User blog:ARTaylor/Neil Patrick Harris Turns 44

Today is the forty-fourth birthday of Neil Patrick Harris. Born on this date in 1973, the actor rose to fame as a child playing the title role in Doogie Howser, M.D.. He spent several years in obscurity working relatively minor roles like in Starship Troopers. He returned to the spotlight playing a parody version of himself in the Harold & Kumar film eventually coming back to television as Barney Stinson on the comedy-drama sitcom How I Met Your Mother and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. He has appeared in high profile films like Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, The Smurfs, A Million Ways to Die in the West, and Gone Girl. He has appeared on Broadway in Hedwig and the Angry Inch. He has hosted the Tony Awards, Emmy Awards, and Academy Awards and in 2010 was named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People. Comic book fans would know him as Johnny Morrow/Replay in Static Shock, Ray Thompson on Justice League, Barry Allen/Flash in Justice League: The New Frontier, Dick Grayson/Nightwing in Batman: Under the Red Hood, and Music Meister on Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Marvel fans know him best as the title character on Spider-Man: The New Animated Series, a role he reprised for Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.