birthdays: december 9

Judi Dench, 76, though the latter half of her life has yielded the most results in terms of successes, she got her start on the stage and in countless British television series in the '60s and '70s; she won an Oscar for Shakespeare in Love, and she's best remembered for her parts in Chocolat, Iris, Notes on a Scandal, and as M in the James Bond films starting with Golden Eye
Margaret Hamilton, (1902-1985), though later in life, her career was mostly devoted to bit parts in dozens of TV series, during the '30s and '40s, she was a mainstay in the cinemas, most well-known for the iconic Wicked Witch of the West in 1939's The Wizard of Oz
Felicity Huffman, 48, she's played the harried mother of more than a half-dozen kids Lynette Scavo on ABC's Desperate Housewives for going-on seven seasons, before which she headed up the cast of the critical darling Sports Night; in terms of a film career, though, she's best known for her Oscar-nominated performance as a transgender man in Transamerica
Kirk Douglas, 97, classic film star and father to Michael Douglas, he's received three Oscar nominations (for Champion, The Bad and the Beautiful, and Lust for Life) and headlined the films Spartacus, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and Paths of Glory
John Malkovich, 57, he's well-known for his quirky personality and unique screen presence, and his prolific filmography includes two Oscar nominations, Places in the Heart, Empire of the Sun, Dangerous Liaisons, In the Line of Fire, Burn After Reading, and 2010's Secretariat and Red; and then there's that aptly-named mind-bender that he's perhaps best-known for, Being John Malkovich
John Cassavetes, (1929-1989), actor/writer/director who was the mind behind A Woman Under the Influence and Gloria, among others, he had roles in The Dirty Dozen, Rosemary's Baby, and Capone, and his legacy for budget filmmaking lives on with the Independent Spirit Awards category named after him for movies made for under $500,000
Simon Helberg, 30, known primarily as hornball nerd Howard Wolowitz on CBS's The Big Bang Theory, he had small parts in A Serious Man and For Your Consideration and a regular role on Aaron Sorkin's short-lived series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
Michael Dorn, 58, though barely recognizable without a heap of makeup on, he is most famous, despite a host of other film and television credits, for playing Lieutenant Worf in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and several Star Trek theatrical films
Broderick Crawford, (1911-1986), long-time cinema baddie in a host of films of the '40s and '50s, he won an Oscar for All the King's Men and was most memorable as short-tempered gangster Harry Brock in Born Yesterday and as Chief Dan Matthews in the TV series Highway Patrol
Paddi Edwards, (1931-1999), for an '80s audience, she voiced Gozer in 1984's Ghostbusters, and Flotsam and Jetsam in 1989's The Little Mermaid; for a more recent audience, she voiced the Fates in 1997's Hercules