Birthdays

TODAY: Mr Ian Brindle, Senior Partner, Price Waterhouse, 53; Mr Jim Courier, tennis player, 26; Mr Robin Cousins, ice skater, 39; Mr Edward Cowie, lecturer and composer, 53; Mr Robert De Niro, actor, 53; Mr David Donne, former chairman, Argos plc, 71; Sir Leonard Figg, former diplomat, 73; Mr James Gulliver, chairman, James Gulliver Associates, 66; Mr Ted Hughes, Poet Laureate, 66; Mr John Humphrys, broadcaster, 53; Miss Elizabeth Llewellyn- Smith, Principal, St Hilda's College, Oxford, 62; Mr Ian McAllister, chairman and managing director, Ford Motor Company, 53; Mr Seamus Mallon MP, 60; Mr George Melly, jazz singer, 70; Mr Alan Minter, middleweight boxer, 45; Sir Alan Munro, former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, 61; Sir Vidia Naipaul, novelist, 64; Mr David Nicholson MP, 52; Miss Maureen O'Hara, actress, 75; Mr Hamish Orr-Ewing, former chairman, Rank Xerox, 72; Dr Ewan Page, former Vice-Chancellor, Reading University, 68; Mr Nelson Piquet, racing driver, 44; M Jean-Bernard Pommier, pianist, 52; Mr Barry Sheerman MP, 56; Mr Richard Stott, editor, Today, 53; Mr Anthony Valentine, actor, 57; Mr Guillermo Vilas, tennis player, 44; Mrs Susan Williams, former Lord-Lieutenant of South Glamorgan, 81; Professor Michael Wise, geographer, 78; Sir Tony Wrigley, Master, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, 65.

TOMORROW: Professor Roy Acheson, epidemiologist, 75; Mr Brian Aldiss, science fiction writer, 71; Sir Bryan Askew, former chairman, Yorks Regional Health Authority, 66; Dame Josephine Barnes, gynaecologist, 84; Dr Ray Bettley, dermatologist, 87; Mr James Birrell, former chief executive, Halifax Building Society, 63; M Marcel Carne, film director, 87; Mr Godfrey Evans, cricketer, 76; Mr Robert Horton, chairman, Railtrack, 57; Dame Moura Lympany, concert pianist, 80; Sir John Mason, Chancellor, University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (Umist), 73; Mr Hugh Peppiatt, chairman, Moorfields Eye Hospital, 66; Sir David Pitblado, former Comptroller and Auditor-General, 84; Mr Roman Polanski, film director, 63; Sir Humphrey Potts, High Court judge, 65; Mr Robert Redford, actor, 59; M Alain Robbe-Grillet, novelist and film director, 74; Mr Willie Rushton, broadcaster, 59; Mr Patrick Shovelton, vice-chairman, Maersk Co, 77; Mr Patrick Swayze, actor, 42; General Bramwell H. Tillsley, former General of the Salvation Army, 65; Mr Caspar Weinberger, former US Secretary of Defense, 79; Mr Charles Wilson, Chairman, Scottish Daily Record and Sunday Mail Ltd, 61; Miss Shelley Winters, actress, 74.