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Birthday profile

Douglas Rain

Canadian actor and narrator (1928–2018)

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Born
March 13, 1928
Died
November 11, 2018
Zodiac sign
Pisces
Birth year
1928

About Douglas Rain

Douglas James Rain was a Canadian actor. Although primarily a stage actor, he is best-known for voicing HAL 9000, the supercomputer in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and its sequel 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984). He co-founded the Stratford Festival, and was nominated for a Tony Award for the Broadway play Vivat! Vivat Regina!. Rain produced all of his lines during the post-production, in a ten hour recording session over two days with Kubrick in London.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

The world when Douglas Rain was born

Douglas Rain was born in 1928. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1928

  • #1 song"Makin' Whoopee" – Eddie Cantor
  • Top movieSteamboat Willie (first Mickey Mouse)
  • Best-selling bookLady Chatterley's Lover – D.H. Lawrence

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentKnute Rockne's "Win one for the Gipper" speech
  • Top headlineHerbert Hoover elected president
  • Technology milestonePenicillin discovered by Alexander Fleming
  • Defining fadMickey Mouse mania
  • Notable inventionSliced bread
  • World population2.07 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderCalvin Coolidge
  • Sports championNew York Yankees (World Series)
  • U.S. population120.5M

1928 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Douglas Rain's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19282026
Gas$0.21$3.45/gal
Average home$6,200$435,000
Average income$3,800$67,500
Movie ticket$0.25$11.95
Postage stamp$0.02$0.73
Population120.5M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, IMDb. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.