Famous Birthdays on June 22

Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep is an American actress. Widely regarded by peers and critics as the greatest actress of her generation, and by many as the greatest ever, she is recognized as one of the most versatile performers in cinema, noted for her technical precision, nuanced emotional depth, command of dialects, and professional longevity. Streep is an alumna of Vassar College and the Yale School of Drama, holding a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Fine Arts. Her artistic process often includes refining her characters' dialogue so that their motivations possess a psychological depth and agency that transcend traditional archetypes. Beyond her creative work, she is a prominent advocate for gender parity, labor protections, and challenging the influence of the male gaze in film criticism and production.

Stephen Chow Sing-chi is a Hong Kong filmmaker and former actor, known for his mo lei tau comedy, which has a significant influence on Chinese popular culture. His career began in television, where he gained recognition through variety shows and TV dramas. Chow's breakthrough came in 1989 with the comedy dramas The Final Combat and The Justice of Life, the latter marking the beginning of his on-screen collaboration with Ng Man-tat. He consecutively broke Hong Kong’s box office records in the next two years with films All for the Winner (1990) and Fight Back to School (1991), cementing his status as one of the region's most popular actors.

Lindsay Jean Wagner is an American actress. Wagner is popular for her leading role in the American science fiction television series The Bionic Woman (1976–1978), in which she portrayed character Jaime Sommers. She first played the role on the series The Six Million Dollar Man. The character became a pop culture icon of the 1970s. For this role, Wagner won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Dramatic Role in 1977 – the first for an actor or actress in a science fiction series. Wagner began acting professionally in 1971 and has maintained a lengthy acting career in a variety of film and television productions to the present day.

Clyde Austin Drexler Sr. is an American former professional basketball player who currently serves as the second commissioner of the Big3 3-on-3 basketball league. Nicknamed "Clyde the Glide", he played 15 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA), spending a majority of his career with the Portland Trail Blazers before finishing with the Houston Rockets. He was a 10-time NBA All-Star, five time All-NBA Selection, and was named to the NBA's 50th and 75th anniversary teams. Drexler led Portland to the NBA Finals in 1990 and 1992, won an NBA championship with Houston in 1995, and earned a gold medal on the 1992 United States Olympic team known as "The Dream Team". He was inducted twice into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, in 2004 for his individual career and in 2010 as a member of the "Dream Team". Drexler is often considered among the top basketball players and top shooting guards of all time.

Abbas Kiarostami was an Iranian film director, screenwriter, poet, photographer, and film producer. An active filmmaker from 1970, Kiarostami had been involved in the production of over forty films, including shorts and documentaries. Kiarostami attained critical acclaim for directing the Koker trilogy (1987–1994), Close-Up (1990), The Wind Will Carry Us (1999), and Taste of Cherry (1997), which was awarded the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival that year. In later works, Certified Copy (2010) and Like Someone in Love (2012), he filmed for the first time outside Iran: in Italy and Japan, respectively. His films Where Is the Friend's House? (1987), Close-Up, and The Wind Will Carry Us were ranked among the 100 best foreign films in a 2018 critics' poll by BBC Culture. Close-Up was also ranked one of the 50 greatest movies of all time in the famous decennial Sight & Sound poll conducted in 2012. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of Iran, and of all time.

Maximilian Johannes Maria Hubert Reichsgraf von Spee was a German naval officer in the Imperial German Navy, who commanded the East Asia Squadron during World War I. Spee entered the navy in 1878 and served in a variety of roles and locations, including on a colonial gunboat in German West Africa in the 1880s, the East Africa Squadron in the late 1890s, and as commander of several warships in the main German fleet in the early 1900s. During his time in Germany in the late 1880s and early 1890s, he married his wife, Margareta, and had three children, his sons Heinrich and Otto and his daughter Huberta. By 1912, he had returned to the East Asia Squadron as its commander, and was promoted to the rank of Vizeadmiral the following year.

Joseph Papp was an American theatrical producer and director. Papp is a pioneering figure in American theater, known for creating Shakespeare in the Park, which aimed to make classical theater accessible to all people by producing free-of-charge performances. He was a known advocate for non-traditional and diverse casting practices. He established The Public Theater in what had been the Astor Library Building in Lower Manhattan. There Papp created a year-round producing home to focus on new plays and musicals. Eventually, one of the six performance spaces inside the Public Theater was renamed Joe's Pub in honor of Joseph Papp. It continues to host live performances across a wide range of art forms. Among numerous examples of these were the works of David Rabe, Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf, Charles Gordone's No Place to Be Somebody, and Papp's production of Michael Bennett's Pulitzer Prize–winning musical A Chorus Line. Papp also helped to develop other off-Broadway theatres and worked to preserve the historic Broadway Theatre District.

Ura Kazuki is a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Neyagawa, Osaka. After winning a gold medal in sumo at the 2013 World Combat Games, he made his professional debut in 2015, wrestling with the Kise stable and he won the jonokuchi division championship in his first tournament. He reached the top makuuchi division in March 2017, but a pair of serious injuries led to two extended layoffs, and his rank dropped to the lowest since his debut tournament, and it was three and a half years before he returned to top-level competition. He has two kinboshi, or gold stars, for defeating a yokozuna.

Hokutoumi Nobuyoshi is a Japanese former professional sumo wrestler from Hokkaidō. He was the sport's 61st yokozuna and won eight top division championships. He wrestled for Kokonoe stable. In 1989 he and Chiyonofuji were the first yokozuna stablemates to take part in a play-off for the championship. After a number of injury problems he retired in 1992, and is now the head coach of Hakkaku stable. In November 2015 he was appointed chairman of the Japan Sumo Association, following the death of Kitanoumi, initially to serve until the end of March 2016. He was then elected as head for a full term by his fellow board members in a vote held in March 2016. He was reappointed to a full term as chairman five times, most recently in 2026.

Jerome Everton Taylor is a Jamaican former cricketer who played as a fast bowler for the West Indies. Taylor took over 100 wickets for the Windies in both Tests and One Day Internationals (ODI). During 2017 he reversed an initial decision to retire from international cricket. Taylor has also featured for Jamaica, English sides Somerset, Leicestershire and Sussex, CPL teams St Lucia Zouks and Jamaica Tallawahs and IPL side Pune Warriors in his cricketing career. Taylor was a member of the West Indies team that won the 2016 T20 World Cup. He is the only bowler to have ever taken a hat-trick in a Champions Trophy match, which he did in the 2006 tournament against Australia, and that was the first hat-trick taken by a West Indian bowler in the ODI format.

Darryl Gregory Brohman, also known by the nickname of "The Big Marn", is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1970s and 1980s, and coached in the 1980s, now best known as a commentator and media personality. Brohman played professional league for the Penrith Panthers, Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs and the Queensland rugby league team. At present, he is working for 2GB on its Continuous Call Team broadcasts, on The Footy Show and makes guest appearances on the Australian version of the ESPN show Pardon the Interruption. In the summer, he plays a small role in the nationally syndicated radio program entitled Summer Weekend Detention which broadcasts from the Sydney studios of 2GB on weekends during the summer months.

Janko Tipsarević is a Serbian tennis coach and former professional player. In tennis, his career-high singles ranking is world No. 8, achieved on 2 April 2012. In his career, he won 4 ATP World Tour titles, one ATP doubles title, three Futures, and 15 Challenger titles. Tipsarević also won the 2001 Australian Open junior title. He holds notable victories over former world No. 1 players Carlos Moyá, Marat Safin, Lleyton Hewitt, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Andy Roddick, his compatriot Novak Djokovic, and Andy Murray. His best results at a Grand Slam tournament were reaching the quarterfinals at the US Open in 2011 and 2012.

Dustin Hunter Johnson is an American professional golfer. He has won two major championships, the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club with a 4-under-par score of 276 and the 2020 Masters Tournament with a record score of 268, 20-under-par. He had previously finished in a tie for second at both the 2011 Open Championship and the 2015 U.S. Open. He has six World Golf Championships victories, second only to Tiger Woods's 18 wins, and was the first and only player to win each of the four World Golf Championship events. He has played in The LIV Golf League since 2022.

Amrish Puri was an Indian actor, who predominantly worked in Hindi cinema. He was one of the most notable and important figures in Indian cinema and theatre. Puri was known for his acting versatility. His dominating screen presence and distinctive deep voice made him stand out amongst other actors of his generation. Puri acted in more than 450 films, and established himself as one of the greatest actors in Indian cinema. He holds most Filmfare Award for Best Villain nominations. While he primarly worked in Hindi-language films, he had also appeared in Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam and Marathi language films.

Giuseppe Mazzini was an Italian politician, lawyer, journalist, philosopher, and political activist who worked for the unification of Italy (Risorgimento) and was a major leader of the Italian revolutionary movement. His efforts helped bring about the independent and unified Italy in place of the several separate states, many dominated by foreign powers, that existed until the 19th century. An Italian nationalist in the historical radical tradition and a proponent of a republicanism of social-democratic inspiration, Mazzini "helped define the European movement for popular democracy in a republican state." He is widely known as the "Prophet of Italian Nationalism".

Erich Maria Remarque was a German novelist. His 1928 landmark novel All Quiet on the Western Front, which was based on his experience in the Imperial German Army during World War I, was an international bestseller which created a new literary genre of veterans writing about conflict. The book was adapted to film several times. Remarque's anti-war themes led to his condemnation by Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels as "unpatriotic". He was able to use his literary success and fame to relocate to Switzerland as a refugee, and to the United States, where he became a naturalized citizen.

Darrell Eugene Armstrong is an American professional basketball coach and former player who last was an assistant coach for the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played 14 seasons in the NBA for the Orlando Magic, New Orleans Hornets, Dallas Mavericks, Indiana Pacers and New Jersey Nets. Armstrong was selected as the Most Improved Player and Sixth Man of the Year while playing for the Magic in 1999. He retired from playing in 2008 and joined the Mavericks as an assistant coach in 2009. He won his first NBA championship with the Mavericks in 2011.

Clyde Clifton McNeely was an American basketball player and coach. A 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) forward, he played college basketball for the Texas Wesleyan Rams for three seasons and led the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) in scoring during his senior season in 1946–47. McNeely was the first player ever drafted in the National Basketball Association (NBA) when he was selected by the Pittsburgh Ironmen as the first pick of the league's inaugural 1947 draft. He never played professional basketball and instead pursued a coaching career at Pampa High School in Texas.

Lee Min-ho is a South Korean actor and singer. He gained widespread fame with his role as Gu Jun-pyo in the television series Boys Over Flowers (2009), which also earned him the Baeksang Arts Award for Best New Actor. His other notable works are television series City Hunter (2011), The Heirs (2013), The Legend of the Blue Sea (2016), and The King: Eternal Monarch (2020), as well as the action thriller film Gangnam Blues (2015). In 2022, he starred in the Apple TV+ period drama Pachinko based on the novel of the same name.