Sharbat Gula was one of the most famous faces in the history of periodicals even if nobody knew her name for twenty years. She was merely the “Afghan girl”. When she was located after the post 9-11 invasion of Iraq, she learned of her fame for the first time- she did not know that her image had been viewed all over the world (nor, as a pro-Taliban anti-photography Afghan, was she particularly happy to learn it, though she did pose for an update shoot in exchange for a much needed honorarium for her family).
The Inuit Allakariallak, better known by his screen persona Nanook of the North, never knew that the documentary in which he appeared was a huge hit and he was famous to people in metropolises around the world. He ironically died of exposure while the documentary played in movie palaces around the world.
Can you think of any other instances of people who were world famous in their lifetimes but never knew it? (Posthumous fame is also interesting, such as the probably completely unremarkable Otzi who had women literally requesting permission to bear his children 5,000 years after his death, but the contemporary unknown fame is moreso.)
The girl who originally modeled for Phoebe Snow, so I understand, didn’t see any of the Stanlaus ads with her picture for over a decade. (No cite, though )
The “Agony of Defeat” guy, the ski jumper who went off the side of the ski jump and plowed into the spectators, had no idea. It was just a bad jump, as far as he knew.
The little Vietnamese girl who had been doused with napalm and was phtographed running down the dirt road naked and crying. I believe she now lives in Canada and is a housewife but didn’t know of the photograph for years.
Probably most of the random thrid world people in famous photographs are unlikely to know that their image is famous.
Huh, doing a quick google (and I’m shocked that “naked Vietnamese girl napalm” didn’t somehow bring up porn), there’s actually an entire book about her: The Girl in the Picture : The Story of Kim Phuc, the Photograph, and the Vietnam War. And reading the synopsis, it looks like I was wrong, she did know about the photo and was in fact used by the North Vietnamese government for propaganda purposes.
Trust me, that kid knew he was famous. I recall reading an article where he (or probably his parents) tried to sue someone for the emotional anguish he suffered as a result of being laughed at by millions of people on the internet.
Slightly off the topic, I guess, but I’ve often wondered who she is: during the opening credits of MAS*H, there’s a woman running hard towards (presumably) the medivac chopper as it’s landing. She’s got dark hair, she looks intense, and she was definitely NOT a series regular… yet for an instant every time the show started, there she was.
Ellen Feiss was apparently on an extended backpacking trip in the Grand Canyon when her Apple switch ad became a brief Internet phenomenon. “The PC was like beep beep boop beep boop… And then… like… half of my paper was gone.”
FYI: The woman standing behind Mary Tyler Moore as she throws her hat at the end of the show’s opening credits was Hazel Frederick, a lifelong Minnesota resident who happened to be out shopping on the day when Moore and producers were shooting the scenes for the opening sequence. She died in 1999 at the age of 91. Moore and Frederick met in 1996 at a book signing at the Mall of America, and Moore introduced her to the crowd as “my costar”.
Norman Wisdom, British comic and movie actor of the 1950s and 60s, later became a big star in Albania. He first visitted in his 80s and now works extensively for Albanian charities.
Charlie Chaplin never knew just how poplar he was until he’d been making films for a year or two and decided to take some time away from Hollywood. He was amazed at the crowds waiting to get a glimpse of him as his train went through towns. He probably knew people knew about him, but not to the degree it occurred.
)