In honor of what would have been his 75th birthday:
Elvis Presley.
The thought of a guy with those looks and that charisma being anything but the most famous person on the planet…well, it just boggles my mind. Can you picture, in some parallel universe, Elvis stocking shelves or busing tables?
I can’t picture Michael Jackson not being famous. I have a feeling that if he wasn’t famous for being … well … him, he’d be famous (or infamous) for being some pedophile. I have a feeling he wouldn’t have been acquitted if he wasn’t rich and famous.
Fast forward to his fat elvis days. Can you picture fat elvis stocking shelves? I can…
I bought a refrigerator at an appliance store from an overweight, ageing Elvis impersonator (by night). At his desk he had on a radio tuned to an Elvis-only satellite radio station. I know just what it would feel like to see fat Elvis stocking shelves.
I cannot imagine Oprah Winfrey not being famous since it appears to be her only mission in life. She would have found fame one way or another.
Elizabeth Taylor. I mean, look at her: http://celebrity-pics.movieeye.com/celebrity_pictures/Elizabeth_Taylor_402355.jpeg
Liberace.
NVM
Tom Hanks.
I was going to say Carol Channing, but I realized that she is a celebrity who SHE can’t imagine not being famous. I don’t think anybody else gives a hoot. She can’t sing or act, other than to impersonate herself.
Alec Baldwin. Not in a bad way. He just has that look.
You should watch or read “Bubba Hotep” by Joe Lansdale. 
I think there are lots of easy choices.
Paul MCartney. Think of all the Beatles song you know. Macca wrote about half of them. He wrote about half of them before his 28th birthday. Anyone with that capability is going to find fame one way or another, even with the music industry’s legendary indifference to talent. Stevie Wonder is another in the same category. If you have whatever it takes to churn out ‘Songs In The Key of Life’ then you will be famous.
I know people who have worked with Madonna. They tell me that, whether you like her stuff or not, not only does she have whatever talent she has but she is also very hard-working, very driven and determined, and extremely focused on things being the way she thinks they ought to be.
I don’t know if we’re allowed historical picks, but a good one would be Salvador Dali. Could never be anything but what he was.
I’m a youngin’ so my choices are going to reflect that: Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt.
Less so for their charisma and general personality and moreso because they have been on the A List for almost my whole movie-going life. Tom and Brad in the A List and being the star of the show is almost all I know.
Now that I think about, same for Morgan Freeman.
True, but when you consider how young she was when she wrote it, and how brilliant her later work was, I’ll give her a pass. It’s not a bad or poorly written song by any measure, just mediocre.
I was thinking of Liz Taylor, too. In the book “How To Be A Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor In Hollywood” by William J. Mann, she herself admits she doesn’t remember when she was NOT famous.
I know she started OUT as nothing much, but Marilyn Monroe certainly made something out of herself, for a short time. She had grand acting ambitions that were never realized.
I like to say I met Brad Pit “on his way up”. Literally.
I was alone in an elevator at the movie studio and suddenly a guy rushes and catches it and we ride up to the top (8th) floor together. I see he is holding a script and know that final auditions are usually held on the 8th floor and say, “Auditioning, eh?”
Guy nods and smiles, “Yeah, and I think I have the role.”
The way he smiled and said it was just such genuine happiness - no big ego thing - that I was really happy for the guy.
“Great! Good luck.” I said as I went down the hallway, glancing back at that good looking, really nice guy. Yes it was Brad and the script was for Thelma And Louise.
The fact that this moment is still fairly fresh in my mind - decades later - lets me know this guy just had “it”.
I would like to suggest another person:
Brooke Shields
If you ever see her in real life, she is simply gorgeous and you cannot take your eyes off her. I don’t think she has even ever had a pimple in her life. Plus, I was lucky enough to get to know her a bit, and she is every bit as nice in real life as she comes across in interviews.
These were the first two that came to mind, along with Julia Roberts.
