.

Esmé Valerie Eliot was the second wife and later widow of the Nobel Prize-winning poet T. S. Eliot. She was a major shareholder in the publishing firm of Faber and Faber Limited and the editor and annotator of a number of books dealing with her late husband's writings.

John Matthew Rispoli was a Maltese philosopher of great erudition. He was held in high esteem by the Grand Masters of the Knights Hospitaller Order, the Bishops of Malta, the Viceroys of Sicily, cardinals, bishops, inquisitors, and the common people. Perhaps the most eminent Maltese philosopher of the Middle Ages, the various extant writings of his are witness to his philosophical aptitude and dexterity as to his high calibre as a philosopher. These qualities were highly appreciated during his lifetime, in Malta as in France and Italy. He lived a busy life, both as an intellectual and as an administrator. He was professor of philosopher at various institutions of high education, an able preacher, and an official at various posts within the Dominican Order, of which his was a member. He was an avid aficionado of music, and was talented with playing musical instruments. Though the fame of holiness accompanied him in his life, this did not deter the Inquisition from suspecting him of heresy, and keeping him in its dungeons for fourteen months. When he died, he was given an almost state funeral.

Sir Geoffrey Rudolph Elton was a German-born British political and constitutional historian, specialising in the Tudor period. He taught at Clare College, Cambridge, and was the Regius Professor of Modern History there from 1983 to 1988.

John Shane Porteous is an Australian actor, screenwriter, animation layout artist and animation voice artist. As a screenwriter, he is sometimes credited as John Hanlon.

Vivienne Florence Beatrice de Watteville was a British travel writer and adventurer, author of two books based on her experiences in East Africa in the 1920s, Out in the Blue (1927) and Speak to the Earth (1935). She is best remembered for taking charge of and continuing an expedition in the Congo and Uganda at the age of 24, when her father was killed by a lion.

Lida Moser was an American photographer and author, with a career that spanned more than six decades, before retiring in her 90s. She was known for her photojournalism and street photography as a member of both the Photo League and the New York School. Her portfolio includes black and white commercial, portrait, landscape, experimental, abstract, and documentary photography, with her work continuing to have an impact.

Tõnis Kint was an Estonian politician. He served as "Acting Prime Minister of Estonian Exile Government" from 22 August 1960 to 1 January 1962 and again from 29 March 1963 to 23 December 1970 and as "Prime Minister in duties of the President" from 23 December 1970 to 1 March 1990.

Mary Dawson Cain was an American newspaper editor, political activist, and gubernatorial candidate in Mississippi. A Democrat, she advocated for conservative causes and is particularly remembered for her campaigns against the Social Security tax. She ran for Governor of Mississippi in 1951 and 1955, the first woman to do so.

Leopold Nowak was an Austrian musicologist chiefly known for editing the works of Anton Bruckner for the International Bruckner Society. He reconstructed the original form of some of those works, most of which had been revised and edited many times.

Dottie Pepper is an American professional golfer and television golf broadcaster. From 1988 to 1995 she competed as Dottie Mochrie, which was her married name before a divorce. She won two major championships and 17 LPGA Tour events in all.

Nicole Sunitsch is an Austrian politician of the Freedom Party serving as a member of the National Council since 2024. She has been a city councillor of Sankt Michael in Obersteiermark since 2020.

Roy Tattersall was an English cricketer who played for Lancashire and played sixteen Tests for England as a specialist off spin bowler. He was born at Tonge Moor, Bolton, Lancashire, England.

Shaun Jason Rehn is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played for the Adelaide Football Club and the Hawthorn Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).

Oliver Waterman Larkin was an American art historian and educator. He won the 1950 Pulitzer Prize for History for his book Art and Life in America.

Johannes Maria Staud is an Austrian composer. His works have been performed internationally by major orchestras, ensembles, and soloists, and he has received several composition prizes.

Philipp II was Count of Hanau-Münzenberg from 1512 until his death. He was the son of Count Reinhard IV and his wife, Katharina of Schwarzburg-Blankenburg.

Ralph McKittrick was an American golfer and tennis player who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics.

Thomas Jefferson "T.J." Anderson, Jr. is an American composer, conductor, orchestrator and educator.

Max Edward "Mark" Dinning was an American pop music singer.

Jean Pierre Lefebvre is a Canadian filmmaker. He is widely admired as "the godfather of independent Canadian cinema," particularly among young, independent filmmakers.

Edward Cowie is an Australian composer, author, natural scientist, and painter.

Rachel Grace Pollack was an American science fiction author, comic book writer, and expert on divinatory tarot.

Aleksandr Ivanovich Maksimenkov was a Soviet and Russian football player and coach.

Laurence Overmire is an American poet, author, actor, educator, genealogist, peace activist, civil rights, human rights, and animal rights advocate and environmentalist.

Maurizio Sandro Sala is a Brazilian former racing driver. He drove in multiple classes of racing in a career lasting from 1978 to 2004.

Geertjan Lassche is a Dutch reporter and documentary film maker.

Keith Mbusi Dabengwa is a Zimbabwean cricketer. He was appointed head coach of the Denmark national cricket team in October 2021.