Famous Birthdays on August 19

August 19 has 199 recorded notable births across history, from 232 to 2004. This focused page highlights 20 people with the strongest available profile context.

Matthew Perry

1969 — Matthew Perry

American actor, producer, and screenwriter (died 2023)

By · Wikipedia

Famous Birthdays 199 source records 232 – 2004 Leo

Major events on August 19

See what else happened on this day in history.

  1. 1965 Japanese prime minister Eisaku Satō becomes the first post-World War II sitting prime minister to visit Okinawa Prefecture. Source
  2. 1964 Syncom 3, the first geostationary communication satellite, is launched. Two months later, it would enable live coverage of the 1964 Summer Olympics. Source

Did you know about Matthew Perry

Known primarily for his work in comedy, he gained international fame for starring as Chandler Bing on the NBC television sitcom Friends (1994–2004), receiving his first Primetime Emmy Award nomination in 2002 for the role.

Did you know about Kyra Sedgwick

Kyra Sedgwick is best known for her starring role as Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson on the crime drama The Closer (2005–2012), for which she won a Golden Globe in 2007 and an Emmy Award in 2010.

Did you know about Peter Gallagher

Since 1980, he has played roles in numerous Hollywood films.

Did you know about Gerald McRaney

Gerald McRaney most recently starred as Admiral Hollace Kilbride on NCIS: Los Angeles.

Did you know about Adam Arkin

Between 2000-2002 he played the recurring role of Dr. Stanley Keyworth in The West Wing, most notably in Season 2, Episode 10, "Noel".


More major people born on August 19

Notable people are ranked by substantive profile depth and public notability.

1965 Kyra Sedgwick

Kyra Sedgwick

American actress and producer
Kyra Minturn Sedgwick is an American film and television actress. She is best known for her starring role as Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson on the crime drama The Closer (2005–2012), for which she won a Golden Globe in 2007 and an Emmy Award in 2010. She also starred in the 1992 TV film Miss Rose White, which won an Emmy Award. She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her performance in the 1995 film Something to Talk About. Sedgwick's other film credits include Oliver Stone's Born on the Fourth of July (1989) and Cameron Crowe's Singles (1992). She also had a recurring role as Deputy Chief Madeline Wuntch on the sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
1955 Peter Gallagher

Peter Gallagher

American actor
Peter Killian Gallagher is an American actor. Since 1980, he has played roles in numerous Hollywood films. He is best known for starring as Sandy Cohen in the television drama series The O.C. from 2003 to 2007, and recurring roles in television such as Deputy Chief William Dodds on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Stacey Koons on the Showtime comedy-drama Californication, Nick on the Netflix series Grace & Frankie, and Director of Clandestine Services (DCS) Arthur Campbell on Covert Affairs. He also is known for his roles in the films Summer Lovers (1982), Bob Roberts (1992), The Player (1992), Short Cuts (1993), While You Were Sleeping (1995), American Beauty (1999), Mr. Deeds (2002), and Palm Springs (2020). In musical theatre, his best-known roles are that of Sky Masterson in the 1992 Broadway revival of Guys and Dolls and Oscar Jaffe in the 2015 Broadway revival of On the Twentieth Century.
1947 Gerald McRaney

Gerald McRaney

American actor
Gerald Lee McRaney is an American television and film actor. McRaney is best known as one of the stars of the television shows Simon & Simon, Major Dad, Promised Land and House of Cards. He most recently starred as Admiral Hollace Kilbride on NCIS: Los Angeles. He was a series regular in the first season of the CBS drama series Jericho and the final season of the HBO series Deadwood. He appeared in a recurring role as main antagonist Mason Wood in season eight of Castle. Recently, he played Barlow Connally in the A&E series Longmire and had a recurring role in the NBC series This Is Us as Dr. Nathan Katowski, a role which earned him the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series.
1956 Adam Arkin

Adam Arkin

American actor, director, and producer
Adam Arkin is an American actor and director. He is best known for playing the role of Aaron Shutt on Chicago Hope. He has been nominated for numerous awards, including a Tony as well as three primetime Emmys, four SAG Awards, and a DGA Award. Between 2000-2002 he played the recurring role of Dr. Stanley Keyworth in The West Wing, most notably in Season 2, Episode 10, "Noel". In 2002, Arkin won a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Directing in a Children's Special for My Louisiana Sky. He is also one of the three actors to portray Dale "The Whale" Biederbeck on Monk. Between 2007 and 2009, he starred in Life. Beginning in 1990, he had a recurring guest role on Northern Exposure playing the angry, paranoid Adam, for which he received an Emmy nomination. In 2009, he portrayed villain Ethan Zobelle, a white separatist gang leader, in Sons of Anarchy and Principal Ed Gibb in 8 Simple Rules (2003–2005). His brother Matthew is also an actor, as was his father, Alan Arkin.
1960 Morten Andersen

Morten Andersen

Danish-American football player
Morten Andersen, nicknamed "the Great Dane", is a Danish-American former professional football kicker who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 25 seasons, most notably with the New Orleans Saints and Atlanta Falcons. Following a career from 1982 to 2007, Andersen holds the NFL record for regular season games played at 382. He also ranks second in field goals (565) and points scored (2,544). In addition to his league accomplishments, he is the Saints all-time leading scorer at 1,318 points. Andersen was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2017. Along with Jan Stenerud and Adam Vinatieri, he is one of only three exclusive kickers to receive the honor.
1919 Malcolm Forbes

Malcolm Forbes

American publisher and politician (died 1990)
Malcolm Stevenson Forbes was an American businessman and politician most prominently known as the publisher of Forbes magazine, which was founded by his father B. C. Forbes. He represented Somerset County in the New Jersey Senate from 1952 to 1958 and ran two campaigns for Governor of New Jersey. In 1953, he lost the Republican nomination to Paul L. Troast, who had the support of most of the party establishment. In 1957, he won the Republican nomination but lost the general election to incumbent Governor Robert Meyner. He was known as an avid promoter of capitalism and free market economics and for an extravagant lifestyle, spending on parties, travel, and his collection of homes, yachts, aircraft, art, motorcycles, and Fabergé eggs.
1944 Eddy Raven

Eddy Raven

American country music singer-songwriter
Edward Garvin Futch, known professionally as Eddy Raven, is an American country music singer and songwriter. Active from 1962 to 2018, Raven has recorded for several record labels, including ABC, Dimension, Elektra, RCA, Universal, and Capitol Records. After multiple albums that yielded few hit songs, his greatest commercial success came between 1984 and 1990, when Raven achieved six number-one singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts: "I Got Mexico", "Shine, Shine, Shine", "I'm Gonna Get You", "Joe Knows How to Live", "In a Letter to You", and "Bayou Boys". Raven has a total of 18 top-10 hits on that chart. Although his chart success diminished in the 1990s, Raven continued to record throughout the 1990s and into the 21st century. In addition to his own work, he has written singles for Don Gibson, Randy Cornor, Jeannie C. Riley, Connie Smith, and the Oak Ridge Boys, among others. Raven's music is defined by mainstream country, country pop, Cajun music, and reggae, and he wrote a large number of his singles by himself or with Frank J. Myers.
1711 Edward Boscawen

Edward Boscawen

English admiral and politician (died 1761)
Admiral of the Blue Edward Boscawen, was a Royal Navy officer and politician. He is known principally for his various naval commands during the 18th century and the engagements that he won, including the Siege of Louisbourg in 1758 and Battle of Lagos in 1759. He is also remembered as the officer who signed the warrant authorising the execution of Admiral John Byng in 1757, for failing to engage the enemy at the Battle of Minorca (1756). In his political role, he served as a Member of Parliament for Truro from 1742 until his death in 1761 although, due to almost constant naval employment, he seems not to have been particularly active. He also served as one of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty on the Board of Admiralty from 1751 and as a member of the Privy Council from 1758 until his death.
1835 Tom Wills

Tom Wills

Australian cricketer and pioneer of Australian rules football (died 1880)
Thomas Wentworth Wills was an Australian sportsman who is credited with being Australia's first cricketer of significance and a founder of Australian rules football. Born in the British penal colony of New South Wales to a wealthy family descended from convicts, Wills grew up in the bush on stations owned by his father, the squatter and politician Horatio Wills, in what is now the state of Victoria. As a child, he befriended local Aboriginal people, learning their language and customs. Aged 14, Wills went to England to attend Rugby School, where he became captain of its cricket team and played an early version of rugby football. After Rugby, Wills represented Cambridge University in the annual cricket match against Oxford, and played at first-class level for Kent and the Marylebone Cricket Club. An athletic bowling all-rounder with tactical nous, he was regarded as one of the finest young cricketers in England.
1914 Rose Heilbron

Rose Heilbron

British barrister and judge (died 2005)
Dame Rose Heilbron, DBE was a British barrister who served later as a High Court judge. Her career included many "firsts" for a woman – she was the first woman to achieve a first class honours degree in law at the University of Liverpool, the first woman to win a scholarship to Gray's Inn, one of the first two women to be appointed King's Counsel in England, the first woman to lead in a murder case, the first woman recorder, the first woman judge to sit at the Old Bailey, and the first woman treasurer of Gray's Inn. She was also the second woman to be appointed a High Court judge, after Elizabeth Lane.
1883 José Mendes Cabeçadas

José Mendes Cabeçadas

Portuguese admiral and politician, 9th President of Portugal (died 1965)
José Mendes Cabeçadas Júnior, OTE, ComA, MPCE, commonly known as Mendes Cabeçadas, was a Portuguese Navy officer, Freemason and republican, having a major role in the preparation of the revolutionary movements that created and ended the Portuguese First Republic: the 5 October revolution in 1910 and the 28 May coup d'état of 1926. In the outcome he became the minister of finance for one day only on 30 May 1926, then becoming interim minister for foreign affairs for two days between 30 May and 1 June, after which he again became the minister for finance on the same day. He served as the president of Portugal and prime minister for a brief period of time.
1978 Thomas Jones

Thomas Jones

American football player
Thomas Quinn Jones is an American actor and former professional football player. He played as a running back for 12 seasons in the National Football League (NFL). Jones played college football for the Virginia Cavaliers, earning consensus All-American honors in 1999. He was selected by the Arizona Cardinals seventh overall in the 2000 NFL draft, and played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in addition to the New York Jets, Chicago Bears, and Kansas City Chiefs. He retired among the top 25 leading rushers in NFL history, and a member of the 10,000 rushing yards club. In September 2019 he was nominated for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2020.
1994 Fernando Gaviria

Fernando Gaviria

Colombian cyclist
Fernando Gaviria Rendón is a Colombian professional road and track racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI ProTeam Caja Rural–Seguros RGA. He is well known as a sprinter. Riding for the Colombian national cycling team, Gaviria came to international attention at the 2015 Tour de San Luis, where he beat former world champion Mark Cavendish in two sprint finishes. His first major Grand Tour wins came at the 2017 Giro d'Italia. He is the brother of track cyclist Juliana Gaviria. His nickname is "Quetzal splendente", from the brightful and colourful South American bird Quetzal. Its colours recall his world championship titles, his Colombia and "la maglia Ciclamino" won at Giro d'Italia.
1815 Harriette Newell Woods Baker

Harriette Newell Woods Baker

American editor and children's book writer (died 1893)
Harriette Newell Woods Baker was an American author of books for children, and editor. Her career as an author began when she was about 30 years old. She devoted herself successfully to novels; but after about 15 years, she wrote popular religious literature. Her most famous book, Tim, the Scissors Grinder, sold half a million copies, and was translated into several languages. Baker published about 200 moral and religious tales under the pen name "Mrs. Madeline Leslie". She also wrote under her own name or initials, and under pseudonym "Aunt Hattie". She wrote chiefly for the young, and was still writing in 1893 when she died.
1982 Melissa Fumero

Melissa Fumero

American actress
Melissa Fumero is an American actress and television director. She made her professional debut in 2004 in the recurring role of Adriana Cramer in the television soap opera One Life to Live. Following several minor roles, she had her first main role as Amy Santiago in the comedy series Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which she played from 2013 to 2021. Since then, she has starred as Melissa Tarleton in the animated series M.O.D.O.K. (2021), Eliza Walker in the Netflix comedy Blockbuster (2022), and Bella Torres in the animated series Digman! (2023–2025). She is married to actor and former model David Fumero, with whom she has 2 sons.
1883 Coco Chanel

Coco Chanel

French fashion designer, founded the Chanel Company (died 1971)
Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel was a French fashion designer and businesswoman. The founder and namesake of the Chanel brand, she was credited in the post–World War I era with popularising a sporty, casual chic as the feminine standard of style. She is the only fashion designer listed on Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. A prolific fashion creator, Chanel extended her influence beyond couture clothing into jewellery, handbags, and fragrance. Her signature scent, Chanel No. 5, has become an iconic product, and Chanel herself designed her famed interlocked-CC monogram, which has been in use since the 1920s.
1900 Gilbert Ryle

Gilbert Ryle

English philosopher, author, and academic (died 1976)
Gilbert Ryle was a British philosopher, principally known for his critique of Cartesian dualism, for which he coined the phrase "ghost in the machine". Some of Ryle's ideas in philosophy of mind have been called logical behaviourist. In his best-known book, The Concept of Mind (1949), he writes that the "general trend of this book will undoubtedly, and harmlessly, be stigmatised as 'behaviourist'." Having studied the philosophers Bernard Bolzano, Franz Brentano, Alexius Meinong, Edmund Husserl, and Martin Heidegger, Ryle suggested that the book instead "could be described as a sustained essay in phenomenology, if you are at home with that label."
1935 Bobby Richardson

Bobby Richardson

American baseball player and coach
Robert Clinton Richardson Jr. is an American former professional baseball second baseman. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees from 1955 through 1966. Batting and throwing right-handed, he formed a top double play combination with fellow Yankee infielders Clete Boyer and Tony Kubek. In the 1960 World Series he became the only World Series Most Valuable Player to be selected from the losing team. In 1962, he led the American League (AL) in hits with 209 and caught a line drive off the bat of Willie McCovey to win the 1962 World Series for the Yankees.
1858 Ellen Willmott

Ellen Willmott

English horticulturalist (died 1934)
Ellen Ann Willmott was an English horticulturist. She was an influential member of the Royal Horticultural Society, and a recipient of the first Victoria Medal of Honour, awarded to British horticulturists living in the UK by the society, in 1897. Willmott was said to have cultivated more than 100,000 species and cultivars of plants and sponsored expeditions to discover new species. Inherited wealth allowed Willmott to buy large gardens in France and Italy to add to the garden at her home, Warley Place in Essex. More than 60 plants have been named after her or her home, Warley Place.

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