Famous Birthdays on December 27

Marie Magdalene "Marlene" Dietrich was a German and American actress and singer whose career spanned nearly seven decades. In 1920s Berlin, she performed on the stage and in silent films. Her performance as Lola Lola in Josef von Sternberg's The Blue Angel (1930) brought her international acclaim and a contract with Paramount Pictures. Dietrich starred in many Hollywood films, including six roles directed by Sternberg: Morocco (1930), Dishonored (1931), Shanghai Express and Blonde Venus, The Scarlet Empress (1934), and The Devil Is a Woman (1935). Throughout World War II, she was a high-profile entertainer in the United States. Although she delivered notable performances in several post-war films, including Billy Wilder's A Foreign Affair (1948), Alfred Hitchcock's Stage Fright (1950), Billy Wilder's Witness for the Prosecution (1957), Orson Welles's Touch of Evil (1958), and Stanley Kramer's Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), she spent most of the 1950s to the 1970s touring the world as a marquee live-show performer.

Gérard Xavier Marcel Depardieu is a French actor. Considered an icon of French cinema in the same way as Jean Gabin and Alain Delon, he has completed over 200 films since 1967, most of which as a lead actor. Depardieu has worked with over 150 film directors including François Truffaut, Ridley Scott, Peter Weir and Bernardo Bertolucci. He is the second highest-grossing actor in the history of French cinema behind Louis de Funès. Among his films, about 60 have sold more than one million admissions in France. He has portrayed numerous historical and fictitious figures including Cyrano de Bergerac, Georges Danton, Christopher Columbus, Jean Valjean, Edmond Dantès and Porthos, as well as Obelix in four of the live action Asterix films. Depardieu is also a film producer, businessman and vineyard owner. He has occasionally directed films and performed as a singer. His body of work includes many television productions, several records and, as of 2025, 19 stage plays and 9 books.

John Allen Amos Jr. was an American actor. He was best known for his role as James Evans Sr. on the CBS television series Good Times. His other well known roles were as the adult Kunta Kinte in the landmark miniseries Roots and for portraying Captain Meissner in Lock Up (1989) and Major Grant in Die Hard 2 (1990). His other television work includes The Mary Tyler Moore Show, a recurring role as Admiral Percy Fitzwallace on The West Wing, and the role of the Mayor of Washington DC Ethan Baker in the series The District. Amos was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award and an NAACP Image Award. In film, he played numerous supporting roles in movies such as The Beastmaster (1982), Coming to America (1988), and Coming 2 America (2021).

Milos Raonic is a Canadian former professional tennis player. He was ranked as high as world No. 3 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals, making him the highest-ranked Canadian in ATP history. Raonic won eight ATP Tour titles, and reached a major final at the 2016 Wimbledon Championships. Raonic first gained widespread recognition by reaching the fourth round of the 2011 Australian Open as a qualifier. Coupled with his first ATP Tour title three weeks later, his world ranking rose from No. 152 to No. 37 in one month, and he was named the 2011 ATP Newcomer of the Year. Raonic was the first player born in the 1990s to be ranked in the top 10 and to qualify for the ATP Finals. His career highlights include his 2016 Wimbledon final, two other major semifinals at the 2014 Wimbledon Championships and 2016 Australian Open, and four Masters finals. He was the first Canadian man in the Open Era to reach the Wimbledon final, the Australian Open semifinals, and the French Open quarterfinals. Raonic was frequently described as having one of the best serves among his contemporaries. Statistically, Raonic is one of the best servers in the Open Era, winning 91% of service games to rank. Aided by his serve, he played an all-court style with an emphasis on short points. All his singles titles were won on hardcourts. His overall winning percentage of 68% was one of the highest among players of his era.

Lorenzo LaVonne Neal is an American former professional football player who was a fullback in the National Football League (NFL) for 16 seasons. Neal played college football for the Fresno State Bulldogs and was selected by the New Orleans Saints in the fourth round of the 1993 NFL draft. A four-time Pro Bowl selection and three-time All-Pro, he was also a member of the New York Jets, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Tennessee Titans, the Cincinnati Bengals, the San Diego Chargers, the Baltimore Ravens and the Oakland Raiders. Considered one of the best blocking fullbacks in NFL history, Neal blocked for a 1,000-plus-yard running back in 11 straight seasons from 1997 to 2007.

Nolan Richardson Jr. is an American former basketball head coach best known for his tenure at the University of Arkansas, where he won the 1994 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament and led the Razorbacks to three Final Fours. Elected to the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008 and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2014, Richardson coached teams to winning a Division I Basketball National Championship, an NIT championship, and a Junior College National Championship, making him the only coach to win all three championships. During his 22 seasons of coaching in NCAA Division I, Richardson made a post-season tournament appearance 20 times.

Haris Alexiou is a Greek singer whose career has spanned over 5 decades. She is one of the most popular singers in Greece. She has worked with important Greek songwriters and composers, has performed at top musical theatres all over the world, and has received several awards. She has recorded over thirty albums and has been featured on albums of other musicians. On 14th March 2010, Alpha TV ranked Alexiou as the first top-certified female artist in Greece in the phonographic era. She is the highest selling Greek female artist and third overall, behind George Dalaras and Yiannis Parios. Eight of her personal albums released between 1977 and 2003 have totaled 11 million sales, the only Greek female artist to do so.

Raimund Pretzel, better known by his pseudonym Sebastian Haffner, was a German journalist and historian. As an émigré in Britain during World War II, Haffner argued that accommodation was not only impossible with Adolf Hitler but also impossible with the German Reich with which Hitler had gambled. Peace could be secured only by rolling back history and restoring Germany to a network of smaller states. As a journalist in West Germany, Haffner's independence and penchant for provocation precipitated breaks with editors both liberal and conservative. His intervention in the Spiegel affair of 1962, and his contributions to the anti-fascist rhetoric of the student New Left, sharply raised his profile.

Logan Bailly is a Belgian retired professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Having started his career at Genk, Bailly has had spells at German Bundesliga side Borussia Mönchengladbach, Scottish Premiership club Celtic and Belgian Pro League side Oud-Heverlee Leuven. In March 2021 he announced to have signed with Bressoux playing in the Belgian Provincial Leagues, but early August of that same year he instead retired and became goalkeeper manager at FC Differdange 03. He became goalkeeper manager at Virton, but due to several injured goalkeepers he suddenly appeared in the three final matches of the 2023–2024 season. The following season he remained third goalkeeper and would go on to make four more appearances, after now officially retiring at 39 years of age in May 2025.

John Landry “Buddy” Boudreaux was an American big band and jazz musician. He played saxophone and clarinet. Starting in 1934, he directed and played in a number of bands that toured the southern United States and drew nationally known performers to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The State-Times newspaper called him "the city’s sound of big band". His bands backed such artists as Andy Williams, Bernadette Peters, Doc Severinsen, Dionne Warwick, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Burt Bacharach, Johnny Mathis, The Four Tops, Bob Hope, George Burns and Joan Rivers. He opened shows for Tony Bennett, Tony Orlando, Louise Mandrell, The Beach Boys and Bill Cosby. He was co-author—with his barber, Michael T. Abadie—of “My Baton Rouge,” which in 1998 was declared the city's official song.

Willy Polleunis is a Belgian former long-distance runner who won the silver medal in the 3000 metres at the 1973 European Indoor Championships, behind his clubmate Emiel Puttemans. He also ran a world record on the 10 miles in 1972. He competed in the 5000 and 10000 metres events at the 1968, 1972 and 1976 Olympics with the best achievement of sixth place in the 5000 metres in 1976. At the start of the final lap, he was in tenth place, but he accelerated, and possibly ran the final lap even faster than the winner, Lasse Viren. Polleunis also won team gold medals at the 1973 and 1977 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, and a team silver in 1976.

Louis Pasteur was a French chemist, pharmacist, and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation, and pasteurization, the last of which was named after him. His research in chemistry led to remarkable breakthroughs in the understanding of the causes and prevention of diseases, which laid down the foundations of hygiene, public health and much of modern medicine. Pasteur's works are credited with saving millions of lives through the development of vaccines for rabies and anthrax. He is regarded as one of the founders of modern bacteriology and has been honored as the "father of bacteriology" and the "father of microbiology".

Sydney Hughes Greenstreet was a British and American character actor. While he did not begin his career in films until the age of 61, he had a run of significant motion pictures in a Hollywood career lasting through the 1940s. He is best remembered for the three Warner Bros. films – The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca (1942), and Passage to Marseille (1944) – with both Humphrey Bogart and Peter Lorre. Greenstreet was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Maltese Falcon. He portrayed Nero Wolfe on radio during 1950 and 1951. He became an American citizen in 1925.

Joseph Patrick Kinnear was an Irish professional football manager and player. As a defender, Kinnear spent the majority of his career spanning ten seasons with Tottenham Hotspur and one with Brighton & Hove Albion. With Tottenham he won the FA Cup, the League Cup twice, the Charity Shield, and the UEFA Cup. After Spurs, Kinnear played for Brighton for the 1975–76 season. Having been born in Dublin, Kinnear played and was capped 26 times for the Republic of Ireland national team. After his playing career, he managed India, Nepal, Doncaster Rovers, Wimbledon, Luton Town, Nottingham Forest, and Newcastle United.

Ok Taec-yeon, known mononymously as Taecyeon, is a South Korean rapper, singer, actor, and entrepreneur. In 2008, he debuted as the rapper of the South Korean boy band 2PM. In 2010, Ok debuted as an actor in the Korean drama Cinderella's Stepsister and has since starred in notable television series such as Dream High (2011), Bring It On, Ghost (2016), Vincenzo (2021), and The First Night with the Duke (2025), as well as films such as Hansan: Rising Dragon (2022). As a solo artist, he has released one Japanese studio album titled Taecyeon Special: Winter Hitori in 2017.

Chloe Marisa Suazo Devine, known professionally as Chloe Bridges, is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Zoey Moreno in the sitcom Freddie (2005–2006) and as Dana Turner in the Disney Channel original film Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam (2010). She has starred in the films Forget Me Not (2009), Family Weekend (2013), Mantervention (2014), The Final Girls (2015), and Nightlight (2015). She has also portrayed Donna LaDonna in The Carrie Diaries, Sydney in Pretty Little Liars, and Kibby in Daytime Divas. Born in Thibodaux, Louisiana, she was raised in nearby Houma.

Andre Bernard Tippett Sr. is an American former professional football player who was a linebacker in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons with the New England Patriots. He played college football for the Iowa Hawkeyes, where he was recognized as a consensus All-American in 1981. A second-round pick in the 1982 NFL draft, Tippett was selected to five Pro Bowls and was named first-team All-Pro twice in his career. Since 2007, he has been the Patriots' executive director of community affairs. He was enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2008.

Mirza Asadullah Beg Khan, commonly known as Mirza Ghalib, was an Indian poet and letter writer of the Mughal Empire. Writing in Persian and Urdu during the final years of the Mughal Empire and the rise of British colonial rule, his poetry often addressed themes of love, loss, philosophy, the human condition, and socio-political disturbances with a depth and complexity that influenced the literary traditions of his time. His ghazals, noted for their intricate imagery and layered meanings, form a significant part of Urdu literature. He spent most of his life in poverty.

Michael Kent Benson is an American former professional basketball player. He was a two-time All-American for the Indiana Hoosiers, winning the 1976 Helms Foundation Player of the Year and helping lead the Hoosiers to the 1976 NCAA championship with a perfect 32–0 record, with Benson being named the 1976 NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player. Benson was the No. 1 overall pick of the 1977 NBA draft by the Milwaukee Bucks, playing 11 seasons in the NBA for Milwaukee (1977–1980), the Detroit Pistons (1980–1986), Utah Jazz (1986–1987) and Cleveland Cavaliers (1988).