People (Births)

• 1914 – Richard Widmark, American actor (d. 2008).
• 1927 – Denis Quilley, English actor (d. 2003).
• 1981 – Nikolai Nikolaeff, Australian actor.
• 1986 – Kit Harington, English actor.

People (Deaths)

• 1994 – Sylva Koscina, Italian actress (b. 1933).

Richard Widmark

Richard Weedt Widmark (26 December 1914 to 24 March 2008) was an American film, stage, and television actor and producer.

He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as the villainous Tommy Udo in his debut film, Kiss of Death (1947), for which he also won the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer. Early in his career, Widmark was typecast in similar villainous or anti-hero roles in films noir, but he later branched out into more heroic leading and supporting roles in Westerns, mainstream dramas, and horror films among others.

For his contributions to the motion picture industry, Widmark has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6800 Hollywood Boulevard. In 2002, he was inducted into the Western Performers Hall of Fame at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

The Army turned him down during World War II because of a perforated ear drum.

Military-orientated films:

• Slattery’s Hurricane (1949).
• Halls of Montezuma (1951).
• The Frogmen (1951).
• Destination Gobi (1953).
• Take the High Ground! (1953).
• Hell and High Water (1954).
• The Last Wagon (1956).
• Time Limit (1957).
• The Alamo (1960).
• Judgement at Nuremberg (1961).
• Two Rode Together (1961).
• The Long Ships (1964).
• Flight from Ashiya (1964).
• Cheyenne Autumn (1964).
• The Bedford Incident (1965).
• Alvarez Kelly (1966).
• A Talent for Loving (1969).
• Twilight’s Last Gleaming (1977).
• The Swarm (1978).
• Bear Island (1979).
• Who Dares Wins (1982).

Denis Quilley

Denis Clifford Quilley, OBE (26 December 1927 to 05 October 2003) was an English actor and singer. From a family with no theatrical connections, Quilley was determined from an early age to become an actor. He was taken on by the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in his teens, and after a break for compulsory military service he began a West End career in 1950, succeeding Richard Burton in The Lady’s Not For Burning. In the 1950s he appeared in revue, musicals, operetta and on television as well as in classic and modern drama in the theatre.

Nikolai Nikolaeff

Nikolai Nikolaeff (born 26 December 1981) is an Australian actor who is best known for his roles in the television series Sea Patrol (2007-2011), Power Rangers Jungle Fury and Daredevil.

Nikolaeff was born in Melbourne, and is of Russian and Ukrainian descent. He began acting at the age of twelve and enrolled into the Victorian Youth Theatre. He attended school at Caulfield Grammar School and at sixteen, Nikolaeff landed a lead role in Crash Zone which led to a number of roles in other children’s television series. He took an Arts degree at Monash University in Caulfield.

Kit Harrington

Christopher Catesby Harington (born 26 December 1986) is an English actor who is widely known for his role as Jon Snow in the HBO epic fantasy television series Game of Thrones (2011-2019).

He studied at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and made his professional acting debut with the lead role of Albert Narracott in the West End play War Horse in 2009. He has received several awards, including a Golden Globe Award nomination and two Primetime Emmy Awards nominations. Harington developed, produced, and starred in the 2017 BBC drama series Gunpowder, based around the leading role of his ancestor Robert Catesby in the Gunpowder plot. His film roles include the historical romance film Pompeii (2014), the British period drama Testament of Youth (2014), and the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Eternals (2021). He also voiced Eret in the second and third films of the How to Train Your Dragon film series (2014-2019).

Sylva Koscina

Sylva Koscina (22 August 1933 to 26 December 1994) was a Yugoslav-born Italian actress, maybe best remembered for her role as Iole, the bride of Hercules (Steve Reeves) in Hercules (1958) and Hercules Unchained (1960). She also played Paul Newman’s romantic interest in The Secret War of Harry Frigg (1968).