Famous Birthdays on September 4

September 4 has 193 recorded notable births across history, from 973 to 2001. This focused page highlights 20 people with the strongest available profile context.

Wes Bentley

1978 — Wes Bentley

American actor and producer

By · Wikipedia

Famous Birthdays 193 source records 973 – 2001 Virgo

Major events on September 4

See what else happened on this day in history.

  1. 1957 American Civil Rights Movement: Little Rock Crisis: The governor of Arkansas calls out the National Guard to prevent African American students from enrolling in Little Rock Central High School, resulting in the lawsuit Cooper v. Aaron the following year. Source
  2. 1919 Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who founded the Republic of Turkey, gathers a congress in Sivas to make decisions as to the future of Anatolia and Thrace. Source

Did you know about Wes Bentley

Wes Bentley was one of four subjects in the documentary My Big Break (2009), which covered his fame after American Beauty and his subsequent struggles with substance abuse.

Did you know about Damon Wayans

A member of the Wayans family of entertainers, Damon performed as a comedian and actor throughout the 1980s, including a brief stint on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live.

Did you know about Drew Pinsky

Drew Pinsky hosted the nationally syndicated radio talk show Loveline from the show's inception in 1984 until its end in 2016.

Did you know about Judith Ivey

Judith Ivey has twice won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for Steaming (1981) and Hurlyburly (1984).

Did you know about Dadabhai Naoroji

Dadabhai Naoroji was among the founding members of the Indian National Congress and served as its President on three occasions, from 1886-87, 1893-94 and 1906-07.


More major people born on September 4

Notable people are ranked by substantive profile depth and public notability.

1960 Damon Wayans

Damon Wayans

American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
Damon Kyle Wayans Sr. is an American stand-up comedian, actor, producer, and writer. A member of the Wayans family of entertainers, Damon performed as a comedian and actor throughout the 1980s, including a brief stint on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live. He later joined his family on Fox's sketch comedy show In Living Color (1990–1992), and wrote and performed on his own animated series Waynehead (1996–1997) and live-action series Damon (1998). Since then, he has starred in a number of films and television shows, some of which he has co-produced or co-written, including Mo' Money, The Last Boy Scout, Major Payne, Bulletproof, and the sitcoms My Wife and Kids and Poppa's House, the latter featuring his son Damon Wayans Jr. From 2016 to 2019, he starred as Roger Murtaugh in the Fox television series Lethal Weapon.
1958 Drew Pinsky

Drew Pinsky

American radio and television host
David Drew Pinsky, commonly known as Dr. Drew, is an American media personality, internist, and addiction medicine specialist. He hosted the nationally syndicated radio talk show Loveline from the show's inception in 1984 until its end in 2016. On television, he hosted the talk show Dr. Drew On Call on HLN and the daytime series Lifechangers on The CW. In addition, he served as producer and starred in the VH1 show Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, and its spinoffs Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew, Celebrity Rehab Presents Sober House. Pinsky currently hosts several podcasts, including Ask Dr. Drew, The Dr. Drew Podcast on the PodcastOne Network, and The Adam and Drew Show with his former Loveline co-host Adam Carolla. From February 2019 - December 2023, he hosted Dr. Drew After Dark on the Your Mom's House network.
1951 Judith Ivey

Judith Ivey

American actress
Judith Lee Ivey is an American actress and theatre director. She has twice won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for Steaming (1981) and Hurlyburly (1984). She also received Best Actress In A Play nomination for Park Your Car in Harvard Yard (1992) and another Best Featured Actress in a Play nomination for The Heiress. Ivey made her big screen debut playing the female lead role in the 1984 romantic comedy film, The Lonely Guy. She later appeared in the comedy films The Woman in Red (1984), Compromising Positions (1985), Brighton Beach Memoirs (1986), Sister, Sister (1987), and the drama films The Devil's Advocate (1997) and Women Talking (2022), for which she received critical acclaim. On television, Ivey played the leading role in the NBC sitcom Down Home (1990-91), and played Bonnie Jean "BJ" Poteet during the final season of CBS sitcom Designing Women (1992-93). For her role in the television film What the Deaf Man Heard (1997), she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or Movie.
1825 Dadabhai Naoroji

Dadabhai Naoroji

Indian academic and politician, President of the Indian National Congress (died 1917)
Dadabhai Naoroji was an Indian political leader, merchant, scholar, and writer who played a role in both Indian and British public life. He was among the founding members of the Indian National Congress and served as its President on three occasions, from 1886-87, 1893-94 and 1906-07. Naoroji's early career included serving as the Diwan of Baroda in 1874. Subsequently, he moved to England, where he continued to advocate for Indian interests. In 1892, he was elected to the House of Commons as a Liberal Party Member of Parliament, representing Finsbury Central until losing his seat to William Massey-Mainwaring at the 1895 general election. He was the second person of Asian descent to become a British MP following David Ochterlony Dyce Sombre, who was an Anglo Indian MP.
1908 Edward Dmytryk

Edward Dmytryk

Canadian-American director and producer (died 1999)
Edward Dmytryk was a Canadian-born American film director and editor. He was known for his 1940s noir films and received an Oscar nomination for Best Director for Crossfire (1947). In 1947, he was named as one of the Hollywood Ten, a group of blacklisted film industry professionals who refused to testify to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in their investigations during the Red Scare of the McCarthy era. They all served time in prison for contempt of Congress. In 1951, Dmytryk testified to the HUAC and named individuals, including Arnold Manoff, whose careers were then destroyed for many years, to rehabilitate his own career. First hired again by independent producer Stanley Kramer in 1952, Dmytryk is likely best known for directing The Caine Mutiny (1954), a critical and commercial success. The second-highest-grossing film of the year, it was nominated for Best Picture and several other awards at the 1955 Oscars. Dmytryk was nominated for a Directors Guild Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures.
1934 Jan Švankmajer

Jan Švankmajer

Czech filmmaker and artist
Jan Švankmajer is a Czech retired filmmaker, animator, writer, playwright and artist. He draws and makes free graphics, collage, ceramics, tactile objects and assemblages. In the early 1960s, he explored informel, which later became an important part of the visual form of his animated films. He is a leading representative of late Czech surrealism. In his film work, he created an unmistakable and quite specific style, determined primarily by a compulsively unorthodox combination of externally disparate elements. The anti-artistic nature of this process, based on collage or assemblage, functions as a meaning-making factor. The author himself claims that the intersubjective communication between him and the viewer works only through evoked associations, and his films fulfil their subversive mission only when, even in the most fantastic moments, they look like a record of reality. Some of the works he created together with his wife Eva Švankmajerová.
1925 Asa Earl Carter

Asa Earl Carter

American Ku Klux Klan leader and author (died 1979)
Asa Earl Carter was an American segregationist and Ku Klux Klan organizer who was prominent in the 1950s for his activism and later as a Western fiction novelist. He was particularly known for his work as a co-writer of George Wallace's well-known pro-segregation line of 1963, "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever." He ran in the Democratic primary for governor of Alabama as a white supremacist. Later, under the pseudonym of supposedly Cherokee writer Forrest Carter, he wrote The Rebel Outlaw: Josey Wales (1972), a Western novel that was adapted into a 1976 film featuring Clint Eastwood that was added to the National Film Registry, and The Education of Little Tree (1976), a best-selling, award-winning book which was marketed as a memoir but which turned out to be fiction.
1963 John Vanbiesbrouck

John Vanbiesbrouck

American ice hockey player, coach, and manager
John Vanbiesbrouck, nicknamed "the Beezer" and "JVB", is an American professional ice hockey executive and former player. As a goaltender, he was inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in 2007. Vanbiesbrouck played in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1981 to 2002 for the New York Rangers, Florida Panthers, Philadelphia Flyers, New York Islanders, and New Jersey Devils. He began his career playing major junior hockey for the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL). Following a successful season with the Greyhounds, he was drafted by the New York Rangers in the fourth round, 72nd overall, in the 1981 NHL Draft. After his junior career ended, he played for the Rangers minor league affiliate, the Tulsa Oilers of the Central Hockey League. Despite the team's near collapses due to financial concerns, Vanbiesbrouck led the Oilers to a league championship and shared the league's MVP honors.
1949 Darryl Cotton

Darryl Cotton

Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2012)
Darryl Grant Cotton was an Australian pop, rock singer-songwriter, television presenter and actor. He was a founding member of Australian rock group Zoot in 1965, with Beeb Birtles, and were later joined by Rick Brewer and Rick Springfield. As a solo artist Cotton released the albums, Best Seat in the House (1980), It's Rock 'n' Good Fun (1984) and Let the Children Sing (1994). In April 1980 his biggest solo hit, "Same Old Girl", which was co-written by Cotton, peaked at No. 6 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart. He acted in the TV soap opera, The Young Doctors (1979), and on stage as Joseph in the theatre production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat (1983).
1926 Bert Olmstead

Bert Olmstead

Canadian ice hockey player and coach (died 2015)
Murray Albert Olmstead was a Canadian professional ice hockey player who was a left winger for the Montreal Canadiens, Chicago Black Hawks and Toronto Maple Leafs in the National Hockey League (NHL) for 13 seasons. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1985. Olmstead began his career with the Black Hawks in 1949. In December 1950, he was traded to the Montreal Canadiens via Detroit. Olmstead had his best statistical years playing for Montreal, leading the league in assists in 1954–55 with 48, and setting a league record for assists with 56 the following season. During this time he frequently played on Montreal's top line with Jean Beliveau and Bernie Geoffrion. Olmstead was claimed in the 1958 NHL Intra-League Draft by the Toronto Maple Leafs, and played there until his retirement in 1962.
1919 Émile Bouchard

Émile Bouchard

Canadian ice hockey player (died 2012)
Joseph Émile Alcide "Butch" Bouchard was a Canadian ice hockey player who played defence with the Montreal Canadiens in the National Hockey League from 1941 to 1956. He is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, won four Stanley Cups, was captain of the Canadiens for eight years, and was voted to the NHL All-Star team four times. Although having a reputation as a clean player, he was also one of the strongest players and best body-checkers of his era. He excelled as a defensive defenceman, had superior passing skills, and was known for his leadership and mentoring of younger players. In his early years in the NHL, Bouchard, among other players, made a major contribution to reinvigorating what was at the time an ailing Canadien franchise.
1972 Carlos Ponce

Carlos Ponce

Puerto-Rican entertainer
Carlos Armando Ponce Freyre Jr. is a Puerto Rican actor, musician, model, and television personality. Ponce began his acting career by participating in Spanish language soap operas for Televisa and Telemundo. Ponce continued to expand his acting career by participating in various American television series. He did not limit himself solely to a career in television. Ponce, who is also a singer, is also active in the American movie industry as a character actor. In film, he played Salvadore in Couples Retreat, Matthew Wright in Spy and Rodrigo in Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo. In television, he played Felix Gonzalez in Cristela, Max Duran in Hollywood Heights, as well as voicing Santiago Santos in Maya & Miguel.
1850 Luigi Cadorna

Luigi Cadorna

Italian field marshal (died 1928)
Luigi Cadorna, was an Italian general, Marshal of Italy and Count, most famous for being the Chief of Staff of the Italian Army from 1914 until late 1917 during World War I. He commanded the Italian army on the Italian front, a theatre marked by trench warfare and attrition on the Eastern Alps and Isonzo river. Cadorna launched multiple offensives across the Isonzo front during which the Italian army made gains, most notably capturing Gorizia and Bainsizza, but it ultimately suffered a major defeat when German-Austrian forces attacked the Italian troops at Caporetto and forced them to retreat to the Piave river. He was relieved as Chief of Staff and replaced by Armando Diaz.
1894 Daniel van der Meulen

Daniel van der Meulen

Dutch diplomat (died 1989)
Daniel van der Meulen was a Dutch civil servant who served as the consul to Jeddah from 1926 through 1931. Born in Laren, van der Meulen entered the civil service and was assigned to the Dutch East Indies in 1915. He was chosen by the Islamicist Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje to serve as the Netherlands' consul in Jeddah, focusing mainly on facilitating the hajj pilgrimage for residents of the Dutch East Indies. After his time as consul ended, van der Meulen returned to the Indies, though he made several further trips to the Arabian Peninsula. He maintained diplomatic roles in Jeddah during the Second World War and in Jakarta during the Indonesian National Revolution.
1969 Noah Taylor

Noah Taylor

Australian actor
Noah George Taylor is an English-Australian actor. The accolades he has received include nominations for three Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Critics' Choice Award, and four AACTA Awards. Taylor is best known for his roles as teenage David Helfgott in Shine, Locke in the HBO series Game of Thrones, Darby Sabini in the BBC One series Peaky Blinders, Mr. Bucket in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Danny in the Australian cult film He Died with a Felafel in His Hand. Taylor also starred as Adolf Hitler in both the American television series Preacher and the 2002 film Max. In 2023, he starred as Dr. Friedrich "Fritz" Pfeffer in A Small Light.
1936 Judea Pearl

Judea Pearl

computer scientist recognized for his pioneering work in the fields of AI and probabilistic reasoning
Judea Pearl is an Israeli-American electrical engineer, computer scientist and philosopher, best known for championing the probabilistic approach to artificial intelligence and the development of Bayesian networks. He is also credited for developing a theory of causal and counterfactual inference based on structural models. In 2011, the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) awarded Pearl with the Turing Award, the highest distinction in computer science, "for fundamental contributions to artificial intelligence through the development of a calculus for probabilistic and causal reasoning". He is the author of several books, including the technical Causality: Models, Reasoning and Inference, and The Book of Why, a book on causality aimed at the general public.
1968 Mike Piazza

Mike Piazza

American baseball player
Michael Joseph Piazza is an American former professional baseball catcher who played 16 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), from 1992 to 2007, and is a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Piazza played most notably for the New York Mets and Los Angeles Dodgers, while also having brief stints with the Florida Marlins, San Diego Padres, and Oakland Athletics. A 12-time All-Star and 10-time Silver Slugger Award winner at catcher, he produced strong offensive numbers at his position; in his career, he recorded 427 home runs—a record 396 of which were hit as catcher—along with a .308 batting average and 1,335 runs batted in (RBI).
1906 Max Delbrück

Max Delbrück

German-American biophysicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1981)
Max Ludwig Henning Delbrück was a German–American biophysicist who participated in launching the molecular biology research program in the late 1930s. He stimulated physical scientists' interest into biology, especially as to basic research to physically explain genes, mysterious at the time. Formed in 1945 and led by Delbrück along with Salvador Luria and Alfred Hershey, the Phage Group made substantial headway unraveling important aspects of genetics. The three shared the 1969 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries concerning the replication mechanism and the genetic structure of viruses". He was the first physicist to predict what is now called Delbrück scattering.
1971 Craig Conroy

Craig Conroy

American ice hockey player and executive
Craig Michael Conroy is an American former professional ice hockey player and current executive. He serves as the general manager of the Calgary Flames of the National Hockey League (NHL), for whom he also played. A sixth-round selection of the Montreal Canadiens at the 1990 NHL entry draft, Conroy played 1,009 NHL games for the Canadiens, St. Louis Blues, Flames and Los Angeles Kings during a professional career that spanned from 1994 to 2011. Internationally, he twice played with the United States National Team – at the 2004 World Cup of Hockey and the 2006 Winter Olympics.

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