# Celebrities you had assumed were of a different race. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 27, 2010, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-had-assumed-were-of-a-different-race/540931 "2010-05-27T11:26:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**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:** [May 29, 2010, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-had-assumed-were-of-a-different-race/540931/101 "2010-05-29T11:00:33Z")
Zachary Levi, most famous for playing Chuck Bartowski, is apparently not even the littlest bit Jewish. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2010, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-had-assumed-were-of-a-different-race/540931/102 "2010-05-29T11:02:49Z")
> [@HelloNinja](#): > > I thought \*\*Norah Jones \*\*was black for the longest time. > [@ArchiveGuy](#): > > Wow! :eek: Well, I’ll be… This was pretty much my same thought process. I was so thoroughly convinced she was black, that when someone told me she wasn’t, I went and furiously Googled her, certain that she was a light-skinned black woman, perhaps with a non-black parent. That’s when I found out that she was Shankar’s daughter. So I was wrong, but so was the girl who thought Jones was just a dark-haired white girl! > [@GuanoLad](#): > > 1. It’s “Holding Back The _Years_.” > > 2. He’s certainly not black, Mick’s _red_. Hence the name. Okay, yes, and thank you. Gods help me, but I love this awful, awful song, and thus, Simply Red. It is my official “I am in a break up, and I’ve no aspiration but to do anything but wallow and be unashamedly pathetic” song. It’s terrible, but has a special place in my cold, dark little heart. Now then! Here’s what I was thinking when I clicked on this thread: > [@descamisado](#): > > I was still watching Saturday Night Live occasionally when Maya Rudolph was still on. > > Not only did I not know she was mixed race ('though I did wonder why she always played the “ethnic” characters), I didn’t know until recently her mother was Minnie Riperton. Excellent! There were times when I would think “That white woman looks black sometimes.” I’d see her and think she was white, then at other times wonder why she looked so brown, and would figure it was just the camera or something. Then I’d see her next to white people and go, “Is she white?” and at some point concluded she might be a very light black woman. Then I’d go, “That black woman looks really white.” Now why it never dawned on me that she could actually be black _and_ white, I will never know. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2010, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-had-assumed-were-of-a-different-race/540931/103 "2010-05-29T12:08:44Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > I’m stunned at all the people that thought Mariah Carey was white, shocked to find out she’s half black. I always thought she was black and while not really shocked to find out she’s half white (she is light skinnded), I certainly wouldn’t have thought it a given that she’s part white. Most “black” people in America are “part white.” ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2010, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-had-assumed-were-of-a-different-race/540931/104 "2010-05-29T12:16:22Z")
…and some “white” people are “part black.” (The only reason there’s a difference is that American culture traditionally classifies anyone with any visible African ancestry as black.) What matters–in terms of how one is treated–is mostly just absolute skin tone, and also to some extent how one carries oneself. I doubt Jennifer Beals and Derek Jeter suffered much racial discrimination growing up. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/96bed5/32.png) [@Cat\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Jones)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2010, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-had-assumed-were-of-a-different-race/540931/105 "2010-05-29T13:29:47Z")
> [@pbbth](#): > > The moon landing was long before I was born and as a child learning about the whole thing I only saw the pictures of men in space suits, never of their faces. I just decided as a child that **obviously** Neil Armstrong would be black. It made sense in my mind for some reason (not related to Louis Armstrong as I was about 5 and not familiar with Jazz…my dad was a big Rush fan and my mom listened to Billy Joel so I didn’t get a whole lot of other music exposure.) I don’t know if it was because the moon landing thing was around the same time as the civil rights movement or if it was because my teacher was black or what, but I totally thought that Neil Armstrong was black for the first 26 years of my life. As a kid I thought Abraham Loncoln was black for quite a while … I saw an episode of Different STrokes where the little kid was playing him in a school play or something so I just assumed Lincoln was black too. ---
**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:** [May 29, 2010, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-had-assumed-were-of-a-different-race/540931/106 "2010-05-29T13:32:59Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Zachary Levi, most famous for playing Chuck Bartowski, is apparently not even the littlest bit Jewish. For that matter, neither is Jason Biggs, who apparently fooled Woody Allen into believing he was Jewish without even trying to. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2010, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-had-assumed-were-of-a-different-race/540931/107 "2010-05-29T18:28:43Z")
I didn’t realize for quite a while that sisters Jennifer Tilly and Meg Tilly are half Caucasian and half Chinese. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2010, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-had-assumed-were-of-a-different-race/540931/108 "2010-05-29T18:30:46Z")
Whoa, I had no idea about Jennifer Tilly. (Well, or Meg Tilly–but I didn’t know who she was till just now so I never speculated either way.) ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2010, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-had-assumed-were-of-a-different-race/540931/109 "2010-05-29T18:43:02Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > What matters–in terms of how one is treated–is mostly just absolute skin tone, and also to some extent how one carries oneself. I doubt Jennifer Beals and Derek Jeter suffered much racial discrimination growing up. Maybe not, but I went to college with her brother and since he was so scuzzy (didn’t shower, his clothes looked like they were slept in) he never got any. THat must have hurt. > [@Sinisterniik](#): > > Also, to those Hockey fans out there, I thought that former Ranger Sandy McCarthy was white for quite a while. What!? Not only does dude have cornrows, but they’re righteous.\* How could you not know he was mixed with something? ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-had-assumed-were-of-a-different-race/540931/110 "2010-05-30T00:53:48Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Zachary Levi, most famous for playing Chuck Bartowski, is apparently not even the littlest bit Jewish. Is Chuck established as Jewish (I don’t recall such if so), or is it just because his last name’s Levi that this is a surprise? > [@spark240](#): > > Most “black” people in America are “part white.” And you know that’s not the type of “part white” being talked about in my post. Replace part with half if you must. ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-had-assumed-were-of-a-different-race/540931/111 "2010-05-30T16:02:51Z")
> [@Cat\_Jones](#): > > It was only reading an obitury that I discovered [Freddie Mercury](http://www.persianmirror.com/culture/famous/bios/mercury.cfm) wasn’t white/European. Totally astounded me! Big fan of Queen but I never knew that. Still gobsmacked. ---
**Author:** ![Sinisterniik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/51bf81/32.png) [@Sinisterniik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sinisterniik)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2010, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-had-assumed-were-of-a-different-race/540931/112 "2010-05-30T16:42:19Z")
> [@descamisado](#): > > What!? Not only does dude have cornrows, but they’re righteous.\* How could you not know he was mixed with something? You’re right, as seen in this photo: [http://i.a.cnn.net/si/images/hockey/nhl/players/550.jpg](http://i.a.cnn.net/si/images/hockey/nhl/players/550.jpg) But I hadn’t seen him with his helmet off until well after he came to the Rangers, and by that time he had started to change his hair, as seen in this photo: [http://cdn.nhl.com/rangers/images/upload/2009/04/McCarthy\_Blueshirts\_2002.jpg](http://cdn.nhl.com/rangers/images/upload/2009/04/McCarthy_Blueshirts_2002.jpg) Besides, by default I assume that all Hockey players are white and from Canada, Michigan or Wisconsin -unless I can’t spell their names; then I assume that they’re from Eastern Europe. ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-had-assumed-were-of-a-different-race/540931/113 "2010-05-31T03:38:01Z")
> [@pbbth](#): > > Before I tell you who my celebrity mix-up is you have to promise not to laugh. You promise? Good. > > Up until about a year ago I thought that Neil Armstrong was black. stop laughing I don’t think I ever saw a picture of him outside of his spacesuit and as a child I just assumed that he was black and that was the mental image that stuck with me. Then about a year ago I saw a picture labeled Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong and laughed. I showed it to my fiance and pointed out that they had the wrong picture because that guy with Buzz Alrin obviously wasn’t Neil Armstrong! He was the completely wrong color! They might as well have shown Buzz Aldrin with Betty White! seriously, stop laughing He just laughed and said that Neil Armstrong was indeed the man in the picture and that I earned a couple of dingbat points for that one. hahahahahahahahahhahaha… sorry ---
**Author:** ![3\_20\_59\_or\_bust](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/47e85d/32.png) [@3\_20\_59\_or\_bust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3_20_59_or_bust)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-had-assumed-were-of-a-different-race/540931/114 "2010-05-31T03:52:52Z")
Well, until I realized he was voicing the bilingual Handy Manny, I had no idea that Wilmer Valderrama was of Hispanic descent. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilmer\_Valderrama](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilmer_Valderrama) Of course, maybe that’s because I could only think of him as “Fez” from, from, from…well, I guess I didn’t really know where he was from. But I sure as Hell didn’t think it was Columbia or Venezuela! [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fez\_(That\_%2770s\_Show)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fez_(That_%2770s_Show)) ---
**Author:** ![Uzi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/91b2a8/32.png) [@Uzi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uzi)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-had-assumed-were-of-a-different-race/540931/115 "2010-05-31T03:54:46Z")
> [@pbbth](#): > > Up until about a year ago I thought that Neil Armstrong was black. stop laughing I don’t think I ever saw a picture of him outside of his spacesuit and as a child I just assumed that he was black and that was the mental image that stuck with me. So, you thought that back in the 60’s the first man the US was going to let set foot on the moon was going to be a black man?! Hehe. Hehehe. Bwahahahahahaha!!! Oh, mercy! Sorry, but too funny! ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-had-assumed-were-of-a-different-race/540931/116 "2010-05-31T08:03:34Z")
Not a celebrity today- though he was in his lifetime- but Alexandre Dumas, Sr. surprises a lot of people who didn’t know the author of _Count of Monte Christo_, _The Three Musketeers_, _The Nutcracker_ and other classics not only had African ancestry through his [French Creole father](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Alexandre_Dumas_%281762-1806%29.JPG) but [it was](http://spad1.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/dumas.jpg) [obvious in](http://images.tvrage.com/people/45/132949.jpg)[his appearance](http://www.cadytech.com/dumas/images/all/000101.jpg). Peter Ustinov was part Ethiopian as well, though how much varies by the source. He claimed a quarter, but I think it was actually more like an eighth. Similar story about Russell Crowe’s Maori ancestry- I think it’s about 1/16 or 1/32. ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-had-assumed-were-of-a-different-race/540931/117 "2010-05-31T09:20:26Z")
> [@Shirley\_Ujest](#): > > When I was a teenager and watching some old B & W movie on TV ( no cable) I was shocked to find that Lena Horne was black. Well… partly anyway… also part Native American it seems. ([Photo of young Lena](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/Lenahorne.jpeg) on her wiki page). For myself, it’d be [Grace Slick](http://www.amoeba.com/dynamic-images/blog/Job/graceslick1.jpg). Having only heard her singing “White Rabbit” in a particularly gravelly live recording I’d formed a mental image of a black blues singer in the mould of Billy Holiday. I was more than a little surprised to find one of her parents was Norwegian-Swedish, and the other a _Mayflower_ descendant. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-had-assumed-were-of-a-different-race/540931/118 "2010-05-31T15:43:46Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > I didn’t realize for quite a while that sisters Jennifer Tilly and Meg Tilly are half Caucasian and half Chinese. Oh…you beat me to it. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2010, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-had-assumed-were-of-a-different-race/540931/119 "2010-05-31T17:06:39Z")
Not a race exactly, but I’d assumed Harry Morgan (bk4 M_A_S\*H) was Jewish due to his birth name of Bratsberg. He’s actually the son of Norwegian immigrants. An interesting example of self identified ethnicity: Earle Hyman, the actor most famous for playing Cliff’s father on _The Cosby Show_, is by birth a North Carolinian of multiracial heritage (white, Native American and black or, as it was known in the NC of his birth, black), but has “changed race”. He identifies as Norwegian- he says Norway is the only place he’s ever truly felt at home and he lives there- where he’s an extremely respected member of the theater community- when he’s not working in the U.S… He speaks fluent Norwegian, his partner of many years is Norwegian (I don’t know if said partner is male or female- in an interview he says he’s been romantically involved with a Norwegian for 50+ years) and is an honorary citizen of Norway who has received medals and royal decorations for his work in theater there. ---
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2010, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-had-assumed-were-of-a-different-race/540931/120 "2010-06-01T00:44:00Z")
In sports, this quality gets you a spot on the “Reggie Cleveland All-Stars”. Outside sports, Hymie Weiss, who, with Schemer Drucci, headed the North Side gang after Dion O’Banion and before Bugs Moran, was a Polish Catholic. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-had-assumed-were-of-a-different-race/540931.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-you-had-assumed-were-of-a-different-race/540931.md?page=7)