Timelines for year 1979

Alan Alda

Has the distinction of playing three U.S. Senators--Sen. Joe Tynan in The Seduction of Joe Tynan , real-life Sen. Owen Brewster in The Aviator and Sen. Arnold Vinick in "The West Wing" . Furthermore, he received an Oscar nomination for his performance in The Aviator .

Mickey Rooney

He is most proud of his film The Black Stallion .

Meg Ryan

Graduated from Bethel High School. Was Prom Queen.

Frank Oz

Often works with Steve Martin (The Muppet Movie , Little Shop of Horrors , Dirty Rotten Scoundrels , HouseSitter , Bowfinger ).

Rock Hudson

In 1979 he was involved in a DUI incident when he crashed his car into a palm tree in Los Angeles late one night.

Michael Jackson

His 1979 debut solo album "Off the Wall" has sold around 20 million copies worldwide.

Dan Aykroyd

A scene was deleted from Steven Spielberg's 1941 where his character, Sgt. Frank Tree, met John Belushi's character, Wild Bill Kelso. The scene took place right after the tank was dropped into the water by the Japanese sub: Wild Bill was swimming out in the sub's direction just as Frank emerges from the top of the sinking tank, spots Wild Bill and they look at each other curiously, as if recognizing each other, a nod to their real life friendship. It was the only scene in the film where they interacted.

Is a victim of syndactylism, a birth defect where several digits are fused together. In Mr. Mike's Mondo Video , he takes his shoes and socks off on-screen, to reveal this anomaly.

Frances McDormand

She attended Bethany College, Bethany, West Virginia and received her B.A. in Theater, 1979. Then she attended Yale University School of Drama, New Haven, Connecticut and received her M.F.A., 1982.

Ridley Scott

The famous Superbowl TV ad "1984" Scott directed for the launch of Apple's Macintosh was filmed on Stage H at Shepperton Studios where Scott had earlier filmed his exterior landscapes for Alien . Apple paid an estimated $1m for the one-off telecast of the ad during Superbowl XVIII where the Los Angeles Raiders defeated the Washington Redskins 38-9. Scott estimated a budget of approximately $350,000 for the commercial.

Suffers from claustrophobia, a condition he actively sought to instill in his Alien cast by making their Nostromo living quarters as cramped as possible.

Coming from an army and fine arts background, he is an inveterate stickler for detail who tackles each movie project with the vehemence of a general with a battle plan. His persistent scrutiny of minutiae on the Alien shoot prompted Sigourney Weaver to complain that he cared more about his props and sets than he did about his cast.