H.G. Wells, the oldest and deadest person on the list
I make it a habit to check for birthdays of geek celebrities of all sorts. For this I typically browse through Wikipedia’s page for the day in question, scrolling through it and noting names that I recognize. Most times nothing much leaps out at me; some days I see one or two, and we’ll decide whether or not to write a “Happy Birthday” post for them. And then there are days like today, when I found seven, and that’s leaving off a few I wasn’t sure about.
Allison Scagliotti, the youngest person on the list; photo by Tania Ricardo (public domain).
For starters, September 21 is the birthday of two major figures in the annals of geekdom who are no longer with us: H.G. Wells and Chuck Jones. Yes, one of the fathers of science fiction and one of the greatest animators of all time, born on the same day 46 years apart (Wells in 1866, Jones in 1912). It’s too late to wish them a happy birthday, but they’re both such giants it would be unthinkable not to acknowledge the anniversary of their births anyway.
And then there are the living people. In order of their births: director of many films, including the Pirates of the Caribbean series, Jerry Bruckheimer (1945); one of the most successful authors of all time, Stephen King (1947); brilliant comic actor and star of Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day, Bill Murray (1950); the younger of the famous movie-making Coen brothers, Ethan Coen (1957); and the actress who plays “Claudia” on the very funny and creative Syfy series Warehouse 13 (and a geek in her own right), Allison Scagliotti (1990).
So please join all of us at GeekDad in remembering Wells and Jones, and in wishing Bruckheimer, King, Murray, Coen and Scagliotti a very big, very geeky “Happy Birthday!” (As far as we’re aware, the only one of those folks who regularly uses social media is Scagliotti, who can be found @allisonscag on Twitter.)
