Born on this day – Eddie Van Halen:

Eddie Van Halen

Musician

Songwriter

January 26, 1955 – October 6, 2020

Born on this day – LeRoy Lad Panek:

LeRoy Lad Panek

Writer

January 26, 1943 – November 5, 2021

Credits:

Books:

After Sherlock Holmes: The Evolution of British and American Detective Stories; An Introduction to the Detective Story; Before Sherlock Holmes: How Magazines and Newspapers Invented the Detective Story; Early American Detective Stories: An Anthology; New Hard-Boiled Writers: 1970s-1990s; Nineteenth Century Detective Fiction: An Analytical History; Probable Cause: Crime Fiction in America; Reading Early Hammett: A Critical Study of the Fiction Prior to the Maltese Falcon; The American Police Novel: A History; The Essential Elements of the Detective Story, 1820-1891; The Origins of the American Detective Story; Watteau's Shepherds: The Detective Novel in Britain, 1914-1940.

Born on this day – Brian Garfield:

Brian Garfield

Writer

Historian

January 26, 1939 – December 29, 2018

Credits:

Books:

A Badge for a Badman (1967); Apache Canyon (1963); Arizona (1968); Arizona Rider (1962); Big Country, Big Men (1969); Brand of the Gun (1968); Bugle and the Spur (1966); Call Me Hazard (1966); Checkpoint Charlie (1981); Complete Guide to Western Films (1980); Danger Money / Romanov Succession / Horn of Roland (1974); Death Sentence (1975); Death Wish (1972); Deep Cover (1972); Devil's Butte / Badge for a Badman (1967); Dragoon Pass (1963); Etruscan Smile / Slippery Step / Recoil (1976); Fear in a Handful of Dust (aka Fear) (1978); Gangway (1973); Gundown (1969); High Storm (1963); Hopscotch (1975); Hopscotch: Screenplay (1979); Justice at Spanish Flat (aka Range Justice) (1960); Kolchak's Gold (1973); Line Of Succession (1972); Lynch Law Canyon (1965); Manifest Destiny (1989); Massacre Basin (1961); Mr. Sixgun (1964); Necessity (1984); Rails West (1964); Recoil (1977); Relentless (1972); Rio Chama (1967); Rio Concho (1964); Savage Guns (1968); Seven Brave Men (1962); Shotgun Settlement (1969); Sliphammer (1970); Suspended Sentences (2012); Sweeny's Honor (1971); Target Manhattan (1975); The Arizonans (1961); The Big Snow (1962); The Bravos (1966); The Crime of My Life (1984); The Hit (1970); The Hit and The Marksman (2003); The Last Bridge (1966); The Last Hard Men (aka Gun Down) (1971); The Last Outlaw (1964); The Lawbringers (1962); The Lusty Breed (1966); The Marchand Woman (1979); The Meinertzhagen Mystery (2007); The Night It Rained Bullets (1965); The Paladin (1980); The Proud Riders (1967); The Rimfire Murders (1962); The Romanov Succession (1974); The Thousand Mile War (1969); The Threepersons Hunt (1974); The Vanquished (1964); The Villiers Touch (1970); The Wolf Pack (1966); Trail Drive (1962); Tripwire (1973); Valley of the Shadow (1970); Vultures in the Sun (1963); Western Films (1988); What of Terry Conniston? (1971); Wild Times (1978).

Movies and television:

24th Street (2009); Blown Away (1988); Cooper and Hemingway: The True Gen (2013); Crime Writers (1978); Death Sentence (2007); Death Wish (1974 / 2018); Death Wish 3 (1985); Death Wish 3 / Video game (1986); Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987); Death Wish II (1982); Death Wish: The Face of Death (1994); Fleshburn (1984); Hopscotch (1980); Hopscotch: Interview with Director Ronald Neame and Screenwriter Brian Garfield (2002); Legs (1983); Relentless (1977); Stepfather 3 (1992); Stepfather II: Make Room for Daddy (1989); Tales of the Unexpected (1985); The Great Canadian Culture Hunt (1976); The Last Hard Men (1976); The Stepfather (1987 / 2009); The Stepfather Chronicles (2009); Wild Times (1980).

Born on this day – Jules Feiffer:

Jules Feiffer

Cartoonist

Writer

Production designer

January 26, 1929 – January 17, 2025

Credits:

Books:

A Barrel of Laughs, a Vale of Tears (1995); Backing into Forward: A Memoir (2010); Bark, George (1999); Boy, Girl, Boy, Girl (1961); Feiffer on Civil Rights (1966); Feiffer on Nixon, the Cartoon Presidency (1974); Feiffer's Album (1963); Feiffer's Children (1986); Feiffer's Marriage Manual (1967); Harry: The Rat with Women, a Novel (1963); Hold Me! (1962); I Lost My Bear (1998); Jules Feiffer's America: From Eisenhower to Reagan (1982); Kill My Mother (2014); Knock Knock (1976); Marriage Is an Invasion of Privacy and Other Dangerous Views (1984); Meanwhile— (1997); Passionella and Other Stories (1959); Pictures at a Prosecution (1971); Ronald Reagan in Movie America (1988); Sick, Sick, Sick (1958); Smart George (2020); Tantrum (1979); The Explainers (1960); The Feiffer Album (1962); The Ghost Script (2018); The Great Comic Book Heroes (1965); The Man in the Ceiling (1993); The Penguin Feiffer (1966); The Unexpurgated Memoirs of Bernard Mergendeiler (1964).

Movies and television:

A Broadway Lullaby (2012); ABC News Close-Up (1962); American Masters (1996–2017); Another Day, Another Doormat (1959); Bark, George (2003); Bernard and Huey (2017); Bird of Steel! (2025); Boomtown (1985); Carnal Knowledge (1971 / 1980); Cartoon College (2012); CBS News Sunday Morning with Jane Pauley (2011); Comedy Zone (1984); Dad Strangelove (2025); Day to Day Affairs (1985); Faerie Tale Theatre (1985); Far Out Isn't Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story (2012); Foofle's Train Ride (1959); Funny Already: A History of Jewish Comedy (2004); God's Will (2000); Great Performances (1985); Hand Drawn Life - The History and Influence of Newspaper Comic Strips (2019); Happy Endings / Segment: Kidnapped (1975); Herblock: The Black & the White (2013); He's Way More Famous Than You (2013); Hold Me! (2018); Horizon (2006); Hugh Hefner: Once Upon a Time (1992); I Lost My Bear (2005); I Want to Go Home (1989); Jules Feiffer's Hold Me (1981); Late Night with Conan O'Brien (1994); Les Chroniques du Mea (2014); Little Murders (1971); Little Murders: Random Acts of Violence with Jules Feiffer (2018); Maya Angelou And Still I Rise (2016); Mord i det hvite hus (1972); Munro (1961); Oh! Calcutta! (1972); Popeye (1980); Quest (1962); Reputations (1982); Shoestring Theatre (1964); Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle (2013); TCM Guest Programmer (2012); That Was the Year That Was – 1976 (1976); The Dancer Films (2011); The David Frost Show (1971); The Fifties (1997); The First Amendment Project: No Joking (2004); The Jewish Americans (2008); The Larry Solway Show (1976); The Legacy Project (2014); The Line King: The Al Hirschfeld Story (1996); The Merv Griffin Show (1970); The Naked Brothers Band (2008); The Nudnik Show (1991); The Phantom Tollbooth: Beyond Expectations (2012); The Tale of a Dog (1959); The Young Set (1965); Theater Talk (2010); To Live & Dialogue in LA (2019); Un alma pura (1965); VD Blues (1972); Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist (2007).

Born on this day – Roger Vadim:

Roger Vadim

Writer

Director

Producer

Artist

Actor

January 26, 1928 – February 11, 2000

Born on this day – William Redfield:

William Redfield

Actor

Writer

January 26, 1927 – August 17, 1976

Credits:

Mr. Billion (1977); Spencer's Pilots (1976); Rich Man, Poor Man - Book II (1976); Medical Center (1976); The Bob Newhart Show (1972–1976); One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975); Maude (1972–1975); Fear on Trial (1975); Death Wish (1974); For Pete's Sake (1974); The Odd Couple (1974); The Hot Rock (1972); Such Good Friends (1971); A New Leaf (1971); Dragon Country (1970); NET Playhouse (1970); The Sidelong Glances of a Pigeon Kicker (1970); Companions in Nightmare (1968); Androcles and the Lion (1967); All Woman (1967); Fantastic Voyage (1966); Duel at Diablo (1966); Bewitched (1965); Morituri (1965); Instant Love (1964); The Defenders (1963–1964); Mr. Broadway (1964); Hamlet (1964); Armstrong Circle Theatre (1952–1963); Naked City (1961); Great Ghost Tales (1961); The Connection (1961); The Million Dollar Incident (1961); Frontiers of Faith (1961); Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1957–1961); Gunsmoke (1961); Encounter (1960); The Comedy Spot (1960); Wrangler (1960); Deadline (1960); General Electric Theater (1959); Startime (1959); Kitty Foyle (1958); Colgate Theatre (1958); Kraft Theatre (1952–1958); I Married a Woman (1958); True Story (1957); Modern Romances (1957); Goodyear Playhouse (1954–1957); Studio One (1956–1957); The Big Story (1951–1957); The Kaiser Aluminum Hour (1957); Omnibus (1957); The Proud and Profane (1956); As the World Turns (1956); Kraft Theatre (1954–1956); Robert Montgomery Presents (1956); The Alcoa Hour (1955); Mr. Citizen (1955); Conquest of Space (1955); Justice (1954–1955); The Elgin Hour (1954–1955); Producers' Showcase (1955); The Marriage (1954); Jimmy Hughes, Rookie Cop (1953); Family Affair (1952); Lux Video Theatre (1952); Lights Out (1952); Tales of Tomorrow (1952); Suspense (1950–1952); Mr. District Attorney (1952); The Web (1951–1952); Schlitz Playhouse (1952); Somerset Maugham TV Theatre (1951); Hands of Mystery (1951); Pulitzer Prize Playhouse (1951); Treasury Men in Action (1950); The Ford Theatre Hour (1950); Kraft Theatre (1949); Actor's Studio (1948–1949); Back Door to Heaven (1939).

Born on this day – Paul Newman:

Paul Newman

Actor

Director

January 26, 1925 – September 26, 2008

Credits:

The Meerkats (2008); Mater and the Ghostlight (2006); Pixar Short Films Collection: Volume 1 (2006); Cars (2006); Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon (2005); Empire Falls (2005); Freedom: A History of US (2003); Our Town (2003); Road to Perdition (2002); The Simpsons (1989); Where the Money Is (2000); Message in a Bottle (1999); Twilight (1998); Nobody's Fool (1994); The Hudsucker Proxy (1994); Mr. & Mrs. Bridge (1990); Blaze (1989); Fat Man and Little Boy (aka Shadow Makers) (1989); The Color of Money (1986); Harry & Son (1984); The Verdict (1982); American Playhouse (1982); Absence of Malice (1981); Fort Apache the Bronx (1981); When Time Ran Out... (1980); Quintet (1979); Slap Shot (1977); Two by Dove (1976); Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson (1976); Silent Movie (1976); The Drowning Pool (1975); The Towering Inferno (1974); The Sting (1973); The MacKintosh Man (1973); The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972); Pocket Money (1972); Sometimes a Great Notion (aka Never Give an Inch) (1971); WUSA (1970); Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969); Winning (1969); The Secret War of Harry Frigg (1968); Cool Hand Luke (1967); Hombre (1967); Torn Curtain (1966); Harper (aka The Moving Target) (1966); Lady L (1965); The Outrage (1964); What a Way to Go! (1964); The Prize (1963); A New Kind of Love (1963); Hud (1963); Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man (1962); Sweet Bird of Youth (1962); The Hustler (1961); Paris Blues (1961); Exodus (1960); From the Terrace (1960); The Young Philadelphians (1959); Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys! (1958); Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958); The Left Handed Gun (1958); The Long, Hot Summer (1958); The Eighty Yard Run (Playhouse 90 (1958); The Helen Morgan Story (1957); Until They Sail (1957); The Kaiser Aluminum Hour (1956); Kraft Theatre (1954–1956); Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956); The Rack (1956); Playwrights '56 (1955); Producers' Showcase (1955); Kraft Theatre (1955); Appointment with Adventure (1955); The Silver Chalice (1954); Danger (1954); Armstrong Circle Theatre (1954); Goodyear Playhouse (1954); The Mask (1954); The Man Behind the Badge (1953); The Web (1950); You Are There (1953); Suspense (1949); Tales of Tomorrow (1951); The Aldrich Family (1952-1953).