Are you turning 65? Look at these famous folks who just did this past January!
January 10 – George Edward Foreman, nicknamed “Big George,” was a professional boxer, former two-time World Heavyweight Champion and Olympic gold medalist. After a troubled childhood, Foreman took up boxing and was a gold medalist at the 1968 Olympics. He won the World Heavyweight title with a second round knockout of then-undefeated Joe Frazier in 1973. Foreman defended his title twice before losing to Muhammad Ali in “The Rumble in the Jungle” in 1974. Unable to secure another title shot, he retired in 1977 and became an ordained Christian minister. Ten years later, he announced a comeback and, in November 1994, at age 45, he regained the Heavyweight Championship by knocking out Michael Moorer. He is the oldest Heavyweight Champion in history, and second oldest in any weight class after Bernard Hopkins. In 1997, he retired at the age of 48 with a final record of 76–5, including 68 knockouts.
Foreman has been inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame and the International Boxing Hall of Fame and has been rated the eighth greatest heavyweight of all-time by the International Boxing Research Organization. For 12 years, he was a ringside analyst for HBO’s boxing coverage, leaving in 2004. Outside of boxing, he is a successful entrepreneur and is known for his promotion of the George Foreman Grill, which has sold over 100 million units worldwide.
January 22 – Stephen Ray “Steve” Perry , is best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Journey during its most commercially successful periods from 1977 to 1987 and 1995 to 1998. Between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s, Perry had a successful solo career, releasing two albums: Street Talk in 1984 and For the Love of Strange Medicine in 1994. On nine of Journey’s albums he provided lead vocals: Infinity (1978), Evolution (1979), Departure (1980), Dream, After Dream (1980, a Japanese movie soundtrack), Captured (1980, a live album), Escape (1981, which went to No. 1 on the Billboard charts), Frontiers (1983), Raised on Radio (1986), and Trial By Fire (1996). The single “Open Arms,” from Escape, was their biggest hit single, residing for six weeks at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. Throughout his time with the band, Perry had become the unmistakable voice of Journey. Since the group disbanded In 1987, Perry has contributed to other performers’ albums. In December 2010, Perry said he was contemplating his first solo project since 1994.
Perry’s singing has garnered acclaim from prominent musical peers and publications. Queen guitarist Brian May said, “Perry is a truly luminous singer, in my opinion—a voice in a million.” Sony record executive, American Idol judge and musician Randy Jackson described Perry’s as “the golden voice” and opined that, “Other than Robert Plant, there’s no singer in rock that even came close to Steve Perry. The power, the range, the tone—he created his own style. He mixed a little Motown, a little Everly Brothers, a little Zeppelin.”
January 26 – David Russell Strathairn known as a character actor, has acted in film, TV and theater. His recent roles include journalist Edward R. Murrow in Good Night, and Good Luck, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award; CIA Deputy Director Noah Vosen in the 2007 film The Bourne Ultimatum, a role he reprised in 2012’s The Bourne Legacy; Dr. Lee Rosen on the Syfy series Alphas from 2011 to 2012; and as Secretary of State William Henry Seward in Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln.
Other notable film roles include the title character in Harrison’s Flowers (2000); the blind techie in Sneakers (1992); general manager Ira Lowenstein in A League of Their Own; Joe St. George in Dolores Claiborne (1995); Theseus, Duke of Athens, in the 1999 version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream; and corrupt baseball player Eddie Cicotte in Eight Men Out (1988).
His television work includes a range of roles: Moss, in the critically acclaimed The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd; Captain Keller, the father of Helen Keller in the 2000 remake of The Miracle Worker; and a recurring role on the hit television drama The Sopranos. In the theater, he has had more than 30 roles, including in stage plays by Harold Pinter.
