# Best known accidentally-famous person **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 13, 2017, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-known-accidentally-famous-person/786547 "2017-05-13T18:15:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2017, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-known-accidentally-famous-person/786547/41 "2017-05-13T23:19:56Z")
Not to mention Ken Bone! šŸ†’ > **[Ken Bone](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/ken-bone)** > > Ken Bone is a man who asked a question during the second 2016 United States Presidential Election Debate, which had a town hall format in which selected undecided voters ask questions directly to the candidates. Bone asked a question about the... ---
**Author:** ![Newtosite](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/newtosite/32/8623_2.png) [@Newtosite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Newtosite)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2017, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-known-accidentally-famous-person/786547/42 "2017-05-13T23:20:38Z")
Elizabeth Smart. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2017, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-known-accidentally-famous-person/786547/43 "2017-05-13T23:23:38Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > (2) Chesley ā€œSullyā€ Sullenberger. Did his job well, even heroically, but is famous basically for a basically unique set of freak circumstances. (Has any other airline pilot EVER become famous for making a difficult landing?) I lived in Sioux City briefly, a few years after Al Haynes landed Flight 232. > **[United Airlines Flight 232](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_232)** > > United Airlines Flight 232 was a regularly scheduled United Airlines flight from Stapleton International Airport in Denver to O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, continuing to Philadelphia International Airport. On July 19, 1989, the DC-10 (registered as N1819U) serving the flight crash-landed at Sioux Gateway Airport in Sioux City, Iowa, after suffering a catastrophic failure of its tail-mounted engine due to an unnoticed manufacturing defect in the engine's fan disk, which resulted in... ---
**Author:** ![JHBoom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/13edae/32.png) [@JHBoom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JHBoom)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2017, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-known-accidentally-famous-person/786547/44 "2017-05-13T23:28:24Z")
Rodney King ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2017, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-known-accidentally-famous-person/786547/45 "2017-05-13T23:31:20Z")
Kato Kaelin ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2017, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-known-accidentally-famous-person/786547/46 "2017-05-13T23:34:39Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > I lived in Sioux City briefly, a few years after Al Haynes landed Flight 232. > > [United Airlines Flight 232 - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_232) Sidetrack: The TV movie based on the crash [(ā€œA Thousand Heroes,ā€ also known as ā€œCrash Landing: The Rescue of Flight 232ā€)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104020/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) is, hands down, one of the best TV movies ever madeā€“outstanding cast, non-exploitative handling of the material, a total winner; a must see! ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2017, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-known-accidentally-famous-person/786547/47 "2017-05-14T00:10:50Z")
> [@Personal](#): > > There are four who have been mentioned that Iā€™d consider for the ā€œbest knownā€ spot: Monica, Richard Jewell, Ryan White, Steve Bartman. Of those, l agree that Lewinsky takes it easily. I think Anne Frank wins. High school students today donā€™t know Lewinsky. Everyone knows Anne Frank. There are schools named after Anne Frank. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2017, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-known-accidentally-famous-person/786547/48 "2017-05-14T00:25:29Z")
> [@MandaJo](#): > > I think Anne Frank wins. High school students today donā€™t know Lewinsky. Everyone knows Anne Frank. There are schools named after Anne Frank. Hell, [even Justin Beiber himself even hoped that she would have been a ā€˜belieberā€™ if it werenā€™t for that whole Nazi unpleasantness](http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/14/showbiz/bieber-anne-frank/). That is famous right there. ---
**Author:** ![Periwinkle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Periwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Periwinkle)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2017, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-known-accidentally-famous-person/786547/49 "2017-05-14T00:26:02Z")
Dr. David Dao William Hung (American Idol ā€œShe Bangsā€) ---
**Author:** ![Personal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Personal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Personal)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2017, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-known-accidentally-famous-person/786547/50 "2017-05-14T00:31:30Z")
> [@MandaJo](#): > > I think Anne Frank wins. High school students today donā€™t know Lewinsky. Everyone knows Anne Frank. There are schools named after Anne Frank. Iā€™d agree with that. I must have missed seeing her mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![Monocracy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monocracy/32/4493_2.png) [@Monocracy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monocracy)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2017, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-known-accidentally-famous-person/786547/51 "2017-05-14T00:43:31Z")
John Wayne Bobbitt ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2017, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-known-accidentally-famous-person/786547/52 "2017-05-14T00:45:26Z")
Ben Linder, though 23 people would recognize the name anymore. ---
**Author:** ![ioioio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ioioio/32/316_2.png) [@ioioio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ioioio)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2017, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-known-accidentally-famous-person/786547/53 "2017-05-14T00:56:31Z")
Henrietta Lacks is becoming well known lately, although many scientific types already knew who she was. Still, Iā€™ll have to cast my vote for Ann Frank. ---
**Author:** ![Whatever4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@Whatever4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whatever4)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2017, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-known-accidentally-famous-person/786547/54 "2017-05-14T01:00:56Z")
Lenny Skutnik > **[Lenny Skutnik, CBO's Most Famous Employee, Retires](https://www.cbo.gov/publication/25080)** > > Lenny Skutnik is a household name belonging to an unassuming Congressional Budget Office employee who insists he ā€œwasnā€™t a heroā€ when one winter day in 1982 he jumped from the shore into the icy Potomac River to save a drowning woman after an Air... Plane crash, Potomac River, winter, 1982. He jumped into the river to rescue a woman who was unable to grab onto a life preserver. Somebody Iā€™ve never forgotten. ---
**Author:** ![chizzuk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@chizzuk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chizzuk)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2017, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-known-accidentally-famous-person/786547/55 "2017-05-14T01:39:05Z")
Elian Gonzalez ---
**Author:** ![Periwinkle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Periwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Periwinkle)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2017, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-known-accidentally-famous-person/786547/56 "2017-05-14T01:55:41Z")
Christa McAuliffe, the schoolteacher killed in the Challenger space shuttle disaster. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2017, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-known-accidentally-famous-person/786547/57 "2017-05-14T01:58:59Z")
Iā€™m not sure that Monica Lewinsky really counts. Sheā€™s famous for her interactions with a very famous person, and she knowingly and deliberately chose to engage in those interactions. Sure, she never intended for it to become known to the general public, but she also had to know that if they did become known, sheā€™d be famous for it. Anne Frank, however, was (so far as she knew) just another teenage girl with a diary, who through no fault of her own happened to be alive during a horrific episode of human history. She definitely counts, and is going to be hard to top. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2017, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-known-accidentally-famous-person/786547/58 "2017-05-14T02:44:37Z")
Alan Kurdi. ā˜¹ His death caused the fall of at least one government. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2017, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-known-accidentally-famous-person/786547/59 "2017-05-14T03:37:28Z")
I think Anne Frank wins, cue to the combination of how extremely famous she is, and the utter mundanity of the action she took that led to her fame. A fair number of the people mentioned might have been unknown to start with, but did make the conscious choice to take an action which had, as a reasonably possible outcome, a chance of leading them to prominence. Ken Bone, for instance, did ask a question at a nationally televised political debate. It was a surprise that he became as much of a meme as he did, but thatā€™s different from someone just walking down the street and then BAM. Same for David Kaczynski, Joe the Plumber, Christa McCaulliffe and Monica Lewinksy. Thereā€™s also an entire category of people who were involved in brief-media-craze stories, such as John Wayne Bobbitt and Elian Gonzalez, but for the most part, their fame has proven to be fleeting. (To that list we should certainly add the fantastically-named Joey Buttafuoco.) People mentioned who I had not heard of at all before this thread (at least by name): Erwin Kreuz (Tried to take a cab across the country, famous in the 70s for some reason) Alexander Selkirk (Real-life Robinson Crusoe) Lisa Gherardini (Mona Lisa named after her, Wikipedia claims it is now definitely known that she was the model for it, although that was controversial for years) Jeremy Meeks (attractive criminal, became meme) Ted Williams (sang on youtube?) Baylee Almon (baby girl in iconic Oklahoma City bombing photo, died) Greta Zimmer Friedman (Nurse in the V-J day times square kissing photo) Harry Truman (Died in Mt St Helens) Spencer Eldenā€™s penis (he was the baby on the front cover of Nirvanaā€™s Nevermind) Dr. Kent Brantly (Survived Ebola) Al Haynes (Landed an airliner in a crisis) Dr. David Dao (The guy who was quite recently removed from a United plane, causing an incident) Ben Linder (killed in Nicaragua by Contras, sparking international outrage) Lenny Skutnik (He is notable for an act of heroism which led to him being mentioned by President Ronald Reagan in the State of the Union Address, which coined the term Lenny Skutnik referring to notable people who are invited to sit in the gallery at a State of the Union address or other joint meeting of Congress.) Alan Kurdi (dead little boy in famous refugee photo) Some of those I hadnā€™t heard of at all before this thread, regardless of whether I recognized their name: Erwin Kreuz Lenny Skutnik Ben Linder Al Haynes ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2017, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-known-accidentally-famous-person/786547/60 "2017-05-14T05:14:08Z")
Best known? In terms of _average public recognition_ this guy will beat all your others by a mile even Anne Frank. [Star Wars Kid](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPPj6viIBmU) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-known-accidentally-famous-person/786547.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-known-accidentally-famous-person/786547.md?page=4)