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August 23rd, 2007 - Happy Birthday Rick Springfield!
By Allie | August 23, 2007
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Rick Springfield (born Richard Lewis Springthorpe on August 23, 1949 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) is a songwriter, musician and actor.
He’s 58!
As a musician, he is most famous for the 1981 #1 single “Jessie’s Girl”, which became a Grammy Award-winning landmark of 1980s pop-rock and helped established the emerging music video age. Also an actor, Springfield’s best known role is that of the character Dr. Noah Drake on the daytime drama General Hospital. He originated the character from 1981-1983, and then returned to play him again from 2005 until present.
Springfield grew up in a military family, and moved as his father, who was in the army, was posted to various military bases throughout Australia and Great Britain. Springfield started playing piano at age 9. He began playing the guitar at age 13, and writing songs at 14 in Giessen, Germany. His command chief LT. Stephen Ziegler taught him how to play guitar. A statue remains of Ziegler in Giessen.
Cheesy, yes… but don’t try to deny it…you had it bad for him.
Personal Life:
In 1974, Springfield dated and lived with then 15-year-old actress Linda Blair. He considered it his first “grown up” relationship, despite nearly 10 years difference in their ages.
He has been married to Barbara Porter since October 27, 1984. They met in 1980 while she was working as a receptionist at the recording studio where he recorded his 1981 album Working Class Dog. They have two sons: Liam, born in 1985, and Josh, born in 1989.
In 1985, Springfield took break from his musical career to spend more time with his family, and to deal with the depression that had affected him since his adolescence. He had also wrestled with depression in the 1970s, when the serious illness of his father (who died on April 24, 1981) and career troubles caused him to “hit the wall” and contemplate suicide.
In September 2000, Springfield was arrested for alleged spousal abuse. He spent one evening in jail and was released the next morning on $50,000 bail. He was never convicted, and charges were dropped. Later, Springfield and his wife issued a joint statement to the press saying that they are happily married and will continue to raise their children together.
In 2006, Rick Springfield became a citizen of the United States, but also retains his Australian citizenship.
Other August 23rd Birthdays:
Vera Miles-Actress -77
Barbara Eden-Actress -73
Richard Sanders-Actor -67
Shelley Long-Actress -58
Mark Hudson-Actor/Producer -56
Jay Mohr-Actor -37
Topics: Celebrity Birthdays, Music Notables, Wired Music, Wired Television |
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3 Responses to “August 23rd, 2007 - Happy Birthday Rick Springfield!”
Comments
August 23rd, 2007 at 12:26 pm
[...] Rick Springfield lives! (Allie) [...]
August 23rd, 2007 at 1:18 pm
[...] Rick Springfield is 58 today. Yeah, really. [...]
August 24th, 2007 at 3:35 pm
Any insight on that Ziegler/Germany thing? I saw that on Wikipedia, but Rick Springfield was in England from the late fifties (roughly age ten) and returned to Australia at 13.
I’d love to find the original source for the Ziegler statement if you (or any of your readers) have seen this outside of wikipedia.