Famous Birthdays on March 15

Michael Pettaway Tomlin is an American former professional football coach who was the head coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL) from 2007 to 2025. During his 19 seasons as head coach, Tomlin never finished with a losing record, the longest streak in NFL history. He began his NFL career as defensive assistant before joining the Steelers. Tomlin led Pittsburgh to 13 playoff appearances, eight division titles, three AFC Championship Games, two Super Bowl appearances, and a title in Super Bowl XLIII. At age 36, Tomlin was the youngest head coach to win the Super Bowl at the time. He is also tied with Chuck Noll for the most regular season wins in franchise history. Following his resignation, Tomlin became an analyst on NBC's Football Night in America.

Joan Ruth Bader Ginsburg was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 until her death in 2020. She was nominated by President Bill Clinton to replace retiring justice Byron White, and at the time was viewed as a moderate consensus-builder. Ginsburg was the first Jewish woman and the second woman to serve on the Court, after Sandra Day O'Connor. During her tenure, Ginsburg authored the majority opinions in cases such as United States v. Virginia (1996), Olmstead v. L.C. (1999), Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Environmental Services, Inc. (2000), and City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York (2005). Later in her tenure, Ginsburg received attention for passionate dissents that reflected liberal views of the law.

Frances Hardman Conroy is an American actress. She is best known for playing Ruth Fisher on the television series Six Feet Under (2001–2005), for which she won a Golden Globe and three Screen Actors Guild Awards, and received four Primetime Emmy Awards nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. She is also known for playing the older version of Moira O'Hara in season one of the television anthology series American Horror Story, which garnered Conroy her first Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress on Television nomination, and as well a Primetime Emmy Awards nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie. Conroy subsequently portrayed The Angel of Death, Myrtle Snow, Gloria Mott, Mama Polk, Bebe Babbitt, and Belle Noir on seven further seasons of the show: Asylum, Coven, Freak Show, Roanoke, Cult, Apocalypse, and Double Feature, respectively; this makes Conroy, along with Denis O'Hare, fourth among the actors who have appeared in most seasons of the show. For her performance in Coven, she was nominated again for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie.

Harold Douglas Baines is an American former designated hitter and right fielder in Major League Baseball who played for five American League (AL) teams from 1980 to 2001, and is best known for his three stints with the Chicago White Sox. A Maryland native, he also played seven years with his hometown team, the Baltimore Orioles, over three separate periods. The first overall selection in the 1977 Major League Baseball draft and a six-time All-Star, Baines led the AL in slugging percentage in 1984. He held the White Sox team record for career home runs from 1987 until Carlton Fisk passed him in 1990; his total of 221 remains the club record for left-handed hitters, as do his 981 runs batted in (RBI) and 585 extra base hits with the team. His 1,688 hits and 1,643 games as a DH stood as major-league records until David Ortiz broke them in 2013 and 2014. He also held the mark for career home runs as a DH (236) until Edgar Martínez passed him in 2004.

Kyle David Mills is a New Zealand cricket coach and former international cricketer who is the former bowling coach of the Kolkata Knight Riders. He was also a former captain of the New Zealand cricket team in limited-overs matches. Mills played top-class cricket between 1998 and 2015 as a bowler. He featured in three World Cup tournaments for New Zealand in 2003, 2011 and 2015. He was a member of New Zealand's first ever T20I team. He also topped the ICC ODI bowling rankings in 2009 and also occupied in the top ten bowling rankings among bowlers in ODI cricket for a considerable period of time. He was also a part of the New Zealand squad to finish as runners-up at the 2015 Cricket World Cup.

Anne de Montmorency, duc de Montmorency was a French noble, governor, royal favourite and Constable of France during the mid to late Italian Wars and early French Wars of Religion. He served under five French kings. He began his career in the latter Italian Wars of Louis XII, seeing service at Ravenna. When François, his childhood friend, ascended to the throne in 1515 he advanced as governor of the Bastille and Novara, then in 1522 was made a Marshal of France. He fought at the French defeat at La Bicocca in that year, and after assisting in rebuffing the invasion of Constable Bourbon he was captured at the disastrous Battle of Pavia. Quickly freed, he then worked to free first the king and then the king's sons. In 1526, he was made Grand Maître, granting him authority over the king's household. In the same year, he was also made governor of Languedoc. He aided in the marriage negotiations for the king's son, the duc d'Orléans to Catherine de' Medici in 1533. In the mid 1530s he found himself opposed to the war party at court led by Admiral Chabot and therefore retired. He returned to the fore after the Holy Roman Emperor invaded Provence, leading the royal effort that foiled his invasion, and leading the counter-attack. In 1538 he was rewarded by being made Constable of France, this made him the supreme authority over the French military. For the next two years he led the efforts to secure Milan for France through negotiation with the Emperor, however this proved a failure and Montmorency was disgraced, retiring from court in 1541.

Emil von Behring, was a German physiologist. In 1901, he received the first Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for his work on serum therapy, especially its application against diphtheria, by which he has opened a new road in the domain of medical science and thereby placed in the hands of the physician a victorious weapon against illness and deaths". He was widely known as a "saviour of children", as diphtheria used to be a major cause of child death. His work with the disease, as well as tetanus, has come to bring him most of his fame and acknowledgment. He was honoured with Prussian nobility in 1901, henceforth being known by the surname "von Behring".

Benjamin William Hilfenhaus is an Australian former professional cricketer who played for Tasmania in Australian domestic cricket and for the Australia national cricket team. He is right-arm fast-medium bowler known for his ability to swing the ball. Hilfenhaus plays club cricket for Tasmania University Cricket Club. He made his first-class cricket debut in the 2005/06 season and his haul of 39 wickets was a record for someone playing their first season for Tasmania. Before he was given a full-time contract for 2006/07, he worked as a bricklayer as well as playing cricket. He has best bowling figures of 7/58 in first-class cricket, achieved in his first season for Tasmania. During his time with Australia, Hilfenhaus won the 2009 ICC Champions Trophy.

Jannik Hansen is a Danish former professional ice hockey player. A right winger, Hansen began playing professionally at the age of 16 with both the Rødovre Mighty Bulls of the Danish league and the Malmö Redhawks of the Swedish J20 SuperElit and HockeyAllsvenskan leagues. He played three seasons with Rødovre, during which time he was selected 287th overall by the Canucks in the 2004 NHL entry draft. A year after his selection, he moved to North America to play major junior hockey with the Portland Winterhawks of the Western Hockey League (WHL) for one season. In 2006–07, Hansen began playing with the Canucks' minor league affiliate, the Manitoba Moose of the American Hockey League (AHL). That season, he was called up by the Vancouver Canucks and became the first Danish citizen to play and register a point in an NHL playoff game. After another campaign spent primarily with Manitoba, Hansen earned a full-time roster spot with the Canucks.

Paul Johann Ludwig von Heyse was a German writer and translator. A member of two important literary societies, the Tunnel über der Spree in Berlin and Die Krokodile in Munich, he wrote novels, poetry, 177 short stories, and about sixty dramas. The sum of Heyse's many and varied productions made him a dominant figure among German men of letters. He was awarded the 1910 Nobel Prize in Literature "as a tribute to the consummate artistry, permeated with idealism, which he has demonstrated during his long productive career as a lyric poet, dramatist, novelist and writer of world-renowned short stories." Wirsen, one of the Nobel judges, said that "Germany has not had a greater literary genius since Goethe." Heyse is the fifth oldest laureate in literature, after Alice Munro, Jaroslav Seifert, Theodor Mommsen and Doris Lessing.

Benjamin Ricardo Jacobs was born at the American Consulate in Lima, Peru, to Rosa Mulet Jacobs of Valparaíso, Chile, a French-Chilean, and Washington Michael Jacobs of South Carolina in the United States. Originally christened on April 5, 1879 as Ricardo Benjamin Jacobs, he later changed his name, once by reversing the order of his first and middle name, and then in some records by anglicizing the name Ricardo to Richard. His mother was the accomplished and well-educated daughter of a noted French merchant in Valparaíso. At the time of his birth, his father was the American vice-consul to Peru. A businessman with many interests in the United States, including mining, his father also was engaged in mining in several countries in South America and he published the Imprenta Americana and a semi-weekly newspaper, El Tumbes.

Zarah Leander was a Swedish singer and actress whose greatest success was in Nazi Germany between 1936 and 1943, when she was contracted to work for the state-owned Universum Film AG (UFA). Although no exact record sales numbers exist, she was probably among Europe's best-selling recording artists in the years prior to 1945. Her involvement with UFA caused some of her films and lyrics to be identified as Nazi propaganda. Though she had taken no public political position, she remained a controversial figure for the rest of her life. As a singer, Leander was known for her confident style and her deep contralto voice, and was also known as a "female baritone".

James Reimer is a Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender who is currently an unrestricted free agent. He most recently played for the Ottawa Senators of the National Hockey League (NHL). Reimer has previously played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Florida Panthers, San Jose Sharks, Carolina Hurricanes, Detroit Red Wings, Buffalo Sabres and Anaheim Ducks. He was selected by the Maple Leafs in the fourth round of the 2006 NHL entry draft. He started playing minor hockey in his hometown when he was 12. He played junior hockey with the Red Deer Rebels of the Western Hockey League (WHL), after being selected in the fifth round of the 2003 WHL bantam draft.

Sylvester Stewart, better known by his stage name Sly Stone, was an American musician, songwriter and record producer. He was the frontman of Sly and the Family Stone, playing a critical role in the development of psychedelic soul and funk with his pioneering fusion of soul, rock, psychedelia, and gospel in the 1960s and 1970s. AllMusic stated that "James Brown may have invented funk, but Sly Stone perfected it," and credited him with "creating a series of euphoric yet politically charged records that proved a massive influence on artists of all musical and cultural backgrounds". Crawdaddy! has credited him as the founder of the "progressive soul" movement.

Carl Milton Smith was an American country singer. Known as "Mister Country", he was one of the genre's most successful male artists during the 1950s, scoring 30 top-10 Billboard hits. Smith's success continued well into the 1970s, when he had a charting single every year but one. In 1952, Smith married June Carter, with whom he had daughter Carlene; the couple divorced in 1956. He later married Goldie Hill, and they had three children together. In 2003, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. According to the Hollywood Walk of Fame website, he was a "drinking companion" to Johnny Cash, his daughter's stepfather.

Robert Sage Wilber was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, and band leader. Although his scope covers a wide range of jazz, Wilber was a dedicated advocate of classic styles, working throughout his career to present traditional jazz pieces in a contemporary manner. He played with many distinguished jazz leaders in the 1950s and 1960s, including Bobby Hackett, Benny Goodman, Sidney Bechet, Jack Teagarden and Eddie Condon. In the late 1960s, he was an original member of the World's Greatest Jazz Band, and in the early '70s of Soprano Summit, a band which gained wide attention. In the late 1970s, he formed the Bechet Legacy Band.

Joaquim António Portugal Baptista de Almeida is a Portuguese actor. He began his film career playing a role in the 1982 action film The Soldier, and later achieved recognition for playing Andrea Bonanno in the 1987 Italian film Good Morning, Babylon. He achieved international fame with his portrayals of Félix Cortez in the 1994 thriller Clear and Present Danger and Bucho in the 1995 action thriller Desperado. Several years later, he became popular for playing Ramon Salazar on the Fox thriller drama series 24, between 2003 and 2004, and Hernan Reyes in the 2011 film Fast Five, a role he reprised in 2023's Fast X.

Joseph Jenkins Roberts was an African American merchant who emigrated to Liberia in 1829, where he became a politician. Elected as the first (1848–1856) and seventh (1872–1876) president of Liberia after independence, he was the first man of African descent to govern the country, serving previously as governor from 1841 to 1848. He later returned to office in the 1871 general election following the 1871 Liberian coup d'état. Born free in Norfolk, Virginia, Roberts emigrated as a young man with his mother, siblings, wife, and child to the young West African colony. He opened a trading firm in Monrovia and later engaged in politics.

Jae-Beom Takata , known professionally as Brian Tee, is a Japanese-born American actor. Born in Okinawa, Tee immigrated with his family to California when he was 2 years old. He attended the University of California and began pursuing his television career. His first appearance on the small screen came in 2000 when he had a small role on the television series The Pretender. He went on to appear in the television series Entourage, Grey's Anatomy, and had a recurring role on Zoey 101. From 2015 to 2022, Tee starred in the first eight seasons of NBC medical drama Chicago Med as Dr. Ethan Choi.