Happy Birthday to Peter, Wes, Butch, Kevin, and , oh yeah, ME!

Heya folks. T.L. Bugg here to wish myself a happy birthday, but I’d feel like an ass if I just did that so I want to take a moment to mention four people who share my birthday whose work I dearly love.

I want to start my list of fellow Leo’s with the oldest of the people I share my B-day with, and if somehow being born on the same day imparts me with half of this guys charm I would be thrilled. So happy Birthday to Peter O’Toole (Born 1932). He’s been in the business sine 1956, starred in films like Laurence of Arabia, Caligula, My Favorite Year, and most recently as the Pope in The Tudors. Plus he loves to say great quotable things like “When did I realize I was God? Well, I was praying and I suddenly realized I was talking to myself.” A badass through and through, Happy Birthday Peter.

Next up is one of the masters of the horror genre, and he should need no introduction considering that I’ve just spent a month talking about his films. So Happy B-day to the one and only Wes Craven. While he’s made his share of stumbles in his career, Nightmare on Elm Street will always rank up there with my favorite horror films of all time.

Then in 1953 Butch Patrick, better known as Eddie Munster, was born. Patrick starred in all seventy one episodes of the TV show and brought home $600 each for them in an era where adult performers were paid far less. Patrick still makes appearances at horror conventions, and I hope to meet him someday both to tell him we share a birthday and ask him how he came to own the Grateful Dead’s tour bus, Sugar Magnolia.

Last comes one of my favorite movie makers that I haven’t had a chance to talk about around The Lair. Born a mere six years before me in 1970, Kevin Smith has consistently made films that have spoken to me as I have grown up. When he made Clerks about kids in dead end jobs, I was working a dead end job. I was a Mallrat. I might have even tried to Chase an Amy once upon a time, but that’s another story. I wont go through them all, but each of his films has meant something to me, and I’m not sure any filmmaker’s movies have spoken to me as much. I love to read his books, and SModcast is the highlight of each of my weeks. So a big Happy Birthday to Mr. Smith.

That’s all for today. Tomorrow the site kicks off with something special for the month. In only 18 days the Lair will be one year old, so all this month I’m going to be talking about many of my favorite films.