Rami Said Malek (English: ; Arabic: رامي سعيد مالك, Egyptian Arabic: [ˈɾɑːmi sæˈʕiːd ˈmæːlek]; born May 12, 1981) is an American actor. He gained recognition for portraying computer hacker Elliot Alderson in the USA Network television series Mr. Robot (2015–2019), for which he received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, and Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury in the biographical film Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), for which he won numerous accolades, including the Academy Award for Best Actor, becoming the first actor of Egyptian heritage to win in that category.
Born in Torrance, California, to Egyptian immigrant parents, he studied theater before acting in plays in New York City. He had supporting roles in film and television, including the Fox sitcom The War at Home (2005–2007), the HBO miniseries The Pacific (2010), and the Night at the Museum film trilogy (2006–2014). Since his breakthrough, Malek has starred in the crime film The Little Things (2021), played the main antagonist Lyutsifer Safin in the James Bond film No Time to Die (2021), portrayed David Hill in Christopher Nolan's biographical film Oppenheimer (2023), and starred as a CIA cryptographer in the spy film The Amateur (2025).
Read more...The May 12, 1981 was a Tuesday under the star sign of ♉. It was the 131 day of the year. President of the United States was Ronald Reagan.
If you were born on this day, you are 44 years old. Your last birthday was on the Monday, May 12, 2025, 126 days ago. Your next birthday is on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, in 238 days. You have lived for 16,197 days, or about 388,730 hours, or about 23,323,822 minutes, or about 1,399,429,320 seconds.
Date: 12 May 1981
UPI
Upi
Ted Turner, chairman of the Cable News Network, filed an antitrust suit today accusing the three major television networks and the White House of limiting his organization's access to the news. He also called on Congress to investigate television programming and motion pictures that he said were ''polluting the minds of our people.''
Date: 12 May 1981
AP
Tom Bostic, a former president of the National Association of Broadcasters and a past chairman of the CBS Affiliates group, died here yesterday.
Date: 12 May 1981
By Jonathan Friendly, Special To the New York Times
Jonathan Friendly
Last June, The Alton Telegraph was ordered to pay $9.2 million for libeling a local contractor in a memorandum that two of its reporters sent to a Government investigator. Now, after a year of trying unsuccessfully to negotiate a smaller settlement, the paper is trying to rally other papers to help overturn a decision that many press freedom advocates say sets an alarming precedent of punishing a paper for a libel it did not print. The Telegraph has filed preliminary bankruptcy proceedings, further dramatizing a case that raises sensitive issues on the way reporters cooperate with law-enforcement investigators. The paper does not expect to go bankrupt, but the filing protects it from having to pay the judgment while the libel decision is appealed through the state courts.
Date: 12 May 1981
By Richard Eder, Special To the New York Times
Richard Eder
Many French voters were taken by surprise yesterday when they elected Francois Mitterrand as their President. Many events of magnitude are surprises, even when they are expected or half-expected. For example, several important opinion polls had been predicting right along that Mr. Mitterrand held an advantage. The law prevented their publication, but they were circulated in restricted fashion and the restriction quite naturally bred skepticism. Those who knew about them doubted them.
Date: 13 May 1981
By Edward Cowan, Special To the New York Times
Edward Cowan
The Reagan Administration asked Congress today to gore one of Washington's most sacred cows, Social Security benefits. Nearly a half-century after Congress authorized this most enduring of New Deal programs, the Administration asked the lawmakers to undertake what no President had proposed before: a general lowering of benefits. To be sure, as officials insisted, there would be no reductions in monthly payments for anyone who is already on the rolls or who achieves that status by Dec. 31. But for those who become beneficiaries after 1981, benefits under the legislation proposed today would be lower than they would be under present law. That would be true not only for those who take retirement at the age of 62, 63 or 64 but also for people who start drawing benefits at 65 or later. On the latter point, the eight-page ''fact sheet'' published by the Department of Health and Human Services said little.
Date: 13 May 1981
By John Vinocur, Special To the New York Times
John Vinocur
In the years Valery Giscard d'Estaing has been President of France, economic and foreign policy in Western Europe has essentially meant a French-West German directorate in which the two countries operated in approximate tandem. The West Germans brought to the bargain their economic strength and their insecurities about how much of a European and global leadership role they could or should play. In exchange, the French offered the Bonn Government a kind of international chaperone service that provided a degree of diplomatic acceptability it felt it could not muster on its own. There was also a psychic bond: more than just providing the French with access to cash and power, the arrangement gave them the reassuring feeling they always had a notion of what the Germans were up to; the Germans, with a stronger craving for idealism, could say to themselves they had really brought an end to centuries of fatal rivalry.
Date: 12 May 1981
International Financial turmoil gripped France after the election of Francois Mitterrand as the first Socialist President since Charles de Gaulle founded the Fifth Republic in 1958. Securities prices tumbled, the franc came under heavy speculative pressure, the price of gold soared, and the Goverment sent additional customs officers to airports and frontier crossings to prevent any smuggling of valuables to foreign havens. (Page A1, Column 3.) American-French amity was stressed by President Reagan in a message congratulating Francois Mitterrand for his victory in France's presidential election. Mr. Reagan said he looked forward to working with the Socialist leader, but he expressed concern about the possibility of Communists being invited to join the Government.(A6:1-4.)
Date: 13 May 1981
By Carol Lawson
Carol Lawson
''Starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford'' makes for an attractive sign to hang on a theater marquee - which is exactly what the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington is trying to do. The Kennedy Center is negotiating with the two actors to star next season in a revival of ''What Price Glory?,'' Maxwell Anderson and Laurence Stallings's 1924 play about two rivals in World War I, Captain Flagg and Sergeant Quirt under his command. Trying to sign Mr. Newman and Mr. Redford for a stage appearance might sound like a pie-in-the-sky notion, but it's not nearly as farfetched as it may appear. Both actors launched their careers on the stage - although it has been so long since either appeared in a play that this aspect of their past is nearly forgotten. Mr. Newman was seen on Broadway in ''Picnic'' and ''Sweet Bird of Youth'' in the 1950's, and most recently in 1964 in ''Baby Want a Kiss.'' Mr. Redford achieved instant stardom as leading man in ''Barefoot in the Park'' in 1963.
Date: 13 May 1981
International A second Irish hunger striker died in a prison outside Belfast in his 59th day without food. Francis Hughes, a member of the outlawed Irish Republican Army, had been serving a life sentence for the murder of a British soldier. The latest death touched off new sectarian violence. (Page A1, Column 1.) Missiles were fired from Syrian soil at Israeli reconnaissance aircraft flying over Lebanon, apparently for the first time, the Israeli military command announced. But an Israeli spokesman said that the missiles had missed their targets and that the planes had returned safely to base. (A1:4.) A Syrian military spokesman said that Syrian forces in Lebanon had shot down an Israeli military reconnaissance plane, but he did not specify how. (A16:4-6.)
Date: 13 May 1981
Reuters
The China Daily, an English-language paper, will start publication here on June 1.