# 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:** 5\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2017, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-known-accidentally-famous-person/786547/141 "2017-05-22T02:02:37Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > How is their fame accidental? It’s the absolutely predictable outcome of their hard work. The vast majority of researchers do their work in the mostly-anonymity of the research community; the most prolific could maybe hope to become vaguely-known names within their broader field, simply because their names are attached to so many research papers their fellow academics are marinating in, but being the biggest name in bioinformatics (a huge umbrella field, and one that actually gets grants) hardly translates to your name getting a second glance in academic computer science, let alone anywhere in industry. Einstein’s fame was earned, certainly, but there are other figures from the 20th Century who did great things and who are much less famous, such as John von Neumann. Newton is history book famous, in that his works are so foundational he gets mentioned as a big figure in the history of science portion of the world history classes we all sit through in high school and grade school. That’s retroactive, by definition: You can’t be in history books until you’re history, one way or another, and most people achieve that long postmortem. ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2017, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-known-accidentally-famous-person/786547/142 "2017-05-22T02:31:52Z")
Not mentioned yet, unless I missed them: [Louise Brown](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHgWTeowdio) [Barney Clark](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_heart) [Baby Fae](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_Fae) ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2017, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-known-accidentally-famous-person/786547/143 "2017-05-22T02:36:19Z")
[Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindbergh_kidnapping) ---
**Author:** ![Mallard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Mallard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mallard)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2017, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-known-accidentally-famous-person/786547/144 "2017-05-22T02:51:12Z")
Jeanne Calment ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2017, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-known-accidentally-famous-person/786547/145 "2017-05-22T12:42:55Z")
> [@Mangosteen](#): > > “The Tank man himself might be unaware of these photos.” > > The Tank man is unlikely to know of the photos because he is probably dead. The Onion published a picture of him standing in front of the tank, with just the caption: “Stirring symbol of humanity difficult to remove from tank treads” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-known-accidentally-famous-person/786547.md?page=7)