Birthdays

TODAY: Mr Robert Altman, film director, 68; The Right Rev George Appleton, religious writer and missionary, 91; Mr Roy Beggs MP, 57; Mr Gordon Brown MP, 42; Dr Ruth Gipps, composer and conductor, 72; Mr Jimmy Greaves, television commentator and ex-footballer, 53; Mr Eddie Hemmings, cricketer, 44; Sir Owain Jenkins, former company director in India, 86; Commandant Dame Marion Kettlewell, former director, WRNS, 79; Mr Roger Knapman MP, 49; Mr Mike Leigh, playwright and film and theatre director, 50; Mr Donald Longmore, cardiac surgeon, 65; Mr Phil Neal, former England footballer, 42; Mr David O'Dowd, chief constable, Northamptonshire, 51; Sir Frederick Page, former chief executive, British Aerospace, 76; Dr Valerie Payne, headmistress, Malvern Girls' College, 53; Mr Sidney Poitier, actor, 66; Vice-Admiral Sir Cameron Rusby, former chief executive, Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, 67; Mr William Walker MP, 64; Mr George Waring, actor and director, 66.

TOMORROW: King Harald V of Norway, 56; Mr Humphry Berkeley, writer and broadcaster, 67; Sir John Bourn, Comptroller and Auditor General, 59; Professor Ruth Bowden, anatomist, 78; Mr Simon Coombs MP, 46; Miss Jilly Cooper, author and journalist, 56; M Hubert de Givenchy, fashion designer, 66; Sir Colville Deverell, former overseas governor, 86; Mr Leslie Durbin, silversmith, 80; Dame Janet Fookes MP, 57; Sir John Goulden, ambassador to Turkey, 52; Mr Carron Greig, company chairman, 68; Sir Michael Grylls MP, 59; Sir Conrad Heron, former senior civil servant, 77; Sir Reginald Hibbert, former ambassador to France, 71; Sir John McGregor Hill, company chairman, 72; Lord Hunter, a former Senator of the College of Justice in Scotland, 80; Dr Oonagh McDonald, former MP, 55; Mr Peter McEnery, actor, 53; Mr Robert Mugabe, president of Zimbabwe, 69; Professor Sir Rupert Myers, scientist, 72; Gen Sir Robert Pascoe, former Adjutant- General, 61; Sir Ashley Ponsonby, Lord-Lieutenant of Oxfordshire, 72; Mlle Madeleine Renaud, actress, 90; Lt-Gen Sir John Richards, former marshal of the Diplomatic Corps, 66; Professor Frederick Rimmer, Emeritus Professor of Music, 79; Miss Nina Simone, singer, 59; Mr Richard Turner-Warwick, surgeon and urologist, 68; Mr David Wood, actor and playwright, 49.