# Celebrities in post-apocalyptic fiction **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 4, 2007, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-in-post-apocalyptic-fiction/421501 "2007-10-04T15:15:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-in-post-apocalyptic-fiction/421501/1 "2007-10-04T15:15:26Z")
I don’t know why, but I’m fascinated when “real” people show up in post-apocalyptic fiction. The Postman was a terrible, terrible movie, but I thought it was fantastic when Tom Petty showed up basically playing himself. I got a similar smile on my face when standins for Howard Dean and Colin Powell show up in World War Z and standins for Ann Coulter and Bill Maher decide to fuck each other’s brains out in the same book as the zombies get closer. World War Z was of course great. I’ve thinking about it again recently as I wait for The Sunrise Lands to show up at my library. I was always disappointed that in the entire Dies the Fire series we never learn what happened to Bruce Campbell (who has a ranch in Oregon). Sure, Prince William shows up (as well Pope Ratzinger), but I wanted to see Campbell kick some ass as a member of the Bearkillers (even for just a page). So what other real life people have faced off against zombies, demons, a superflu or some other world-changing disaster? ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-in-post-apocalyptic-fiction/421501/2 "2007-10-04T15:35:34Z")
Tom Jones helps a small group of Las Vegas residents escape when _Mars Attacks!_ ---
**Author:** ![dmatsch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3be4f8/32.png) [@dmatsch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dmatsch)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-in-post-apocalyptic-fiction/421501/3 "2007-10-04T16:51:45Z")
Tom Petty made a cameo in “The Postman” as in “aren’t you famous?” ---
**Author:** ![Interrobang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/interrobang/32/17463_2.png) [@Interrobang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Interrobang)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-in-post-apocalyptic-fiction/421501/4 "2007-10-04T17:01:37Z")
[QUOTE=Justin\_Bailey] I got a similar smile on my face when standins for Howard Dean and Colin Powell show up in World War Z and standins for Ann Coulter and Bill Maher decide to fuck each other’s brains out in the same book as the zombies get closer. World War Z was of course great. [/QUOTE] Don’t forget “Steven Spielberg,” the famous Hollywood director who puts together the film that saves public morale. WWZ’s cameos were great. ---
**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 4, 2007, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-in-post-apocalyptic-fiction/421501/5 "2007-10-04T17:05:44Z")
In the comic **American Flagg!** , set in 2031, there’s a character named “Bill Windsor,” who is clearly a middle aged version of the UK’s Prince William. ---
**Author:** ![Grossbottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ba8739/32.png) [@Grossbottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grossbottom)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-in-post-apocalyptic-fiction/421501/6 "2007-10-04T17:28:44Z")
Wasn’t Tom Petty in “The Postman”? ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-in-post-apocalyptic-fiction/421501/7 "2007-10-04T17:35:20Z")
There was that old rocker guy in Water World…or was it The Postman? ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-in-post-apocalyptic-fiction/421501/8 "2007-10-04T17:36:19Z")
Mick Fleetwood plays himself in _The Running Man_, though that’s more dystopic than post-apocalyptic. Oh, and some other musician was in a Kevin Costner film of some kind. ---
**Author:** ![MadTheSwine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MadTheSwine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadTheSwine)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-in-post-apocalyptic-fiction/421501/9 "2007-10-04T17:44:02Z")
[QUOTE=Push You Down] There was that old rocker guy in Water World…or was it The Postman? [/QUOTE] Pretty sure it was The Postman…let me check..I’ll get back to you on that. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-in-post-apocalyptic-fiction/421501/10 "2007-10-04T18:10:59Z")
I’m pretty sure Tom Petty was in one of Kevin Costner’s movies. It was Waterworld or Dances with Wolves or Robin Hood or one of those movies. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-in-post-apocalyptic-fiction/421501/11 "2007-10-04T18:23:19Z")
Well this is going well… ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-in-post-apocalyptic-fiction/421501/12 "2007-10-04T18:36:01Z")
[QUOTE=MadTheSwine] Pretty sure it was The Postman…let me check..I’ll get back to you on that. [/QUOTE] I can check too, but my old roommate has my copy of The Postman, and I owe him $100. And I stole his girlfriend. So the meeting will be awkward at best. But I’ll do my best as a Doper to determine if Tom Bosley was in The Postman. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-in-post-apocalyptic-fiction/421501/13 "2007-10-04T18:37:19Z")
Wasn’t Duran Duran in The Postman? ---
**Author:** ![CaerieD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@CaerieD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaerieD)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-in-post-apocalyptic-fiction/421501/14 "2007-10-04T18:39:35Z")
Geez, thirteen posts and nobody’s mentioned Tom Petty in The Postman? ---
**Author:** ![DiggitCamara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@DiggitCamara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiggitCamara)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-in-post-apocalyptic-fiction/421501/15 "2007-10-04T19:07:08Z")
[QUOTE=control-z] I can check too, but my old roommate has my copy of The Postman, and I owe him $100. And I stole his girlfriend. So the meeting will be awkward at best. But I’ll do my best as a Doper to determine if Tom Bosley was in The Postman. [/QUOTE] No way. The way I heard it, it was Keith Richards who portrayed The Postman. (Or maybe it was Mad Max). ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-in-post-apocalyptic-fiction/421501/16 "2007-10-04T20:42:02Z")
In the comic book series Scout, Clint Eastwood appears as “the Mayor” IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-in-post-apocalyptic-fiction/421501/17 "2007-10-04T20:50:06Z")
It’s Apocalyptic, rather than Post-Apocalyptic fiction, and it’s literally about the Apocalypse. I’ve written about it on the Board before Robert Sheckley edited a collection of —I love this – “UPBEAT End-of-the-World Stories” entitled **After the Fall**. They’re all great, but my favorite of Philip Jose Farmer’s effort. I forget its name, but it’s FULL of celebrities. Gid decides to Subcontract out the Apocalypse, rather than do it himself. He gets Cecil B. deMille to produce and direct. deMille gets a host of celebrities (I forget who he gets to play the Whore of Babylon, but he attends to the casting couch duties himself). My favorite part is that he gets Harlan Ellison to do the screenplay, because he’s the only writer who’s not afraid to argue with God. Eventually even God gets pissed off with Harlan, and has him replaced by “a hack from Peoria”. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-in-post-apocalyptic-fiction/421501/18 "2007-10-04T21:03:55Z")
[QUOTE=Push You Down] There was that old rocker guy in Water World…or was it The Postman? [/QUOTE] It had to have been Postman since Water World was set several _centuries_ after the apocalypse, any celebrities would’ve been long dead by then. “[Old Saint Joe](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Hazelwood)” was mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-in-post-apocalyptic-fiction/421501/19 "2007-10-04T21:20:41Z")
In the alien invasion novel _Footfall_, which may or may not qualify as post-apocalyptic, there’s a advisory Threat Team composed of thinly disguised actual science fiction writers. The names are changed, but the fans could tell who they were. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-in-post-apocalyptic-fiction/421501/20 "2007-10-04T21:32:45Z")
[QUOTE=Ludovic] Wasn’t Duran Duran in The Postman? [/QUOTE] No, I believe they were in “Barbarella: Queen of the Galaxy”. 😉 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-in-post-apocalyptic-fiction/421501.md?page=2)