Richard Nixon
Tiger Woods
Brad Delp
Doctor Oz
Paul Revere
Elbridge Gerry
Stephen Tyler
James Taylor
Sam Adams
Edgar Allen Poe
Robert Frost
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Jack Kerouac
Garrison Keillor
Terry Gilliam
Josh Hartnett (does he count?)
The Andrews Sisters
Michelle Bachman (unfortunately)
Richard Dean Anderson (MacGyver)–went to my high school, in fact.
Bob Dylan
Um…that’s all I can think of off the top of my head.
Linus Pauling
Matt Groening
Beverly Cleary
Raymond Carver
Tonya Harding
Morgan Freeman
Oprah Winfrey
William Faulkner
Faith Hill
I live in Los Angeles. I wouldn’t even know where to start.
Johnny Mercer - Songwriter
Flannery O’Conner - Author
Conrad Aiken - Poet
Clarence Thomas - Supreme Court Justice
Big Boi - Rapper former of Outkast
Juliette Gordon Low - Girl Scouts founder
And others…
David Lee Roth, John Mellencamp, Hoagy Carmichael, Meg Cabot
Define “area”.
If we’re going with “from your town/city” then I have plenty.
If you mean “from your local neighbourhood” then not so much.
ETA: Oh, and if by “famous” you mean “famous in Australia” and not “world famous”, though some on that list qualify for both.
The Carpenters, James Hetfield, Miranda Cosgrove, JoJo Starbuck and Ken Shelley
George Lucas
Mark Spitz
Joe Rudi
Carol Channing(current resident)
Harve Presnell (actor)
Suzy Powell (American record holder-Discus, 3 time Olympian)
City would be too big but if you bring it down to local area then Phil Lynott would be it.
Francis Xavier tends to be pretty well-known, or at least a familiar name. There’s others but he’s both the one I hear mentioned most often and the one that people know where he’s from. All the original Jesuits were from “close by”, but he’s both the one from “closest by” and one of the most famous members of his Order.
Architect Rafael Moneo, the medical pair Miguel Servet (probably born in Saragossa, raised in Tudela, signed as “from Tudela” and discovered blood circulation) and Santiago Ramón y Cajal (born in Petilla, considered himself from Saragossa and discovered that nerves are made of separate cells), several sportsfolk (Miguel Induráin, the Sánchez Vicario family), mounted bullfighter Pablo Hermoso de Mendoza; most of our musicians are known only in Spain but I do think that clasical musicians Elsewhere may have heard of Pablo Sarasate and perhaps of Julián Gayarre; the one which I think may be best known outside our borders among the current crop is soprano María Bayo.
And of course, although the immense majority of the world would never, ever, recognize its author’s name (or even know that this song is a single song and not several, much less the song’s own name), millions of people from every country in the world (except perhaps Nepal) have danced to the Vals-Jota de Astráin, aka “Riau-riau”, during the Sanfermines. Without lyrics, played by La Pamplonesa (the city’s band, of which Astráin was director when he wrote the waltz); with one of the many versions of its lyrics, curiously written without any tildes, and sung.
Reverend Billy Graham
Ric “Nature Boy” Flair (Woo!)
From my hometown of Dardanelle, AR, which now has around 4000 people, but maybe 3000 when I was growing up:
John Daly, pro golfer
James Lee Witt, head of FEMA during the Clinton administration
…and of course, Mattie Ross from True Grit (fictional)
Abraham Lincoln
Robin Roberts (baseball player back in The Day)
Vachel Lindsay (poet)
Jayson Werth (baseball player for (I think) the LA Dodgers)
The list grows significantly if you include famous people who now call Austin home. (Damn yankees)
Wright Brothers
Jonathan Winters
Erma Bombeck
Charlie Sheen