It happened in...1948

Athlete Brendan Foster is born

Snooker player, Cliff Thorburn is born

##### Actor and singer Michael Des Barres is born

Marquis ***Michael Des Barres***, the 26th Marquis Des Barres, is an English actor and rock singer. He is known for playing the recurring role of Murdoc on the television show MacGyver and for replacing Robert Palmer in the band Power Station, fronting the band at the 1985 Live Aid concert. He is also the ex-husband of groupie, actress and author Pamela Des Barres and is written about extensively in two of her books, I'm with the Band: Confessions of a Groupie and Take Another Little Piece of My Heart.

***Career Highlights***

* To Sir, With Love (1967)
* Ghoulies (1984)
* Performing with Power Station at Live Aid (1985)
* MacGyver (1987-1991)
* The New WKRP in Cincinnati (1991-1992)
* Melrose Place (1996-1997)
* Sugar Town (1999)

#### 29th

##### Actor Marc Singer is born

***Marc Singer*** is a Canadian-born American actor best known for his roles in the Beastmaster film series, as Mike Donovan in the original 1980s TV series V, and his role in Dallas as Matt Cantrell. He has three siblings, including actress Lori Singer.

***Career Highlights***

* Go Tell the Spartans (1978)
* Roots: The Next Generation (1979)
* If You Could See What I Hear (1982)
* The Beastmaster (1982)
* V (1983)
* V: The Final Battle (1984)
* V: The Series (1984-1985)
* A Man Called Sarge (1990)
* Body Chemistry (1990)
* Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time (1991)

### February

#### 4th

##### Singer Alice Cooper is born

***Alice Cooper*** (born Vincent Furnier) is an American singer, songwriter, and actor whose career spans over five decades. With his distinctive raspy voice and a stage show that features guillotines, electric chairs, fake blood, deadly snakes, baby dolls, and duelling swords, Cooper is considered by music journalists and peers alike to be "The Godfather of Shock Rock". He has drawn equally from horror films, vaudeville, and garage rock to pioneer a macabre and theatrical brand of rock designed to shock people.

"Alice Cooper" was originally a band consisting of Furnier on vocals and harmonica, lead guitarist Glen Buxton, Michael Bruce on rhythm guitar, Dennis Dunaway on bass guitar, and drummer Neal Smith. Furnier adopted the band's name as his own name from 1975 and began a solo career with the concept album Welcome to My Nightmare.

***Career Highlights***

* "School's Out" by Alice Cooper (band), 1972: UK #1
* *School's Out* by Alice Cooper (band), 1972: UK #4
* "Elected" by Alice Cooper (band), 1972: UK #4
* "Hello Hooray" by Alice Cooper (band): UK #6
* *Billion Dollar Babies* by Alice Cooper (band), 1973: UK #1
* "No More Mr Nice Guy" by Alice Cooper (band), 1973: UK #10
* *Welcome To My Nightmare*, 1975: UK #19; Silver
* Alice Cooper: The Nightmare (TV special), April 25, 1975 (US)
* The Muppet Show (TV), October 28, 1978 (US); November 24, 1978 (UK)
* "Poison", 1989: UK #2; Silver
* *Trash*, 1989: UK #2
* *The Beast of*, 1989: Silver
* *Hey Stoopid*, 1991: UK #4; Silver
* Wayne's World (1992)
* *The Last Temptation*, 1994: UK #6

#### 5th

##### Actor Christopher Guest is born

***Christopher Guest*** is an American screenwriter, composer, musician, director, actor, and comedian. Guest is most widely known in Hollywood for having written, directed and starred in his series of comedy films shot in mock-documentary (mockumentary) style. Many scenes and character backgrounds in Guest's films are written and directed, although actors have no rehearsal time and the ensemble improvise scenes while filming them. The series of films began with This Is Spinal Tap (1984).

Guest holds a hereditary British peerage as the 5th Baron Haden-Guest. Though initially active in the Lords, his career there was cut short by the House of Lords Act 1999, which removed the right of most hereditary peers to a seat in the parliament. Guest is married to the actress and author Jamie Lee Curtis.

***Career Highlights***

* The Billion Dollar Bubble (1978)
* Girlfriends (1978)
* The Long Riders (1980)
* This is Spinal Tap (1984)
* Saturday Night Live (1984-1985)
* The Princess Bride (1987)
* Attack of the 50 Ft Woman (director/composer) (1993)
* Waiting for Guffman (1997), earned Guest a Lone Star Film & Television Award for Best Director
* Almost Heroes (director) (1998)

##### Actor Tom Wilkinson is born

***Tom Wilkinson*** is an English actor. He is married to actress Diana Hardcastle.

***Career Highlights***

* First Among Equals (TV, 1986)
* Martin Chuzzlewit (TV, 1994)
* Priest (1994)
* Sense and Sensibility (1995)
* The Ghost and the Darkness (1996)
* Smilla's Sense of Snow (1997)
* The Full Monty (1997), for which Wilkinson won a British Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
* Wilde (1997)
* The Governess (1998)
* Rush Hour (1998)
* Shakespeare in Love (1998)

#### 19th

Heavy metal guitarist, Tony Iommi is born

23rd

Singer Steve Priest is born

#### 24th

Actor and singer Dennis Waterman is born

Singer Tim Staffell is born

### May

#### 31st

Actress Lynda Bellingham is born (died 2014)

### July

#### 29th

The BBC Television Service begins its coverage of the Olympic Games in London by broadcasting the opening ceremony. From now until the closing ceremony on August 14 the BBC Television Service will broadcast an average three and a half hours a day of live coverage from the Games, using a special coaxial cable linking the main venue at Wembley Stadium to the television service's base at Alexandra Palace. This is the most ambitious sustained outside broadcast yet attempted by the BBC, but passes off with no serious problems.

### September

#### 9th

##### Rock groupie Pamela Des Barres is born

***Pamela Des Barres*** (born Pamela Ann Miller) is a former rock and roll groupie, musician, actor, author and magazine writer, who was married to actor and singer Michael Des Barres, of whom she has written about extensively in two of her books, I'm with the Band: Confessions of a Groupie and Take Another Little Piece of My Heart..