The actress Jennifer Aniston is best known for playing Rachel Green in Friends although the last episode was made four years ago after a ten-year run. In the final episode she finally got together with another long-serving character, Ross, but the series still gets almost nightly repeats somewhere on British television. Her real life marriage to Brad Pitt ended in divorce in 2005 after he began an affair with Angelina Jolie. She denied in Vanity Fair that the reason for the break up after five years was her reluctance to have children, saying “I would never give up that experience for a career.” Her acting career, which began when she was 11, is flourishing with four films due for release later this year. Jennifer Aniston is 39 today. RGT
Sir Ronald Arculus, Ambassador to Italy, 1979-83, 85; Professor Marilyn Butler, Rector of Exeter College, Oxford, 1993-2004, 71; Dr Timothy Chambers, paediatrician, 62; the Rev Professor Douglas Davies, head of theology, Durham University, 61; Sir Patrick Leigh Fermor, author, 93; Michael Jackson, chairman, Universal Television Group, 2002-04, 50; General Sir Jeremy Mackenzie, governor, Royal Hospital, Chelsea, 1999-2006, 67; Leslie Nielsen, actor, 82; Mary Quant, fashion designer, 74; Burt Reynolds, actor, 72; Sir Patrick Holmes Sellors, Surgeon-Oculist to the Queen, 1980-99, 74; Baroness Sharples, director, TVS, 1981-90 and 1991-93, 85; Dennis Skinner, Labour MP for Bolsover, 76; John Surtees, motorcycle and motor racing champion, 74; Mary Tregear, oriental art historian, 84; Malcolm Walker, chief executive, Iceland Foods, 62.