# Before they were famous... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 22, 1999, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/12236 "1999-10-22T01:36:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gazelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Gazelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gazelle)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 1999, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/12236/1 "1999-10-22T01:36:00Z")
Did you know anyone before they were famous? My friend isn’t famous **yet** but she was in a TV movie called Fatal Deception: Mrs. Lee Harvey Oswald with Helena Bonham Carter and Frank Whaley. Her name is Quenby Bakke and she played Janet Williams, Mrs. Oswald’s good friend. Here’s the Internet Movie Database page about the movie, with cast list and all: [http://us.imdb.com/Title?0106870](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0106870) Quenby, my husband and I all went to Heidelberg American High School in Heidelberg, Germany. She’s working on the Dallas theater scene at the moment - and raising a family. Anyone else? * * * Men are from Mars, women are from Venus, dogs are from Pluto. - Anonymous ---
**Author:** ![Sealemon88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c68b51/32.png) [@Sealemon88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sealemon88)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 1999, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/12236/2 "1999-10-22T02:26:00Z")
Well, I know Bryan Yegge. He’s a musician I work with. I **hope** he makes it; he’s very good. Sings, plays all his instruments, does his own mixes, he’s tha man! Here’s his site: [http://home.att.net/~yeggemail/yeggecom.htm](http://home.att.net/~yeggemail/yeggecom.htm) I’m also friends with Jeff Burghart,Stand Up Commedian. We used to improv in drama class together in high school. He is simply one of the funniest people on the planet, and he has a heart bigger than Texas. He also looks **just** like Jerry Mathers (“as the Beaver”). He’s appeared on _Evening at the Improv_, and Comedy Central’s _Make Me Laugh_. * * * You say “cheesy” like that’s a **BAD** thing. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 1999, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/12236/3 "1999-10-22T02:33:00Z")
I met Jane Badler (Diana of V) before she became famous. My mother roomed with her mother in college and at one point we visited for a day. I was about 12 and she was even younger. ---
**Author:** ![Arken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dfb087/32.png) [@Arken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arken)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 1999, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/12236/4 "1999-10-22T02:34:00Z")
No, but talk to me about it after the cops find the bodies. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 1999, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/12236/5 "1999-10-22T05:20:00Z")
My hubby taught Andre Braugher (sp?) drama at St. Ignatius College Prep in Chicago back in the seventies. Hubby always says that he’s glad to see that he didn’t ruin him! \ -Melin ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 1999, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/12236/6 "1999-10-23T05:48:00Z")
_Everyone_ I know is in the “before they were famous” category. ---
**Author:** ![Guy\_Propski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/5e9695/32.png) [@Guy\_Propski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guy_Propski)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 1999, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/12236/7 "1999-10-23T05:51:00Z")
I went to high school with Crystal Bernard, of “Wings” fame. We were even in a play together (did “Brigadoon” in my junior year, her senior). I would bet untold sums that she doesn’t remember me at all. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 1999, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/12236/8 "1999-10-22T18:04:00Z")
I saw Gary Sinise and John Malkovich in Sam Shepard’s TRUE WEST at the teensy-weensy Cherry Lane Theatre in Greenwich Village waaaay back in 1982, long before anybody’d ever heard of 'em. I knew John Adams when I was in the music-publishing business years before he composed NIXON IN CHINA. My wife went to high school with Daryl Hannah. She was an asshole back then, too. Oh, yeah…her uncle did the special effects for CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND. Just in case you guys ever wondered how such a horsefaced no-talent got inta the moom pitchers inna first place. ---
**Author:** ![PurpleCrackwhore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc348/32.png) [@PurpleCrackwhore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PurpleCrackwhore)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 1999, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/12236/9 "1999-10-22T18:05:00Z")
Once designed a birthday invitation for Peggy Fleming…well her hubby’s birthday… and my daughter is a screen writer for Crusade, the Babylon5 spin off along with a new gig I am not allowed to tell. She just loves having power over her mother LOL * * * “Only when he no longer knows what he is doing, does the painter do good things.” --Edgar Degas ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 1999, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/12236/10 "1999-10-22T18:41:00Z")
I went to high school with David Crane (producer of Friends) and Larry Summers (the new head of the Treasury Dept.–no, he won’t send me any free money, I asked). And I briefly met Ru Paul back in the early '80s. ---
**Author:** ![Sassy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@Sassy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sassy)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 1999, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/12236/11 "1999-10-22T22:50:00Z")
I was in college with the little person who animated the character of ET. She got shafted for credit, and was very bitter. Armstead Maupin (who I have also met) wrote a fictional version of her story called “Maybe the Moon.” * * * ``` Photons have mass!? I didn't even know they were Catholic... ``` ---
**Author:** ![Gazelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Gazelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gazelle)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/12236/12 "1999-12-21T21:29:00Z")
I’m a crazy-ass mug, I know. I went way, way back into the 100-day old SDMB, found this thread and resurrected it. And now I have questions! **Uke** , were Sinise and Malkovich good in the play? Can you (or your wife, I should say) share an example of how Daryl Hannah is a beeyatch? **PCW** you must be so proud of your daughter! Does she know about your SDMB handle? **Flora/Eve** : What was RuPaul like? He/she seems like a very cool person. :::lovin’ celebrity dishin’::: ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/12236/13 "1999-12-21T21:37:00Z")
I grew up in Beaumont TX. About 4 or 5 houses down the block lived a set of twins that my (older) brother was pretty good friends with. Their names were Johnny and Edgar. (Frightening little pink-eyed freaks!) Went to high school with Heather Locklear. Loser then, and (IMHO) still a loser (as in: small soul, **incredibly** small soul). I ran into her at a nail salon a couple years back - still thinks her shit don’t stink. Totally useless human being. * * * **StoryTyler** “Not everybody does it, but everybody should.” [I Spy Ty.](http://sites.netscape.net/storytyler/homepage) ---
**Author:** ![John\_Corrado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a88e4f/32.png) [@John\_Corrado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Corrado)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/12236/14 "1999-12-21T21:45:00Z")
Most of my father’s side of the family went to Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, MD, so I’m willing to bet that they met and/or knew the two famous attendees of said high school: Ben Stein and Goldie Hawn. As for myself, none of my friends has hit superstardom yet. * * * JMCJ Die, Prentiss, Die! You will never have a more glorious opportunity! ---
**Author:** ![mega\_the\_roo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3da27b/32.png) [@mega\_the\_roo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mega_the_roo)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/12236/15 "1999-12-21T21:47:00Z")
kim coates, who was in the last boy scout, waterworld, the client, etc… worked as a butcher at safeway with my uncle, here in the city. * * * “human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust; we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.” - albert einstein ---
**Author:** ![Diane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2acd7d/32.png) [@Diane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diane)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 1999, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/12236/16 "1999-12-21T22:44:00Z")
I went to school with Jim McMahon. He thought he was pretty damn cool. Once asked me if I wanted to go for a ride in his “jalopy”. I also went to school with one of Europe’s highest paid models (a few years back). She now goes by the name W’ren. Nice girl. Some of the assholes used to call her Olive Oil because of her dark hair and long legs. Who’s laughing now? I was friends with Cindy Brimhall. She was Playboy’s Miss October in 1982 (or 1981 - I forget). She was also a Fredericks of Hollywood catelog model for quite a few years and in a few Van Halen and David Lee Roth videos. She is the redhead in black on the California Girls video. I never saw the show, but I also went to school with a girl named Britt. She played Lily on the soap opera Loving. ## What can I say - our school cranked out beautiful girls! 🙂 \>^,^\< KITTEN Fluff yer hair Beula, I’s feelin frisky - M.S. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 1999, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/12236/17 "1999-12-22T01:04:00Z")
## I don’t know anyone currently famous. Perhaps later. But I just thought I’d show off this, because I think it’s cool. [http://us.imdb.com/Name?Potiki,+Paul](http://us.imdb.com/Name?Potiki,+Paul) **-PIGEONMAN-** Hero For A New Millennium! [The Legend Of PigeonMan](http://www.hotkey.net.au/~guanolad/pigeonman/) - **Back in the new year!** Honest. I promise. No, really. ---
**Author:** ![Luxus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/58f4c7/32.png) [@Luxus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Luxus)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 1999, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/12236/18 "1999-12-22T01:22:00Z")
Keanu Reeves, Keifer Sutherland and Billy Zane all starred in a horrible 80s TV movie (“Brotherhood of Justice”) that was partly shot in our backyard. I got to meet all of them and they seemed pretty nice (although then, the only one who was actually somewhat known was Keifer Sutherland). I didn’t even know that Billy Zane was in the movie 'till years later when I looked up the cast of the movie and realized “Hey, Billy Zane asked me if he could borrow my football!”. ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 1999, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/12236/19 "1999-12-22T02:44:00Z")
I went to high school with none other than my Governor…Jesse Ventura. He was Jim Janos then. He was pretty skinny, and he was on the swim team. He was a senior when I was a sophomore. When he first started wrestling a bunch of us bought tickets to the match and hassled him mercilessly. He came by after the match, and we all went out and got drunk. He hasn’t changed a bit. That’s depressing. ---
**Author:** ![evilbeth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/evilbeth/32/2268_2.png) [@evilbeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/evilbeth)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 1999, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/12236/20 "1999-12-22T08:08:00Z")
I’m not even sure these qualify. But…I went to school with Constance Shulman. Who is that, you ask? Well, she was the Hellman’s mayonnaise lady in the commercials (“Connie’s Cafe”?) She also played Kathy Bates’ friend in _Fried Green Tomatoes_ However, she is probably most famous for providing the voice of Patti Mayonnaise in the t.v show (and movie) _Doug_ Hey, she’s involved with mayonnaise more than the average person, isn’t she? Hmmm… I also attend the same college that Timothy Busfield attended for a time. (He’s Poindexter from the illustrious _Revenge of the Nerds_ pictures and the lovely show _thirtysomething_.) Suddenly, I feel so…conspicuously mediocre. * * * _…what the French call, a certain “I-don’t-know-what”_ [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/12236.md?page=2)