# Most Famous People From Your Area **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 18, 2011, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-people-from-your-area/582286 "2011-05-18T04:23:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-people-from-your-area/582286/61 "2011-05-19T00:33:33Z")
Jesus ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-people-from-your-area/582286/62 "2011-05-19T00:35:34Z")
I started out thinking, “Nobody famous ever came from my city of birth”, but to my surprise there were a few. Among them: Roberta Bondar, Lester B Pearson, Sandford Fleming, and Matt Frewer. ---
**Author:** ![Gleena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b3f665/32.png) [@Gleena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gleena)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-people-from-your-area/582286/63 "2011-05-19T00:48:38Z")
> [@NinetyWt](#): > > Morgan Freeman > Oprah Winfrey > William Faulkner > Faith Hill Eudora Welty Walter Payton Elvis ETA: And Jerry Clower…HAW! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-people-from-your-area/582286/64 "2011-05-19T00:50:16Z")
Drew Carey LeBron James Bob Hope Elliot Ness ---
**Author:** ![BaneSidhe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c5a1d2/32.png) [@BaneSidhe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BaneSidhe)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-people-from-your-area/582286/65 "2011-05-19T00:51:33Z")
From where I’m from: Brad Paisley Where I live now: Jennifer Garner Anne Magnuson ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-people-from-your-area/582286/66 "2011-05-19T00:53:57Z")
From my hometown, no one that I know of. From my now-home city, Aaron Rodgers. ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-people-from-your-area/582286/67 "2011-05-19T02:06:36Z")
> [@Skammer](#): > > It’s a long list. > [List of people from Nashville, Tennessee](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_from_Nashville,_Tennessee) > > If you mean “my hometown” the list is much shorter (small town): > > - Senator Scott Brown, R-MA > - Mosi Tatupu, former Patriots running back > - Helen Keller > - Horace Mann > - Lofa Tatupu, Seahawks linebacker > - Garth Snow, former NHL goalie and owner > > Garth and I went to elementary school together. I remember he was a wicked little league pitcher. What he said for Nashville. 🙂 From the area where I grew up: Janie Fricke Thomas Marshall Crystal Gayle (although she was originally from Kentucky, she moved to Wabash as a very small child) Shelly Long Carole Lombard Connie Smith Sylvia (the singer) Dan Quayle (much as we’d like to disclaim him) ---
**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:** [May 19, 2011, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-people-from-your-area/582286/68 "2011-05-19T02:22:07Z")
Marlon Brando, Gerald Ford and Warren Buffet all come from within walking distance of the house where I grew up. ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-people-from-your-area/582286/69 "2011-05-19T02:35:41Z")
No one famous from my hometown. Some Gaither people were from nearby. However, I taught for nine years at the high school where the female half of Sugarland graduated, so we’ve probably met. I really don’t remember her, even though we were both there together for four of those 9 years. ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-people-from-your-area/582286/70 "2011-05-19T02:38:37Z")
Patrick Swayze Howard Duff ZZ Top Kenny Rogers Dan Rather Phylicia Rashad Beyonce Knowles Dennis and Randy Quaid Jaclyn Smith ---
**Author:** ![Gagundathar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-people-from-your-area/582286/71 "2011-05-19T02:43:55Z")
I was unaware that these are/were fellow Atlantans: Lucius D. Clay, “father” of the Berlin Airlift (1948–49), the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways and the National System of Airports and Airbases – known as “The Man Who Changed America” Will Wright, computer game designer, best known for creating Simcity and The Sims ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-people-from-your-area/582286/72 "2011-05-19T03:46:33Z")
The Adams family (Founding Fathers) George H. W. Bush Buckminster Fuller The NKOTB New Edition ---
**Author:** ![Cugel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cugel/32/1199_2.png) [@Cugel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cugel)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-people-from-your-area/582286/73 "2011-05-19T05:20:53Z")
None sprang to mind, and further rumination only produces the DNF maestro Mark Webber. Pretty sad. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-people-from-your-area/582286/74 "2011-05-19T05:56:16Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Yeats moved to England when he was two, and never left. I moved to the town where I grew up when I was four; when I left for college 14 years later, people still didn’t consider me a local. Both of my brothers were born there: the old-timers still don’t consider them local, because our parents weren’t. I’ve met people in Scotland who identifed as “Irish” even though the ones who’d crossed the strait were their great-grandparents. If Yeats consider himself an Irishman and “the English” considered him an Irishman, then that’s what he was, an Irishman. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-people-from-your-area/582286/75 "2011-05-19T06:00:11Z")
From my general neighborhood, the only ones I could immediately think of are Jenny McCarthy and Danny Pudi. ETA: Oh, and the drummer of Disturbed (Mike Wengren). I’m not sure if the rest of the guys are from the immediate neighborhood or not. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-people-from-your-area/582286/76 "2011-05-19T06:45:43Z")
From near my hometown of Johnstown, PA: Carol Baker, Academy award-nominated actress. Ray Scott, sports announcer, famous as the voice of the Green Bay Packers. Jack Ham, All-Pro Steelers linebacker. Tim Kazurinsky, comedian and actor. Famous from SNL and the Police Academy movies. Pete Vukovich, major league pitcher, 1982 AL Cy Young Award winner. Charles Bronson, action movie star. Emil Sitka. Appeared in nearly 40 Three Stooges shorts. Famous for his role as the preacher in “The Brideless Groom.” His best-known line, “Hold hands, you lovebirds.” After Larry Fine had suffered a stroke in 1970, plans were made for Sitka to replace him, but nothing came of it except a promotional photograph of Sitka along with Moe Howard and Joe De Rita. People born in my current city, Tucson: Barbara Eden, actress-“I Dream of Jeannie” Linda Ronstadt, Grammy-winning recording artist. Tom Pagnozzi, former St. Louis Cardinals catcher. Ian Kinsler, current second baseman for the AL Champion Texas Rangers. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-people-from-your-area/582286/77 "2011-05-19T08:37:02Z")
I pretty much consider Edinburgh home now, so: David Hume, Adam Smith, Alexander Graham Bell, James Hutton, James Clerk Maxwell, John Napier, Sean Connery, Arthur Conan Doyle, Alexander McCall Smith, Iain Rankin, J. K. Rowling, Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson, Irvine Welsh, Mary, Queen of Scots, Tony Blair, and a billion more. From my hometown, Wigan: Richard Ashcroft, Roy Kinnear, Georgie Fame, Ian McKellen George Orwell (possibly, he lived as a tramp there while writing The Road to Wigan Pier) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-people-from-your-area/582286/78 "2011-05-19T11:59:18Z")
The town I live in now had nobody particularly famous living in it (unless you’re a fan of Salem Witchcraft Trial books, in which case we had Marion Starkey.), but my hometown had a stack of football players (Joe Theisman, Drew Pearson, Alex Wojciechowitz), two mystery writers (Janet Evanovich and Troy Soos), and the guy who assisted Norman Rockwell and took over his commisions (Joe Csatari) ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-people-from-your-area/582286/79 "2011-05-19T14:09:26Z")
If we’re going by our own birthplaces, my list gets much shorter. The only famous people born in Yeovil are P.J Harvey, Ian Botham and Paddy Ashdown, and I doubt many outside the UK have heard of either of the latter pair. ---
**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:** [May 19, 2011, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-people-from-your-area/582286/80 "2011-05-19T15:44:06Z")
Halle Berry Drew Carey Wes Craven Alan Freed James A. Garfield Lillian Gish Joel Grey Margaret Hamilton Bob Hope LeBron James Henry Mancini Toni Morrison Eliot Ness Paul Newman Jesse Owens Jerry Siegel (my mother dated him in high school) Debra Winger Cy Young And many, many more. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-people-from-your-area/582286.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-people-from-your-area/582286.md?page=5)