Celebrating A Trio of Birthdays
We’ve got a trio of Hollywood birthdays to celebrate today: Orlando Bloom, Liam Hemsworth and Patrick Dempsey were all born on January 13, albeit decades apart!
Hemsworth, the youngest of the crew, is turning 33. Best known for playing Katniss’s (Jennifer Lawrence) BFF Gale Hawthorne in The Hunger Games film series — as well as being Miley Cyrus’s ex and having famous brothers in real life — he has a big year ahead as he joins the cast of Netflix’s “The Witcher,” now in its fourth season. Liam will star as the main character, Geralt of Rivia, after Henry Cavill decided to leave the role and the show last year.
As far as movies go, however, Hemsworth most recently appeared opposite Russell Crowe (who also directed) and the RZA in the thriller Poker Face. Next up, he’ll share the screen with Laura Dern in the Moroccan-set romance Lonely Planet.
Our second birthday boy is Orlando Bloom, who’s celebrating his 46th year. I personally hope Bloom is just relaxing today, because he certainly doesn’t need to work anymore after starring in two of the biggest movie franchises of all time — as Legolas, the longbow-wielding elf, in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, and also as Will Turner in The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.
Most recently he’s been on the small screen as the lead in Amazon Prime’s “Carnival Row,” and he also provided the voice for a young Prince Harry (the man of the moment) in the animated HBO show “The Prince.” He has a few recent movies at Redbox, too: the sci-fi romance Needle in a Timestack and the critically acclaimed Afghanistan war drama The Outpost.
It seems as though Bloom is not resting on his laurels or bank account, though. This summer you can find him in Gran Turismo, which is partially based off of the video game of the same name, as well as a real-life story about a gamer-turned-actual-racer. He’ll also star in the Redbox-produced action thriller Red Right Hand opposite Andie MacDowell.
And finally we get to Patrick Dempsey, who’s turning 57 today. While pop-culture enthusiasts of a certain age might only think of him as McDreamy from “Grey’s Anatomy,” Gen Xers like me have known him since way back in 1987 when he starred in the teen comedy Can’t Buy Me Love. Further, three years before “Grey’s” premiered, he was in the popular rom-com Sweet Home Alabama with Reese Witherspoon. And who can forget his turn as jaded divorce lawyer Robert in 2007’s Enchanted — a role he reprised last year in Disney+’s Disenchanted.
These days, Dempsey focuses mostly on professional motorsports and is an accomplished racecar driver. So I bet he had a ball portraying Italian driver Piero Taruffi in the upcoming biopic Ferrari, starring Adam Driver as Enzo Ferrari.
Needless to say, our three birthday celebrators have a lot going on! We hope they’re taking some time out to celebrate themselves today!