Today is July 21, which means…

 

While today is, indeed, my 30th birthday, I’m greeting the day with considerably more enthusiasm than The Great Gatsby‘s despondent narrator Nick Carraway, who rings in “the portentous menacing road of a new decade” during a contentious confrontation between romantic millionaire Jay Gatsby and brutish Tom Buchanan over the affections of Daisy, Tom’s wife and Gatsby’s former flame. (For a more in-depth look at the style of my favorite book and its multiple cinematic adaptations, check out this post from last month!)

Fellow July 21 birthday celebrators include:

• Sam Bass (born 1851), an outlaw who died on his 27th birthday following a gunfight with police in Texas
• Sara Carter (1898-1979), lead singer of the Carter Family
• Hart Crane (1899-1932), American writer and poet who died by suicide
• Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), American writer and adventurer who also died by suicide
• Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980), the media theorist I know best from his famous cameo in Annie Hall
• Kay Starr (1922-2016), described by Billie Holiday as “the only white woman who could sing the blues”
• Norman Jewison (born 1926), director of stylish flicks including The Cincinnati Kid (1965), In the Heat of the Night (1967), and The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), among many others
• Sonny Clark (1931-1963), jazz pianist who recorded prolifically for Blue Note in the late 1950s
• Janet Reno (1938-2016), first woman to serve as United States Attorney General
• Edward Herrmann (1943-2014), actor who famously portrayed FDR (and also appeared in 1974’s The Great Gatsby)
• Robin Williams (1951-2014), Academy Award-winning actor and comedian considered among the funniest people of all time
• Jon Lovitz (born 1957), comedian and former Saturday Night Live cast member
• Brandi Chastain (born 1968), American soccer champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist
• Godfrey (born 1969), comedian, actor, and 7 Up spokesperson
• Josh Hartnett (born 1979), actor who starred in Pearl Harbor, Sin City, and 30 Days of Night
• Paloma Faith (born 1981), eccentric singer-songwriter