I've written of my fondness for The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951) many times, and, no doubt, I will again. In fact, I will any chance I get. As a young one, it was one of the first truly spectacular science fiction films I can remember watching on television, and I always loved actor Michael Rennie's composure in it. As the man who came from the stars with a warning for the Earth, he balanced his knowledge of things greater than an entire race of people with the compassion he learned while briefly living among them, and The Day The Earth Stood Still remains one of the best, brightest sci-fi black'n'white flicks I give an enthusiastic thumbs up constantly.
Mr. Rennie worked as a car salesman and a factory manager before he discovered the acting bug ... and thank goodness for all of us he discovered it. Rennie was born on this day back in 1909.
Mr. Rennie worked as a car salesman and a factory manager before he discovered the acting bug ... and thank goodness for all of us he discovered it. Rennie was born on this day back in 1909.
Good grief, what do you say about Sean Connery? He's been so much apart of our culture -- much less sci-fi -- for decades. James Bond. He fathered Indiana Jones. He was in Zardoz as well as played a space marshal with a price on his head in Outland. He may be retired from acting, but he'll always be around on TV screens somewhere. Mr. Connery was born on this day back in 1930.
Veteran character actor Tom Skerritt made the most of his role as Capt. Dallas in Ridley Scott's seminal Alien (1979). Mr. Skerritt was born on this day back in 1933 ... and, yes, he's still working today.
Director John Badham has clearly always had a fascination over how man interacts with machines. In the 80's, one might say it was a fascination of his, as he took the helm in such visionary pictures as War Games, Blue Thunder, and then the light-hearted Short Circuit. Mr. Badham was born on this day back in 1939.
Hmm. I suppose there are worse ways to go than to have the life throttled out of you by none other than the goddess Rebecca Romijn in her guise as Mystique in X-Men: The Last Stand, but you'll have to ask her FBI interrogator -- played by the above pictured Anthony Heald -- what he'd have to say about that. So far as genre work goes, Heald has also turned up in Tales from the Darkside, Poltergeist: The Legacy, Deep Rising, and The X-Files. Heald was born on this day in 1944.
Veteran character actor John Savage (above right) played a small but pivotal role in the Star Trek: Voyager franchise when he starred as Capt. Ransom in the exceptional two-parter "Equinox." Savage was born on this day in 1949.
Legendary KISS rocker Gene Simmons made his big screen debut alongside no less than Tom Selleck in Runaway (1984). Simmons was born on this day in 1949.
Arguably one of the most visually-dynamic directors working today, Tim Burton has built a solid career going from one quirky project to the next. He certainly helmed one of the better Batman movies (so far as this viewer is concerned), and SciFi fans either love or hate his interpretation of Mars Attacks (1996). Personally, I love it. Burton was born on this day in 1958.
God bless the workhorse actors and actresses who help bring to life so many good secondary characters in so many of our favorite genre shows, especially those who are as lovely as Ashley Crow (pictured above right from NBC's Heroes)! She's turned in great performances in Probe (1988), Early Edition (1996), Dark Angel (2001), Minority Report (2002), and Supernatural (2014). Crow was born on this day in 1960.
The career of Joanne Whalley has kinda/sorta been all over the place in terms of high and low-profile projects. Personally, I've been in love with her since she appeared in George Lucas's 'next big thing' (that never quite turned out to be as big as George thought it would) otherwise known as Willow; but thank goodness she's done some voice work in the DC Universe (the insert shows her Justice League character, the Emerald Empress) so that I can feature her loveliness here. Whalley was born on this day in 1961.
Ally Walker toiled away on an awful lot of smaller, character work before landing a gig alongside kickboxer turned actor Jean-Claude Van Damme in 1992's Universal Soldier. A few years later, she headlined the Profiler series on NBC, a crime procedural centered around FBI profiling expert Dr. Sam Waters. She doesn't get much SciFi work, but I, for one, would love to see her do more. Walker was born on this day in 1961.
Because I respect quality writing, I'm always willing to give a shout out to those who help bring our various franchises to life. So kudos to the lovely Marti Noxon who has turned in silver screen writing duties on I Am Number Four as well as small screen scripts for Angel, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and Point Pleasant. Noxon was born on this day in 1964.
Blair Underwood took on the plumb role of playing the President of the United States of America who was specifically tasked with saving Earth from an alien presence in NBC's The Event, a single-season program that deserved another shot. Underwood was born on this day in 1964.
Though his resume boasts far more conventional dramas than SciFi, SciFiHistory.Net will still give a shout out to David Alan Basche for his work in 2005's War of the Worlds remake as well as another small role in 2011's sleeper hit Real Steel. Basche was born on this day in 1968.
Though he's apparently all the rage in HBO's True Blood, SciFi fans know Alexander Skarsgard best from Peter Berg's attempt to create a Michael Bay movie, Battleship (2012). Skarsgard was born on this day in 1976.
Not only did Jumper (2008) give Hayden Christensen the chance to show he could do more than swing a lightsaber on command, but it also paired him up in a pretty spiffy SciFi story alongside the dreamy Rachel Bilson. Bilson was born on this day in 1981.
Listen up, haters: Blake Lively wasn't awful in 2011's Green Lantern motion picture. What was awful was that her character of Carol Ferris was given nothing to do. Anyone who knows Lantern mythology knows that big things were definitely in store for Ferris ... and don't tell me you wouldn't have loved to see her 'suit up' as the Star Sapphire. Lively was born on this day in 1987.
1989's Millennium is another one of those sci-fi flicks that has a respectable cult following, and I'm absolutely befuddled as to why. (It was first released theatrically on this day back then.) It isn't that it's a bad film -- it's just that it's a great idea with largely half-@ssed execution. Here's the plot summary, compliments of IMDB.com:
"An NTSB investigator seeking the cause of an airline disaster meets a warrior woman from 1000 years in the future."
"An NTSB investigator seeking the cause of an airline disaster meets a warrior woman from 1000 years in the future."
On this day in 2000, Farscape aired "The Locket." This served as the sixteenth episode of the program's second season, and here's the plot summary from IMDB.com:
"The crew finds a cloudy area where they might be able to hide from Peacekeepers. Aeryn goes into the area to check it out. She returns a few hours later, much older. And tells them to leave the area. Now they have to figure out how to escape the cloud before they suffer the same fate as Aeryn."
"The crew finds a cloudy area where they might be able to hide from Peacekeepers. Aeryn goes into the area to check it out. She returns a few hours later, much older. And tells them to leave the area. Now they have to figure out how to escape the cloud before they suffer the same fate as Aeryn."
On this day in 2000, Stargate: SG-1 aired "Scorched Earth." This served as the ninth episode to the long-running program's fourth season, and here's the plot summary as detailed on IMDB.com:
"On the Enkarans' new home, SG-1 discovers a giant spaceship is threatening the colonists as it terraforms the planet."
"On the Enkarans' new home, SG-1 discovers a giant spaceship is threatening the colonists as it terraforms the planet."
On this day in 2006, Stargate: SG-1 aired "Counterstrike." This served as the seventh episode to the long-running program's tenth and final season, and here's the plot summary as provided by IMDB.com:
"SG-1 is caught in the middle of a war after the Jaffa use a powerful weapon to kill 10,000 Ori followers."
"SG-1 is caught in the middle of a war after the Jaffa use a powerful weapon to kill 10,000 Ori followers."
On this day in 2015, Zoo aired "Murmuration." This served as the ninth episode of the program's first season, and here's the plot summary as provided by IMDB.com:
"Mitch escapes from Reiden with the mother cell and rejoins the others. The team digs into Delavenne's dealings with Reiden after he's seen by Mitch at the company's headquarters. Mistrust builds between Mitch and the others when they learn he was trying to return the mother cell to Reiden in exchange for his daughter's medicine."
"Mitch escapes from Reiden with the mother cell and rejoins the others. The team digs into Delavenne's dealings with Reiden after he's seen by Mitch at the company's headquarters. Mistrust builds between Mitch and the others when they learn he was trying to return the mother cell to Reiden in exchange for his daughter's medicine."
