Birthdays

TODAY: Mr Robert Altman, film director, 74; Mr Roy Beggs MP, 63; Mr Gordon Brown MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer, 48; Mr John Browne, group chief executive, BP, 51; Professor Andrew Fabian, astronomer, 51; Dr Ruth Gipps, composer and conductor, 78; Mr Jimmy Greaves, television commentator and footballer, 59; Mr Eddie Hemmings, cricketer, 50; Mr Ian Irwin, chairman, Scottish Transport Group, 66; Commandant Dame Marion Kettlewell, former Director, WRNS, 85; Mr Mike Leigh, playwright and theatre director, 56; Professor Donald Longmore, cardiac surgeon, 71; Ms Siobhain McDonagh MP, 39; Lord McNally, head of Public Affairs, Shandwick Consultants, 56; Mr Norman Miscampbell QC, a Recorder of the Crown Court and former MP, 74; Mr John Murphy, chairman, Interbrand Group plc, 55; Mr Phil Neal, former England footballer, 48; Mr David O'Dowd, HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary, 57; Sir Frederick Page, former chief executive, British Aerospace, 82; Dr Valerie Payne, former Headmistress, Malvern Girls' College, 59; Mr Sidney Poitier, actor, 72; Vice-Admiral Sir Cameron Rusby, former chief executive, Scottish SPCA, 73; Mr George Waring, actor and director, 72; Mr Barry Wordsworth, conductor, 51.

TOMORROW: King Harald V of Norway, 62; Sir John Bourn, Comptroller and Auditor General, 65; Professor Ruth Bowden, anatomist, 84; Miss Jilly Cooper, writer and journalist, 62; M Hubert de Givenchy, fashion designer, 72; Mr Michael Deakin, documentary film maker, 60; Mr Leslie Durbin, silversmith, 86; Baroness Fookes, former MP, 63; Sir John Goulden, UK Permanent Representative, North Atlantic Council, 58; Mr Carron Greig, company chairman, 74; Sir Michael Grylls, former MP, 65; Sir Conrad Heron, former senior civil servant, 83; Sir Reginald Hibbert, former ambassador to France, 77; Sir John McGregor Hill, former chairman, British Nuclear Fuels, 78; Lord Hunter, a former Senator of the College of Justice in Scotland, 86; Mr Robert Mugabe, president of Zimbabwe, 75; Professor Sir Rupert Myers, scientist, 78; Mrs Diana Organ MP, 47; General Sir Robert Pascoe, former Adjutant- General, 67; Sir Ashley Ponsonby, former Lord-Lieutenant of Oxfordshire, 78; Professor John Prescott, Principal, Wye College, London University, 62; Lt-Gen Sir John Richards, former marshal of the Diplomatic Corps, 72; Mr Alan Rickman, actor, 53; Miss Nina Simone, singer, 65; Mr Richard Turner-Warwick, surgeon and urologist, 74; Professor Leslie Wagner, Vice-Chancellor, Leeds Metropolitan University, 56; Mr David Wood, actor and playwright, 55.