It must be the nine-month-later result of all that sultry August air.

Today (April 4) marks several notable Hollywood birthdays including actors Robert Downey Jr. (46), Craig T. Nelson (67), Toronto’s Lisa Ray (39), Hugo Weaving (51), Christine Lahti (61), plus Boston Legal and Ally McBeal writer/producer David E. Kelley (55).

Had they lived, Psycho star Anthony Perkins and Dark Knight/Brokeback Mountain actor Heath Ledger today would have celebrated turning 79 and 32, respectively.

This last one cuts, doesn’t it? Three years on from Ledger’s accidental death from a prescription drug overdose just shy of his 29th birthday, his potential still seems maddeningly dashed, especially as his baby mommy Michelle Williams continues to build the kind of enviable, risk-filled resume that distinguishes good actors from great ones, and that Ledger himself might have built, had he had more time.

But that’s how it goes.

Meantime, Downey is expected back on big screens this year opposite co-star Jude Law in the Sherlock Holmes sequel, A Game of Shadows, while Ray - director Deepa Mehta’s ethereally beautiful muse - is doubtless celebrating one year cancer-free following a stem cell transplant to fight multiple myeloma, a rare cancer of the white blood cells.

We wish them all the best - hey, everyone loves an Aries, right? - and sincerely look forward to many great movies in future.