I went to high school with Elizabeth Berkley, star of the movie Showgirls. I didn’t know her, she was one grade ahead of me. I found out about it when someone else told me we went to the same school. I didn’t believe them, so I looked it up in an old yearbook and sure enough, there she was.
Apparently I was doing college radio at the same time as Michael Rosenbaum, Lex Luthor of ‘Smallville’ fame. I guess I didn’t make the connection since he had hair back then 
I never met or talked to him, but George Stephanapolous was in one of my classes at Columbia.
Went to college with Ethan Hawke. He was in my year at Carnegie Mellon. He was already well-known due to his role in Dead Poet’s Society. He would hang out in the cafeteria on Sunday mornings with his friends acting like a jerk. And I would think “so this is the big movie star?!?” Imagine my surprise when he actually did become a big movie star, having affairs with Julia Roberts, marrying Uma Thurman, and actually getting nominated for an Oscar. In all fairness, all of the “dramats” would act like jerks on Sunday mornings in the caf. It wasn’t just him. I didn’t know him personally, but I knew enough people who knew him that if he was actually a jerk I prolly would have heard about it.
NBA star Grant Hill was one class behind me at good old South Lakes High in Reston, Va.
Dean Koontz graduated from my high school, albeit many years before me. He was visiting town one weekend, and my mom almost hit him with her car. He was jaywalking. The strange coincidence is that this was about the same time Stephen King was hit by a car.
Shaq was at LSU at the same time I was there. Oddly, we didn’t really hang out together. I did hear from someone who had a class he was in that he was very polite and friendly and actually came to class and worked, which is something you don’t often hear about athletes in college, especially at LSU.
While reading this thread, I thought that I wouldn’t have anything to contribute, but my memory has been jogged.
I went to junior high with Andrew Mavis, who played basketball for Team Canada in the Sydney Olympics. (and actually, by coincidence at a Milestones restaurant [she was my waitress], I met his sister-in-law who was also an old school classmate of ours) Andrew was always very nice, and was able to joke around with the best of them.
My brother went to the same high school as Brian Johns, who was a swimmer for the Canadian team at the Sydney Olympics. He didn’t know him very well, but that’s something.
I went to school with Jonathan Stark who has done very well for himself at pro-tennis - Wimbledon and US Open type stuff.
Helped him and his mate TM pass a science class in junior high.
shall I also mention he taught me to play tennis in high school?
Now that I think about it, I remember my brother saying that one of his friends (who I also know) was rather shocked a couple of years ago… seems that the then-current Playboy[sup]TM[/sup] Playmate was someone he’d gone to high school with! :eek:
Think of it: you’re 19 and you happen to glance at the current issue of Playboy… you see a name and face that looks very familiar to you… “OH MY GOD…I knew her in high school!” Very much the distressing point of your day, I’d say.
While he’s probably not famous outside of anime and comic book enthusiasts, I went to elementary school, middle school, and high school with Sonny Strait. He does the voice for Krillin in Dragonball Z. He also helps illustrate and write some of the Elfquest comic books.
Jerry Hall is from my hometown, but didn’t go to my high school (she went to the other high school in town about twenty years before my time). Her twin sister, Terry, is married to my best friend’s cousin. I always wanted to send David Letterman a viewer mail letter that said “Dear Dave, My best friend’s cousin’s wife’s twin sister is Jerry Hall, wife of Mick Jagger. Who do you know that’s famous?”, but I never got around to doing that.
I graduated with Father Guido Sarducci (Don Novello) he was voted best sense of humor. He looks a lot younger than I do but then he always did. Capt Billy
Well, Kelly McGillis and Ted McGinley both went to my high school, but years before i was there.
However, Charlie Colin, the bass player for Train, was in my class in high school. I remember one year he and two friends had a cover band and played in the school talent show. If I could find the yearbook picture, I’d send it to VH1 for “Pop-Up Video” or some other “we knew them when” show!
Just think, the guy has a Grammy now…
I was in the same dorm at Cornell with Christopher Reeve. I knew him to talk to, but I can’t say I knew him very well.
I’m glad I found a cite, because this is probably too long ago, but I went to school with Bill Anderson
Why A Duck: was Adam Sandler that annoying back in high school?
I went to school with “The Bates Brothers” as they were known at the time. Marion, Michael, and the other M that I can’t remember. They were huge sports stars in high school, and one of them (Michael, maybe?) won a bronze in the Olympics a few years back. Another of them plays pro football for some team or other somewhere. Or did as of a couple of years ago. I don’t follow sports so I have no idea if they count as ‘famous’ though.
I lived on the same street and graduated with race car driver Jimmy Vassar, who drives the Target car. My dog had his dog’s puppies.
I also graduated with the late Rick Berry who played briefly for the Sacramento Kings before taking his own life.
While I’m still to young to have gone to school with any very famous people, here’s one the mathematicians in the crowd will appreciate: Jacob Licht. You may not have heard the name, but he discovered some sort of an addendum to the Rainbow-Ramsey Theorem. I have no idea what this is, I can barely pull off a B- in AP Stat. Still, the mathematical world thinks he’s the next Einstein and right now he’s choosing whether to go to MIT on a full scholarship or Cal Tech on a full scholarship as well as a payment of $100 for every day he spends there. So he’s sorta famous
People who went to my high school in the past:
Wavy Gravy
Lenny Kravitz’s drummer (the woman who had the big fro)
People who went to my soon-to-be college:
Goldie Hawn
Barry Levison
Star Jones
Went to college with Corky Hubbert, he played Rollo, the main Munchkin, in “Under the Rainbow”. He still pops up in Xmas ads and such. Was recently in “The Ballad of the Sad Cafe” with Vanessa Redgrave and Keith Carradine. I once saw him get so mad at a street preacher he had to be held back.
Rick Reynolds (“Only the truth is funny”) was also there at the same time but I never met him. He also grew up in the same part of town I did. Several other weird parallels there.
If non-overlap is allowed: A recent Miss America went to both the same college and high school I did.
John Denver went to the same high school as my wife, at about the same time, but I can’t remember if she said she actually knew him.
Jack Elam went to the same university I went to, but many years earlier.