Jean Negulesco has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: in part because, yes, he got that Oscar nomination for directing Johnny Belinda; but also for a ton of other films, from Three Coins In The Fountain to How To Marry A Millionaire.
(And, granted, the big draw in Daddy Long Legs is of course Fred Astaire dancing with Leslie Caron; but Negulesco’s name is on the poster for good reason.)
Supermodel Candice Swanepoel “has been among the Top 10 earning models every year since 2010.” (And made it to #1 on Maxim’s “Hot 100 List”.)
Per Wiki, the lovely Candice Swanepoel was born in Mooi River, Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa. She is fluent in Afrikaans, English and Portuguese, the last of which she learned from her boyfriend, Hermann Nicoli, a Brazilian model.
Per wiki, Jack Coleman was born a sixth-generation descendant of Ben Franklin, and then spent years as Steven Carrington, “one of the first gay characters on American television” in Dynasty — you know, before he got cast as Noah Bennet, the amiably sinister company-man operative with horn-rimmed glasses on Heroes.
Karl Landsteiner — the ‘blood types’ guy — won the Nobel Prize.
Hall of Fame baseball player Chuck Klein, who led the league in home runs the same year he led the league in stolen bases. (He also led the league in home runs the year after that, when he won the Triple Crown; and in various other years.)
Chris Stapleton won the Grammy for Best Country Solo Performance the same year he won the Grammy for Best Country Album, on the strength of the best-selling country album of 2016; he then promptly won both of those Grammys a second time, on the strength of the best-selling country album of 2017.
Peter Revson was heir to the Revlon cosmetics fortune and got his kicks as a racecar driver racking up Grand Prix wins, which earned him a certain amount of celebrity even before March of 1974 — which is when he (a) was engaged to Miss World, and also when he (b) memorably died in a fiery crash, which explains why the guy’s induction into the Hall of Fame was posthumous.
Michael Lonsdale went from hunting the bad guy in THE DAY OF THE JACKAL to being a remarkably quotable Bond villain in MOONRAKER.
Jack Christiansen was a great punt returner: getting into football’s Hall of Fame after leading the NFL in punt returns for touchdowns year after year after year after year, setting both the record for career punt returns for touchdowns as well as the record for single-season yards-per-punt-return.
There were also years when he led the NFL in interceptions — which is why his entry at said Hall of Fame says: “DON’T PASS IN HIS AREA, DON’T PUNT TO HIM”.
Bob Barr managed to get a lot of prominence as a Congressman back in the ‘90s: authoring the Defense Of Marriage Act, introducing the resolution for Clinton’s impeachment, railing against the supposed evils of marijuana, and so on.
Graeme McDowell recently won the US Open at Pebble Beach, which made him the first Northern Irishman to win a major since — well, Fred Daly, who managed it back in the ‘40s before getting an MBE from the crown ‘for services to golf’.
As it’s Labor Day and The Godfather is on, I’ll mention Al Lettieri, “who developed into the quintessential on-screen hoodlum via several strong roles in key crime films of the early 1970s. Lettieri played the villain against some of Hollywood’s biggest screen names including chasing Steve McQueen in The Getaway (1972), intimidating Charles Bronson in Mr. Majestyk (1974), threatening ‘John Wayne’ in McQ (1974) and, arguably in his most well known role, as Virgil ‘The Turk’ Sollozo trying to eliminate Marlon Brando in The Godfather (1972).”
In 1960, Oscar Robertson won Olympic gold as an amateur basketball player; and in 1961, he was the NBA’s rookie of the year; and in 1962, he became the first player in NBA history to average a triple-double for an entire season — and, at that, the guy averaged a triple-double for his first five seasons, including the one where he was honored as the MVP — and so he soon got into the Hall of Fame.
Award-winning writer/director/producer Neil LaBute.
From another thread: Frank Kugler, “the only competitor to win a medal in three different sports at the same Olympic Games.”
In headlines today is billionaire Richard DeVos: noted as a bestselling author, and the founder of Amway, and owner of the Orlando Magic — you know, the team that plays at the Amway Center — and, well, father-in-law of Betsy DeVos. (I mean, granted, the headlines are because he just died; but he made headlines before.)
Patrick Cargill was the star of Father Dear Father on British television for seven seasons, which is presumably why (a) they built a Father Dear Father movie around him, and why (b) he was the the lead in The Many Wives Of Patrick (which only ran for three seasons, which is presumably why the powers that be eventually had Cargill headline Father Dear Father In Australia).
Back when, the record in the 5k was held by Olympic medalist Paavo Nurmi; and, later, it was held by Olympic medalist Haile Gebrselassie.
But in between, that world record was held by Olympic medalist Dick Quax, which, for my money, is a name that should never be forgotten.
Chess grandmaster — and, for years, the world champion — Boris Spassky.