In the American Idol thread a lot of people seemed surprised that Joe Cocker was white.
Personally, I had always assumed that KC of KC and the Sunshine Band was black. Then during the Super Bowl in Houston a few years back I happened to see a picture of him and was stunned to learn that he was white.
Who are some other celebrities that you always thought were of a different race.
I was fairly late realizing that Gregg Allman was white. His Laid Back album version of Midnight Rider was on the radio and I assumed he was black. Later on, after I knew his actual race, I really got into the ABB, several years after Duane and Berry were already dead.
Not me but some people assumed Buddy Holly was black. He was booked to play the Apollo in NYC and the manager was shocked when he showed up as a white guy.
I always assumed that actor Khigh Dhiegh* was of oriental ancestry – Chinese or Japanese or something. He played the Red Chinese agent Wo Fat on Hawaii Five-O and played the lead in the TV movie Judge Dee and the Monastery Murders (which had an all-oriental cast**, instead of using Caucasians to play Chinese characters). Most of his career was spent playing Chinese or Japanese characters.
it turns out that he has no oriental ancestry at all. According to iMDB he’s of “Anglo-Egyptian-Sudanese” ancestry, and was born in New Jersey. His real name was Kenneth Dickerson, Jr., and the various spellings of his stage name are sorta phonetic equivalents of his initials. I don’t know if iMDB means that his ancesters were from Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, or if he had an English Parent and a Sudanese one, or what. Wikipedia says that he has “mixed North African” ancestry.
*who also spelled his name Keie Deei and Kaie Deei
**except, I now realize, for the lead actor himself!
This reminds me of a Bill James quote about race and baseball:
Somewhat notoriously, many people thought that Rick Astley was black when he first started getting radio play. The Howdy-Doody-like actual looks when those people saw his videos was a shock.
Back when “Holding Back the Tears” was a hit, I not only assume the lead singer of Simply Red was Black, but I also assume he was female.
On the flip side, I recall stories of how people assumed that Charley Pride was white when he first became famous. Of course it didn’t help that when they first started sending his records out to country radio stations they didn’t include his picture
When I first heard Leo Sayer, his singing style was similar (to my ears) to Eddie Kendrick of “The Temptations,” so that’s the image I had formed in my mind.
Similarly, when I first heard blind singer Terri Gibbs, I thought the singer was male.
I wasnt sure about Mariah Carey’s race , she is 1/2 black.
Same thing w/ Buddy Holly. I love the scene in *The Buddy Holly Story *where he gets booked to play the Apollo Theater in NYC and the crowd is stunned when a white guy comes out on stage.
I thought **Norah Jones **was black for the longest time.
Johnny and Edgar Winter. Two brothers who sound black, but are white…albinos.
I keep forgetting that Rashida Jones is the daughter of Quincy Jones. Granted, her mother is white (Jewish, actually) but it just seems awkward to me that she is the daughter of one of the most famous black guys around today.
She’s quite beautiful, though.
Not a different race, per se, but I had assumed Alfred Molina was Latin American. Then I read an interview with him that mentioned he was British (albeit of Spanish descent).
Norah Jones is 1/2 Asian Indian. Her father is Ravi Shankar.
That’s who I was going to mention!
Also, a fair number of the Yellow Peril guest villains in H50 were played by Jews, sometimes ridiculously so.
Noah Hunt whose deep bluesy voice is featured on Kenny Wayne Shepherd songs (biggest hit was Blue on Black) sounds like he’s a 50+ year old black blues singer. He’s actually a fairly young white man.
I was disappointed when I attended a Jimi Hendrix tribute performance and Living Colour’s lead vocalist got to sing “All along the watchtower” in the finally.
Kenny Wayne Sheperd was a contributing performer and he had Noah Hunt with him.
So they let the shrieking tenor sing the song while backstage the man with the perfect voice that captured Jimi’s vocal range was just standing there listening to the music.
Wow! :eek: Well, I’ll be…