Celebrities from your hometown.

[Yeoman Randi]

I've lived in a lot of places, all in New York though. The only ones i can think of from the town where i was born was RUN DMC and the guy who discovered them, who was one of my best friends growing up. I never cared to listen to their music (I've never been a 'rap music' sort of person). So no free pass there.

Later on when i married and moved here we had a famous surrogate mother move here. I think that's about it. People use to joke about how she (actually) lived on Seaman Ave (yes, spelled differently). And i never really knew how i felt about her.

 

[mari]

Nobody too famous from my hometown yet. One guy that I think played for the Mets. One soap opera actress (Sunset Beach). One guy who writes scores for another soap (All My Children). I remember none of their names.

A couple of my friends are hoping to get famous as directors, and one of them's actually got a good chance. I read the script he wrote and is currently filming and I don't think I'd be giving him a "pass" to say it's really good. I've yet to see his directing skills, though.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Well, it doesn't really influence my opinion, but it can spark my interest. I started reading Dennis Lehane because he writes about Boston.

Likewise. Speaking of which, did you hear he's writing another Kenzie/Gennaro book? I can't wait!

Actually, I've only read the first two. They were too unrelentingly nihilistic for me to be interested in continuing. I saw enough real grief in my years at St. Margaret's and BMC; I don't need fiction making it worse.

Well, it doesn't really influence my opinion, but it can spark my interest. I started reading Dennis Lehane because he writes about Boston (in fact, we are both from Dorchester, specifically). I also started reading Robert B Parker's Spenser novels for the same reason, but Parker himself is from Springfield, so technically wouldn't fall under the terms of the original question.

I agree with this - and not necessarily just the place where I grew up, but places I've been - I'm always intriqued by novels set in places that I know. There's a series of mysteries by a British author (who's name I can't remember, unfortunately) that I really want to read because they're set in the Welsh town of Aberystwyth and we always went there for our summer holidays.

Same here. I get it a lot in Stephen King novels, as he writes a lot about New England and the surrounding states; I always smile when I see a name like Hartford or Schenectady.

 

[TrekkieMonster]

Actually, I've only read the first two. They were too unrelentingly nihilistic for me to be interested in continuing. I saw enough real grief in my years at St. Margaret's and BMC; I don't need fiction making it worse.

Totally get that. I'm the same way with certain genres and/or subjects, but these books were so far outside my personal experience (for the most part) I was able to keep them separated.

 

[FormerLurker]

Joan Van Ark and Jessica Biel went to the high school across town from the one I went to. I stood behind Matt Richtel, who writes the comic strip 'Rudy Park' under the name Theron Heir, in choir back in high school and made him concentrate on his singing more ( I sang bass to his tenor). He graduated the year after I did.

 

[Davros]

I went to High School with Big Head Todd and The Monsters.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I went to high school with three of the members of 311.

 

[Yeoman Randi]

ETA: Being a born and bred Lawngeyelanda, i do know that many of us don't necessarily have an affinity to our home towns as much as we have an affinity for Long Island itself. Hence, here is an interesting list of people from LI:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Long_Islanders

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Being a born and bred Lawngeyelanda

I so cannot wait to hear you talk, YR.

This does not work in the other direction, though; no one wants to hear ME talk, since I sound like a marbly-mouth. My voice is like a 45-rpm single played at 33.

 

[Yeoman Randi]

^ I long for the day to hear you tawk. I really do.
I thought of you this morning when i was on facebook. I was in a Nu Yawk state of mind at the time and put up a few NY/LI vids. I wait for the day when you get on there!

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ I long for the day to hear you tawk. I really do.

You don't know what you're asking!! Run! Run for your life!

Preview it: Take a 45 rpm single. Spin it way too slow. That would be me. Or listen to the oo-mau-mau part of "Elvira".

 

[judge alba]

that bloke from blur think his name is damon something or other comes fro my hometown. went to my school too though a few years before me

 

[Bears Discover Fire]

Travis Barker of Blink-182 is from my hometown.

 

[marillion]

Annabeth Gish (various movies and the X-Files) and Neil Patrick Harris are both from Albuquerque.

Lewi Longmire, who is quite a big deal in the Portland, OR music scene is from the Albuquerque area. His two CDs are really, really good..

Brian Urlacher, the famed Chicago Bears linebacker is from Lovington, NM and went to college at UNM in Albuquerque.. Hank Baskett, who plays for the Eagles and has a reality show with his former Playboy (I think) model, played at UNM as well.

I'm sure there are others, but the names escape me at the moment..

 

[RedShirt]

Long list of folks born in St. Louis:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_from_St._Louis

Just the ones I've actually heard of:
Scott Bakula
Chuck Berry
Linda Blair
William S. Burroughs
Kate Capshaw
Harry Caray
Nell Carter
Sheryl Crow
Miles Davis
Phyllis Diller
Buddy Ebsen
T. S. Eliot
Redd Foxx
Betty Grable
Robert Guillaume
Scott Joplin
Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Kevin Kline
Charles Lindbergh
Michael McDonald
Agnes Moorehead
Dan O'Bannon
Marlin Perkins
Vincent Price
William Tecumseh Sherman
Ozzie Smith
Ike Turner
Tina Turner
Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
Tennessee Williams
Shelley Winters

 

[Canadave]

My hometown is pretty small, so there's not too many I can think of. Many of them are hockey-related, like Roger Neilson, Bob Gainey, Mike Fisher, Scotty Bowman, Corey Perry, Mike Keenan... the list goes on.

Outside of hockey, there's Matt Frewer, Robertson Davies, Yann Martel, Emily Haines (lead singer of Metric), Serena Ryder, Jim Balsillie and Lester B. Pearson.

 

[doubleohfive]

I just checked Wikipedia for more famous people (or, as they call them, "notables") from my hometown:

Robert E. Lee, Confederate General who owned Arlington House

George Washington Parke Custis, the step-grandson and adopted son of President George Washington

David McDowell Brown, NASA Astronaut, died during Shuttle Columbia mission STS-107

Brown attended my middle school, and my sister knew one of his kids. Very sad time, 2002...

Sandra Bullock, Actress, movies such as Speed, Miss Congeniality,
Academy award winner for The Blind Side

Bullock attended my high school, where the conventional rumor every year was, each senior class since she became famous had written to her, asking for her to give the commencement address at graduation, only to be turned down because her drama teacher had informed Bullock that she "had no talent." Obviously this was taken with a gigantic grain of salt, but knowing that drama teacher (who still taught drama when I took the course), I don't know that I'd entirely dismiss the possibility of her having said just that...

Aldrich Hazen Ames

Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the sole suspect in the November 5, 2009 Fort Hood shootings. Born in Arlington.

Katie Couric, Journalist, CBS News Anchor, Interviewer

Couric went to the other big high school in our town, the same school Tom Dolan attended. Her sister and family live next door to my best friend's parents' house back home now.

Warren Beatty, Actor.

Gena Rowlands, Actress.

Shirley MacLaine, Actress.

All graduates of my high school alma mater as well.

Tom Dolan, Olympic Swimmer.

Patch Adams, doctor.

I never met Dolan, but I knew a guy on our high school swim team who had swam with/knew Dolan from swimming school as a kid. I met Patch Adams at my local Safeway one night in 2000 or so too.

Zac Hanson

Alexander Ovechkin, NHL player with the Washington Capitals (who practices in Arlington)

Danny Ahn, member and rapper of the Korean Boy Band G.o.d

Oh yeah, then there's me.

 

[iguana_tonante]

Late to the party. Most of them will be completely obscure for most people here, but still:

Luigi Galvani (1737–1798, physicist and physician)
Guercino (1591–1666, painter)
Irnerius (1050–1125, jurist)
Guglielmo Marconi (1874–1937, physicist and inventor)
Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975, poet and director)
Alberto Tomba (1966-living, alpine skier)
Alex Zanardi (1966-living, racing driver)
Umberto Eco (1932-living, novelist and philosopher)
Saint Petronius (V century, Catholic bishop)
Romano Prodi (1939-living, former Italian Premier)
Gioacchino Rossini (1792–1868, classical music composer)

 

[Canadave]

^ Is that the same Marconi that transmitted the first wireless message across the Atlantic?

 

[mimic]

I have:
Jerry Spinelli (author),
Mary Ellen Clark (Olympic diver)
Thomas Wilson (actor)
Lisa Raymond (tennis)
David Brooks (columnist)
Emlen Tunnell (football player)

If you widen the net a bit to neighboring towns there's Alice Sebold (author) David Boreanaz (actor), Kobe Bryant (athlete) and Hap Arnold (General and founder of the USAF)

We read a few Spinelli books in 5th grade and it was cool when they referenced local things. Emlen Tunnell showed up as an answer in a crossword puzzle once and I only knew it because of the athlete hall of fame on the wall outside my high school auditorium.