Famous Birthdays on October 31

Justin Chatwin is a Canadian actor. He began his career briefly appearing in the musical comedy Josie and the Pussycats (2001). Following his breakthrough role as Robbie Ferrier in the blockbuster War of the Worlds (2005), Chatwin headlined studio films such as The Invisible (2007) and Dragonball Evolution (2009), an action-adventure feature based on the manga series Dragon Ball. In the 2010s, Chatwin acted in small independent films. He starred as rock star idol Bobby Shore in the sci-fi musical Bang Bang Baby (2014), which earned him a Canadian Screen Awards nomination for Best Supporting Actor, and appeared in the romantic comedy Unleashed (2016), and drama Summer Night (2019).

Nicholas Lou Saban Jr. is an American sportscaster and former football coach. He serves as an analyst for ESPN's College GameDay, a television program covering college football. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest football coaches of all time. Saban served as head coach of the National Football League (NFL)'s Miami Dolphins and at four universities: the University of Toledo, Michigan State University, Louisiana State University (LSU), and most famously the University of Alabama, where he coached from 2007 to 2023 and led the team to six claimed national championships and one unclaimed championship in nine championship appearances during that period, as well as 9 SEC titles and 10 SEC West Division championships.

Brian Murray, known professionally as Brian Doyle-Murray, is an American actor, comedian and screenwriter. He appeared with his younger brother, actor and comedian Bill Murray, in several films, including Caddyshack (1980), The Razor's Edge (1984), Scrooged (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), and Groundhog Day (1993). He co-starred on the TBS sitcom Sullivan & Son, where he played the foul-mouthed Hank Murphy. He also appeared in the Nickelodeon animated series SpongeBob SquarePants as The Flying Dutchman, the Cartoon Network original animated series My Gym Partner's a Monkey as Coach Tiffany Gills, The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack as Captain K'nuckles, a recurring role as Don Ehlert on the ABC sitcom The Middle, and Bob Kruger in the AMC dramedy Lodge 49.

Margaret Jane Pauley is an American television host and author, active in news reporting since 1972. She first became widely known as Barbara Walters's successor on the NBC morning show Today, beginning at the age of 25, where she was a co-anchor from 1976 to 1989, at first with Tom Brokaw, and later with Bryant Gumbel; for a short while in the late 1980s she and Gumbel worked with Deborah Norville. In 1989, with her job apparently threatened by Norville's addition to the program, she asked to be released from her contract, but her request was denied. Her next regular anchor position was at the network's newsmagazine Dateline NBC from 1992 to 2003, where she teamed with Stone Phillips.

Frederick Stanley McGriff is an American former first baseman in Major League Baseball (MLB) who played for six teams from 1986 through 2004. Nicknamed "Crime Dog", a word play on McGruff the Crime Dog, he was one of the most consistently productive power hitters of the 1990s. McGriff posted over 80 runs batted in (RBI) every year from 1988 through 2002, and became the first player since the dead-ball era to lead both leagues in home runs — the American League (AL) in 1989 and the National League (NL) in 1992. A five-time All-Star, he was named the Most Valuable Player of the 1994 contest after his pinch-hit home run in the bottom of the ninth inning tied the score at 7–7, with the NL winning in 10 innings. McGriff finished in the top ten in voting for his league's Most Valuable Player Award every year from 1989 through 1994, during which time he led the major leagues in home runs.

Siobhán Bernadette Haughey is a Hong Kong professional competitive swimmer. She became the first Hong Kong swimmer to win an Olympic medal and the first Hong Kong athlete to win two Olympic medals in any sport, after winning silver in the women's 200-metre freestyle and women's 100-metre freestyle during the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics. She later became the only Hong Kong athlete to win four Olympic medals after winning bronze in the women's 200-metre freestyle and the women's 100-metre freestyle at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics. She also won the first swimming gold for Hong Kong in 2022 Asian Games, and became the most decorated Hong Kong athlete of all time in one single edition of Asian Games with two golds, one silver, and three bronzes.

David Michael Trembley is an American professional baseball coach, manager, and executive who recently served as the director of player development for the Atlanta Braves of Major League Baseball (MLB) in 2015. Trembley has been the bench coach for the Houston Astros and a manager of the Baltimore Orioles. Before managing the Orioles, Trembley was a minor league manager for twenty seasons, compiling a 1,369–1,413 record. He won two league titles and earned Manager of the Year awards in three leagues. In December 2001, Baseball America selected him as one of minor league baseball's top five managers of the previous 20 years. He served as a coach in the inaugural Futures Game in 1999 and also served as manager for the Southern League and Double-A All-Star Games that season. Trembley has worked for the Baltimore Orioles, Chicago Cubs, Pittsburgh Pirates, San Diego Padres and Atlanta Braves.

Colonel Denzil Holles, 1st Baron Holles was an English politician and army officer who was one of the Five Members whose attempted arrest by Charles I in January 1642 sparked the First English Civil War. When fighting began in August, Holles raised a Parliamentarian regiment which fought at Edgehill before it was nearly destroyed at Brentford in November 1642. This marked the end of Holles' military career and he became leader of the Parliamentarian 'Peace Party', those who favoured a negotiated settlement with the king. A social conservative from a wealthy family, he came to see political radicals like the Levellers and religious Independents like Oliver Cromwell as more dangerous than the Royalists.

Edmund Sharpe was an English architect, architectural historian, railway engineer and sanitary reformer. Born in Knutsford, Cheshire, he was educated first by his parents and then at schools locally and in Runcorn, Greenwich and Sedbergh. Following his graduation from Cambridge University he was awarded a travelling scholarship, enabling him to study architecture in Germany and southern France. In 1835 he established an architectural practice in Lancaster, initially working on his own. In 1845 he entered into partnership with Edward Paley, one of his pupils. Sharpe's main focus was on churches, and he was a pioneer in the use of terracotta as a structural material in church building, designing what were known as "pot" churches, the first of which was St Stephen and All Martyrs' Church, Lever Bridge.

Christopher Anstey was an English poet who also wrote in Latin. After a period managing his family's estates, he moved permanently to Bath and died after a long public life there. His poem, The New Bath Guide, brought him to fame and began an easy satirical fashion that was influential throughout the second half of the 18th century. Later he wrote An Electoral Ball, another burlesque of Bath society that allowed him to develop and update certain themes in his earlier work. Among his Latin writing were translations and summaries based on both these poems; he was also joint author of one of the earliest Latin translations of Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, which went through several editions both in England and abroad.

Édouard Cyrille "Newsy" Lalonde was a Canadian professional ice hockey forward in the National Hockey League (NHL) and a professional lacrosse player. Lalonde is regarded as one of hockey's and lacrosse's greatest players of the first half of the 20th century and one of Canadian sport's most colourful characters. He played for the Montreal Canadiens – considered to be the original "Flying Frenchman" – in the National Hockey Association and the NHL. As player-coach, Lalonde led the Canadiens to their first Stanley Cup in 1916. His goal-scoring prowess in the 1919 Stanley Cup playoffs set three NHL records that remain unbroken over a century later. He also played for the WCHL's Saskatoon Sheiks.

Mats Torsten Näslund, nicknamed "Le Petit Viking", is a Swedish former ice hockey player. He played as a left winger. Despite his small size at only five feet and seven inches, Näslund is best known for being one of the top forwards with the National Hockey League's Montreal Canadiens from 1982 to 1990. In addition to the Canadiens, Näslund played for Timrå IK, Brynäs IF, and Malmö IF of the Swedish Elite League, and HC Lugano of the National League A between 1975 and 1994. He made a short NHL comeback attempt in 1995 with the Boston Bruins following the 1994–95 NHL lockout, and retired after the season's conclusion.

Ethel Waters was an American singer and actress. Waters frequently performed jazz, swing, and pop music on the Broadway stage and in concerts. She began her career in the 1920s singing blues. Her notable recordings include "Dinah", "Stormy Weather", "Taking a Chance on Love", "Chlo-e, "Heat Wave", "Supper Time", "Am I Blue?", "Birmingham Bertha", "Cabin in the Sky", "I'm Coming Virginia", and her version of "His Eye Is on the Sparrow". Waters was the second African American to be nominated for an Academy Award, the first African American to star on her own television show, and the first African-American woman to be nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award.

Laura Maria Caterina Bassi Veratti was an Italian physicist and academic. Recognized and depicted as "Minerva", she was the first woman to have a doctorate in science, and the second woman in the world to earn the Doctor of Philosophy degree. Working at the University of Bologna, she was the first salaried female teacher in a university. At one time the highest paid employee of the university, by the end of her life Bassi held two other professorships. She was also the first female member of any scientific establishment, when she was elected to the Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna in 1732 at 21.

Friedrich "Fritz" Walter was a German footballer who spent his entire senior career at 1. FC Kaiserslautern. He usually played as an attacking midfielder or inside forward. In his time with the Germany and West Germany national teams, he appeared in 61 games and scored 33 goals, and was the captain of the team that won the 1954 FIFA World Cup. After his career, he was named honorary captain of the Germany national team. Walter held the record for the most assists provided in FIFA World Cup tournaments, recording either nine or ten assists. His record was eventually surpassed by Lionel Messi in 2026.

Russell Glyn Ballard is an English rock singer, guitarist, songwriter and producer. Originally rising to prominence as the lead singer and guitarist of the band Argent, Ballard became a prolific songwriter and producer by the late 1970s. His compositions "New York Groove", "You Can Do Magic", "Since You Been Gone", "I Surrender", "Liar", "Winning", "I Know There's Something Going On", "Can't Shake Loose", "So You Win Again", "No More the Fool" and "God Gave Rock and Roll to You" became hits for other artists during the 1970s and 1980s. He also scored several minor hits under his own name in the early and mid-1980s.

Constance Winifred Savery was a British writer of fifty novels and children's books, as well as many short stories and articles. She was selected for the initial issue of the long-running series entitled The Junior Book of Authors (1951–2008) and for the first, 1971, volume of Anne Commire's Something About the Author, which reached volume 320 in 2018. Savery's World War II novel, Enemy Brothers, received praise and remains in print. In 1980, at age eighty-two, she completed a Charlotte Brontë two-chapter fragment, which was published as "Emma by Charlotte Brontë and Another Lady". The book was translated into Dutch, Spanish, and Russian.

Henriette de La Marck, also known as Henriette of Cleves, was a member of the French high noblility, being a Duchess in her own right and courtier. She was the 4th Duchess of Nevers, suo jure Countess of Rethel, and Princess of Mantua by her marriage with Louis I of Gonzaga-Nevers. Through her marriage to Louis, she is the ancestor of many European Royals. A very talented landowner, she was one of France's chief creditors until her death, which allowed her to enlarge her personal fortune, and make her one of the richest members of the French nobility of her age.

Sir James Wilson Vincent Savile was an English media personality and disc jockey. During his lifetime, he was known for his eccentric image, charitable work, and hosting the BBC shows Top of the Pops and Jim'll Fix It. Following his death, hundreds of allegations of sexual abuse made against him were investigated, leading the police to conclude that he had been a predatory sex offender, possibly one of the United Kingdom's most prolific. Allegations of sexual abuse were made during his lifetime, but they were dismissed and accusers were ignored or disbelieved. Savile's victims allegedly included young children and elderly individuals.