# Ever know anyone related to a famous person? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 17, 2009, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-anyone-related-to-a-famous-person/503365 "2009-07-17T18:20:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2009, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-anyone-related-to-a-famous-person/503365/61 "2009-07-18T01:46:53Z")
> [@Proudest\_Monkey](#): > > My mother knows **Stephen King**. Oh! What’s he like? ---
**Author:** ![Gorgon\_Heap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f475e1/32.png) [@Gorgon\_Heap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorgon_Heap)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2009, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-anyone-related-to-a-famous-person/503365/62 "2009-07-18T02:22:37Z")
I used to roommate with the niece of Keith Herring. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2009, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-anyone-related-to-a-famous-person/503365/63 "2009-07-18T02:25:56Z")
> [@Gorgon\_Heap](#): > > I used to roommate with the niece of Keith Herring. Keith Haring the artist? Cool. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2009, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-anyone-related-to-a-famous-person/503365/64 "2009-07-18T02:31:22Z")
I’ve met many celebrities, myself . . . but when my parents were in high school, they knew Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the creators of \*Superman. \*My mother actually dated Siegel a few times. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2009, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-anyone-related-to-a-famous-person/503365/65 "2009-07-18T02:36:03Z")
> [@Gorgon\_Heap](#): > > I used to roommate with the niece of Keith Herring. I actually “knew” Keith Haring, 2 or 3 times. He was lots of fun. ---
**Author:** ![Gorgon\_Heap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f475e1/32.png) [@Gorgon\_Heap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorgon_Heap)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2009, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-anyone-related-to-a-famous-person/503365/66 "2009-07-18T02:42:07Z")
> [@](#): > > I actually “knew” Keith Haring Heh. Cool. Yeah, there were a bunch of us crammed in one apartment in Kutztown - where he’s from. Good people, though I admit I haven’t seen her in several years. ---
**Author:** ![Emily\_Litella](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emily_litella/32/3370_2.png) [@Emily\_Litella](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emily_Litella)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2009, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-anyone-related-to-a-famous-person/503365/67 "2009-07-18T02:44:59Z")
A friend of mine is a cousin of the actor Joe Pesci, he looks and sounds very similar to him. My ex husband and son are direct descendants of the Irish politician and orator Daniel O’Connell. I named my son Daniel after him. There’s a rumor on my Mom’s side of the family that we’re related to Eva Braun, but I’ve never been able to confirm it. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2009, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-anyone-related-to-a-famous-person/503365/68 "2009-07-18T03:27:29Z")
Cousins of mine are cousins to a sports journalist who features regularly on tv and has a newspaper column. He’s not internationally famous, he’s probably not even famous interstate, but he has a recognisable name to football fans in Victoria. That’s pretty lame 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2009, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-anyone-related-to-a-famous-person/503365/69 "2009-07-18T04:53:03Z")
> [@Cazzle](#): > > That’s pretty lame 🙂 Awesomely so. The more tenuous the connection to the more obscure a celebrity, the cooler. I used to teach a board game to a minor rock star guy who married a billionaire’s daughter. I sort of know a guy who taught the same board game to a major rock star. I know another guy who taught the same board game to the well-known son of a very major rock star. I went to high school with Jon Cryer’s half brother’s half-brother. My father worked with the father of a guy in “Chicago”. My grandmother’s family knew the Pearses’ she had a signed photograph of Patrick Pearse and his brother. My other grandmother’s godfather was George Meany. But that’s about enough bragging on myself. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2009, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-anyone-related-to-a-famous-person/503365/70 "2009-07-18T05:27:58Z")
> [@fachverwirrt](#): > > I went to high school with Christa McAuliffe’s son. > > \ I was working with her niece or cousin the day she died. I used to hang out with [Michael Gruskoff](http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0344710/)’s daughter. I dated [Jose Feliciano](http://www.biographybase.com/biography/Feliciano_Jose.html) on and off for a couple years. [Gary Cooper](http://us.imdb.com/find?s=all&q=Gary+Cooper&x=18&y=8) was my very distant cousin. ---
**Author:** ![AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AboutAsWeirdAsYouCanGet)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2009, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-anyone-related-to-a-famous-person/503365/71 "2009-07-18T05:44:36Z")
One of my brother’s friends from high school was Gerhaldo’s nephew. Actually, I have a TON of “six degrees of connections”, to him since he used to live in my town as a summer resident. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2009, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-anyone-related-to-a-famous-person/503365/72 "2009-07-18T12:04:16Z")
My cousin is Paul Bostaph, of the bands _Slayer_ and _Testament_. ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2009, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-anyone-related-to-a-famous-person/503365/73 "2009-07-18T12:37:57Z")
When I was in kindergarten, I had a student teacher whose father was jazz musician Joe Negri. This wouldn’t be notable to most kindergarteners but as Pittsburghers we also knew the alter ego of jazzman Joe Negri was [Handyman Negri on Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Negri) and that made Miss Negri the World’s Most Awesome Teacher by default/association. She wasn’t around long, just until Christmas break, but I wonder to this day if her students still get wide eyes when they find out who her dad is. (Probably not now, they’d probably only be awed if her dad were Spongebob or something. ☹ ) My family had a close relationship with Bob Trow, who played Bob Dog and Robert Troll on Mr. Rogers’. He grew up in the same neighborhood as my parents and their families and went to school with all of my maternal great aunts and great uncles. He was an accomplished sketch artist, and during the span of the reception, drew an amazing portrait of my mother in her wedding gown and veil, which still hangs in our home. On my father’s side I’m cousin to [Camille Cosby](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0181729/) but I’ve not met her. On my mother’s side, I’m cousin to tennis champion Arantxa Sanchez Vicario but I’ve also not met her. ---
**Author:** ![ashman165](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@ashman165](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ashman165)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2009, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-anyone-related-to-a-famous-person/503365/74 "2009-07-18T12:54:07Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Anyone besides me never heard of even half of these ‘celebrities’? That’s what I was thinking. Like, pre ww2 ambassadors? I mean, I know I don’t keep track, but still. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2009, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-anyone-related-to-a-famous-person/503365/75 "2009-07-18T13:03:05Z")
My best friend is descended directly from Benjamin Harrison, William Henry Harrison, and ultimately from the latter’s father, [Benjamin Harrison V,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Harrison_V) whom he looks EXACTLY like. Benjamin Harrison V is probably about 23 in that portrait, the same age my friend and I are, and if you were to remove the wig, he would basically be the guy’s double. For a long time, my friend used his ancestor’s portrait as his Facebook picture. The ironic thing is that, while he always knew that he was a descendant of the two Harrison presidents, he was unaware of who Benjamin Harrison V was and did not know that they looked exactly the same until I showed him that portrait, which quickly became a source of humor and amazement among my friends. Thereafter he began using it as his profile image. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2009, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-anyone-related-to-a-famous-person/503365/76 "2009-07-18T13:05:13Z")
> [@Olentzero](#): > > There are at least two other Alden cousins on the board here; **iampunha** (if he’s still around) and yours truly. Brainiac4 is a John Q Adams decedent on his mother’s side. So three Dopers are Aldens. His father is decedent from Pierre L’Enfant. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2009, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-anyone-related-to-a-famous-person/503365/77 "2009-07-18T13:44:52Z")
About ten years ago, I worked for a guy who the first cousin of Carly Simon. My brother used to work a girl who was Natalie Merchant’s cousin. My brother said the cousin never stopped talking about Natalie, constantly dropping her name into every.single.conversation. It was something of a joke at the hospital he worked at. ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2009, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-anyone-related-to-a-famous-person/503365/78 "2009-07-18T13:58:32Z")
My fifth grade teacher used to talk about her football-playing brother, Jake Scott, then attending the University of Georgia. He went on to win the MVP award in the 1972 Super Bowl. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2009, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-anyone-related-to-a-famous-person/503365/79 "2009-07-18T14:11:21Z")
If we’re getting into distant relationships to historic figures, my 6th great-grandfather was an indentured servant on the plantation of Isham Randolph. The Randolphs were a prominent Virginia family, and Isham’s nephews, great-nephews, etc., include a number of significant historic figures like Peyton Randolph, John Randolph of Roanoke, and Robert E. Lee. But more importantly, Isham’s grandson was U.S. President Thomas Jefferson. Since I now live in Virginia, about an hour from Monticello, I enjoy mentioning to people that I’m descended from one of the indentured servants on Jefferson’s grandfather’s plantation. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2009, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-anyone-related-to-a-famous-person/503365/80 "2009-07-18T14:23:03Z")
My daughters went to High school with Nick Hexum from 311. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-anyone-related-to-a-famous-person/503365.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-know-anyone-related-to-a-famous-person/503365.md?page=5)