are you related to anyone famous?

[Minotaurus]

actors, politicans, sport etc..

I was just wondering

(celebs that are famous worldwide or in your country)

[dnooman]

Not that I know of. But, my mom was best friend's with Bill Murray's sister and therefore knew him quite well while growing up. Also, my dad's roommate in prep school was Rick Flair the professional wrestler.

[panache45]

Not related, but my mother once dated Jerry Siegel, who invented Superman.

[Alice The Goon]

I'm not related to anybody famous, but I know several people that are related to somebody famous: Belinda Carlisle's cousin is my son's babysitter, Sandra Day O'Connor's sister and Rod Serling's brother were clients at an office I used to work at, and Caroline Rhea's father is a client at the place I work at now and a retired OBGYN.

[dnooman]

Oh yeah, my sister used to be best friend's with both Pat Boone's grandaughter and some hot chick from Road Rules . Pat Boone's grandaughter had a show on TechTV. She's pretty hot now. So's her friend from Road rules.

I went to middle school with an actor who's not exactly a household name.

Did you say related to? _{I guess not.}

[Barking Dog]

Don't know if it's true, but my grandma once said that we're related to Samuel Clemens. He'd be a great uncle of mine, of some degree or another. That is, if it's true. Kind of a family legend, really.

[dnooman]

Oh yeah, my mom was once proposed to by "presidential candidate" and comedian Pat Paulsen.

[Rhiannon8404]

My cousin was marred to Dennis Rodman. Actually second cousin, our grandmothers were sisters. She called herself Anicka Rodman, but she was born Annie Bakes. They were married less than a year, but had been together before that for several years. They have a daughter together.

[ASAKMOTSD]

I went to high school with one of the guys that did the special effects for Terminator 2, The Matrix series, one of the Batman movies, etc.

[Least Original User Name Ever]

I'm supposedly descended from Alexander Hamilton.

How's THAT for famous, baby?!?!

[dnooman]

My mom seems to have some serious connections. One of her best friends as a youth was the mother of Jill Carroll famous for being a kidnapped journalist for the Christian Science Monitor in Iraq. Her mom is really nice and has a great sense of humor.

On a sadder note, one of the few people to die in the U.S. from the West Nile Virus was related to me.

[Rigamarole]

If I was, I wouldn't tell you, paparazzo.

[kaylasdad99]

My wife's late aunt was once married to Alan Jay Lerner.

(I understand several other women were as well, at various times in history).

And the aunt in question once wandered into Groucho Marx's stateroom looking for her sister.

[dnooman]

Originally Posted by Least Original User Name Ever

I'm supposedly descended from Alexander Hamilton.

How's THAT for famous, baby?!?!

The guy that makes those blenders? Nice.

[drm]

They aren't exceptionally famous but my great great great Uncle donated a boatload of money a while ago and that is how Duke University got it's name (his last name being duke and all). To be honest with you though, it might have been his daughter who donated the money. My grandpa knows all the details as it was his grandpa's brother.

That's about as famous as it gets for me.

[Seven]

My uncle is Deary Weaver who was in The Hollywood Argyles - recorded the song Ally Oop.

My half-uncle (my mothers half brother) was George Miller. My mother didn't learn this until after he died. In fact, they still don't talk about George. My grandfather's first relationship ended poorly and George turned into a battle of custody. My grandmother (my mothers mother) told her she had a half brother but he died in the Vietnam war. Even today she says George Wade Dornberger (AKA George Miller) is different from George Wade Dornberger who died in Vietnam. It's bullshit though.

Another person they don't talk about is General Walter Dornberger who worked with Werner von Braun and was one of the forces behind the V2 missle. As far as my family is concerned that branch of my family tree has been pruned.

My wife is related to Pierre Trudeau.

[Hilarity N. Suze]

I am related (cousin) to two famous people, a musician and a novelist, and (niece)two much-less-famous people, a musician and a short story writer.

My husband's first wife is moderately famous. More famous than me, anyway!

Also: I have a pair of jeans that used to belong to a movie star. I was interviewing her when her dachsund puppy, a real cutie, came over, sniffed the cuff of my pants rather thoroughly, and then peed on me. She gave me a pair of her jeans--they are great. Newmans. (No relation to the food empire, I don't think.) She offered shoes too but my feet are inordinately small, so I just wiped my sandals off, but I took the jeans. When I put them on I looked six inches taller and 20 lbs. slimmer, and felt like a movie star. She wanted to send my pants to the hotel's cleaning dept. (that was the point of giving me the jeans I think) but I said never mind and just rinsed them out. I offered to send the Newmans back to her but she insisted I keep them. Probably just didn't want to give me her address.

All in all I think the jeans are my closest link to fame. Sad, innit.

[David Simmons]

Hiram Cronk, last surviving veteran of the War of 1812 was my mother's great-great-....(however many) uncle.

Jack Teagarden was a distant cousin of my mother.

As to my father's relatives he always used the old joke. He didn't want to look too closely for fear he would find someone hanging from a tree limb.

[Astroboy14]

If I understand our fuzzy geneology correctly, I'm distantly related to Walter Reed on my mother's side. That's the best I got...

[Sublight]

No, but my family is.

[matt_mcl]

I've met a number of famous people - largely New Democratic politicians - but I'm not related to anyone in particular.

However, there's a family tradition that we might be related to Ulysses S. Grant. Whoooooooooooooooooooooooee.

Also our fifth cousin's (don't laugh, we're close) mother-in-law was a lady in waiting to the Queen of the Netherlands. That's about it for us.

[mrald]

Jesse James (the outlaw, not the car guy) is my great uncle/cousin or whatever. I forget the connection but it is on my father's side, and pretty close. woopie

[dnooman]

Originally Posted by Hilarity N. Suze

I am related (cousin) to two famous people, a musician and a novelist, and (niece)two much-less-famous people, a musician and a short story writer.

My husband's first wife is moderately famous. More famous than me, anyway!

Also: I have a pair of jeans that used to belong to a movie star. I was interviewing her when her dachsund puppy, a real cutie, came over, sniffed the cuff of my pants rather thoroughly, and then peed on me. She gave me a pair of her jeans--they are great. Newmans. (No relation to the food empire, I don't think.) She offered shoes too but my feet are inordinately small, so I just wiped my sandals off, but I took the jeans. When I put them on I looked six inches taller and 20 lbs. slimmer, and felt like a movie star. She wanted to send my pants to the hotel's cleaning dept. (that was the point of giving me the jeans I think) but I said never mind and just rinsed them out. I offered to send the Newmans back to her but she insisted I keep them. Probably just didn't want to give me her address.

All in all I think the jeans are my closest link to fame. Sad, innit.

No names, huh? Wow. Deep.

Did you know that what's-his-face married that chick? Seriously. They're wiccans as well. Wait, you're not Phyllis Diller are you?

[dnooman]

Originally Posted by mrald

Jesse James (the outlaw, not the car guy) is my great uncle/cousin or whatever. I forget the connection but it is on my father's side, and pretty close. woopie

The motorcycle guy claims to be related to the outlaw.

Funny how Hitler's kin tend to downplay their relation to him. I hear that Jesse James was quite the philanthropist. He gave money to women, and they gave him , uhhh, stuff. He never shot anyone BTW, his gun(s) did all that. So, step off bitch!

[E. Thorp]

My paternal grandfather's brother was married to Jimmy Stewart's sister, which makes Jimmy ... well, nothing to me personally, but my mom's cousins talk about "Uncle Jim."

[Fern Forest]

My uncle's probably the most well known person in my family tree not counting people like 15th cousins once removed and such. He's Helios Creed. He was in the band Chrome.

I'll be seeing him next week.

[ParentalAdvisory]

Not related, but my mom went to an arts class with Tom Morellos mom a couple years back (Rage Against the Machine).

[Hilarity N. Suze]

Originally Posted by dnooman

No names, huh? Wow. Deep.

Did you know that what's-his-face married that chick? Seriously. They're wiccans as well. Wait, you're not Phyllis Diller are you?

Well, I'm understandably hesitant to name someone I have an actual connection to, this being an anonymous message board and all. I can say that I am not Phyllis Diller (if that were the case my husband's ex-wife would not be more famous). Obviously, his ex-wife and I have the same last name, and it's not a usual one.

But I suppose I can say that I got into Robin Wright's pants.

[dnooman]

Originally Posted by Hilarity N. Suze

Well, I'm understandably hesitant to name someone I have an actual connection to, this being an anonymous message board and all. I can say that I am not Phyllis Diller (if that were the case my husband's ex-wife would not be more famous). Obviously, his ex-wife and I have the same last name, and it's not a usual one.

But I suppose I can say that I got into Robin Wright's pants.

I'm joking with you, as I'm sure you know.

The thread title is "are you related to anyone famous?"

If I posted "no", I'd be wasting bandwidth.

If I posted "yes", I'd be expected to describe what the hell I was talking about.


Show me a person with a secret they won't share, and I'll show you someone that several people want to punch in the face. At this time, I have no axe to grind.

[dnooman]

Wait, on preview, in the context of the post before mine, that seems rather callous. Not my intention.

[ambushed]

I'm related to someone who is both justifiably famous (2-time Cy Young winner) and justifiably infamous: My relation (I'm not revealing more) even has his own Wikipedia entry What that page leaves out is his smaller-time fame as a organist (he released at least one album to moderate success).

I don't understand kinship relations well enough to know this, but I'm possibly related by marriage (to the same person as above) to the great Hall-of-Famer and baseball announcer Lou Boudreau

[ambushed]

Originally Posted by dnooman

I went to middle school with an actor who's not exactly a household name.

I can match that! I worked at McDonald's with another little-known actor (who got a huge part early in his career), John Hammond

[Catfood Purrito]

My great aunt is Jane Elliott, an anti-racism activist type person who came up with this whole thing where she divides a group up by eye color and has one group treat the other group as inferior, and it's supposed to teach you what it feels like to be oppressed. She's been on various talk shows and had a couple documentaries filmed about her. We watched one of them in one of my college classes, which completely weirded me out. Especially the whole, "oh, she's such a great person, she's done so much, blah blah blah," when I know what she's REALLY like. Heh.

[dnooman]

Originally Posted by ambushed

I can match that! I worked at McDonald's with another little-known actor (who got a huge part early in his career), John Hammond

Which part was "huge"?

Poor guy hasn't worked in the biz for 15 years. Guess he's done with it. Good for him.

[Malacandra]

John Entwistle was my wife's uncle. And it sure doesn't seem like four years since he died. (Not that I could claim to have known him - I met him once, and as it was his son's wedding he had slightly bigger fish to fry than saying hi to his niece's husband. I enjoyed the free champagne though.)

[mrald]

Originally Posted by dnooman

The motorcycle guy claims to be related to the outlaw.

Funny how Hitler's kin tend to downplay their relation to him. I hear that Jesse James was quite the philanthropist. He gave money to women, and they gave him , uhhh, stuff. He never shot anyone BTW, his gun(s) did all that. So, step off bitch!

Excuse me, I was simply trying to be to the point. Jesse James does cars too thank you very much. Doesn't a person have to pull the trigger to shoot someone anyway?

BTW, I said nothing about shooting.

[dnooman]

Originally Posted by mrald

Excuse me, I was simply trying to be to the point. Jesse James does cars too thank you very much. Doesn't a person have to pull the trigger to shoot someone anyway?

BTW, I said nothing about shooting.

I'm very sorry. I meant that to be tongue-in-cheek, but forgot the winky smiley. Without the smarmy, sarcastic tone I intended, it does come off as quite mean. No offense intended. Sorry if I offended you.

[Dr. Rieux]

According to vague family "history" I'm related to--but not descended from--President James Buchanan.

[DMark]

The Wright Brothers...my grandmother had a picture of her standing with them at Kitty Hawk, but the photo somehow got lost over the years, although I remember seeing it as a kid. Considering I have a fear of flying, I obviously did not inherit any of those adventurous genes.

[Malacandra]

Originally Posted by DMark

The Wright Brothers...my grandmother had a picture of her standing with them at Kitty Hawk, but the photo somehow got lost over the years, although I remember seeing it as a kid. Considering I have a fear of flying, I obviously did not inherit any of those adventurous genes.

A recent Dope thread has the cure for this. Apparently you go up in an open-cockpit stunt biplane and your instructor does an aileron roll...

[mrald]

Originally Posted by dnooman

I'm very sorry. I meant that to be tongue-in-cheek, but forgot the winky smiley. Without the smarmy, sarcastic tone I intended, it does come off as quite mean. No offense intended. Sorry if I offended you.

I'l let it slide this time Ive been up for over 32 hours, I tend to get testy without sleep.

[Nava]

Not to anybody world-famous, no. But some of my relatives show up in Spanish newspapers somewhat regularly. One of my great-uncles has been dead for more than 10 years but other medical professionals still speak of him to me in awe - even ones who never met him in person.

[VunderBob]

NFL quarterback Jeff Hostetler is a very distant cousin of mine.

[The Chao Goes Mu]

Originally Posted by mrald

Jesse James (the outlaw, not the car guy) is my great uncle/cousin or whatever. I forget the connection but it is on my father's side, and pretty close. woopie

Will I be seeing you at the next family reunion? I too, am related to Jesse James on my father's side.

When I was in 3rd grade we had to do our family trees for a project. My classmates didn't let go of my Jesse James connection for the rest of the school year.

[Happy Clam]

Originally Posted by Least Original User Name Ever

I'm supposedly descended from Alexander Hamilton.

How's THAT for famous, baby?!?!

Well, according to my mother our family is related to the Windsor dynasty through the Drummonds, a famous family of Scottish bankers. Don't know if it's true (which would make me something like a Cousin 24 times removed of the Queen), but I think that might count.

Any amateur geneolagists willing to trace the Drummonds?

[jayjay]

Not really famous, but nationally know in some circles...my mother's cousin is Joe Servello, a fairly prolific illustrator.

[RealityChuck]

They made a movie about a distant relative of mine: Louis "Lepke" Buchalter. I believe my grandmother's sister married one of his brothers.

[Lissa]

My great uncle (father's uncle) owns a large chain of resturants which bear his name.

Apparently, one of my great-great grandmothers (might be another great in there) held the Guiness Book of World Records title for having the most grandchildren.

Woo Hoo! Two claims to fame!

[Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor]

Ahem.

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

Also, Samuel Bostaph

http://www.udallas.edu/economics/faculty.cfm

who was nominated for the Nobel in Economics.

Finally, my family was once quite wealthy, owning a steel foundry in Pittsburg, a coal mine, & quite a bit more.
Alas, the dough is kaput.

[bic910]

Originally Posted by dnooman

Not that I know of. But, my mom was best friend's with Bill Murray's sister and therefore knew him quite well while growing up. Also, my dad's roommate in prep school was Rick Flair the professional wrestler.

Funny, a relative of mine is acquainted with Bill Murray's sister. The details of how they wound up meeting escape me. She's a nun, isn't she?

Supposedly, I'm somehow related to one of the cast members of Howdy Doody (Bob Smith, I think... never seen an episode).

Finally, I used to work for a relative of Wesley Clarke.

So yeah, I pretty much got nuthin'