Among the famous folks turning 70 this month are Rowan Atkinson, who played Mr. Bean (6th) and coach Tom Izzo (30th).
9th – J. K. Simmons, American actor, born in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. He’s the epitome of the working actor. I’ve seen/heard him in The Cider House Rules (1999); Thank You For Smoking (2005); as the dad in Juno (2007); Up In The Air (2009); voicing Ford Pines in eight episodes of Gravity Falls (2015-2016); voicing the mayor in Zootopia (2016); La La Land (2016); and playing William Frawley in Being the Ricardos (2021), for which he received an Oscar nomination.
But I know him best from about 50 episodes of the various Law & Order shows (1994-2010), playing the shrink Emil Skoda; as J. Jonah Jameson in a half dozen Spider-Man movies (2002-2023); in 109 episodes of The Closer (2005-2012), playing Assistant Police Chief Will Pope; and his Oscar-winning performance as the harsh music instructor in Whiplash (2014).
Also, for several years, he was the guy in the Farmer’s Insurance commercials, such as Sesame Street, lawnmower, and the recent sleigh insurance. Here he is in Guys and Dolls (1992).
KC
19th – Kevin Costner, Jan 18, American actor, born in Los Angeles, California. Of the movies of his I’ve seen, he starred in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991); JFK (1991), McFarland, USA (2015), and Message In A Bottle (2016). He’s also significant in Hidden Figures (2016).
He won Best Director and Picture and was nominated for Best Actor in Dances With Wolves (1990).
But it’s two baseball movies, released in consecutive years, for which I think of him the most. Bull Durham (1988) is a great movie about the minor leagues. But Field of Dreams (1989) is a bit of hokum that makes me cry EVERY SINGLE TIME, not always in the same place.
One other film he was in: The Big Chill (1983). “‘We shot this whole flashback … in Atlanta, and we shot it first, when we’re all together in our college days,’ [Jeff] Goldblum said… ‘Then we saw the movie, and for one reason or another, they decided not to use it,’ Goldblum said. ‘But [Costner] was wonderful.'”
CJ
Jan 27 J- John G Roberts, 17th Chief Justice of the United States, born in Buffalo, New York. From here: He “is expressing concerns about the growing disregard for the U.S. Supreme Court ahead of major rulings expected in 2025. In his year-end report, Roberts emphasized the importance of maintaining judicial independence, urging that court decisions be honored regardless of their political implications.
“‘Within the past few years, however, elected officials from across the political spectrum have raised the specter of open disregard for federal court rulings,’ Roberts wrote. ‘These dangerous suggestions, however sporadic, must be soundly rejected. Judicial independence is worth preserving.'”
I agree with that last sentence. But many of the rulings of the Roberts Court, starting with Shelby County v. Holder (2013), in which Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act was ruled “unconstitutional, and its formula can no longer be used as a basis for subjecting jurisdictions to preclearance. “
Then, in Trump v. United States (2024), “Under our constitutional structure of separated powers, the nature of Presidential power entitles a former President to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority. And he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts. There is no immunity for unofficial acts.” But “unofficial acts” is so vague as to be meaningless.
Both of the cases, BTW, were written by the Chief Justice. I’d love to see some “judicial independence.”
