Kenny Rogers - June 20

A pop-country superstar, best known for hits like 'The Gambler', 'Coward of the County' and the duet with country queen Dolly Parton, 'Islands In the Stream', Rogers has also proved himself a formidable business entrepreneur, actor and photographer.

He began his career with The First Edition in the late '60s, scoring hits with songs like 'Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town' and 'Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)' that turned into standards. In those days Rogers adopted something of a hipster image, sporting long hair, an earring and outlandish sunglasses, but when the group split in the mid '70s, he shifted in a more mainstream direction – and reaped the rewards.

He also pursued extra-curricular collaborations with Kim Carnes, the Bee Gees, and Lionel Richie, who penned and produced his sombre-voiced smash 'Lady'. Rogers has scored an astonishing 73 hit singles across a variety of genres, topping the country and pop album charts for more than 453 individual weeks in the United States alone.

DID YOU KNOW?
• The First Edition's freak pop hit 'Condition' underwent something of a '90s revival when it was covered by Supergrass and featured in the Coen Bros' movie The Big Lebowski.
• Rogers collaborated with former Kentucky Fried Chicken CEO John Y. Brown, Jr. to open Kenny Rogers Roasters, a chain of chicken and ribs restaurants, in 1991.
• The website menwholooklikekennyrogers.com features close to a thousand photos of men who (think they) resemble the man himself.
• Rogers's 1982 film Six Pack, in which he played a race-car driver, took more than $20 million at the US box office.