Famous Birthdays on January 8

José Vicente Ferrer de Otero y Cintrón was a Puerto Rican actor and director of stage, film and television. He was one of the most celebrated and esteemed Hispanic American actors during his lifetime and after, with a career spanning nearly 60 years between 1935 and 1992. He achieved prominence for his portrayal of Cyrano de Bergerac in the play of the same name, which earned him the inaugural Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play in 1947. He reprised the role in a 1950 film version and won an Academy Award for Best Actor, making him both the first Hispanic and the first Puerto Rican–born actor to win an Academy Award.

Saeed Jaffrey was a British-Indian actor. His career covered film, radio, stage and television roles over six decades and more than 150 British, American, and Indian movies. During the 1980s and 1990s, he was considered to be Britain's highest-profile Asian actor, thanks to his leading roles in the film My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) and television series The Jewel in the Crown (1984), Tandoori Nights (1985–1987) and Little Napoleons (1994). He played an instrumental part in bringing together filmmakers James Ivory and Ismail Merchant, and acted in several of their Merchant Ivory Productions films such as The Guru (1969), Hullabaloo Over Georgie and Bonnie's Pictures (1978), The Courtesans of Bombay (1983) and The Deceivers (1988).

Elisabeth Dee DeVos is an American politician, philanthropist, and former government official who served as the 11th United States secretary of education from 2017 to 2021. DeVos is known for her conservative political activism, and particularly her support for school choice, school voucher programs, and charter schools. She was Republican national committeewoman for Michigan from 1992 to 1997 and served as chair of the Michigan Republican Party from 1996 to 2000, and again from 2003 to 2005. She has advocated for the Detroit charter school system and she is a former member of the board of the Foundation for Excellence in Education. She has served as chair of the board of the Alliance for School Choice and the Acton Institute and headed the All Children Matter PAC.

Howard Bruce Sutter was an American professional baseball pitcher. He played 12 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals, and Atlanta Braves from 1976 to 1988. He was one of the sport's dominant closers in the late 1970s and early 1980s, making effective use of the split-finger fastball. A six-time All-Star and 1982 World Series champion, Sutter recorded a 2.83 career earned run average and 300 saves, the third-most in MLB history at the time of his retirement. Sutter won the National League (NL) Cy Young Award in 1979 as its top pitcher, and won the NL Rolaids Relief Man Award four times. He became the only pitcher to lead the NL in saves five times.

James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon, PC, PC (NI), DL, was a leading Irish unionist and a key architect of Northern Ireland as a devolved region within the United Kingdom. During the Home Rule Crisis of 1912–14, he defied the British government in preparing an armed resistance in Ulster to an all-Ireland parliament. He accepted partition as a final settlement, securing the opt out of six Ulster counties from the dominion statehood accorded Ireland under the terms of the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty. From then until his death in 1940, he led the Ulster Unionist Party and served Northern Ireland as its first Prime Minister. He publicly characterised his administration as a "Protestant" counterpart to the "Catholic state" nationalists had established in the south. Craig was created a baronet in 1918 and raised to the Peerage in 1927.

Karl Brandt was a German physician and Schutzstaffel (SS) officer in Nazi Germany. Trained in surgery, Brandt joined the Nazi Party in 1932 and became Adolf Hitler's "escort doctor" (Begleitarzt) in August 1934. A member of Hitler's inner circle at the Berghof, he was selected by Philipp Bouhler, the head of Hitler's Chancellery, to administer the Aktion T4 euthanasia program. Brandt was later appointed the Reich Commissioner of Health and Emergency Services. Accused of involvement in human experimentation and other war crimes, Brandt was indicted in late 1946 and faced trial before a U.S. military tribunal along with 22 others in the Doctors' Trial. He was found guilty, sentenced to death, and executed on 2 June 1948.

Keiko Aoki is a Japanese retired professional wrestler and professional golfer better known as Bull Nakano . She began competing in All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) as a teenager under the ring name Bull Nakano. As a wrestler she was a villain, who often teamed with her mentor Dump Matsumoto. In Japan, she held several of AJW's singles and tag team championships. After being phased out by the company in the early 1990s, she traveled to North America, where she first competed in Mexico's Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL), becoming its first World Women's Champion. In 1994, she made her way to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), where she had feuded with Alundra Blayze over the WWF Women's Championship. After holding the title once, she also competed in World Championship Wrestling (WCW). In 1998, Nakano began competing as a professional golfer, and in 2006, she joined a tour with the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA). She was inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame on 2001 and was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2024.

Jan Pieterszoon Coen was a Dutch naval officer of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in the early 17th century, serving two terms as governor-general of the Dutch East Indies. He was the founder of Batavia, capital of the Dutch East Indies. Renowned for providing the impulse that set the VOC on the path to dominance in the Dutch East Indies, he was long considered a national hero in the Netherlands. Since the 19th century, his legacy has become controversial due to the brutal violence he employed in order to secure a trade monopoly on nutmeg, mace and cloves. He led the final Dutch conquest of the Banda Islands in 1621, which culminated in the Banda massacre, which saw 2,800 Bandanese killed and 1,700 enslaved by the Dutch. This is regarded as an act of genocide and earned him the nickname of 'Butcher of Banda'.

Freiherr Hans Guido von Bülow was a German conductor, pianist, and composer of the Romantic era. As one of the most distinguished conductors of the 19th century, his activity was critical for establishing the successes of several major composers of the time, especially Richard Wagner and Johannes Brahms. Alongside Carl Tausig, Bülow was perhaps the most prominent of the early students of the Hungarian composer, pianist and conductor Franz Liszt; he gave the first public performance of Liszt's Sonata in B minor in 1857. He became acquainted with, fell in love with and eventually married Liszt's daughter Cosima, who later left him for Wagner. Noted for his interpretation of the works of Ludwig van Beethoven, he was one of the earliest European musicians to tour the United States.

Edmond-Charles Genêt, also known as Citizen Genêt, was the French envoy to the United States appointed by the Girondins during the French Revolution. His actions on arriving in the United States led to a major political and international incident termed the "Citizen Genêt Affair." Because of his actions, President George Washington asked the French government to recall him. The Montagnards, having risen to power at the same time, replaced Genêt and issued a warrant for his arrest. Fearing for his life, Genêt asked for asylum in America, which was granted by Washington. Genêt stayed in the United States until his death. Historian Carol Berkin argues that the Genêt affair bolstered popular respect for the president and strengthened his role in dealing with foreign affairs.

Lowell Mason was an American music director and banker who was a leading figure in 19th-century American church music. Lowell composed over 1,600 hymn tunes, many of which are often sung today. His best-known work includes an arrangement of "Joy to the World" and the tune Bethany, which sets the hymn text Nearer, My God, to Thee. Mason also set music to Mary Had A Little Lamb. He is largely credited with introducing music into American public schools, and is considered the first important U.S. music educator. He has also been criticized for helping to largely eliminate the robust tradition of participatory sacred music that flourished in North America before his time.

Josh Reginald Hazlewood is an Australian international cricketer. He is a pace bowler known for his accuracy and has been compared to former Australian paceman Glenn McGrath. He has captained Australia in an ODI and served as a Test vice-captain after the 2018 Australian ball-tampering scandal, following which Australia's then captain Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner had stood down. Hazlewood currently ranks no. 9 in Test, no. 14 in ODI and no. 38 in T20I in the ICC Men's Player Rankings. He won multiple ICC tournaments with the Australian team: the 2015 Cricket World Cup, the 2021 T20 World Cup and the 2023 Cricket World Cup.

Ron Moody was an English actor. He was best known for his portrayal of Fagin in Lionel Bart's 1960 stage musical Oliver!, originating the role in the initial London production and reprising it in the 1968 film adaptation and in West End and Broadway revivals in the 1980s. Moody earned a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination for the film, as well as a Tony Award nomination for the stage production. Other notable projects include The Mouse on the Moon (1963), Mel Brooks's The Twelve Chairs (1970) and Flight of the Doves (1971), in which Moody shared the screen with Oliver! co-star Jack Wild.

Ignas "Iggy" Brazdeikis is a Lithuanian-Canadian professional basketball player for Unicaja of the Liga ACB and Basketball Champions League (BCL). He played college basketball for the Michigan Wolverines. As a freshman, he was a 2019 second-team All-Big Ten selection, the Big Ten Freshman of the Year and a Big Ten All-Freshman honoree. Brazdeikis was selected with the 47th overall pick in the 2019 NBA draft by the Sacramento Kings, and was then traded to the New York Knicks. He has played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Knicks, Philadelphia 76ers and Orlando Magic as well as NBA G League Westchester Knicks and Lakeland Magic.

Patrick Jay Hurley was an American attorney, Republican Party politician, military officer, and diplomat. He was the 51st United States Secretary of War from 1929 to 1933 in the cabinet of Herbert Hoover and a key American diplomat during World War II. As ambassador to China in 1944 and 1945, Hurley is remembered for his instrumental role in the recall of General Joseph Stilwell in favor of Albert Coady Wedemeyer, his advocacy for a rollback strategy in China, and his public criticism of State Department policy at the onset of the Second Red Scare. He was the first Oklahoman to serve in a presidential cabinet.

Sarah Ellen Polley is a Canadian filmmaker, writer, political activist and actress. She first garnered attention as a child actress for her role as Ramona Quimby in the television series Ramona, based on Beverly Cleary's books. This subsequently led to her role as Sara Stanley in the Canadian television series Road to Avonlea (1990–1996). She has starred in many feature films, including The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988), Exotica (1994), The Sweet Hereafter (1997), Guinevere (1999), Go (1999), The Weight of Water (2000), No Such Thing (2001), My Life Without Me (2003), Dawn of the Dead (2004), Splice (2009), and Mr. Nobody (2009).

Evelyn Nielsen Wood was an American educator and businessperson, widely known for popularizing speed reading, although she preferred the phrase "dynamic reading". She created and marketed a system said to increase a reader's speed over the average reading rate of 250 to 300 words a minute by a factor of three to ten times, or more, while preserving and even improving comprehension. The system was taught in rented offices, dubbed "institutes", as Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics, a business Wood co-founded with her husband, Doug Wood. It eventually had 150 outlets in the United States, 30 in Canada, and others worldwide.

Clarence Benjamin Jones was an American lawyer and the personal counsel, advisor, draft speech writer and close friend of Martin Luther King Jr. He was a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. Jones was a scholar in residence at the Martin Luther King Jr. Institute at Stanford University. He was the author of What Would Martin Say? and Behind the Dream: The Making of the Speech that Transformed a Nation. His book Last of the Lions was released on August 1, 2023. Jones served as chairman of the non-profit Spill the Honey Foundation.

Jeffrey Braden Francoeur, nicknamed "Frenchy", is an American former professional baseball right fielder, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Atlanta Braves, New York Mets, Texas Rangers, Kansas City Royals, San Francisco Giants, San Diego Padres, Philadelphia Phillies, and Miami Marlins. When his playing days ended, he became a broadcaster; Francoeur is currently one of the lead television analysts for Atlanta Braves games, as well as doing various work for TBS. He also hosts The Pure Athlete Podcast, a podcast that serves as a resource for coaches, parents, and kids going through the process of youth athletics.