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Famous people from your home town, school, military unit, work, or relative/friend

63dot

63dot

macrumors 603
Original poster
Jun 12, 2006
5,269
339
norcal
Nobody famous "from" my town, one high school alum was/is big soap star so I guess that's one famous person, one person from my uni's law school hit big tobacco with first big suit/settlement, I wasn't in military but James Garner, Peter Graves, and Clint Eastwood were stationed 10 miles from me, and I have no famous friends but I think Macrumors users first discovered singing sensation "Wing" from New Zealand and she has gone on from curiosity in her country to selling out shows worldwide and getting international media attention. :)
 
Went to the same high school Danny White did (former Dallas Cowboys QB and coach of the Arizona Rattlers).

And Sandra Bernhard is my second cousin. But I haven't seen are talked to her in a loooonnngg time.
 
The parents of my best friend in high school used to double-date with Elvis Presley.

Nipsey Russell danced on my parent's car at the Varsity.

My brother used to hang out at Southlake Mall in Morrow, Georgia, with Tony Atlas and Tommy Rich.

My grandmother was a founding member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
My grandfather was a member of The Rough Riders.
(I know, military service/affiliation doesn't really make one famous, but to me it does.:eek:)
 
According to Wikipedia, lots of famous people went to my high school.


Many of FHHS's most famous students have gained recognition in entertainment fields. These include childhood-TV veteran Captain Kangaroo (Bob Keeshan), perennial TV-serial star Michael Landon, TV freak-show host and one-time mayor of Cincinnati Jerry Springer, Dave Rubinstein deceased singer of Reagan Youth, "easy listening" songwriter Burt Bacharach (Class of 1946), folk-rockers Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel; rock guitarist Leslie West (the band Mountain), and punk-rock pioneers The Ramones.

Graduates who went on to become prominent entertainment producers include network-TV's Fred Silverman, Hollywood's Leslie Urdang [1] Graduate and TV producer Neil Moreno [2] was nominated for a 2004 New York Emmy.

The class of 1962 produced three famous figures in American history: New York City cult icon, artist Arthur Cohen, world famous Holocaust historian and Ramapo College professor Michael Riff, and famed attorney Lawrence Schonbrun, known for his campaign against excessive class action legal fees.

Mark Gompertz, class of 1972,also a SING executive, is publisher of the Touchstone Fireside division of Simon & Schuster. Court of Appeals judge Robert Katzmann is a member of the Class of 1970. Former NBA player and current Washington Wizards' General Manager Ernie Grunfeld also attended FHHS. Novelist Katharine Weber attended FHHS.

War-time dropout[3], the late Art Buchwald, Class of 1943, won the Pulitzer Prize twice. Key organizer and executive of NASA, George Low, Class of 1943, served as chief of manned space flight. After retiring from NASA, he served as president of RPI until his demise in 1984. The first space tourist, ex-NASA engineer and millionaire investment fund manager Dennis Tito, graduated FHHS in 1958.

In June 1998, US President Bill Clinton cited FHHS's "academic and extracurricular excellence" and it became one of only 124 "Blue Ribbon" schools nationwide.[4] In 2000, US First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered the commencement address.. Jacob J. ("Jack") Lew, a 1972 graduate of FHHS, was then the Clinton administration's Director of the Office of Management and Budget, having been elevated to the post two years earlier.

An elusive billionaire whose 'Cinderella-midnight' pardon by outgoing President Clinton caused a furor, commodity trader Marc Rich, attended FHHS for a while in the 1950s, until he was enrolled in an exclusive prep academy, Rhodes Preparatory School. The crimes for which Rich was forgiven by Clinton include the largest tax-evasion case ($48 million) in history.
 
On my street live a TV comedian/presenter, an 80s pop star turned actor, a best-selling novelist and an Oscar-nominated actor. I only know the pop star well, the others are just "say-hi-to"s.
 
Nick Jonas was born in my home town, I go to the same acting school as Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez from the Disney Channel and my acting coach's son is Cody Linley from Disney and Dancing with the Stars. Mitchell Musso from Hannah Montana lives in the same town as me. Jessica Simpson went to high school down the street from mine and Jensen Ackles from The WB's Supernatural went to the same high school as me. I live in Dallas where alotttt of celebrities came from.
 
Several of my friends have been in (or are in) bands with decent record deals and a couple of friends have an MTV show in the UK.
 
We have a lot, and one is very recent. Norman Rockwell, Matt Dillon, Kevin Dillon, Lou Gehrig, Ang Lee (my sister's best friend dated his son), and most recently Tim Geithner, the new Secretary of Treasure, who is my sister's other best friend's dad. The only two that I have met from this list are Ang Lee and Tim Geithner.
 
rdowns said:
According to Wikipedia, lots of famous people went to my high school.


Many of FHHS's most famous students have gained recognition in entertainment fields. These include childhood-TV veteran Captain Kangaroo (Bob Keeshan), perennial TV-serial star Michael Landon, TV freak-show host and one-time mayor of Cincinnati Jerry Springer, Dave Rubinstein deceased singer of Reagan Youth, "easy listening" songwriter Burt Bacharach (Class of 1946), folk-rockers Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel; rock guitarist Leslie West (the band Mountain), and punk-rock pioneers The Ramones.

Graduates who went on to become prominent entertainment producers include network-TV's Fred Silverman, Hollywood's Leslie Urdang [1] Graduate and TV producer Neil Moreno [2] was nominated for a 2004 New York Emmy.

The class of 1962 produced three famous figures in American history: New York City cult icon, artist Arthur Cohen, world famous Holocaust historian and Ramapo College professor Michael Riff, and famed attorney Lawrence Schonbrun, known for his campaign against excessive class action legal fees.

Mark Gompertz, class of 1972,also a SING executive, is publisher of the Touchstone Fireside division of Simon & Schuster. Court of Appeals judge Robert Katzmann is a member of the Class of 1970. Former NBA player and current Washington Wizards' General Manager Ernie Grunfeld also attended FHHS. Novelist Katharine Weber attended FHHS.

War-time dropout[3], the late Art Buchwald, Class of 1943, won the Pulitzer Prize twice. Key organizer and executive of NASA, George Low, Class of 1943, served as chief of manned space flight. After retiring from NASA, he served as president of RPI until his demise in 1984. The first space tourist, ex-NASA engineer and millionaire investment fund manager Dennis Tito, graduated FHHS in 1958.

In June 1998, US President Bill Clinton cited FHHS's "academic and extracurricular excellence" and it became one of only 124 "Blue Ribbon" schools nationwide.[4] In 2000, US First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered the commencement address.. Jacob J. ("Jack") Lew, a 1972 graduate of FHHS, was then the Clinton administration's Director of the Office of Management and Budget, having been elevated to the post two years earlier.

An elusive billionaire whose 'Cinderella-midnight' pardon by outgoing President Clinton caused a furor, commodity trader Marc Rich, attended FHHS for a while in the 1950s, until he was enrolled in an exclusive prep academy, Rhodes Preparatory School. The crimes for which Rich was forgiven by Clinton include the largest tax-evasion case ($48 million) in history.
Click to expand...

That's freaking amazing. Do you live in a huge town that had a large high school, or is it something in the water supply?

I assume you are from the state of New York. There are so many high schools with world famous alums, it makes my head spin. My question to any New Yorker is, "What high school in Manhattan or the boroughs doesn't have a list of famous people?". Actually I can say the same for Los Angeles and the surrounding area. I don't know if it's the competitiveness of a large city that produces people who excel.

My high school, which was 95% percent white, produced our only celebrity, who is ironically, African-American. I first noticed him after high school when I was looking at a Sears catalog and saw him. That was before his "villain" role in a well known soap opera which brings "fake" female alums to our high school reunion just wanting to get close to him. :)
 
Famous grads from my high school according to Wikipedia:

Joel Higgins '62, actor
Gary Barnett '64, former head football coach at the University of Colorado and Northwestern University
Marc Shmuger '76, chairman of Universal Studios
Robin Lynn Macy '77, one of the original Dixie Chicks
Mark Fauser '79, film and television writer
David Holtzman '79, chairman of the neurology department at Washington University
James Kerwin '91, film director
Trista Rehn '91, reality television show star, The Bachelorette
Brad Cohen '92, Author/Motivational Speaker, "Front of the Class - How Tourette Syndrone made me the teacher I never had"
Ryan Young '94, former NFL offensive tackle for the New York Jets and Houston Texans
Bryan Greenberg '96, actor
Yan Stastny '01, center for the St. Louis Blues
Max Scherzer '03, Major League Baseball, starting pitcher for the Arizona Diamondbacks


From my college:

Gary Havener of Fort Worth, Texas, graduated in 1962, donated $5 million for construction of the Havener Center, at the time the largest single donation from a private source that the university had ever received.
John Toomey, graduated in 1949, donated $5 million for the construction of the new mechanical and aerospace engineering complex, Toomey Hall. The largest donation for the construction of an academic building in Missouri S&T’s history.
Greg "Fossilman" Raymer, 2004 World Series of Poker champion, won $5 million.
Aaron Buerge, who received his Bachelor of Science from UMR in 1997, was the second bachelor to appear on the TV show The Bachelor.
Bruce L. Edwards, served as general editor for the recently published four volume reference set, C. S. Lewis: Life, Works, and Legacy (Praeger Perspectives, 2007).
Steve Sullivan, 2001 Academy Award winner for visual effects; a principal engineer with George Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic special effects company
Joe N. Ballard, retired Army General and former commander of the United States Army Corps of Engineers
Dr. Joan Woodard, Executive Vice President and Deputy Laboratories Director for the nuclear weapons program at Sandia National Laboratories
Richard R. Paul, retired Air Force General and commander of Air Force Research Laboratory
Farouk El-Baz, Supervisor of Lunar Science Planning in NASA's Apollo Program
Daniel C. Jackling, discovered the porphyry copper deposit that created the Bingham Canyon Mine and later founded the Utah Copper Company (later bought by Kennecott Copper).
Thomas Akers, retired Air Force Col., a veteran of four space flights, holds bachelor's and master's degrees in mathematics from UMR ('73 and '75), made a guest appearance on the TV show "Home Improvement" on season 3 episode 24 "Reality Bytes", and is currently a professor at Missouri S&T.
Janet Kavandi, whose debut space shuttle flight in June 1999 was the final Mir-shuttle docking, holds a master's degree in chemistry from Missouri S&T ('82).
Sandra Magnus, who became a NASA astronaut in 1996, holds a bachelor's degree in physics ('86) and a master's degree in electrical engineering ('90) from Missouri S&T.
Gary D. Forsee - former CEO of Sprint; became the 22nd president of the University of Missouri System on February 18, 2008.
Ted Weise, former president of FedEx, one of the first employees of FedEx (formerly Federal Express) when the company started in the early 1970s, and worked his way up to the position of president. He holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Missouri S&T ('67).


And I don't personally know anyone from either of those lists. From high school, since him and I went at the same time I probably saw Scherzer in the halls a billion times but wouldn't know him. And as part of my job while in college (IT) I've talked to Tom Akers, but like I said, I don't really know him all that well. Nice guy, and if I would've had the guts for Calculus 3, I probably would've been in his class.

And I don't have any famous friends or relatives. Sorta a dull life :D
 
Here's the listing from Wikipedia for my High School. Three on the list I knew about since I knew them personally, but some others were surprises. John Williams! Huh.

Scott Baio, actor
Mayim Bialik, actor
Francesca Lia Block, author
Adam Carolla, comedian and radio personality
Bert Convy, actor, game show host
Edan Everly, musician, singer, songwriter, producer, actor
Terri Garr, actor
Cuba Gooding Jr., Oscar award-winning actor
Omar Gooding, actor
Brian Austin Green, actor
Khrystyne Haje, actor
Alyson Hannigan, actor
Lili Haydn actor, musician
Sasha Jenson, actor
Arthur Lee, athlete
Elizabeth McGovern, actor, singer
Christina Milian, singer, actor
Martin Milner, actor
Shawnee Smith, actor
Susan Sontag, academic
Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor, pianist and composer
Ken Weatherwax, actor
Morgan Webb, G4 television show host
John Williams, composer who is best known for writing the film scores for Star Wars, and Indiana Jones
Philip Zimbardo, psychologist
Marlon Lucky, running back for the Nebraska Cornhuskers 2005-2008
 
63dot said:
That's freaking amazing. Do you live in a huge town that had a large high school, or is it something in the water supply?
Click to expand...

Forest Hills High School
Forest Hills, (Queens) New York
 
Hmm... The only two big ones I can think of are Warren Buffet and Malcolm X. Both born in Omaha, NE. I'm sure there are more, that's just who I can think of off the top of my head.
 
Back in her hometown of Visalia, CA, my wife tutored a transfer student in math when they were both in high school. She didn't remember anything about him, other than that she thought Kevin was a bit of a geek. We found out from my mother in law recently that geeky Kevin turned out to be Kevin Costner. My wife refused to believe they were the same person until she saw his photo in the yearbook.
 
Quite a few from both the universities I went to.

From my town?
Helen Bradley (painter, Lowrie on a budget)
Bernard Cribbins
Inspiral Carpets (band, and very good)
Mark Owen (Take That)
Phillip Schofield
Cannon and Ball
Eric Sykes
And a whole load of people in Coronation Street and Emmerdale, and someone from Hollyoaks (went to my school too in the year below).

At a pinch, and a mighty big one at that - Steve Coogan. His brother does some stuff for the towns radio station but they were brought up between our town and a neighbouring one.

I've been in the local papers myself a few times :p keep meaning to scan the interview they did.

And before I forget, they've filmed a few shows and films up here- Brassed Off, The Parole Officer, That Patrick Stewart ITV spy thingy, Survivors, Coronation Street, anything to do with Myra Hindley.
 
Scenes for the movie "Election" were filmed on my street, specifically the huge mansion whose owners I know and whose daughter I was friends with. I can see my house in the movie. :D

And I'm from Omaha, NE, so there's the obligatory Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffet, and a crapload of other people.
 
George Hotz, class of 2007, first person to claim that he had hacked the iPhone, allowing it to be used with networks other than AT&T.

Harry Altman, class of 2005, appeared in the documentary Spellbound

Kaavya Viswanathan, class of 2004, author of the controversial novel entitled How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life.

And more…
 
From my...

Home Town
Slavery abolishment movement chap William Wilberforce.

225px-William_wilberforce.jpg

School
One of the fw famous types to have come from my school is Premier League footballer Richard Cresswell, now of Stoke City, who was a couple of years below me.

cresswell.jpg

Military
I got soul but I'm not a soldier, hence I've never been in a military unit. However, an early recipient of the Victoria Cross (Britain's highest decoration for military gallantry) was Hull-born John Sheppard of the Royal Navy, who was presented the gong for a spot of boat-based bravery during the Crimean War.

VCJohn(orSHEPHERD)Sheppard.jpg

Work
We've no one famous there – at least, not that I know of...

Family
Just one name springs to mind, but I won't name him for sake of privacy. Suffice to say he's a member of the staff at Hull City and we sometimes spot him on the telly carrying out his duties.
 
Only a couple from my podunk hometown.

Harmon Killebrew - hall-of-fame baseball player
James McClure - US Senator
 
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