# Celebrities/VIPs/Luminaries whose names phonetically join in the middle **URL:** \ **Category:** Thread Games\ **Created:** [February 16, 2018, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-vips-luminaries-whose-names-phonetically-join-in-the-middle/808912 "2018-02-16T03:47:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 24
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2018, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-vips-luminaries-whose-names-phonetically-join-in-the-middle/808912/461 "2018-10-21T20:32:39Z")
Per wikipedia, celebrated radio broadcaster Graham McNamee was [“the medium’s most recognized national personality in its first international decade. He originated play-by-play sports broadcasting for which he was awarded the Ford C. Frick Award by the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2016.”](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_McNamee) Also narrated Oscar-nominated stuff, and Oscar-winning stuff, and Universal’s newsreels — you know the ones — and soon wound up snagging the cover of TIME Magazine and a Star on the Walk of Fame. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2018, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-vips-luminaries-whose-names-phonetically-join-in-the-middle/808912/462 "2018-10-22T10:50:29Z")
Brad Dexter was married to Peggy Lee and was one of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, which I figure qualifies him even before we sidetrack this by noting that he fielded plenty of roles that (a) were decidedly of the ‘supporting’ type, but that (b) were demonstrably of the name-on-the-movie-poster variety. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2018, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-vips-luminaries-whose-names-phonetically-join-in-the-middle/808912/463 "2018-10-23T10:36:35Z")
Award-winning author Chuck Klosterman has written bestselling nonfiction as well as bestselling fiction; apparently he also took a bunch of essays that had already seen print, since he also does tons of magazine work, and apparently a bestseller ensued _there,_ too; and he makes the rounds on TV like you’d expect. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-vips-luminaries-whose-names-phonetically-join-in-the-middle/808912/464 "2018-10-24T10:44:01Z")
Wiki [says](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Nettles) of John Nettles that, while his many years starring as _Bergerac_ “made him a household name in the UK”, his many years starring in “_Midsomer Murders_ made him a household name across the world.” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-vips-luminaries-whose-names-phonetically-join-in-the-middle/808912/465 "2018-10-25T22:31:21Z")
The story goes that, after his first book was published, [“Pinball Wizard” was written so that New York Times journalist Nik Cohn, a pinball enthusiast, would give the album a good review](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Who). The story also goes that [“Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night” was the title of a 1976 New York Magazine article by British rock journalist Nik Cohn. It was the basis for the plot and characters in the movie Saturday Night Fever](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribal_Rites_of_the_New_Saturday_Night). And that last part eventually let him make yet more headlines, when he got around to admitting that he’d pretty much just made the whole story up. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2018, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-vips-luminaries-whose-names-phonetically-join-in-the-middle/808912/466 "2018-10-26T23:25:49Z")
Jack Colvin. (_“Mr. McGee, don’t make me angry; you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.”_) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2018, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-vips-luminaries-whose-names-phonetically-join-in-the-middle/808912/467 "2018-10-27T11:37:24Z")
Walter Runciman would be a footnote to history, having run against Churchill when they were both trying to get elected to Parliament: he won and served, and he lost and Churchill took a turn, and he’s reported to have said, _“Don’t worry, I don’t think this is the last the country has heard of either of us.”_ But it _wasn’t,_ because — after decades in Parliament, and stints as President of the Board of Education and the Board of Agriculture and the Board of Trade — he wound up serving as Lord President of the Council under Neville Chamberlain after landing the cover of TIME Magazine and getting himself promoted from Baron to Viscount and authoring [the Runciman Report](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runciman_Report_(on_Czechoslovakia)), which famously _“recommended the cession of the territory concerned to Nazi Germany, thus paving the way for the Munich Agreement of 30 September 1938.”_ History then ensued. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2018, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-vips-luminaries-whose-names-phonetically-join-in-the-middle/808912/468 "2018-10-28T05:42:47Z")
Gladys Swarthout, [“the only woman to have sung for the entire assembled Congress of the United States”](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladys_Swarthout), was top-billed in CHAMPAGNE WALTZ over Fred MacMurray and in ROMANCE IN THE DARK over John Boles and in AMBUSH over Lloyd Nolan, which is a pretty solid set of Hollywood bona fides for an opera singer. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2018, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-vips-luminaries-whose-names-phonetically-join-in-the-middle/808912/469 "2018-10-29T10:59:56Z")
Award-winning writer Wade Davis has done lots of TV appearances in the decades since his best-selling _The Serpent and the Rainbow_ put him on the map. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2018, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-vips-luminaries-whose-names-phonetically-join-in-the-middle/808912/470 "2018-10-30T10:45:59Z")
Rachelle Lefevre has been acting for years (movie-poster roles, including her run as Victoria Sutherland in TWILIGHT movies; and prime-time television work, promptly following up a year as a castmember on A GIFTED MAN with three seasons of second billing in UNDER THE DOME); but now they’re advertising [her own upcoming series](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=idvN4NGkd9M), where she’ll play a crusading defense attorney who spent lots of time behind bars after being convicted of murder on especially flimsy evidence. (Looks like Kelsey Grammer is her nemesis: not just as a prosecutor she happens to square off against, but as the guy who put her behind said bars back when.) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2018, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-vips-luminaries-whose-names-phonetically-join-in-the-middle/808912/471 "2018-10-31T13:25:44Z")
Chris Sprouse has racked up multiple Eisner awards for his comic-book artistry: sure, he had a stint drawing Superman for ACTION, and a stint on BLACK PANTHER, and so on for a whole alphabet of stuff — that’s his CAPTAIN AMERICA ANNUAL on the stands now, following a good-sized run on DAREDEVIL — but what really hit it out of the park was his almost-cartoonish retro-futuristic work on TOM STRONG. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2018, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-vips-luminaries-whose-names-phonetically-join-in-the-middle/808912/472 "2018-11-01T11:33:17Z")
After directing Dick Powell’s _Murder, My Sweet_ and John Wayne’s _Back To Bataan_, Edward Dmytryk earned himself an Oscar nomination for _Crossfire_ before he was named as one of the Hollywood Ten; he went on to direct _The Caine Mutiny_ and _Broken Lance_ and _The Carpetbaggers_ and thus and such. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2018, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-vips-luminaries-whose-names-phonetically-join-in-the-middle/808912/473 "2018-11-02T10:43:18Z")
_The Grouchy Ladybug_ and _Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?_ did fine; but Eric Carle [“is most noted for _The Very Hungry Caterpillar_, a picture book that has been translated into more than 64 languages and sold more than 46 million copies, which is equivalent to 1.7 copies sold every minute since it was published … he has illustrated more than 70 books, most of which he also wrote, and more than 145 million copies of his books have been sold around the world.”](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Carle) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2018, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-vips-luminaries-whose-names-phonetically-join-in-the-middle/808912/474 "2018-11-03T11:53:11Z")
Back in its first season, when LOIS & CLARK was pulling in Oscar-caliber guest stars and getting some of its biggest primetime ratings, Michael Landes was in the main cast as Jimmy Olsen — presented as a cocky youth not too long out of reform school, working to get the story by sneaking around and picking locks. Landes was still in his twenties when he had another primetime run for a season as a main castmember on UNION SQUARE — as well as a run for two seasons, as the lead on SPECIAL UNIT 2 — and he’s kept at it in his thirties and his forties: a solid role in a surprisingly profitable FINAL DESTINATION movie, second billing to Anne Heche in that NBC sitcom where she thinks she’s on a mission from God, an upcoming turn as the White House Chief of Staff in Gerard Butler’s third secret-service action flick in the OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN/LONDON HAS FALLEN series, and so on. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2018, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-vips-luminaries-whose-names-phonetically-join-in-the-middle/808912/475 "2018-11-04T12:52:50Z")
Singing cowboy Bob Baker: star of PRAIRIE JUSTICE and of BLACK BANDIT and of GHOST TOWN RIDERS and of THE PHANTOM STAGE and of THE LAST STAND and of BORDER WOLVES and of HONOR OF THE WEST and of COURAGE OF THE WEST and of WESTERN TRAILS and of GUILTY TRAILS and of OUTLAW EXPRESS and, of course, of THE SINGING OUTLAW. (And then he got second-billed to Johnny Mack Brown in half-a-dozen westerns, but figure he’d already gotten his name out there by then.) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2018, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-vips-luminaries-whose-names-phonetically-join-in-the-middle/808912/476 "2018-11-05T23:30:27Z")
Clark Clifford served as Secretary of Defense in ‘68 and ‘69, after McNamara left the big job — and, after getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom after orchestrating the war effort in Vietnam, Clifford in ‘69 helpfully declared to the public that [_“Nothing we might do could be so beneficial … as to begin to withdraw our combat troops. Moreover … we cannot realistically expect to achieve anything more through our military force, and the time has come to begin to disengage. That was my final conclusion as I left the Pentagon …”_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clark_Clifford) Oh, and they say he’s the guy who coined that ‘amiable dunce’ tag for Reagan. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2018, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-vips-luminaries-whose-names-phonetically-join-in-the-middle/808912/477 "2018-11-06T13:04:03Z")
Anne Neville became the Queen of England by marrying Richard III, which sticks even more in the memory thanks to William Shakespeare’s efforts. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2018, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-vips-luminaries-whose-names-phonetically-join-in-the-middle/808912/478 "2018-11-07T11:20:44Z")
Prolific composer Claude Debussy, best known for _Clair de Lune_. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2018, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-vips-luminaries-whose-names-phonetically-join-in-the-middle/808912/479 "2018-11-08T11:37:45Z")
Bruce Seton was top-billed in a number of movies — _Racing Romance_, _If I Were Boss_, _Fifty-Shilling Boxer_ — and then starred on TV as _Fabian of the Yard_: enough of a hit that audiences soon saw him back up on the big screen, as Fabian of Scotland Yard in _Handcuffs, London_ and, well, _Fabian of the Yard_. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2018, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-vips-luminaries-whose-names-phonetically-join-in-the-middle/808912/480 "2018-11-09T12:26:44Z")
Matthew Whitaker is making plenty of headlines today. Pick up a Washington Post: _“Matthew Whitaker Is A Crackpot”_. Check out CNN: _“There is a growing sense of concern inside the White House over the negative reaction to Matthew Whitaker being tapped as acting attorney general after Jeff Sessions’ abrupt firing.”_ Newsweek: _“Matthew Whitaker’s first publicized act as acting attorney general was to issue a new rule Thursday denying asylum to migrants who enter the country illegally through the southern United States-Mexico border.”_ The NYT: _“Mr. Trump’s installation of Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general of the United States after forcing the resignation of Jeff Sessions is unconstitutional. It’s illegal. And it means that anything Mr. Whitaker does, or tries to do, in that position is invalid.”_ Just a guess, here, but: this doesn’t seem like the last we’ll hear of him. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-vips-luminaries-whose-names-phonetically-join-in-the-middle/808912.md?page=23) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-vips-luminaries-whose-names-phonetically-join-in-the-middle/808912.md?page=25)