born 26 February 1970

Bényi Ildikó, Hernádvécse, Hungary, TV anchorwoman

Brent King, Charlotte, North Carolina, actor/short filmmaker

Carina N. Wise, Dresden, East Germany, actress

Cathrine Lindahl, Härnösand, Sweden, accountant/Olympic curler

Christian Keiber, Wilmington, North Carolina, actor

Derek Anthony, Cleveland Heights, Ohio, actor

Gürol Güngör, Ankara, Turkey, actor

Heather Grimes, Lowell, Massachusetts, actress

Katie O’Neill, Los Angeles, California, juvenile actress

Leina Cochrane, Culver City, California, production assistant

Linda Brava, Helsinki, Finland, violinist/model/race car driver/ciderer

Meeno Peluce, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, child star/high school teacher/photographer

I was going to hold off on posting until it became clear which medal Cathrine Lindahl had won today: gold or silver. Pretty cool fortieth birthday present, either way. (By the way: Vancouver, I very much like the design of this year’s prize medallions. It looks like some kind of fine-dining dessert crumpet. A far sight better than Turin’s surpassingly ungainly giant washers.)

There’s a lot to like in this gang. The three umlauts of Gürol Güngör, which I strongly urge anyone who reads this to name their metal band. The 3,516 words of Linda Brava’s outlandishly TMI-ful “Mini Biography”. The sad but plucky roster of roles portrayed by Derek Anthony, who parlayed a walk-on as “Dying Black Man” in a year 2000 “Angel” episode into a far more impressive-sounding part – “Imposing Demon” – on “Buffy” three years later. But ultimately the best impression belongs to the list's most famous individual.

If a network aired it from about 1978 to 1985, it’s a reasonably sure bet Today’s Winner guest starred on it. Meeno Peluce was about as successful a male child TV star as that era produced, just slightly off the pace of Gary Coleman or Ricky Schroeder. The fact that as an actor he faded conclusively from view before high school doesn’t make his accomplishment any less impressive.

But that alone would not be enough to win my approval. It’s a little unclear how his teens and early twenties unfolded, but if Wikipedia is to be believed, he spent several years in the late 1990s as a well-regarded social studies teacher at Hollywood High School. (By the way, a meaty, well-researched non-fiction book on the history of Hollywood High would make for a phenomenal read. Stuyvesant too for that matter.) Pivoting from there, Meeno since seems to have made a full-time career of his photography, which is on the whole pretty damned outstanding. His Snoop Dogg and Mary J. Blige shots are especially fine.

For a variety of reasons, serious photographer may be the single dopest second act a successful child actor has ever had. So, well-done Meeno. Regards to your sister as well.