Willy Russell

Willy Russell, English playwright and composer

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Born: August 23, 1947
Age in 2026: 79
Zodiac sign: Virgo
Birth year: 1947

About Willy Russell

William Russell is an English dramatist, lyricist and composer. His best known works are Educating Rita, Shirley Valentine, Blood Brothers and Our Day Out. Russell's first play was Keep Your Eyes Down (1971), written while he trained as a teacher at Saint Katherine's College of Higher Education in Liverpool and performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1971. Russell (with musical collaborator Bob Eaton) realised a long-held ambition to develop Our Day Out further and after extensive rewriting, and recomposing created Our Day Out – The Musical.

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

The world when Willy Russell was born

Willy Russell was born in 1947. 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 1947

#1 song"Near You" – Francis Craig
Top movieMiracle on 34th Street
Top TV showHowdy Doody
Best-selling bookThe Diary of a Young Girl – Anne Frank

Headlines and milestones

Major sports momentJackie Robinson breaks baseball's color barrier
Top headlineJackie Robinson breaks Major League Baseball's color barrier
Technology milestoneTransistor invented at Bell Labs
Defining fadFlying saucer mania
Notable inventionPolaroid instant camera
World population2.47 billion

United States snapshot

U.S. leaderHarry S. Truman
Sports championNew York Yankees (World Series)
Also wonPhiladelphia Warriors (BAA)
U.S. population144.1M

1947 versus 2026

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

Measure	1947	2026
Gas	$0.23	$3.45/gal
Average home	$7,800	$435,000
Average income	$4,700	$67,500
Minimum wage	$0.40	$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket	$0.40	$11.95
Postage stamp	$0.03	$0.73
Population	144.1M	341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, MusicBrainz. 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.