Famous people from where you are

leifwright · Feb 12, 2016

I live in a relatively small town in the middle of a flyover state, but it seems lots of people are from around here.

For instance, New York Times bestselling author Hillary Jordan (Mudbound) is from here. I know her a little, but I have lunch with her father at least twice a month. Keith Birdsong, a famous painter whose work has adorned U.S. Postal stamps, and who did a LOT of work for Star Trek back in the day, is from here and is a good friend.

Leaving the literary world, country music superstar Carrie Underwood is from here, too. I don't know her, but my wife is good friends with her mother.

Also, the Swon Brothers (a mid-level country music duo) is from around here. I know them, but not well.

Still, for a town of 40,000 people, that's a lot of nationally famous people.

So how about you? Who's from where you are?

Maryn · Feb 12, 2016

My city boasts actors Taye Diggs, Philip Seymour Hoffman, John Lithgow, Robert Forster, Mimi Kennedy, Kristen Wiig, Hugh O'Brian; musicians Cab Calloway, Chuck Mangione, Mitch Miller, and Lou Gramm of Foreigner; YouTube celeb Jenna Marbles, in my daughter's class in high school; soccer star Abby Wambach; autistic athlete J Mac; serial killers Arthur Shawcross plus two Hillside Stranglers; authors Andrea Barrett, Shirley Jackson, Ed Hoch, Nicholson Baker, David Cay Johnston (father of a friend of our daughter's), Linda Sue Park; social movers-and-shakers Susan B. Anthony, George Eastman, and Frederick Douglass.

Of course, that's a much bigger metro area. For 40,000 people, your town's doing great.

Maggie Maxwell · Feb 12, 2016

Hm, let's see...

Durham's a pretty large city, close to the capital of NC. It's got a lot of history, such as being the place where the first sit-in of the Civil Rights movement started.

Not many people I know of born here, mostly sports stars and a few performers. Living here, though, we've got Mur Lafferty, writer and winner of the John W Campbell award, and...uh... *scans list of Durhamites on Wikipedia* no one else I know, still. Lots of civil rights activists and performers I've never heard of. We've got a Grammy-winning rapper, Big Daddy Kane, and jazz musician Branford Marsalis.For a population of 250,000, I'm kinda surprised how few people are on the list.

MonsterTamer · Feb 12, 2016

leifwright said:
I live in a relatively small town in the middle of a flyover state, but it seems lots of people are from around here.

I seriously offended someone recently by using the term "flyover state." Since everybody gets offended about everything now, it didn't surprise me all that much. Glad to see the term is actually used by a person who lives in such a location.

I'm in a big city in the Midwest and I don't know of a single famous person! I haven't researched it very well though. There have to be some.

KTC · Feb 12, 2016

Hmmm. The list is huge. Will Arnett, Margaret Atwood, Jim Carrey, Hayden Christensen, David Cronenberg, Robertson Davies, Drake, Atom Egoyan, Percy Faith, Timothy Findley, Glenn Gould, Howie Mandel, Eric McCormack, Shawn Mendes, Lorne Michaels, Joni Mitchell, Robert Munsch, Catherine O'Hara, Michael Ondaatje, Jason Priestley, Keannu Reeves, Nino Ricci, Martin Short, etc, etc, etc...

Representin' the T-DOT, yo! 416! The6!

hehe

paddismac · Feb 12, 2016

<scans the wiki for Jacksonville, FLA> Lots of names, but this one really popped out at me —

Denham Fouts(1914–1949), prostitute, socialite and literary muse

:ROFL:

scifi_boy2002 · Feb 12, 2016

Loretta Lynn was born not far from where I live. But the most famous I guess is that the Hatfield and McCoy feud happened here.

ElaineA · Feb 12, 2016

Chris Pratt. And some others, but who cares about them.

Brian G Turner · Feb 12, 2016

I live in a small town in the Scottish Highlands, and probably our most famous resident is actress Tilda Swinton. A few years ago she ran a quirky film festival, and I helped build an online community for her to support that. She always came across as a genuinely nice person.

BenPanced · Feb 12, 2016

I just checked for the Minneapolis/St. Paul area of Minnesota, and all I could find was a list of people I feel sorry for who never really made it:

Bob Dylan
Prince
Jesse Ventura
Garrison Keilor
Patty, Maxene and LaVerne Andrews
Joel and Ethan Coen
Judy Garland
Walter F. Mondale
Winona Ryder
Joe Mauer
Tippi Hedren
Roy Wilkins
Terry Gilliam
John Madden
Walter F. Mondale
Charles Schultz
F. Scott Fitzgerald

SWest · Feb 12, 2016

John Forsythe.

Bruce Willis. My sister was friends with young cousins of his during high school.

And my Uncle Frank was at Pearl Harbor with James Jones.

blacbird · Feb 12, 2016

Actors Ashton Kutcher, Elijah Wood (Frodo) and Michael Emerson (Harold Finch in Person of Interest). Golfer Zach Johnson (winner of the Master's and last year's British Open). Near-future Hall of Fame football quarterback Kurt Warner. Star NFL Arizona Cardinals rookie running back David Johnson.

And me.

Oh . . . wait . . . . . . . .

caw

maxmordon · Feb 12, 2016

Mostly athletes and beauty queens. Most notable ones are Detroit Tigers' Miguel Cabrera, Miss Universe 2013 Gabriela Isler and soccer player Juan Arango.

Celia Cyanide · Feb 12, 2016

BenPanced said:
I just checked for the Minneapolis/St. Paul area of Minnesota, and all I could find was a list of people I feel sorry for who never really made it:

Bob Dylan

Prince

Jesse Ventura

Garrison Keilor

Patty, Maxene and LaVerne Andrews

Joel and Ethan Coen

Judy Garland

Walter F. Mondale

Winona Ryder

Joe Mauer

Tippi Hedren

Roy Wilkins

Terry Gilliam

John Madden

Walter F. Mondale

Charles Schultz

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Josh Hartnett
Slug (Atmosphere)
Brother Ali
Bob Mould
The Replacements
Vincent Kartheiser
Amy Adams

R.K. Blackburn · Feb 12, 2016

I live in Washington DC. It's thought that nobody is actually from here.

leifwright · Feb 12, 2016

scifi_boy2002 said:
Loretta Lynn was born not far from where I live. But the most famous I guess is that the Hatfield and McCoy feud happened here.

My step-dad is descended from those Hatfields. Still has the personality, too.

leifwright · Feb 12, 2016

BenPanced said:
I just checked for the Minneapolis/St. Paul area of Minnesota, and all I could find was a list of people I feel sorry for who never really made it:

Bob Dylan

Prince

Winona Ryder

Terry Gilliam

John Madden

F. Scott Fitzgerald

There. Fixed that.

cmhbob · Feb 12, 2016

leifwright said:
I live in a relatively small town in the middle of a flyover state, but it seems lots of people are from around here.

Well, hi there, neighbor!

I live down by Brushy Mountain Fire Department!

leifwright · Feb 12, 2016

cmhbob said:
Well, hi there, neighbor!

I live down by Brushy Mountain Fire Department!

SHUT UP! I go down there every month when I collect money from Jacky Branchcomb for advertising Frog Wild on MuskogeeNOW.com, which I own!

I don't recognize your name, but I think we need to get together!

==
EDIT: Just bought your book. I'll read it and let you know what I think.

cmhbob · Feb 12, 2016

leifwright said:
SHUT UP! I go down there every month when I collect money from Jacky Branchcomb for advertising Frog Wild on MuskogeeNOW.com, which I own!

Ah, THAT'S where I recognized the name from!

Will definitely give you a call this weekend!

leifwright · Feb 12, 2016

R.K. Blackburn said:
I live in Washington DC. It's thought that nobody is actually from here.

No (responding to a reputation question about whether the friend was from NYC). The friends I was talking about are 1. from DC area and 2. transplants from Oklahoma.

cornflake · Feb 12, 2016

Donald Trump.

Do we need anyone else?

Hey, could be worse, we've also got Bernie Sanders and we're not responsible for Justin Bieber (thanks, Canada).

aleighrose · Feb 12, 2016

Just looked at who's from my little town of 8,000+ people:

NFL Players: Burnell Dent, Jordan Jefferson (with whom I attended elementary school, part of middle school, high school, and college), Ed Reed, Darryl Richard, Josh Victorian, and Darius Vinnett

NFL Assistant Coach Curtis Johnson

Beauty queen Shelley Hennig (with whom I attended high school but never met because that was so not my crowd)

Margaret Taylor-Burroughs who founded the DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago

Gary Tyler who is famous for being convicted of a murder that he may not have committed

Yep. That sounds like my hometown.

shivadyne · Feb 12, 2016

baseball players, a politician, and a children's book author. i've heard of none of them before i looked up the wikipedia page which says a lot about my small town's popularity. we did have a fairly well-known union general, though...

leifwright · Feb 13, 2016

shivadyne said:
baseball players, a politician, and a children's book author. i've heard of none of them before i looked up the wikipedia page which says a lot about my small town's popularity. we did have a fairly well-known union general, though...

Yeah, my town's Wikipedia page has a bunch of people I've never heard of, too. The only other one I've heard of who is also nationally famous is Robert Reed, the dad from The Brady Bunch.

Then there's Tom Coburn, senator, right-winger extraordinare, who became famous nationally for complaining that Schindler's List had too much nudity when showing the Nazis killing people. As a bonus, he used to be my doctor and had his finger up my butt once. Like two days later, I saw a picture of him shaking hands with then-President Bush, so I called him up and said, "So my butthole is like one handshake away from the president." He did not laugh.

Famous people from where you are

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